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The Godiva skin-care campaign shift
‘Be proud of your natural beauty’
By Terrie B. Fucanan
ALTHOUGH nearly every skin-care brand in the market has joined the skin-whitening bandwagon, one of the trend’s pioneers has unexpectedly rehashed its campaign to advocate natural beauty. Hence its new slogan: “Beautiful skin does not have to mean white. The best skin color is the one you’re born with. Be proud of your natural beauty.”

The campaign is positive and promising, but it may be Godiva’s riskiest move as well, given that the 10-year-old local skin-care brand is strongly identified as a leader in the skin-whitening business. It was the first to introduce in the Philippines the licorice extract—an expensive but clinically proven whitening ingredient, through soaps, lotions, toners and creams, which jump-started the trend in the beauty market.

Speculators believe that the new campaign may only shake up the brand’s already strong consumer base, and spark confusion as to its genuine position on the issue of beauty.
Notes young lawyer Anne, a Godiva user: “It’s a vague shift. All its products have a whitening ingredient. The new campaign doesn’t complement the product.”

Says Lyn, a 24-year-old office employee: “Why do I need to use the product then if I should be proud of my natural beauty?”

Godiva president Fred Reyes issued a practical explanation about the company’s campaign shift. On June 8 at the formal launch of the Godiva Natural Beauty campaign, he pointed out: “The whitening rage has gone overboard already. We want to correct it.”

An effective whitening product cannot miraculously transform dark skin to white. But it can lighten and even out skin tone, remove blemishes and discolorations and make the skin clearer and more radiant—depending on the person’s skin type and the frequency of product use.
In a clinical trial report in 2002, licorice showed lightening improvements to skin with melasma in seven days. Vitamin C ranked second, hydroquinone came third, while kojic acid and melawhite came in fourth and fifth place in terms of rate of activity.

Reyes pointed out that some skin-care manufacturers have gone out of control in its inaccurate claims about whitening, with some brands already carrying harmful chemicals in their products that may cause allergic reactions and overtime, even skin cancer.

Such worsening phenomenon, he said, prompted the company to change its marketing position. “Our products use natural ingredients that are proven safe and effective. As we highlight this we also want to tell our consumers to not overdo themselves with whitening products,” Reyes said. “We should all be proud of our own complexion, as long as it is even toned, clear and clean.”
To clearly impart this new message the company signed up a one-year endorsement deal with the actress Assunta de Rossi. Reyes said his company believes the young wife of Negros Occidental Rep. Jules Ledesma would best embody Godiva’s new catchphrase: “You do not have to be white to be beautiful.”

The 23-year-old actress couldn’t agree more. She confessed: “I used to be obsessed with whitening products. I wasn’t happy with my color.”

Several years of trying out various whitening products only gave her frustration. “I realized I should be happy with my olive skin,” she said. “Besides, even if I turn white, it wouldn’t look good on me because my skin’s undertone is yellow. I’d only look yellowish instead of fair.”
Reyes added: “People are born with naturally soft and even-toned skin. But due to stress and harsh elements, the skin loses its natural glow. This is what our brand works to achieve—bring back the best in your natural beauty.”

Godiva Inc. started marketing the Godiva Natural Skin Care product line in 1996 through the assistance of its sister company, Chemworld Marketing Corp. Chemworld was then having difficulty selling licorice extract to local skin-care product manufacturers, for a kilo of its purified form costs P1 million today.

The Godiva skin-care line paved for the wonder ingredient’s penetration into the local beauty industry. In 2000 the company expanded its reach worldwide through the online store www.godivaskincare.com, and in 2004 and 2005 it opened the Godiva Skin Station, a beauty and wellness center at SM Fairview and Makati Bel-Air.

Reyes vowed that his company will stand firm in promoting natural beauty, and the responsible use of whiteners and other beauty aids in the years to come. Finally, he said, Godiva has found its rightful position in the market, beyond the bounds of excessive commercialism.
“It’s about time a beauty product make this kind of claim,” says Jeje Jose, a whitening product user. “It’s honest, straightforward and socially responsible.”

posted by Cheryl Levesque @ 12:34 PM