Strategic Analysis and Recommendations for Dove Shampoo

This report provides a strategic analysis of Dove Shampoo's marketing plan, strategy, product diversification, segmentation, and strengths in the market. Recommendations include product diversification in men's hair care, innovation in the product line, and converting switcher customers to loyal customers.

Running Head: STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 0
Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Psychology

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Overview of Dove Shampoo......................................................................................................3
Critical Analysis.........................................................................................................................3
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................8

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2
Executive Summary
In this report, the Dove shampoo marketing plan, strategy, their products diversification,
segmentation and the major strength in the market has been identified. With this strategic
analysis, several recommendations is also mentioned relating to product diversification in the
men hair care product, innovation in the overall product line and converting switcher types of
customers to the hard core loyal customers.
Thus this report gives existing marketing analysis and rationale about Dove Shampoo
marketing strategy (STP), promotional activities and strategy and various financial
projections into the shampoo market.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3
Overview of Dove Shampoo
The brand was introduced in 1955 in the UK. Dove is owned by Unilever and it is a personal
care brand, which manufactured their products in various countries across the globe like
Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, US and many more. The products of Dove are sold in
around 80 countries including both the segments i.e. Men and Women.
At Europe, the dove hair care range was introduced in 1998 and 2003 in North America
(Gareri et al, 2011). This hair range consists of highly conditioned formula which give the
moisture assurance of Dove to the customer.
Dove shampoo protect and care the hair of the individuals and repair accumulated damage.
The company has also launched a new Zero Damage System repair formula, which helps the
consumers by protecting their hair from any type of damage. For this, the company also
launched various range in their shampoo product which includes ‘daily therapy’ shampoo and
conditioner, ‘dry therapy’ shampoo and conditioner, ‘breakage therapy’ shampoo,
conditioner, serum and hair mask.
The dove shampoo prevents the hair from greying and frizzing as it contains various anti-
aging and anti-frizzing elements which nourish the hair from all sides. (Taylor, Johnston and
Whitehead, 2016). However, the company also has various rivalries in the international
markets.
They also made a tagline, which states – “More beautiful hair with every wash”.
Critical Analysis
Dove has established itself as a dominant player in the market from 2007 onwards. The
strength of brand always is in terms of its positioning strategy and the connection with the
feminine aspects (Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009).
Dove shampoo has been divided into various segments so that the consumer can be given
wide varieties of alternatives according to their needs. These segments are Dove intense
repair, Dove Hair Fall Rescue, Dryness therapy shampoo, Dove daily shine shampoo and
Dove Dandruff care (Al and Khan, 2014). According to Dove, every individual has different

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4
hair, which needs different resolutions. Dove intense repairs and hair fall rescue solve the
actual cause of split-ends-damage. Its ¼ Moisture Milk and Fiber Actives go deep inside to
heal impairment so that the split-ends are vanished without losing hair-length. The dove daily
shine shampoo includes several patented micro moisture serum that prevents the hair of the
user beside continuous aggressions that root dullness. In the portion of Dove dandruff care,
with the combination of ZPTO and micro moisture serum, Dove help in controlling dandruff
without drying the user's hair (Boyapati et al, 2013).
This diversification in their product portion helps the company in making a competitive edge
in the personal hair care industry. In addition, Dove also used three pricing strategies for
there shampoo product. These include competitive pricing, penetrate pricing and geographic
pricing. In a competitive pricing strategy, the company change their products prices in
alignment with the competitors pricing strategy. For example, if Pantene and Clinic Plus
change their base prices of the shampoo products, Dove will also change the price as per the
fluctuations. Dove also uses penetration pricing strategy for entering a new segment so that to
attract more numbers of customers (Sekhar and Padmaja, 2015). Other strategies are related
to the geographical pricing which is based on the variable pricing method as the trade price is
calculated conferring to the market distance and transportation incurred.
The promotional strategy in relation with Dove Hair Care products is based on their
advertising objectives, which includes making the customer hair shiny and clean, imparting a
feeling of freshness due to its mixed fragrance, providing exclusive shampoo for every type
of hair and effectively communicates brand promise.
To endorse the dove shampoo, the corporation set out to show the beauty myth that only
models are “beautiful” by using “real women” to promote the campaign.
This range of dove products is more common among high class and upper middle class
individuals (Thakor, 2012). However, they target women of all the ages. In these recent
years, there are number of changes comes in the dove shampoo segment. The prices of their
shampoo segment also rise with the increase in the production from Hindustan Unilever.
In the market, the major strength of this product is the strong brand image of the company
within the consumer mind. From a long period of time, the company is investing in making
the high quality products and most of their shampoos contain micro moisture serum which
makes the hair soft and controllable. However, there is tight competition in the industry and
various competitors are doing aggressive promotions to gain the market share.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5
Considering the market communication, Dove is successfully attracting women toward their
products and this is enhancing their brand value in the market. They also use stylish
packaging that attracts their customers towards the particular products. This shows that the
brand essentials of the products stimulate females to realize their potential personal beauty. In
addition, the company is continuously trying to enhance their productivity in an effective
manner by including more features to their brand elements. Dove is also using social media
as a platform for the purpose of marketing communication. The corporation involves various
social media platforms including Facebook and twitter to flash their product communications
to the worldwide platform. The distribution process of the Dove also made in a systematic
process which uses vertical marketing system (Patel and Patel, 2015).
Once dove shampoo also launched a marketing campaign, which focuses exclusively on
women with curly hair. The company also uses a distinct titles name for this campaign i.e.
“Love Yours Curls”. The main objective of this campaign is to change the thinking of the
women who always perceive their curly hair in a negative way. Therefore, the company try to
build self-confidence and also promotes positive social context in terms of curly hair so that
the women can feel better and not be depressed. In addition, the ultimate objective of this
campaign was to change the perception of the women and girls towards their curly hair and
the brand – “Dove”.
In addition, Dove shampoo strives in all the categories. They also use social marketing
concept so that to spread the information about the healthy perception and self-esteem in the
women. In most of their advertisement, the company uses women with stretch marks, tattoos
and celebrities. They also want to aware the consumer about their health in both emotional
and physical manner and also believe them that they need not be a model or thin to be
beautiful.
In terms of promotion, Dove has a strong brand awareness in the consumer market and this is
all because of their continuous advertising, branding and effective marketing policies. These
advertisements and campaigns help in increasing the visibility of a brand and thus create
positive impact on the minds of consumers. They use many different channels to market their
products such as television, radio, internet, billboards and newspapers (Reynar, Phillips and
Heumann, 2010). They have also learned from their last failed advertisement related to the
racist commercial and now they do all respective research before launching a new campaign
such as competitors’ research, local markets research, etc.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6
The company has made their presence at every place i.e. drugs store, supermarkets and even
online platforms. Dove formulates their marketing strategy based on four following aspects –
Market penetration, Market development, service/program development and diversification.
For penetrating newly, market segments, Dove takeout various campaigns such as free
sampling and sales promotion. In terms of market development, Dove makes their customer
aware about the product knowledge and information on a continuous basis (Mangold and
Faulds, 2009). For product diversification, the company always goes with their past approach
as to make their product line more extensive and specialised for diverse skin types and
people. This makes attracts more people towards the products of the brands.
Most of the customers recommend the brand to the other after successful consumption and
this creates word of mouth advertising. This can be termed as one of the effective strategies
as it would reflect positively on the revenue aspect of the company.
In last, on the basis of market research and the various customer surveys, it can be said that
Dove is one of the best hair care product present in the market. Their effective advertising
campaign and effective marketing strategy are the main reasons for the success of the
company and this also provides them with a competitive edge in the market.
Recommendations
Although the level of sales volume of Dove is bit high than the other shampoo brands, Dove
has some solid rivalries in the market which affects their operations and sales and thus reduce
their business efficacy overall. Dove also faced mix reviews from the public in terms of
quality, which the company need to focus on one side (Brown, Boon and Pitt, 2017). In terms
of quality recommendations, Dove needs to focus on their brand and product innovation so
that their level of sales can be increased and they can shift time to reach the maturation stage
of their product lifecycle. Their business strategy helps them in their aggressive global
expansion and now they have presence in 80 countries. This makes the requirement that Dove
must induce the capability and willingness to encourage innovative thinking across the world
and push their best ideas in the form of high quality products.
The company should also focus on the men hair care products and manufacture shampoo
according to their needs. One of their competitor i.e. Garnier already started to make

