DOVE

EVOLUTION OF A
BRAND

Group 8
Divyangana Sharma, Ritam Pandey, Sandeep Deb, Sivaraman N
& Vaishali Singh
 WE WILL COVER ..
Definition of Brand
About Unilever
Brand meaning
Unilever Brand management
Why does Unilever want fewer Brands ?
Dove Market positioning 1950’s
Dove Market positioning– 2007
What do the blogs say?
Contribution to Brand Meaning
Focus and Views
New media and risks
Do We see risks for the Dove brand today?
 DEFINITION OF BRAND
AMA ( American Marketing Association )Definition
A Brand is a Name , Term, Sign , Symbol or Design or a combination of
them , intended to identify the goods & services of one seller group or group
of sellers and of differentiate them from those of competition.

Difference between Product & Brand

Product is something we offer to satisfy a Need/Want
Brand has dimensions that differentiates a product in some way from other
products designed to satisfy the SAME NEED.’
These differences maybe Rational & tangible – Mind Share or and
Emotional & Intangible – Heart share

DIODVAC - Brand is
D- delivering Quality I O – Identification & ownership
D – Differentiation VA – Value Addition
C – Confidence
 ABOUT UNILEVER
Leading global brand in Packaged consumer goods – operating in Food,
Home & Personal Care segments

House Of Brands – Knorr, Surf, Lipton, Sunsilk, Dove, Lux , Ponds ,

Vaseline, Axe etc.

Initially Brand Management was geography based- decentralized .

Feb 2000- Unilever embarked on Strategic Initiative “Path To Growth”

Plan was to winnow 1600 Brands down to 400

Surviving Brands would be MasterBrands- responsible for creating
global vision & coordinating all geographic markets .
 UNILEVER BRAND MANAGEMENT
• – Pre 2000
• Product category offered multiple brands, each lead by a brand
manager
• Each brand operated as a separate business, competed its own siblings
• Brand managers responsible for both brand development and brand
building
-Now
• Brand management split between two groups
• Brand development – develop idea behind the brand. Centralized.
Global scope
• Brand building – Bring the brand to life in local market.
Decentralized. Local scope
 BRAND MEANING

• Pre 2000 – emphasis on functional superiority

• Dove stood for honesty and authenticity
• Medically proven and recommended by dermatologists
• Post 2000 – “Masterbrands” were created
• Functional superiority alone could no longer support a
brand
• Brands became a point of view
 WHY DOES UNILEVER WANT FEWER
BRANDS ?
To resolve control issues due to Global Decentralization
To focus resources on a smaller number of more powerful
brands in global and local markets.
To concentrate R&D and advertising on the company’s
leading brands.
To relay more on product innovation and making new
acquisitions (Unilever: Path to growth strategy, 2005).
PATH TO GROWTH STRATEGY
 Letting certain brands wither and decline without active promotion
and support.
 Forego certain brands that do not fit the company future strategy
(200-300 brands).
 200 brands targeted to be merged into product families (400 core
brands) (Unilever: Path to Growth Strategy, 2005).
 UNILEVER : PATH TO GROWTH
3 Major Acquisitions :
-SLimFast (Diet food market leader U.S (Unilever: Acquisition and Disposals,
2005).
-Ben & Jerry which is the second global market leader for premium ice cream.
(ibid)
-Bestfoods ,manufacturing and marketing consumer foods. Largest acquisitions by
Unilever (ibid).

Unilever sold off Businesses could not contribute to its future development
Divesting cases in china
- sold Zhang Jia Kou Purification Limited Company in 1999.
-sold the stocks of Shang Hai Wen De Bao Limited Company to Goodman Fielder
in 2000.
-sold the Mei Jia Jing (a famous skincare brand in China) in 2000
(The game between Unilever and China brands 2004).
DOVE MARKET POSITIONING IN THE
1950.
• PRODUCT
– First Dove product was the beauty bar and was launched
in 1957.
– Differentiated itself by claiming not to dry out skin like
the way soap did.
Marketing Strategies:
– Media Used for promotion: TV,Print media and
billboards
– Tag line: “ Dove dosent dry your skin like soap does
because it is one quarter cleansing cream”.
– Natural looking women were used as models to
promoted the brand to build a connect.
• Results:
– With its Unique Positioning it became one of
Americas most recognizable brand icons
DOVE MARKET POSITIONING IN THE 2007
• PRODUCT RANGE: Expanded Product line to
include
– Hair care products :Shampoo, Spray and gel.
– Skin care products: soap and moisturizers.
– Deodorants.
• CAMPAIGNS:
– “Real Beauty” and “Self esteem campaign”-
appealed to the aesthetic need of the consumers
– Focus less on functional benefits of soap but
targeted primarily on the need to FEEL good.
– Used oversized models, elderly women,
housewives to convey the message
• INTEGRATED MARKETING MEDIA USED
– Dove expanded to include digital media.
– Made a film “Dove evolution film”
viewed by 3 million visitors in 3 months.
 WHAT DO THE BLOGS SAY?
• Brand Meaning – “What are you?”
– Brand performance + Brand Imagery

