PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING

DOVE Case Study

Evolution of a Brand
Presented By:
GROUP 03
21PGIB005 Akanksha Thakur
21PGIB006 Akshay Dhingra
21PGIB025 Debapratim Mitra
21PGIB026 Devam Mehta
21PGIB045 Kritika Chawla
21PGIB046 Kshitidj Mahindroo
 Case Facts (General)
• 11 of Unilever’s brands including Dove had annual
revenues globally of over $1 billion
• It operated on every continent and had particular
strengths in India, Africa, Latin America, and
Southeast Asia
• The company’s brand portfolio had grown in a
relatively laissez-faire manner, allowing direction to be
set by brand managers in each of the geographic
regions in which the brand was marketed
• In Feb 2000, Unilever embarked on a 5-year strategic
initiative called “Path to Growth”
• Initiative was aimed at winnowing its more than 1,600
brands down to 400 out of which a small few would be
selected as “Masterbrands,” which would serve as an
umbrella for a range of product forms.
• Dove was tapped to become a Masterbrand in
February 2000.
• Until 2000, It depended on claims of functional
superiority backed by it’s moisturizing benefit.
• No longer could Dove communicate mere functional
superiority, because functionality meant different
things in different categories.
• A process of exploratory market research & consultation
with experts lead to “The Campaign for Real Beauty”
• The company wanted the ads to change the way society
views beauty, and provoke discussions about real beauty
• Some of the ads were widely admired, but controversy
erupted over the fact that they mentioned no product.
Although, it was evident that the campaign had touched a
nerve with the public
• Unilever conducted a global survey of 3,000 women in 10
countries according to which only 2% of respondents
described themselves as beautiful
• The Firming campaign used a blitz of paid media
• In Sept 2006, Dove was identified as 1 of 10 brands with
the greatest percentage gain in brand health & business
value in the past 3 years.
• In 2007, Dove became 1 of USA’s most recognizable brand
icons & was the top cleansing brand in the health and
beauty sector
• Sales of Dove in 2007 - over $2.5 billion/year in more than
80 countries
• Some parodies and Internet postings raised questions about
Unilever’s sincerity, its objectivity, and its motives
Problem Statement

• Working under the “Campaign for Real Beauty” banner posses a risk in moving the
brand to a position that was at odds with its heritage

• Debunking the beauty myth might bring with it the danger that the brand is
debunking the whole reason to spend such extensive amount for the product

• Are consumers going to be inspired by a product that doesn’t promise to take them to
a new level of attractiveness?

• While talking about the real beauty, does the aspirational element gets lost?

• Unattainable beauty was the best marketing strategy by the beauty brands so far but
Dove’s advertising strategy of promoting the real beauty appears ironic
 Case Facts (Industry & Competition)

Industry Competition

• With annual revenues of $50 billion, Unilever

• The world of communications changed compared in size to Nestle ($69 billion), Procter and
dramatically since the first Dove marketing Gamble ($68 billion), and Kraft Foods ($34 billion)
campaign in 1957

• Dove, after becoming a Masterbrand, competed with

• The media landscape became increasingly brands like Procter and Gamble’s Ivory, Kao’s Jergens,
fragmented and people no longer passively and Beiersdorf’s Nivea in categories such as cleansing
consumed media bars, body washes, hand washes, face care, hair care,
deodorants, anti-perspirants, and body lotions
• Brands had a great opportunity to build a
framework to spark a debate and to meet the • Historically, Unilever had organized the work of
challenges they knew they’d meet marketing in a manner similar to its main competitor,
Procter & Gamble, known as the brand management
system. Within a product category the firm often
offered multiple brands, each led by a brand manager.
each brand operated as a separate business
 Synthesis
Key Questions Strategies

• Is the idea of making Dove a “Masterbrand” a • Challenging the pre-conceived notion of

feasible one in the long-run? unattainable and stereotypical beauty

• Will the controversies faced by dove during the • Evolution from brand’s functional benefits to a
different stages of “Campaign for Real beauty” unique point of view- “Campaign for Real
help in enhancing its brand image? beauty”

• Will the new mission statement of Dove lead to • Leadership team portraying the executive’s
increase in its revenue? daughters’ self-esteem challenges

