Brand Design and its Effects on

Consumer Purchasing: Case of

DOVE (UK Market)

Introduction
A product or service can be marketed in a new or already established market with the help of
brand design. The focus of this study is on the ultimate question: How does brand design
affect consumer purchasing? For the purpose of this a detailed study is made on the present
literature on marketing and marketing theories and also consumer behaviour is thoroughly
reviewed. Design elements, features of branding and the branding process shall be looked
into in this research. In addition to the above, interviews were undertaken and survey data
connected with the research question was compiled. Finally, this research concludes that
brand design plays significant impact on consumer purchasing behaviour.

Project Background
It has become essential for a product to differentiate itself to beat the competition due to the
availability of variety of brands on the store shelf (Melewar & Merrilees, 2014).For the
purpose of differentiation, the most effective tool is to brand the product or service. The
present form of branding has evolved from several streams of thoughts, ideas, and disciplines
(Williams, 2012).

1.1Organization background:
The research is focusing on the topic as how the brand design affects the consumer buying
behaviour focusing on the Dove.
Unilever, Dove Brand: Dove is the personal care brand and core product of Unilever; Dove
offered for both men and women and sold more than 30 countries. Started with soap bar dove
launched product range of shampoo, Conditioner, Shower gel, and soap. Dove soap is the
mostly used and widely distributed product.

Literature review
Nature of Branding
It is essential to start from the beginning and apprehend the core principles and foundations
of branding before starting to develop a product or trying to sell service offering. To put it in
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a nut shell, adding intangible value to products means branding (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013),
here it has to be understood that what kind of values are added to the products. The values of
the brand are what the product stands for and what it believes in are the guidelines that form
its moral compass. The products that are respected for values and are defined by them are
considered as having strong brand (Moser, 2013). The consumer perceives these intangible
values and provides the brand itself. Any one or all attributes stated hereunder will have some
of the strongest brands. The attributes are pioneering, creativity, innovation, caring,
communication, knowledge, and inspiration; valuesdefine a brand (Hitchens and Hitchens,
2014).

The Marketing Process

For the purpose of starting brand development process- from conception to implementation, it
is necessary to keep the ideals and values in mind at all stages so that the required results, that
is values of a brand is correctly identified by the consumer, is achieved.
1.

Generation of idea product ideas which will state important customer benefits in

tune with company mission will have to be identified (Solomon et al, 2010).
2. Development of product concept and screening product ideas are to be expanded
into more complete product concepts and assess the potential commercial success of
product concepts.
3. Development of marketing strategy preliminary plan for target markets, pricing,
4.

distribution and promotion is developed (Mihart, 2012).

Analysis of business it is the estimation of potential profit. This is done by
analysing the potential demand, required expenditures, cost of the marketing of the

product (Gronroos, 2011).

5. Technical development it involves the designing of the product and the
manufacturing and production process.
6. Test marketing evidence of potential success in the actual market is developed.
7. Commercialisation marketing plan is implemented on a full scale.

Brand Equity
The value of the brand of the company is known as brand equity and it is not the value of the
product. It may be observed that due to brand equity, similar quality products fetch different
prices and in fact customers are prepared to give higher price for such products (Aaker& Biel,
2013). In the past, there have been many studies (Keller et al, 2011) &(Stahl et al, 2012)
pertaining to brand equity that links with high brand loyalty. The product with high brand
equity will have a unique aura encompassing the product, which makes customers to possess
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the product and this will enhance the sense of high brand loyalty. Further, products with high
brand equity will fulfil the social aspirations and will give the impression of one of the most
aspired products or the offerings that result in high purchase behaviour and less of
dissatisfaction after purchase.
It is the opinion of some marketing researchers say,Nam et al (2011) that the most valuable
asset of a company is brand. The increased financial value a brand owner gets is through
brand equity, though it is not the only one. For the purpose of valuation, brand equity has
certain elements and they are: profit margins, changing market share, recognition of logos of
the company by the consumers, and other visual elements (Looks of the product, packaging
etc,), consumers' perceptions of quality, consumers association for brand spread, and other
relevant brand values (Christodoulides & De Chernatony, 2010).

