Evidence-Based Functional Marketing Claims in Beauty Products Advertising: A Memorandum for Good Practice.

The goal of this chapter is to review the connections between beauty industry marketing communication and science with a particular focus on advertising. In the realization of that, I will contextualize my argument against the current post-truth communication landscape and its characteristics: the declining trust of science and traditional sources of credible information. Implications for marketing theory and the role of truth in marketing will be presented to explain how a fluid and subjective definition of beauty leads marketers to develop persuasive advertising communication that fits the mechanism of knowledge acquisition of consumers making purchase decisions. Through observing a potential for creating consumer-facing communication that has a potential to mislead, first, indirect speech acts will be discussed in the context of beauty products marketing claims. Then, four groups of typical inaccuracies observed in marketing claims that are typically used to provide substantiate product communication will be reviewed. Social psychological methodology will be used to provide guidance for creators of truthful marketing claims and specific recommendations will be included to adjust the design of studies, number of participants, type of evidence used and reporting of findings. Lastly, general considerations of marketing communicators and brand public relations professionals will be presented against the backdrop of the responsible communication challenge of the beauty industry.