• Is the new strategy of brand development and • Involving different media channels to cater to
brand building effective? larger audiences

• Public relations through influencers, news

programmes, broadcast and print outlets

• Following a centralized as well a decentralized

approach through brand development and brand
building
 Stimuli – Response Model
The Environment (Stimuli)
Product – World’s number one
“cleansing brand” in health and beauty
sector; product mix includes cleansing
bars, body washes, hand washes, face
care, hair care, deodorants, anti-
perspirants, and body lotions
Price – Sales of over $2.5 billion in
2007, the prices are kept affordable
keeping in mind the target segment of
mid-upper income groups
Place – Sales in more than 80 countries;
operated in every continent with
particular strengths in India, Africa,
Latin America, and Southeast Asia
Promotion – “The Campaign for Real
Beauty” aimed to change the way
society views beauty and provoke
discussions about real beauty; featured
“real” women in their ads
Buyer’s Black Box Buyer Responses
Buyer characteristics – The Dove’s campaign for real beauty was a
Dove products mainly cater to huge success and in Sept 2006, Dove was
women of ages 14 and above identified as 1 of 10 brands with the
belonging to mid to mid-upper greatest percentage gain in brand health &
income groups who believe in business value in the past 3 years. The
healthful beauty. campaign had touched a nerve with the
Buyer Decision Process - public and thousands of blogs and Internet
• Dove’s campaign of chat forums showed a rich diversity of
promoting “real beauty” was public dialog.
catered for women dissatisfied
with the traditional setup.
• New and unconventional
ideas were used for ad
campaigns including paid and
unpaid, blitz and social media.
• While Dove’s competitors
projected unachievable ideas
of beauty, Dove shone out like
the brand for real women.
SWOT Analysis - Dove
Strengths:
• Unconventional strategy
• Effective advertising, Free publicity
• Positive social impact
• Promotes individual empowerment
• Helping women to raise their self-esteem
• Strong emotional touch
Opportunities:
• Target female customers at an emotional level
• New opportunity to target male customer too
• Continuous campaign evolution
• Scope of Innovation through Brand Development & Brand
Building
Weakness:
• Ads are contradictory to their business idea/revenue
strategy
• Use of idealized images in other brands under the same
flagship
• Lack of support from management
• Fear of Media Backlash
Threats:
• Strategy backfire as people might take offense
• Customers might not get inspired as the brand doesn’t offer
new level of attractiveness
 Conclusion

• Being selected by Unilever as a “Masterbrand”, Dove aims to be a brand with a point of view shifting from
its initial strategy of being a functional brand. This provides Dove an opportunity to expand its product
portfolio.
• With the brand team taking a second look at the cliches of the industry, the “campaign for real beauty” could
be unfolded,
i. In September 2006, Landor Associates identified Dove as one of 10 brands with the greatest percentage
gain in brand health and business value in the past three years. It computed that the brand had grown by
$1.2 billion.
ii. Much of the growth was attributable to its extension into new personal care categories
iii. It was evident that the campaign had touched a nerve with the public. Thousands of blogs and Internet
chat forums showed a rich diversity of public dialogue

• By addressing the issue of low self-esteem, and conducting events like the one conducted during the 2005
Superbowl, Unilever raised Dove to the level of a crusade against false impressions of beauty and raised
awareness regarding the physical and mental health of women globally.
• The execution and message of the campaign by Dove seem to be most important drivers for
consumers to engage in actions compared to buying activation, for which brand fit is more
important than the execution and message for the primary target group of role models and models
all three components are important, and especially the fit with the brand. For the secondary target
– the ones that need to be influenced by are much activated in the buying process by the execution,
less by the brand and not at all by the message.

• Most significant of all its maneuvers during the spread of “The Campaign for Real Beauty” was
the choice to create the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, a global organization that has been dedicated to
redefining beauty in the real world and improving the self-esteem of young girls

• Letting the public pick at and contribute to a marketing campaign removes some of the control
from the strategists but disruption attracts attention even when it lacks substance and there is a
powerful substance in the Dove campaign that makes it almost subversive

• We may conclude that a beauty brand that challenged the existing conventions and alternative
images of beauty and women is quite unusual and even revolutionary
Group 3 – PGDM IB-A

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