ABSTRACT
One relevant quote
However, while consumers expect big brands to take a stand [on current socio-political issues], they may not believe them when they do.
Vredenburg, Kapitan, Spry, and Kemper (2018), in The Conversation, “Woke washing: what happens when marketing communications don't match corporate practice.”
State, preferably single, research/case problem
How to address social demands (e.g. social justice and activism), consumer/market demands (e.g. for certain product supply), corporate/brand demands (e.g. corporate social responsibility and brand image), and business demands (e.g. profit), which may or not align with each other but intersect, for social and sustainable marketing?
Chapter overview (case synopsis)
This case study shows how one of the world's largest beauty producers, L'Oréal, acted swiftly according to the socio-political controversies to fulfil its corporate social responsibility and to sustain its skincare line – skin whitening. The case study looks at L'Oréal's (re)actions on various social controversies, ranging from colourism and genderism to racism and classism. The most recent one is its prompt response to the Black Lives Matter movement, which fights against anti-Black racism since late May 2020 and is still ongoing, as of September 2020. L'Oréal announced to stop labelling its products with words like “white”, “fair”, “light”. In particular, the study looks at L'Oréal's labelling/naming strategies and packaging designs.
Nevertheless, this case study also shows the complexity in resolving socio-political issues, which may contain more than one voice or demand from various parties, which may or not align with each other, but intersect. The typical parties/roles in social marketing are marketers, social activists, consumers, legislators, and also, analysers/researchers. Each party/role has its issues, challenges, interests, agendas, needs, demands, politics, approaches (ways of doing), etc.
Besides the typical critical approach to marketing (re)actions, this case study is a good platform for role-playing, which helps to develop students’ problem-solving skills and reflexivity by positioning themselves in different roles. This helps to equip students with both critical and reflexive thinking, which not only have the ability to evaluate and critique, but also the ability to reflect different positionalities and perspectives. This is important to construct comprehensive solutions that address various aspects and, hopefully, satisfy all parties (if possible).