Marketingplusgood: “While they (Dove) took a misstep or

two with the retouching, they started an important
conversation. The high road has still been taken. They're
still leading this thinking in their industry.”

HBR Blogs: “The principle made plain by Dove’s success is

that in social networks brands must seek to provoke
conversation not to dominate it... The locus of control in
the marketplace shifts from marketer to consumer, and
success is built on a model of co-created meaning. In
Web 2.0, marketers accept that it is enough to rouse, to
stimulate, to stir. Dove's strategy was to move away from
functional claims and to present itself as a brand with a
point of view. It placed itself at odds with its competitors.
Consumers loved the conflict. They lit up the digital
media, generating millions of pass-along clips for
YouTube, clips like Evolution and Hates Her Freckles.
FROM ACROSS THE WORLD…
• Indonesia: “Dove comes with the new definition of beauty.
Beauty is not about glamour or fame. It’s about every
woman and the beauty that it in each of us. That’s what
DOVE is all about. And that’s why more women trust their
skin to Dove”
• A Sydney based brand consultant: “Is the Axe campaign at
odds with the thought leadership stance of the Dove Campaign
for Real Beauty.  I think it is.”
• New Zealand: “Not only do they create awareness for an issue
that is clearly something that needs to be highlighted as a
social problem, they also enjoy the positive brand
reinforcement as a result of being seen as “outting” the reality
of what goes on when “beauty” is used to market products.”
• Brand Consulting firm: “I have to admit that Dove’s
Campaign for Real Beauty is quite fabulous. Check it out, and
then let your daughter(s) check it out. Then go to the
Campaign for Real Beauty website and check that out, too.
Then post the video on your blog if you have one. It’s that
compelling.”
 CONTRIBUTION TO BRAND
MEANING
• Brands will be criticized. And the brave ones will win.

• As a blogger sums up, “Dove campaign is a classical case of

insight-driven campaign that explored how a brand can address
a contradiction to establish meaning and trigger affinity.”

• The mental image of actual users has thus moved away from
viewing the aspirational and idealized user as one who
conforms to established beauty norms to one who is more
“next door” and hence more democratic, affable and
inclusive
 FOCUS AND VIEWS
• Focus of Dove Ads:-
– From challenging the norms of beauty advertising into a wider campaigning
philosophy
– Increasing social agenda, looking at pressing psychological and social issues

• Views of the people after the campaign

– Some people trust the brand some don’t (the reason being lots of
makeup or Photoshop)
– Some people like the idea of using more natural women for such
commercials, others don’t.
– With the available data, most of people who disliked the ads
were men
– Most of the women, which are the target group of Dove, have
a positive opinion about the brand
 NEW MEDIA AND RISKS
• Smart marketers should leverage new media to
deliver interesting messages
• Risk involved - potential customers might be distracted by the
comments from the non potential customers; Can you sell a beauty
product without playing on women’s insecurities?
• Some views expressed online –
“The beauty sector still sells dreams. We want to be seduced, excited and
inspired by the latest colours, textures, creams, fragrances and
magazine pictures”
“It is a bold move to get embroiled in some of the 'uglier' sensitive issues
around self worth and eating disorders. No-one wants to be reminded of
unpleasant things in what is still a pleasure category”
DO WE SEE RISKS FOR THE DOVE BRAND
TODAY? - NO
• “Dove touched a nerve that is behind all great stories, fiction
or non-fiction, great stories cause people to say 'yes, life is
like that.” – Gerry Lantz

• Current users are ready to defend their brand because they can
really identify themselves in the ads and so they want to
believe in it; hence they are not likely to blog and so, more
negative reactions than positive ones are seen.

• Eventually, this new way of advertising only enhances the

brand awareness and the attachment and loyalty of customers
of the Dove brand.
THANK YOU