Real World Application Exercise:
Always “Like A Girl” Video Ad Campaign

Procter & Gamble’s Always brand, known for selling feminine hygiene products, launched the first video of their “like a girl” campaign this past June. Always sponsored a social experiment where participants of varying ages from both genders, although predominantly females, were asked to act out phrases such as “fight like a girl” and “run like a girl.” The older participants exaggerated their movements and appeared weak and unsuccessful in their actions, while the younger girls tried their best and acted as they would normally would. The viewers are then asked when the phrase, “like a girl” became an insult, and question why it can’t mean good things, such as, “win the race.” The fact that girls’ confidence plummets during puberty is displayed, and then the older females get the opportunity to retry their actions and complete them with certainty and confidence.
Always claims that they want to redefine the phrase “like a girl” to be interpreted positively so that girls everywhere will feel proud and confident when they do things “like a girl” (Herzfeld, 2014). Always Brand Director Amanda Hill hopes it is the beginning of a long-term campaign to change the meaning of the phrase “like a girl,” while building brand loyalty (Neff, 2014). The campaign targets females who may be approaching puberty, in the midst, or post-puberty who need that confidence boost and restored empowerment. Always uses a variety of consumer behaviour techniques to effectively facilitate interactive communication, elicit affective responses leading to viral marketing success, and attempts to create an associative link between the “like a girl” campaign and the Always brand.
Always incorporates the “like a girl” ad campaign into an interactive communications model, whereby a dynamic relationship exists between the advertiser and the consumers, who act as both receivers and senders (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 213). This model shows how Always effectively uses the strategy of permission marketing, where the consumer must first opt into the message of the marketer, increasing the likelihood that the message will persuade the consumer (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 213). The “like a girl” video ad received the majority of its exposure from the Internet communication medium, as the video went viral within a week of its release (Chung, 2014). Consumers received the information mainly by electronic word-of-mouth from friends and family via social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The consumers chose to opt into the message by watching the ad at their own discretion. After receiving the information, the consumer then had the opportunity to send the information by sharing it on social media and expressing their thoughts and opinions as well. Always continues to promote interactive communication between consumers and the organization through the creation of the #LikeAGirl hash tag. The campaign invites consumers to join the movement and tweet at @Always, describing the great things they do #LikeAGirl (Always, 2014). Always also invites participants to share their photos, Vines, Instagram posts, and basically anything that shows how doing things #LikeAGirl is awesome. In this way, consumers play a proactive role in communication and contribute to the message and goal of the campaign (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 215). Interaction and word-of-mouth between consumers is referred to as buzz and is viewed to be more authentic and convincing (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 220). Although the ad campaign might not directly result in a transaction for Always, the resulting buzz and interactive communications are examples of second-order responses that direct attention to the issue at hand, and hopefully build positive brand associations in the mind of the consumer (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 217). The source of the message also has an impact on whether the message will be viewed as authentic and convincing in the eyes of the consumer. The credibility or trustworthiness of the participants seems to be authentic in the case of the “like a girl” campaign, where they appear to be “typical” consumers and respond to the questions honestly as opposed to paid actors (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, 219). The question of trustworthiness might be asked with regards to why Always decided to sponsor such a study and create the “like a girl” campaign. They may not give a hoot about girls’ confidence dropping at puberty and the negative connotation associated with the “like a girl” phrase. Although consumers might value the message on its own, they may not buy the claim that Always wants to change the meaning of “like a girl,” and believe that they are merely interested in selling more of their product.
The “like a girl” video evoked affective responses that led to successful viral marketing, where the ad received most of its exposure. (Herzfeld, 2014; Chung, 2014). Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth, was proven to have a large impact in marketing communication (Henke, 2013; Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 337). Consumers’ online involvement has been said to be affected by flow; a state of absorption, loss of concept of time, intrinsic interest, and involvement to a degree where nothing else seems to matter (Henke, 2013; Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 105-106). According to a study by Lucy Henke (2013), those consumers who are emotionally involved are more likely to experience flow state, and those experiencing flow state are significantly more likely to pass along information through viral marketing (Henke, 2013). The “like a girl” video ad reached the number 2 spot on the Viral Chart within a week of its release (Chung, 2014). One reason for successful viral marketing might be the level of consumer involvement by relevance of mood and emotional states experienced by viewers, known as affective responses (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 105, 109-110). The “like a girl” video has a number of potential emotion and mood responses associated with the presented content. The portrayal of “like a girl” as an insult in the beginning, girls’ plunging confidence during puberty and how Always wants to change that, and the empowerment during the latter half of the video when females get a chance to retry the actions associated with “like a girl,” showcasing the increase in the girls’ confidence and power through their actions. The ad taps into the consumers’ esteem needs, dictated by Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, such as self-acceptance, self-esteem, achievement, reputation and recognition from others (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 102). The “like a girl” insult causes negative emotions with regard to the esteem needs, making the female viewers feel unfairly represented. Later in the video, negative emotions toward the insult are replaced by positive feelings such as hope and empowerment when the females change the interpretation of “like a girl” to success, power, winning and other positive associations. The psychogenic need for power may also be at play, when the females exert control over the insult associated with the phrase “like a girl” and show that girls can be successful as well (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 101). A sense of relevance and strong affective response toward the ad allowed consumer involvement and flow state, motivating consumers to effectively pass along the information via electronic word-of-mouth, leading to viral success (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 105; Henke, 2013).
