Dove: evolution of a brand Essay

The aim of this case study, scripted by John Deighton, is to highlight and explain the r phylogenyary vane evolution system at the basis of the extraordinary Unilevers plunge results, achieved in 2007. Overview Master places as part of the room to Grow dodging Unilever is a jumper cable multinational company active in the food, home and personal dread sectors. It has been developing glob every last(predicate)y during the years, creating several of the most successful brands of the world.Its expansion allowed a geographical diversification moreover also brought some problems of obliges especially the brand portfolio had grown in an unstructured way and required a pitch of course. Indeed, in February 2000 Unilever began the so called Path to Growth, a five-year strategic act which included the reshaping and the reorganization of the brand portfolio. More precisely, the company planned to suppress its more than 1,600 brands to 400 and, among them, select a small number of Ma sterbrands responsible for(p) for creating a surpass and global identity to be shared out with the hurtle of products, included under for each hotshot Masterbrand name.In this broad strategy it is dictated the outstanding evolution of one of the survived brands, genus Columba, which was selected to become the Masterbrand for Unilever personal allot products, beyond the beauty bar category and including hair care products, deodorants, body lotions and so forth Dove Masterbrand strategy development Dove, until February 2000, had forever and a day been orienting to meet its costumers needs, providing them products, with a scientifically proven functional superiority. As a logical consequence, its advertisements had always been centered in promoting the cited higher functionality, preferring natural-looking women rather than fashion model prototype in edict to communicate honesty and authenticity.But a market strategy to build a unique Masterbrand identity could no lengthy be based on functional superiority, as explained by Deighton it should reach a meaning for Dove, as a Masterbrand, to be applied to all its products. Pursuing the best way to develop the proper image, the management had to nearly change the approach to the promotion. Elements such(prenominal) as client need, scientific research, the employment of natural-looking women and honesty and authenticity survived as central aspects, only when they were reassembled and combined differently to accomplish the mentioned goal.The scientific research was no long-run used to prove product functionality but, it was the starting point of the new strategy a worldwide investigation led by the global brand director for Dove, Silvia Lagnado, and interpreted with the help of both experts, revealed that women generally perceive aesthetic canons, typically illustrated in the advertisements, as very distant and unreachable. It was tack together out that most of the women didnt mirror themselves in t he advertised image of beauty and a further survey showed that only the 2% of the interviewed describe themselves as beautiful. Dove experts recognized a cultural issue the beauty-related opinion of middling women and the advertised beauty werent matching.The misalignment generated frustration in women and, as a relevant consequence for Dove, negatively affected the sales of health and care products. So, aware of women dissatisfaction, of their personality, of their need to feel beautiful and keeping in mind Dove internal goals, the management gave life to the revolutionary strategy and unyielding that Dove should have sas welld for a point of view. The management decided that natural-looking women would have had a gravestone role in the tally, but with a different responsibility instead of promoting Doves products they would have promoted their average beauty, with honesty and authenticity. The bunking for Real sweetie was setup and ready to be implemented. The Aim(s) of the campaignBorn from the simply idea of creating a common and clear image to be shared with the Dove Masterbrand products, The campaign for Real Beauty has been then developed and changed as it went forward, pursuing further goals and, at the end, telltale(a) itself somewhat different. As a matter of fact and as tell by Kathy OBrien, Dove marketing director for U.S, the company cute to change the way society views beauty and provoke banter and line about real beauty. This aim was reflected in the Doves military mission statement, elaborated for the campaign, and it was enhanced with a relevant aspect the evaluate repayment for the company, which was keenly expressed. The statement said Doves mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by widen the narrow definition of beauty and inspiring them to take gigantic care of themselves.And here the real purpose of the consentaneous initiatory became clearer. With the declared aim to develop the common values for th e Masterbrand and to overcome the beauty-related mismatch, emerged from the scientific research, Dove started the campaign. Then, inducing the community to a proactive involvement and to count on such meaning, the company began in a certain hotshot the democratisation process of the beauty. So, being recognized as the entity responsible of the birth of such a thorny process and as a provider of a clear and rule-breaker point of view, Dove started to be on everyones lips.It unmistakably increased its popularity and most important, allowed it to captivate a huge number of electromotive force clients those women to be helped in perceiving themselves beautiful every day by broadening the definition of beauty and to be inspired to take great care of themselves. Paraphrasing the meaning of the period to inspire to take great care of themselves, the commercial-grade aim of Doves campaign for real beauty becomes apparent. What do the campaign effective?The combination of different el ements made the design and the implementation of the campaign so successful. As a first element, the campaign has its root in the setting of a clear brands mission, shared on a global level. The structure of the organization introduced by the Path to Growth strategy, which split the responsibility for each brand between two groups, the Brand Development, centralized and global in scope, and Brand Building, decentralized fit to the regions in which Unilever was involved and responsible to bring the brand to life in each marketplace, substantially helped in defining a global mission. erstwhile developed, the brands mission worked as a benchmark for each initiative a cornerstone around which, the whole campaign move and evolved. Furthermore, the settlement of a well-defined mission was crucial to maintain the control over the campaign, once it had been shared with the community and on purpose undefended to its assessment, starting what I called the democratization process of the be auty concept. And just this process is the mark that I consider the sharpest and the most effective of the whole strategy.Indeed Dove, proposing and supporting its unconventional point of view, with the aim to provoke discussion and debate, really made people feel part of revolution and, at the same time, outstandingly got the company closer to its potential clients. In order to increase womens engagement, Dove, at a certain point of the campaign, like a shot asked them to film their own daughters discussing their self-esteem challenges and later on, to create their own ads for Dove Cream Oil Body Wash and to participate at the contest the Real Ads by Real Women. It extremely helped in creating a untouchable social interconnection between Doves supporters and the company they were roast forces against stereotypes of beauty.Moreover, the involvement of the community, thought in a more general sense and which spontaneously commented and also criticized the campaign, was crucial t o increasing Doves initiative range and for its goals fulfillment. This aspect was part of a further successful feature of the strategy, the so-called Media planning, which was revolutionary and tailored as well. Responsible of the strategy and the investments for the campaign diffusion, the Media planning unit, as said, relied on the engagement of the community and of Internet too and so, it centered the investments in creating and expanding the community of the real beauty seekers.It included the leveraging of a Superbowl advertising space. Thanks to such investments and to Youtube, which played a key role in the divulgation of the ads, the phenomenon reached an extraordinary dimension and, as a consequence, the debate started to spread all over, acquiring more and more media hype, insomuch as 16 minutes of Today Show were dedicated to one of the campaign initiatives even Oprah devoted a full show to self-esteem, built around a Doves advertisement. Critics, discussions and parodi es rose in sequence, did nothing but increased the relevance of the campaign and amplified its range, exactly as planned by Dove. These are the reasons that made the revolutionary and unprecedented Doves campaign so successful and helpful for the company in becoming one of 10 brands with the greatest percentage gain in brand health and business value in the past three years and in its $1.2 billion of grow. ReferencesJohn Deighton, (Rev March 25, 2008), Dove Evolution of a brand, 9-508-047 Harvard blood school