Evolution of a Brand

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Management, Bengaluru
 Unilever
Formed in 1930

Anglo-Dutch merger between Lever Brothers and

Margarine Unie

Headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands and London,

United Kingdom

3rd largest Consumer products company in the world

after P&G and Nestle

Unilever operated in every continent and had

particular strengths in India, Africa, Latin America and
Southeast Asia
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Management, Bengaluru
By 1980:
Reduced Palm Oil Dependence
Globalized market
Later:
Global Decentralization
Brand portfolio grew in laissez-faire manner

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Management, Bengaluru
By 2000:
More than 1600 brands
Problem of control
No unified global identity

February 2000:
1600 brands
5 year strategic plan
Path to Growth

400 brands

Some of them
Masterbrands

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Management, Bengaluru Own Global Brand Unit
Evolution of Brand Dove

2002:
2000: Self esteem
Campaign For project
1995: Real Beauty
Extension of
1970s: Doves range
of products
Popularity
increased
1957: as milder
Launched soap
in the Symbiosis Institute of Business
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market Management, Bengaluru
 1957: Launched in market

The 1957 launch advertising campaign for Dove was

created by the Ogilvy and Mather advertising
agency. The message was, Dove soap doesnt dry
your skin because its one quarter cleansing cream.

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Management, Bengaluru
 1970s: Popularity increased as
milder soap

The term cleansing cream was replaced by

moisturizing cream but Dove stayed with the
claim not to dry skin, and the refusal to call itself
a soap, for over 40 years.
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 2000: Pre-Campaign

Silvia Lagnado, global brand director of Dove, led a

worldwide investigation into womens responses to
the iconography of the beauty industry to find a
new brand definition.
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Management, Bengaluru
Pre-Campaign Survey
Young, white,
blonde and thin
unattainable
standards for
general women
Taunted by ads
featuring beauty
icons

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Management, Bengaluru
 Pre-Campaign Survey
Unilever survey results of 3000 women in 10 countries
Result:
Only 2% of respondents worldwide chose to describe themselves as
beautiful

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Management, Bengaluru
Symbiosis Institute of Business
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Management, Bengaluru
2005: New Brand Definition
More Women Feeling Beautiful

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Management, Bengaluru
Campaign For Real Beauty
In September 29, 2004, Dove launched
Campaign for Real Beauty
The ad campaign was designed by Ogilvy &
Mather
The PR was handled by Edelman
Raise Consciousness of the issues surrounding
beauties
Purpose was to challenge the stereotypes set by
the beauty industry
Intended to make more women feel beautiful
everyday.
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Management, Bengaluru
 Campaign For Real Beauty
Release Of a Global Academic Research Study
That Explores The Relationship That Women From
Around The World Have With Beauty And its
Links To Their Happiness And Well-Being

Advertising That Inspires Women And Society To

Think Differently About What Is Defined As
Beautiful.

Fundraising Initiatives (Sponsored by the DOVE

SELF-ESTEEM FUND) To Help Young Girls With
Low Body-Related Self Esteem.
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Management, Bengaluru
 EVERY WOMEN HAS SOMETHING
BEAUTIFUL ABOUT HER

68% agree with the fact that unrealistic

standards of beauty exist in the media &
advertisement world.

47% agreed that only attractive women are

portrayed in popular cultures.

Over 85% believed that beauty could be

achieved through attitude & spirit.

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 WHY CFRB??
Real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes and ages

Declining Sales - lost in crowded market

Increased competition

Advertising clutter

Stagnation in one or two categories - In spite of increase in

product range

Need for Brand Positioning - Evolve brand image without

losing their existing customer base and driving aggressive
growth
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Management, Bengaluru
Change
the idea of beauty

Start of the Campaign

In 4 stages of
advertisements

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Management, Bengaluru
 Stage 1: TICK-BOX billboards
Campaign

In this campaign, billboards were erected and viewers

were asked to phone and vote on whether a woman on
the billboard was outsized or outstanding. A
counter on the billboard showed the votes in real time.

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Management, Bengaluru
Stage 2: Firming Campaign

This campaign featured six real women cheerfully

posing. The aim was to change the way society views
beauty, and provoke discussion and debate about
real beauty. Functional Benefit: Skin firming cream
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Stage 3: Executives daughters
discussing their self esteem
challenges

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Management, Bengaluru
Stage 4: Film Evolution

112-second film, popularized on YouTube. It

showed the face of a young woman as
cosmetics, hair styling and Photoshop editing
transformed it from plainness to billboard
glamour. Symbiosis Institute of Business
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 SWOT Analysis
Strengths
o Unconventional strategy
o Effective advertising, Free publicity
o Continuously evolving the campaign
o Strong emotional touch
o Cross-selling Possibilities
Opportunity Recommendation
o Target male customers
o Maintain better standards of quality
o Unified advertising throughout the globe
o Continuous innovation
Weaknesses/Criticism
o Contradictory in nature
o Objectification of women
o Women featured were comparatively
slim
o Use of idealized images in other brands
under the same flagship
o Contradictory Japanese campaign
Threats
o Risk of being a brand for fat
girls
o Involved marketing risk
o Copy by the competitors
o Undermining the aspiration of
consumers
o Sustainability of campaign in
long run
 Consumer Point of View

Real Ads by Real Women Contest, to invite

consumers to create their own ads for Dove
Cream Oil Body Wash
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Management, Bengaluru
 Media Planning
Bought every billboard in Grand Central Station for
CFRB promotions

Showcased Hates Her Freckles ad in the

Superbowl match

Evolution ad released only on Youtube

All these media planning activities created a lot of

buzz in the market

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 Public Relation

Unilever established
the global Dove Self-
Esteem Fund to raise
the self esteem of
girls and young
women Symbiosis Institute of Business
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Management, Bengaluru
 Brand Management
Unilever had organized the work of marketing in a manner
similar to its main competitor, Procter & Gamble, known as the
brand management system.

Within a product category the form often offered multiple

brands, each led by a brand manager.

In effect, each brand operated as a separate business,

competing with its siblings as well as the products of other
firms.

Under Path to Growth, Brand Management was split into two

groups:
1. Brand Development
2. Brand Building
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 Success
Dove in top 10 brands in health and business value
Sales of firming lotion in UK rose by 700%
Sales in the US went up by 11.4%
Revenues for 2005 - (39.67 billion & employed 206,000)
Firming Lotion sales 1st six months 2004- 2.3 million bottles
Total Sales for the Dove Brand rose 6%
No. of visitors to website increased by 200%
Grand EFFIE award for advertising effectiveness(M & O)
Silver Anvil Award for PR (Edelman) Growth of $1.2 billion

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 Criticism
No strong connection between ads and Dove products

People may question Doves socially responsible image;

Is it real?

Limits their future marketing campaigns

Focused too much on the cause and not on the product

Hypocrisy of criticizing beauty industry and selling

beauty products

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 Our Perspective
They featured real women in their campaign as models were
too perfect for most women to aspire for. Also they realized
images of models and supermodels left the consumers feel bad
about their own body image and hurt their self-esteem.
They broaden the definition of beauty
They use effective ways of campaigning.
The CFRB website had various tools that helped bolster self-
esteem of the young girls.
In all these ways they grabbed the attention of the customers.
The campaign was quite different from the conventional
approach in the beauty industry.
Also free publicity was given
It broke the rule of the advertising business that only
beautiful models sell
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Management, Bengaluru
Thank You!

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Management, Bengaluru