Models on Brand Equity and Design

Customer Based Brand Equity Model

This concept was visualized by Kevin Lane Keller by introducing the CustomerBased Brand
Equity model, which accounts for several aspects of the brand equity componentsbrand
salience, brand performance, brand imagery, consumer judgments, consumer feelings, and
consumer brand resonance as given below (Hsu et al, 2011).
De Pelsmackers model of Brand Design

As per De Pelsmacker, the design of any Brand consists of the following components
Brand awareness will have to be taken in to account throughout the branding processfrom
conception to implementationsince many benefits are accrued by having a strong brand
presence. In fact having a brand name gives opportunity for favorable brand associations. It
also gives the company a sense of trustworthiness and reputation of commitment (Dens &De
Pelsmacker, 2010).
Perceived quality is considered to be another aspect of brand identity which should be in the
mind always during branding process. If the customers feel that one product is better than the
other, then it is likely that they purchase the product that is perceived as better and this is akin
to brands and it works in the same fashion. The company gets the opportunity to charge
higher price on the products which have been considered as high in quality and also a positive
brand personality and loyalty of customer is higher. These aspects will lead to increased sales
in some cases (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2013).
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Strong brand association will give the opportunity to move into other product lines or
extensions of the same product using the same brand name. One can place the product above
competition with the image and personality of the of the brand as the new product will get
head start (Dijkstra, 2013).
High brand loyalty is advantageous to both the manufacturer and retailer since it costs less to
retain an existing loyal customer than bringing in the new customer. The company can be
confident on selling their products with high brand loyalty from their store shelves. This
aspect is considered as the most important of the brand equity components to any business as
it emphasizes on cost reduction and sales retention (Kinard & Hartman, 2013).

Buying Habits of Consumers in United Kingdom

The internet boom and the buying habits of consumers has undergone changes (Bondy &
Talwar, 2011).In their purchasing habits, UK added the feelings of patriotism and love of
country to the forefront in response to the crisis.
Consumers are utilizing the internet to its complete advantage and the other focus on the
consumer purchasing habits is that the products should be easily purchased with the help of
the internet (Thaler & Tucker, 2013). TheUnited Kingdom consumers on the other hand is
more towards research approach before buying and 13 per cent more to be a frequent online
shopper (Goodrich & de Mooij, 2011).
United Kingdom masculine based andindividualisticcultures and they are influenced by
advertisements pertaining to individual than group association. This aspect should be taken
into account by the company. Also these consumers are more interested in reading
testimonials about how products helped others. The company can reach the target audience or
potential masses only when they know their targeted consumers (De Mooij, 2010). The above
becomes effective strategies when it is properly used. A pull strategy works more effectively
on these customers United Kingdomis more individualistic in nature. In this strategy, efforts
are focused on attracting individual customer.

Research Aims and Objectives

On studying the branding story of Dove, it has been observed that there is an apparent
overlapping theme in how they have each reached the top positions in their markets
today:

rebranding from

the

bottomup. The question How does brand design affect

consumer purchasing will be answered by the study. To understand more information on the
topic, the following objectives havebeen explored.
1. To go deeper in the world ofbrand creation, maintenance, and expiration.
2. To study design of brand and how it affects consumer purchasing habits shall be
investigated and correlation between them is found.
3. To understand the sensory features of brand design are examined.
4. To analysepurchasing habits/trends of consumer in the United Kingdom
5. It is important to analyze the brands from global perspective also along with the above
objectives. The research is more specifically within the United Kingdommarket and
their effectiveness.

Methodology

The research process deployed in this research study is explained. The research problem is
categorized into two; one section is to the state of nature. And the other pertains to exploring
and establishing the relationship between the researchers variables involved in the process.
Research design- After getting the research problem, and to continue the overall research
process, it is necessary to explore and put into action the proper research design. The purpose
of research may be categorized in to four compartments such as exploration, description,
diagnosis and experimentation. Hence, it is important to have a flexible research design for
the entire course of research (Maxwell, 2012)
As stated earlier, qualitative and quantitative research approach method shall be taken and
broadly, quantitative research method has been used. Data is gathered and assessed
thoroughly and inferences are made. Quantitative research can be further divided into sub
categories such as inferential, experimental and simulation research approach (Mitchell &
Jolley, 2012)

The research philosophies are positivists, who emphasize on using quantitative tools,
techniques that emphasize measuring and counting. Then there are naturalists, who prefer
using the qualitative data and prefer the exploratory approach of research analysis (Malhotra,
2010). For our research analysis, the positivist approach has been used. Hence the research
mechanism would consist of questionnaires having the mix of open ended and closed ended
questions which are objective in nature.

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