Presented by:

Adnan Ahmed
Ahmed Atif Abdullah
Umesh Nair

Dove evolution of a brand

Case Write Up
Introduction:
Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever which was introduced in 1955. In 2007
Unilever Dove was the worlds number one cleansing brand in the health and beauty sector with
sales of over $2.5 billion a year in more than 80 countries. It competed with brands like Procter
and gambles ivory, Kaos Jergens and beiersdorfs Nivea.
Unilever a leading global manufacturer of packaged consumer goods, where it operated in food ,
home and personnel care sectors of the economy. Eleven of its brands had global revenue of
more than $1 billion.

Dove: The Functional Benefit Era

1957: Dove soap doesnt dry your skin because its one-quarter cleansing cream. The first Dove
product called a beauty bar was launched in 1957.
1970: Popularity increased as a milder soap
1980: Dove beauty bar was widely endorsed by physicians and

dermatologists to treat dry

skin.
1990: Litmus test Opened up to markets in 55 countries

Sold in 80 countries

2000: The brand depended on claims of functional superiority

backed by the moisturizing

benefit and become a Masterbrand in February

2002: Campaign for Real Beauty
2005: Self Esteem Campaign
2007: A process of exploratory market research, consultation with experts, conversations with
women, and message testing led to - The Campaign for Real Beauty.

Campaign for Real Beauty

Message: Real beauty can only be found on the inside and every woman deserves to feel
beautiful.
Image: Real beauty is portrayed by women who do not have runaway model.
Result: A dialog between Dove and its customers about the definition of beauty.
Self esteem fund:
Carried forward the real beauty campaign.
Series of Commercials launched to promote this.
Evolution launched first on You Tube later on Super Bowl

A Brand with a Point of View

Unilevers surveys: 3,000 women in 10 countries was the fact that only 2% of respondents
worldwide chose to describe themselves as beautiful. Dove started with its Campaign for real
beauty and builds the image of a brand with ideas and point of view on the society.
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 product 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. Evolution - It showed the face of a young woman as cosmetics,
hair styling and Photoshop editing transformed it from plainness to billboard glamour.

Doves 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 them.
In 2006 the Dove announced a contest, titled: Real Ads by Real Women, to invite consumers to
create their own ads for Dove Cream Oil Body Wash.
When youre using Dove Cream Oil Body Wash, take note of what you feel, smell, see and hear:
Are you reminded of any pleasant experiences or interesting places?
Look up luxury in the dictionary. What does it mean? What could it mean?
Explore the world around you. What luxuries do you find in your world?

Media Planning
When the advertising agency brought the Evolution advertisement idea to Unilever, it was
prepared to go forward without paid media at all. The ad was released to YouTube and Good
Morning America
Public Relations
Generate broad awareness for the Campaign for Real Beauty and establish an emotional
connection with women .Build coverage and interest with more than 200 local news programs
and more than 60 national broadcast and print outlets. Build advocacy and generating discussion
among the media elite also developed a strategic partnership with an advocacy organization.

Established the global Dove Self - Esteem Fund to raise the self-esteem of girls and young
women.

Organizing for Brand Management

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, intended to identify the goods or services of one
seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors Unilever began to
split responsibility for a brand between two groups:
Brand Development: Take responsibility for developing the idea behind a brand, for innovation
and for evolving the idea into the future
Brand building: Charge with bringing the brand to life in their Marketplace.
Brand Personality - Self-acceptance & Confidence: Highlights the commitment to breaking
down stereotypes and enabling women to celebrate real inner beauty.
Feminity & Mildness: The name of the brand, the logo and even to the tagline as well as the
product, everything about it is simple a feminism.

Conclusion
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.