Harvard Business School Case Study | Evolution of the Brand : Dove

Evolution of a Brand

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bengaluru 1

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


By 1980: Reduced Palm Oil Dependence Globalized marketLater: Global Decentralization Brand portfolio grew in laissez-faire manner


By 2000:More than 1600 brandsProblem of control No unified global identity

February 2000:5 year strategic plan“Path to Growth”

1600 brands

400 brands

Some of them “Masterbrands”

Own Global Brand UnitSymbiosis Institute of Business

Management, Bengaluru 4

Evolution of Brand “Dove”


1957: Launched in market

The 1957 launch advertising campaign for Dove wascreated by the Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency. The message was, “Dove soap doesn’t dry your skin because it’s one quarter cleansing cream.”


1970’s: 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.


2000: Pre-Campaign

Silvia Lagnado, global brand director of Dove, led a worldwide investigation into women’s responses to the iconography of the beauty industry to find a new brand definition.


Pre-Campaign Survey “Young, white,

blonde and thin” – unattainable standards for general women

Taunted by ads featuring beauty icons


Pre-Campaign SurveyUnilever survey results of 3000 women in 10 countriesResult: Only 2% of respondents worldwide chose to describe themselves as beautiful



2005: New Brand DefinitionMore Women Feeling Beautiful


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.


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.


Campaign For Real Beauty

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.


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


Change the idea of

beauty

In 4 stages of advertisements

Start of the Campaign


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.


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 Symbiosis Institute of Business


Stage 3: Executive’s daughters discussing their self esteem

challenges


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


Strengths o Unconventional strategy

o Effective advertising, Free publicity

o Continuously evolving the campaign

o Strong emotional touch

o Cross-selling Possibilities

Weaknesses/CriticismoContradictory in nature

oObjectification of women

oWomen featured were comparatively slim

oUse of idealized images in other brands under the same flagship

oContradictory Japanese campaign

Opportunity Recommendation

oTarget male customers

oMaintain better standards of quality

oUnified advertising throughout the globe

oContinuous innovation

ThreatsoRisk of being a brand for “fat girls”

oInvolved marketing risk

oCopy by the competitors

oUndermining the aspiration of consumers

oSustainability of campaign in long run

SWOT Analysis

Consumer Point of View

Real Ads by Real Women Contest, to invite consumers to create their own ads for Dove Cream Oil Body Wash


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


Public Relation

Unilever established the global Dove Self-Esteem Fund to raise the self esteem of girls and young women Symbiosis Institute of Business


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 Development2. Brand Building


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)

Success

Growth of $1.2 billion


Criticism• No strong connection between ads and Dove products

• People may question Dove’s 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


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”


Thank You!


Date post:	14-Apr-2017
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