DOVE CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

Ruthika Akkaraju

16021141089
 1. What was Doves market positioning in the 1950s? What is its
positioning in 2007?

The market positioning of Dove in 1950s was focused upon providing a better product
than soap, and provided a theme of beauty bars. After the Second World War; treating
burns and wounds was a necessity. When Dove came into the market; which was a
bar developed as a Military Technology; the Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency
(the launch advertisers of Dove) had no chance but to emphasize on the functionality
of the bar. Their message was emphasizing on the bars moisturising cream effect.
The idea behind the particular marketing strategy was that Dove does not dry out the
skin of consumers as it works as a skin cleanser and a moisturizer. Many of its
television commercials were related to the particular theme in which it described that
Dove creams your skin while taking a bath. Dove was focused on replacing the normal
toilet soap with Dove cream bar. In another advertisement, the idea related to
surpassing the old soaps which were referred to as old-fashioned soaps which needs
the replacing with Dove. However, minor changes were made after 1950s which was
also similar to the old concept of not calling itself as soap. Dove always recalled itself
as superior to soap because its formula suggested that Dove cleanser shall not irritate
the wounds and burns.

In 2000; Dove became a Masterbrand in Unilever. From that time to today; the brand
is not only on a cleaning bar but additional health and beauty products carry Doves
name. Dove is sold in more than 80 countries and is used by both men and women. It
offers anti-perspirants, deodorants, body washes, soap bars, moisturizers, and hair
and skin care products
The market positioning of Dove was focused upon The real beauty campaign. As
described by Dove in its mission statements that it is aimed at making women feel
more beautiful by applying Dove. Dove broadened the meaning of beautiful through
its campaign and focused on making women realize that not only prettier, thin, and
healthy women are beautiful, but anyone who is more inspiring, or have a different
attitude or a spirit is far more beautiful than the physical appearance. The idea of Dove
was aimed at all those women who were physically not as pretty but they had charm
to inspire anyone through Dove. The idea appealed to all women across countries
and it developed a sense of confidence amongst those women. In order to make this
idea a success, the company made strategic alliances with psychiatrists and fashion
magazines to promote confidence in women through this marketing campaign. Dove
was positioned to the real women and not the elitist women.

2. 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 meaning controlled before 2000 and
how is it controlled at the time of the case?

Product Category Management and Brand Management in Unilever before 2000

Before 2000, Unilever had been implementing a decentralized approach in which the
brand managers of a particular country were authorized to devise their own
marketing strategy in their locality. These brand managers were also responsible for
making key decisions regarding setting the goals of those products and targets to be
achieved by the local subsidiary. Unilever was focused on making diversified teams
and allowed the locals to make their decisions. Unilever adopted a strategy of think
globally and act locally. Unilever believed in a non-authoritarian leadership style
which is also referred to as laissez-faire leadership style so that subordinates may
perform their tasks and responsibilities effectively. A global, decentralized approach
was being followed by Unilever where employees were empowered and a top-down
approach management structure was implemented.

Unilevers Corresponding Structure After 2000

The Unilevers correspondence structure was changed when the company realized it
could not achieve the highest percentage of growth through various brands.
Therefore, the company changed its strategy to develop a standardized approach
throughout the world for its brand and take them along with the same marketing
strategy. According to this approach, the brand manager of the particular country
was not responsible for making key decisions regarding development of the
marketing strategy, defining goals for a particular brand, or approving targets. The
Center would be responsible for taking the desired decisions and the same standard
would be followed across the globe

3. Spend a little time searching blogs, using Google Blog Search,

Technorati, BlogRunner, or any other blog search engines, to get a
sense of what people are saying about Dove today. What does this
discussion contribute to the meaning of the brand?

Discussions about brands create brand awareness. For Dove, this is certainly the
case because of their advertisement campaigns which differ from those of other
companies. There is a social message included in their advertisements of the real
beauty campaign which heats up discussions on the internet.On going through a few
blog posts like the one mentioned below, I could notice that Many critics have
relentlessly questioned and brought into focus the campaigns mixed messages,
which have left some consumers feeling ambivalent towards the Dove brand. On the
one hand, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty can be viewed as enforcing a
positive message with the goal of changing womens attitudes toward their
perception of beauty. On the other hand, consumers are also aware of the
campaigns conflicting goal, one that is imperative and alike to all advertising
campaigns, which is to increase sales. Dove is perceived as a dared brand which
tries to express what the average women looks like. Dove emphasizes on true
beauty and naturalness, which concerns a true challenge by expressing this in its
advertisements. To some people it is appealing while for some others it is not. This
comes forth out of believe that the women in the advertisements are not really
natural; there is some distrust among a group of customers when it comes to
unknown possibility of putting on make-up and using Photoshop in the
advertisements. This is what the discussions on blogs can result in; it can generate
distrust as well as trust of the Dove brand among people and/or customers. What the
effect is on the sales of the Dove products is not clear, the discussions mainly focus
on the message of the advertisement campaigns.

In the end, the discussions generate favourable as well as unfavourable arguments

for the Dove brand. The image of women in advertisements is a sensitive subject
among women in the world. The term beauty captures many different meanings
among people and therefore it is a topic which can lead to endless discussions.
Moreover, for Dove this means that it is not perceived as solely a brand for products
however, also as a brand which tries to make people aware of the impact of brands
and its advertisements in general.

4. Endnote 1 of the case leads you to a blogger who asks, with

reference to the age of YouTube advertising, Is marketing now cheap,
fast and out of control? Endnote 2 refers to Dove as having started a
conversation that they dont have control of. In When Tush comes to
Dove, Seth Stevenson writes about the risky bet that Dove is making.
Do you see risks for the Dove brand today (Case Timeline)?

Dove had always preferred natural-looking women for its ads rather than
stereotypical models but each time, it was only to promote the benefits of Dove
products. In this campaign, it was the first time they promote controversial message
against the common image of womens beauty. They communicated on the natural
beauty (provided by Dove products) instead of unreachable and fake beauty that
you can see in the majority of advertisement.

This controversial marketing campaign had a huge success in terms of media

coverage but some people talked about the risks taken by Dove in opening a social
debate that they couldnt control and the fact that they might get the image of the fat
people brand which could put them in an uncomfortable marketing position.

First of all, Dove made this range of ads to discuss about the common image of
beauty in our society. They were taking position as they present themselves as the
leader of a battle against non-natural and unreachable beauty. It is a good way to
build the image of a brand that has a point of view and cares about womens
problems beyond the need of the product itself (lack of self-esteem, etc). They made
some TV ads that to launch the buzz and it worked better than expected as the
media started to talk about a new social debate and some TV shows mention it as
cultural phenomenon. Then they posted videos on Youtube. After a quick and large
spread on the web, the message took another dimension as bloggers and forums
users start to talk about it.

Thats where the risks begins. As Doves message was diffused widely, it was
getting harder and harder to control the content of it and the image it wanted to
promote. Every controversial message is dangerous if you can no longer control it.
Some voices started to see Dove as the brand for fat people and saw the no-
aspiration aspect in Doves advertising. There were a lot of parodies done on the ads
and some of them were very critical about Unilever hypocrisy and real motives.
Though Unilever was very careful about public relations, there was a risk with this
campaign of losing the power of delivering a clear image and message.
To conclude, we think that if we could find some risks in this strategy, the benefits of
it are far more numerous. They could touch many people in a very short time and,
above all, besides the first TV and banner ads, this campaign grew up hugely without
costing a thing. TV shows and debate, as well as internet diffusion were doing the
work for it. After all Doves sales and financial results are eloquent, that why we think
their strategy is not a big problem for the brands image.