A consumer recognizes attitudes, thoughts, and feelings toward the Always brand through information stored in their long-term memory. This information was stored through a process called elaborative rehearsal, where a stimulus has been related to information already in the memory from previous learning (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 79). This information may be stored as many bits that are organized and interrelated to form an associative network in our memory (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 79). Associations with the Always brand have been built and learned by consumers’. When the Always brand is recognized, consumers may associate the brand with pretty girls in commercials playing sports, leakage protection, or even negative associations such as thoughts that Always is more expensive than the other brand and not worth it. The goal is to have positive brand associations that increase the likelihood that a potential consumer will choose Always opposed to Kotex or another brand. Always attempts to build positive brand associations through the “like a girl” campaign that takes a stance on issues that might be a little disconnected from the brand. Brand associations are created through a process of relatively permanent change of behaviour, known as learning (Solomon, White, & Dahl, 2013, p. 63). Behavioural learning occurs when we are exposed to external events, and learn from the resulting responses. Through classical conditioning, one of two major approaches to behavioural learning, Always attempts to create a link between themselves and the “like a girl” campaign to elicit a desired response from consumers. The Always brand is a stimulus that may elicit a number of responses from consumers such as the mental associations previously discussed. The “like a girl” video is also a stimuli, eliciting emotional responses such as negative feelings toward those using “like a girl” as an insult, empowerment when the interpretation of the phrase is changed, and warm feelings related to increasing confidence in pubescent girls. Always wants to associate themselves with the “like a girl” campaign and condition consumers to respond to Always with similar feelings of increased confidence and empowerment. As far as success with creating new brand associations, Always may have to investigate and collect more information from consumers.
After analyzing the “like a girl” ad campaign in regards to consumer behaviour techniques and theories, Always appears to have experienced relative success. The “like a girl” video ad generated a lot of buzz through the dynamic interactive communications approach, where consumers acted as receivers and senders of information, creating a more authentic and persuasive message. The message stirred many affective responses from consumers and increased their involvement and motivation to pass along the information, resulting in a viral marketing success. Finally, the organization attempted to form new positive brand associations between the “like a girl” movement and Always through classical conditioning, a behavioural learning approach. It is hard to measure whether consumers have more positive brand associations with Always, and whether the campaign had an affect on fostering brand loyalty. Always can conduct surveys, gather social media information, and even run in-depth focus groups to extract information about the consumer’s response to the campaign in order to get a clearer picture on the position of the brand.
References
Always (2014). Join The Movement. Retrieved from http://www.always.com/en-us/likeagirl.aspx
Chung, G. (2014, July 1). Always’ “#LikeAGirl’ Goes Viral and Claims the No. 2 Spot on the Viral Chart. AdvertisingAge. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/the-viral-video-chart/likeagirl-viral/293946/
Greenfield, L. (2014, June 26). Always #LikeAGirl [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs&feature=youtu.be
Henke, L. (2013). Breaking Through the Clutter: The Impact of Emotions and Flow on Viral Marketing. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal. (17)2
Herzfeld, S. (2014, June 26). New Social Experiment by Always Reveals Harmful Impact Commonly Used Phrase has on Girls. P&G Corporate Newsroom. Retrieved from http://news.pg.com/press-release/pg-corporate-announcements/new-social-experiment-always-reveals-harmful-impact-commonl
Neff, J. (2014, June 26). P&G’s Always Aims to Change What It Means to Be ‘Like a Girl’. AdvertisingAge. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/p-g-s-change-meaning-a-girl/293895/
Solomon, M., White, K. & Dahl, D. (2013). Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being. Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.