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 7
shampoo and face wash for Men and this can give them a competitive edge in the market.
Therefore, they should extend their focus to the target male of the society so the beauty or
hair care will be no more the consideration of female. Accordingly, they should reframe their
media plan objectives and target newfound audience of bachelors in a family. It is also
important that they should make a frequency so that to establish Dove Men+Care as a
substantial brand within the highly competitive product market (Van and Das, 2015).
Dove shampoo can be also promoted to the market in order to appeal the females in the
society. They should learn from the failure of the previous campaigns and thus should plan
accordingly so that the sentiments of the society will not hurt anymore. Their marketing and
research team need to make strong awareness in their team so that all their advertisements
and promotional activities can be made effectively.
The pricing policy of Dove is although adequate to the middle and higher-class community
but the company needs to also focus and evaluate their pricing policies in terms of lower-
middle class consumers. This will help them in increasing their target base in the potential
market and thus the market share will also be increased. The company need to also ensure
about the social responsibility in the society as this will help them establish themselves in the
customer mind and thus they will always be loyal to the brand (Brakus, Schmitt and
Zarantonello, 2009).
With the introductions of new products to the men hair care product, the company should
focus on the diversification aspects as they can bring many new more types of shampoo other
than daily shine and dryness scalp and Anti-dandruff therapy (Trüeb, 2007).
Overall, the brand enjoys a good reputation in the minds of the consumer and most of the
customer feels it as a value for money as their products deliver them great benefits as well as
satisfaction. The brand has a strong consumer base but at the same time, this segment also
includes those customers who are price sensitive and not loyal in the true sense. Hence,
company needs to ensure that they are making constant efforts to retain their customers it
already has and also turns the switcher segment of customers into the hard-core loyal
(Gensler, Dekimpe and Skiera, 2007).

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 8
References
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shampoo with the commercial shampoos. Beni-Suef University Journal of Basic and Applied
Sciences, 3(4), pp.301-305.
Boyapati, A., Tam, M., Tate, B., Lee, A., Palmer, A. and Nixon, R. (2013) Allergic contact
dermatitis to methylisothiazolinone: exposure from baby wipes causing hand
dermatitis. Australasian Journal of Dermatology, 54(4), pp.264-267.
Brakus, J.J., Schmitt, B.H. and Zarantonello, L. (2009) Brand experience: what is it? How is
it measured? Does it affect loyalty?. Journal of marketing, 73(3), pp.52-68.
Brown, T.E., Boon, E. and Pitt, L.F. (2017) Seeking funding in order to sell: Crowdfunding
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Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J. (2009) Social media: The new hybrid element of the
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Sekhar, S.C. and Padmaja, R. (2015) Usage and recall of FMCG brands by rural consumers
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STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 9
Taylor, J., Johnston, J. and Whitehead, K. (2016) A Corporation in Feminist Clothing?
Young Women Discuss the Dove ‘Real Beauty’Campaign. Critical Sociology, 42(1), pp.123-
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