Dove: "We promise to listen"

Dove: "We promise to listen"

Last night, while reading through my email, I ran into an online banner from Dove asking me to be part of their biggest beauty survey. "Make your voice heard", pleaded the ad.

As an ad nerd, I immediately clicked on it. From what I remember, the online banner didn’t advertise any product per se, but they certainly advertised their uncanny desire to listen what I had to say.

The survey was brief, 17 questions only. But to be honest, a good part of it felt like a big ad where they would ask whether I had used [insert product name/picture here].

Regardless, it’s commendable that Dove is taking advantage of consumers desire to have an open conversation with their favorite brands. And it really felt like a conversation. I talked, they listened and talked back to me. I explain. After the survey was done, they immediately provided some of the results ("94% would recommend Dove to their best friend") and also allowed for a potential "Live Chat" to happen with a "beauty consultant". They also showed a real time count of how many people had taken the survey (around 999,040 last night). In the end, it wasn’t only about my input, but about what everybody else had to say. Due to this transparency, all of a sudden, Dove seemed a bit more authentic and honest.

It seems like these days, brands need to be better listeners. "We trust people that trust us", responded a teen recently when asked what brands her generation trusts.