Marketing Strategies for Dove Shampoo in the Australian Market
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This paper analyzes the marketing strategies adopted by Unilever for Dove shampoo in the Australian market. It discusses the product overview, critical analysis, strategic recommendations, and concludes with the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY
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Executive Summary Marketing may be considered to be one of the most success-critical factors for a business and hence the management may need to focus critically on their marketing strategies on a regular basis. The present paper shows the marketing strategies adopted by Unilever, a global FMCG brand, for their product Dove shampoo in the Australian market. The researcher, through the analysis and evaluation in the paper, has reached to a concluding statement that may underscore the fact that the business has been doing fairly well in promoting its offering among the targeted audience, especially the women looking for beauty products. Though there have been certain issues that the management is facing with respect to the gender biasness problems of product positioning and also the lower income groups’ non-reachability of the product, the overall strategy may seem to be effective. The recommendations have been suggested to overcome these shortcomings in order to attain the sustainability in the long-run. Page2of14
1.0 Introduction Analysis of marketing strategy may be considered to be one of the most significant and success- critical factors of a business as the process of such analysis may take into consideration number of factors that are both internal and external to the business. The instant paper delves into the analysis of a specific product, Dove, offered by famous FMCG brand Unilever in the context of the Australian market. At the very beginning of the study, the researcher puts a brief introduction followed by the discussion on the product overview as well as the product potential on the backdrop of the established theoretical framework of SWOT. In the next part of the study paper, the offering has been critically analysed the marketing strategies of Unilever for Dove with reference to 4P’s of marketing theory. In addition, the merits and demerits of the product have also been elaborated followed by the three strategic recommendations. Finally, the paper is being ended by way of a concluding note. Page4of14
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2.0 Product Overview Dove can be recognised as one of the most popular and high demanded brands in the hair care segment. The shampoo varieties of the particular brand are specifically best accepted amongst the Australian customers. It has been identified that the endorsement strategies and the product ingredients are mainly targeted towards the female customers of almost all age groups and the brand has been successful in drawing required attention.Further information highlights that Unilever in Australia is dedicated to creating hair care products that authentically improve the hair condition of women consumers. Dove shampoo is all about its tender essence, softness, mildness and efficiency in all of its products especially its shampoo varieties (Care, 2019). The chosen product is basically appreciated for its tender care ingredients, which is the major criteria of all female consumers. Therefore, Unilever has enabled to identify the most important requirement of Australian female segments and managed to deliver it in its Dove shampoos. Page5of14
3.0 Critical Analysis 3.1 Product Potential The product potential would be analysed using the SWOT framework Strength The product design of Dove counts maximum under its strength. Its combination of shampoo plus conditioner in one pack serves the purpose of cleansing as well as smoothing hair texture. According toJoshi et al. (2018), the primary reason behind Dove's success is that it always uses real-life people instead celebrity endorsements for the marketing campaign, which influence common consumers to connect with the essence of the products and thus leaves an immediate and long last effect on their buying intentions. The consumers believe that Dove is speaking on behalf of them and thus they involuntarily favour the brand over others. Weakness Due to its productpositioningandtargeting strategy, Dove is mainly concerted towards the metro and consumption pattern is designed for the Metros only.Narshana and Ravikumar (2018) determined that its product lines in the shampoo category have high pricing and thus, penetration in the non-metros gets more difficult. The price sensitive customers are showing likeable preferences towards other brands, which is imposing immense threat towards Dove in losing its potential share in the market gradually. Dove is failing to cater to the price-sensitive segment. Therefore, territories that are price sensitive are absolutely off limit for Dove. Opportunities Page6of14
In the consideration ofShaju and Naser (2015), the personal care segment in the Australian market always has the scope of introducing fresh variants or latest product lines. The Research and Development department of Unilever is popular for being consistent in bringing brought quite a few champion products lines over the year. The similar effort and success can be forecasted of Dove shampoo and the brand using its expertise can instil a new life in its brand cycle each time the product portfolio turns stagnant. Threats Market saturation has imposed several underlying threats for Dove. The brands like Olay, Nivea etc are directly marketing on cream soap or shampoo formula, which can be a future threat for the brand once the rivals start offering shampoo varieties (Olson et al. 2018). Moreover, Dove is also failing to tap the price-sensitive consumers, which is leaving an edge before its rivals to capture the segments by lowering the price margin. Hence, Dove is tending towards witnessing market saturation o product stagnancy if the pricing strategies are not reformed. 3.2 Marketing Strategies The product potential would be analysed using 4P's of the marketing mix Product In the shampoo segment, Dove has managed to introduce several categories like antidandruff, hair fall treatment, hair nourishing, keratin treatment, protein shampoo, etc. in the opinion of Menon et al. (2015), manufacturing of a Dove product involves foremost ingredients such as synthetic surfactants, vegetable oils, zero levels of Ph, salts of animal fats and 1/4thmoisturizing cream.The specific brand deals in product lines majorly for women segment and is committed to offering product superiority to enhance their hair texture, shine and nourishment. Page7of14
