Brand Management: Dove Case Analysis

This case is about the brand Dove, a successful brand for last 40 year. In 1957 it was positioned as the beauty bar. So in which business they Dove is in? It is beauty.

So how do we define beauty? Beauty can be described as natural, pure, clean, fresh, aspiration, dream etc. It is difficult to define beauty, so it is more difficult to describe real beauty. The present case scenario is of 2007 where Unilever wants to reduce its 1600 brands to 400 brands and Dove would be one of the master brands. Dove has launched its “Real Beauty” campaign.At this point of time it has positioned as number one cleansing brand, with sales of $2.

5 billion and presence in 80 countries. It started with a product beauty bar and now extended to body wash, face care, hair care, deodorants, anti- perspirants and body lotion. Huge investment is done for the brand promotion in advertisements, films, campaigns, events etc. The purpose of these campaigns could be that it wants to move to real beauty from cleansing agent. But before, one should know the core identity and extended identity of Dove, and does it need to be changed with time.Dove 1957 Dove 2007 BM Case Write Up Dove: Evolution of Brand EI CI CI EI Basically Dove is known for moisturizing the skin.

The customer value proposition is the non dry skin, which has given it a unique position in the market. They have never called themselves as soap; it is always as a beauty bar. But beauty is not its core identity, it could be the EI. As per the research (Exhibit 4) only 2% of the consumers are comfortable to describe themselves as beautiful and Dove want to capture that market. Is Dove doing the right thing? Can Beauty can be added as the CI of Dove.

But the case clearly shows that the company is applying all possible 1 By Rashmi Singh [PGDM 09, Acharya School of Management, Bangalore] ways to pitch on beauty, for which it was never known for. After analyzing response of the people (Exhibit 4- study highlights) belonging to developed countries shows that, beauty is not very important to them. Unlikely in the developing countries where it is beauty is more prominent. The other option for Dove to extent it brand could be being natural, which is similar to its CI and the brand image will be unchanged.The other point for discussion is whether Dove should be made master brand for the unrelated product such as deodorants, anti perspirants etc.

For the related products body lotion, face care the CI “moisturizing” remains unchanged, but it does matches with the deodorants, anti perspirants. If a brand is doing well it does not mean that it can be stretched to any extent. May be the revenue for Dove is $ 2. 5 Billion, but what percentage is the contribution of Dove cream bar alone and other products.If the contribution of deodorants, anti perspirants is insignificant, than including this under the brand name of Dove would only increase the cost not the revenue. It takes long time to create rather earn Brand Equity in the market.

Stretching a brand into unrelated products can dilute the existing brand image. Growth/ Change only for the sake of growth does not produce profitable result. BM Case Write Up Dove: Evolution of Brand 2 By Rashmi Singh [PGDM 09, Acharya School of Management, Bangalore]