Dove has evolved from focusing on the functional benefits of its soap products in the 1950s to developing a brand with a point of view to promote a broader definition of beauty. In the 2000s, Dove launched its "Campaign for Real Beauty" through provocative ads and initiatives. While critics question if such campaigns can truly change societal views of beauty, the campaign generated significant buzz and discussion. Dove continues its efforts to make more women feel beautiful through inclusive representations of beauty.
1. Dove: Evolution of a Brand
A “Path to Growth”
By: Melissa Rivero, Justin Naundros, and Vivek Lulla
2. What is Dove?
-Dove is a “cleansing brand in the health and beauty care sector for both
women and men, owned by Unilever and originating in England.
-Dove develops different kinds of personal care like body washes and lotions,
hand washes, facial care and more.
-Dove’s products sale are over $2.5 billion a year in more than 80 countries.
-Dove competes with brands like Procter & Gamble’s Olay, Beiersdorf’s Nivea,
Kao’s Jergens and many other name brands that have similar products.
3. What is Unilever?
-Unilever is a Dutch-British company that was officially established in 1930 by
the British soapmaker Lever Brothers and the Dutch margarine producer
Margarine Unie.
-Unilever is a leading global manufacturer of packaged consumer goods,
which operates in the food, home, and personal care sectors of the economy.
5. Why did Unilever want fewer Brands?
-The Global decentralization brought strengths through diversity, but caused
problems of control.
-The Unilever company struggled to find a unified global identity, and
therefore the company wanted to reduce their 1,600 brands to 400 brands
and created the “Masterbrands” as a result.
6. Question 2: What was Dove's market positioning in
the 1950s?
-Dove’s market positioning in the 1950 was focused around functionality. The
utility in it’s moisturizing aspects in it soap products was it key stregth.
8. Dove: The Functional Benefits Era
The first Dove product was a soap, launched in 1957 in the United States during the post-World War
II era.
The soap was revolutionary in that its ingredients included a cleansing moisturizing cream, which
helped circumvent the dry after effects of general soap usage.
Throughout the years, Dove has been able to maintain its popularity and incline in sales through
their deliberate and groundbreaking decision to use “real women” in their ads, rather than skinny
models. Moreover, Dove’s beauty bar of soap has been “widely endorsed by physicians and
dermatologists to treat dry skin”.
In February of 2000, Dove lent its name to other Unilever personal care products. As a result,
Unilever decided to “establish a meaning for Dove that could apply to and extend over the entire
stable of products”. This decision led to “The Campaign for Real Beauty,” and Dove became a
brand with a point of view.
9. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 1
-In 2002, Dove’s Brand director, Silvia Lagnado, tapped two experts.
-Nancy Etcoff, the Harvard University Psychiatrist
-Suzy Orbach, a London-based Psychotherapist
-They sought to understand alternative view of the goal of personal care,
which was understanding “real women” and their beliefs that being “Young,
white, blonde and thin” were unattainable.
-The VP for Brand Development felt they were much more effective at digging
deep into the minds of women as compared to conducting focus groups.
10. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 1
11. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 2
-Based on the Research, Dove hired John Rankin
Waddell to photograph ordinary people.
-Through the Tick-Box campaign, Dove wanted
viewers of their billboards to phone in a 800
numbers to vote on whether the women in the ad
was “outsized” or “outstanding”.
12. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 3
13. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 3
-In June 2005, Dove went on to promote their Firming campaign.
-Dove’s marketing director, Kathy O’Brien, wanted the ads to “change the way society
views beauty”, and “provoke the discussions and debate about real beauty.”
-They acknowledged the shift away from purely selling functionality as it got people
talking.
-The argument whether the aspirational element of inspiring customers to elevate their
beauty through a product was being diluted.
-With a push to engage executives, their daughters were filmed discussing their self-
esteem challenges. With no mention of a product, some felt Dove was going to far with
this.
14. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 4
-Dove contracted Ogilvy and Mather to create an ad titled “Evolution”
-It showed the amount of manipulation the face of a women/model goes
through in the form of cosmetics, hairstyling, and Photoshoshop.
-It got over 3 million views on YouTube.
15. The shift to a Brand with a Point of View : Stage 4
16. Unilever’s Renewed Mission Statement:
Market Positioning in 2007
-To culminate these campaigns, Unilever developed a unified mission
statement for their “Campaign for Real Beauty” :
Dove’s mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by
broadening the narrow definition of beauty and inspiring them to take
great care of themselves.
-Harousseau summed up the mission statement’s purpose: “They know that
the mission statement does not say Dove is about women feeling more
beautiful, but....about more women feeling beautiful. Our notion is not elitist.
It is celebratory, inclusive, and democratic.”
17. Media Planning
-Starting out with a paid media blitz, Dove’s media took after they bought
space on all of the billboards in Grand Central Station.
-Through the push they were able to create a pop culture buzz with segments
on TV shows like ‘The Today Show’. After adding a Super Bowl commercial the
buzz continued with several more influential brands creating segments
including Oprah, Walmart , Jay Leno, and Good Morning America.
-The media was mostly created without using TV commercials and by relying
on the discussions that were created on the topic of Women’s self-esteem.
19. Public Relations
-Dove’s PR strategy focused on creating dialogue and debates on the
definition of beauty.
-By focusing on research they were able to add credibility to the definition
they were pushing by the use of a global survey they conducted.
-By promoting the articles that were against the campaign like the one written
by Chicago Sun Times Editorialist Richard Roeper, They were able to bring in
more media of the local news programs, national outlets, and prints such as
People Magazine.
20. Public Relations
-Before the launch of the campaign, Dove selected two dozen women that
were in media and entertainment and sent them interactive packages as a
teaser.
-With the help of the advocacy group, American Women in Radio and
Television, they created the “Dove Beauty Award’ For the organization's annual
gala.
-To round up the PR campaign, Dove created a Self - Esteem fund where the
partnered with Girl Scouts of America to create ‘Uniquely ME!’ to provide
educational resources and hands-on-activities to girls ages 8- 17 and linked it
to the the main campaign website, where they invited visitors to lend their
remarks and gain tips on beauty.
21. Question 3: How did Unilever organize to do
product category management and brand
management in Unilever before 2000? What was
the corresponding structure after 2000? How was
brand mainly controlled before 2000 and how is it
controlled at the time of the case?
22. Brand Management: Then and Now
- Previously, product category management was similar to its main competitor
P&G. Each brand operated as its own business lead by a brand manager(leads
to internal competition). Brand managers designed strategy, delivered profit
targets, and day-to-day decisions in regard to advertising and trade
promotions.
23. Brand Management: Then and Now
-In the “Path to Grow” initiative(2000):
-Brand Development - focused on the idea’s behind the brand, the innovation
of the brand, and the evolving of ideas into the future.
-Brand Building - was building the specific brands in the markets they
operated in with a focus on the numbers and performance metrics.
25. Huffington Post Article: (Question 4)
Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign Turns 10: How A Brand Tried To
Change The Conversation About Female Beauty
“Both critics and champions of the campaign have also pointed out that just because women are
redefining beauty, doesn’t mean they are actually feeling differently about themselves. Some see this as
a call to change the conversation entirely, as Friedman suggests, others as evidence that Dove’s message
about beauty is important and necessary. An estimated 80 percent of American women feel dissatisfied
with their bodies, and 81 percent of 10-year-old girls are afraid of becoming “fat.” Can a series of ad
campaigns really change institutionalized body hatred?”
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-
10_n_4575940.html
26. Conclusion
-In 2006, Landor Associates identified Dove as one of the 10 brands with the
greatest percentage gain in brand health and business value in the past 3
years.
-The campaign was able to engage people who generally didn’t talk about
Dove as a brand. Dialog on blogs and forums was widespread.
-In some cases, the discussion was not supporting Dove’s message or
initiatives, but this still created discussion in the form of controversy.