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Price Dove shampoo has been estimated as a premium or superior product in the Australian market, however, the brand has an effective and incorporatedpricingpolicyfor its product lines that involves keeping its pricing strategy affordable and reasonable but distinctive (Morgan et al. 2019).Compared to the similar product lines of its rivals, Dove’s shampoos are placed a bit on higher margin yet its qualitative product categories have come into a great help to the company for being able to incorporate its pricing strategy lucratively. Place Dove is a universal brand with a successful worldwide presence. The network lines of the brand are spread in several parts of globe and product of its product lines are steadily placed in several nationslikeSouthAfrica,Philippines,UnitedStates,Turkey,Thailand,Australia,etc (Kingsnorth, 2019). The shampoo segment of Dove is sold in almost eighty regions with the support of a stable and well-organized distributionchannel. It involves producers, retailers to customers through the generic stores, retail outlets, convenient kiosks, supermarkets, discount stores, modern trade and hypermarkets. Promotion It has been identified that Dove has strongbrand awarenessin the Australian consumer market and the effort has been successful because of its branding and advertising.Cacciolatti and Lee (2016) stated that marketing efforts play a huge role in the success of the chosen brand. Campaigns and endorsements manage to enhance the visibility of the brand and establish a positive impact on consumers’ minds. Promotions and endorsements for the shampoo segment of Dove have been aired on various commercial channels of television, also on radio and buzzed on Page8of14
social networking sites (Ferrell and LeClair, 2015). It also successfully roped in the Australian print media to cater its product lines through ads in magazines, newspaper and billboards. 3.3 Merits and Demerits Merits It has been determined that Dove shampoos have advanced damage care and repaired treatments that meet the major requirements of the target customers.Patrutiu-Baltes (2016) stated that women customers are very typical in terms of using a shampoo or any other categories for their hairtreatments.However,thecombinationofcleansing,strengtheningandconditioning ingredients used in its shampoo serve all the purpose. Hence, the ingredients and the right endorsement techniques usually act in favour of Dove shampoo. Demerits The major disadvantage of the product is that it fails to resist the oily scalp. Consumers those have the issue of the oily scalp cannot use the shampoo for a long term tenure, as it contains moisturising and conditioning texture, therefore, oil secretion occurs on a quick basis, which adversely leads to high hair fall issues (Lee and Johnson, 2019). Moreover, the high price placement of its product is another demerit, where the competitors are capturing the price sensitive segments offering similar quality and benefit with affordable range. Page9of14
4.0 Strategic Recommendations It has been determined from the above discussion that Dove usually targets female customers to boost the sales of its product lines. The similar had been the case with its shampoo category. On the other hand, the competitors are focusing on both the genders and designing products as per their needs to retain stability and survive in the market. This enabled competitive brands to capture more shares in the market and also to reduce the threats of product stagnancy. Hence, it is high time for Dove to expand its customer segments and introduce products or shampoo focusing on male customers as well to retain its competitive positioning in the Australian market (De Mooij, 2019). The market is shifting their preferences overtime and the switchover cost is too low that allows the target customers to experiment with other brands offering related superiority at much lower prices. It has also been identified that Dove targets the premium customers and therefore, the products are usually placed on a higher range. However, the upper middle and the lower middle groups are also becoming the potential segments for the personal care market (Lopez and Castaño, 2019). Therefore, the majority of the brands operating in the consumer goods sector are reforming their pricing strategy accordingly to fit the pocket size or affordability of the specified group (Arenas-Gaitán et al. 2019). Hence, it is necessary for Dove also to place their existing or to introduce fresh hair care lines for the middle-income group customers by placing it at a slightly lower margin to seek their maximum attention. This would support the brand in lower its threat of market stagnancy or reaching saturation and also getting hold of new customer segments that can boost its profit margin in the market of high vulnerability. Page10of14
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The above content also underscores the shortcomings of the product that is itsresistant effect or nature of suiting the consumers having oily scalp issues. It means that consumers having normal scalp texture can only use Dove shampoo, however, the ones having oily or combination texture cannot use it as it can create an adverse reaction of hair damage or hair fall (Buss and Foley, 2019). Hence, Dove also needs to introduce other shampoo categories that contain low conditioning or creamy effect but is more concentrated on cleansers and hair nourishment. Page11of14
5.0 Conclusion On the basis of the discussion and analysis as performed in the preceding sections of the paper, it may be considered that the intended product has been widely accepted among its targeted audience and user base. The management of Unilever has been focussing on the quality of the product with steady and comprehensive marketing strategies comprising both print media promotion as well as celebrity endorsement in the Australian market. As a result, the reachability of the product has been considerable. On the other hand, the management has also been focussing on making the existing customers loyal by way of continuous product improvement andafter-salesexperienceimprovement.Ontheotherhand,disruptiveinnovationand widespread and consistent promotion have been used to spread the offering among the wider group of people. Therefore, it may be finally concluded that the well-designed marketing strategy supported by the efficient management has been sizeably contributing towards the attainment of corporate goal of sustainability for the brand Unilever in the Dove segment, in the long-run in most cost and time efficient manner. Page12of14
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Lee, J.Y. and Johnson, K.K., (2019). Cause-related marketing strategy types: assessing their relative effectiveness.Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal. Lopez, A. and Castaño, R., (2019). Consumer Behavior on Social Media: A Thematic Exploration and an Agenda for Future Inquiry. InBusiness Governance and Society(pp. 281- 301). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Menon, A., Bharadwaj, S.G., Adidam, P.T. and Edison, S.W., (2015). Effective Marketing Strategy-Making: Antecedents and Consequences. InProceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference(pp. 224-224). Springer, Cham. Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. and Chari, S., (2019). Research in marketing strategy.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,47(1), pp.4-29. Narshana, M. and Ravikumar, P., (2018). AN OVERVIEW OF DANDRUFF AND NOVEL FORMULATIONS AS A TREATMENT STRATEGY.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH,9(2), pp.417-431. Olson, E.M., Slater, S.F., Hult, G.T.M. and Olson, K.M., (2018). The application of human resource management policies within the marketing organization: The impact on business and marketing strategy implementation.Industrial Marketing Management,69, pp.62-73. Page14of14