Dove Brand Strategy: Analysis of Unilever's Marketing Techniques

This report provides an analysis of Unilever's brand strategy for Dove, examining the evolution of the brand from its origins as a beauty bar soap to its current status as a Masterbrand encompassing a wide range of health and beauty products. The report discusses the brand extension strategy, the success of the "Real Beauty" campaign, and the challenges faced by Unilever in a competitive market. It explores various brand positioning strategies, including positioning by attributes and benefits, price and quality, competitors, and product users. The report also analyzes brand associations, highlighting those that should be strengthened (benefits, interest, celebrities) and those that should be weakened (attributes, attitudes). The report emphasizes the importance of differentiation, relevance, and credibility in achieving brand objectives and suggests strategies for maintaining brand value and competitiveness in the future. The report also includes references to relevant literature and sources.

Running head: Doves brand strategy 1
Doves brand strategy
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Doves brand strategy 2
Question one.
The brand extension strategy adopted by Unilever for the Dove brand was brilliant yet
challenging since the brand would compete with other established beauty and health brands.
Therefore, in case the brand failed, Unilever would incur lots of expenses. However, the
Masterbrand campaign for Dove as a real beauty brand was successful hence being a plus for
Unilever. The Dove brand began first as a beauty bar soap in 1957 through a claim that the soap
would not dry out skin as other soaps did (Deighton, 2008). Its formula was from military
research, and therefore, it contained high levels of natural skin moisturizers. This strategy
allowed the soap to be endorsed by physicians and dermatologists.
For a long period of time, the Dove brand was dependent on its functional superiority
until it was made a Masterbrand for Unilever beauty and health products (Deighton, 2008). It
therefore became an extended brand for other Unilever products. In 2007, through rigorous
marketing and public relations, Dove managed to be the best “cleansing brand” by making more
than $2.5 billion in more than eighty countries (Deighton, 2008). However, with the success of
Dove as a beauty and health brand, more companies may try to replicate the same brand strategy
so as to achieve sales in the coming years. This means Unilever must be ahead in terms of having
a better brand strategy that would catapult the brand to higher levels in the future.
The Dove brand should adopt a brand positioning strategy for the next five years. For a
brand to target customers minds, it must be positioned clearly. A perfect brand positioning can
help direct the marketing strategy by encompassing the uniqueness of a product, reason why
consumers should buy a product, and what a brand is all about (Singh, Kalafatis & Ledden,
2014). Besides, having an effective brand positioning strategy may increase competitive
distinctiveness and customer relevancy thereby maximizing brand value.

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For a beginning, since Dove is an extended brand that includes various product
categories, Unilever may first begin with positioning the brand by attributes and benefits.
Associating various category of products with an attribute or product feature may increase the
chances for the customer to make the purchase decision (Maarit Jalkala & Keränen, 2014).
Unilever should attempt to identify the salient attributes in each of the products and amplify
them. Secondly, Unilever may position the brand by price and quality. This type of positioning is
often used by marketers to position their brands. For instance, Unilever can reflect the quality or
value offered by the brand hence determining the price for the products. In addition, the product
should be continually be better than other competing brands so as the positioning strategy can be
effective (Maarit Jalkala & Keränen, 2014).
Thirdly, Unilever may position the brand by competitors. The Dove brand competes with
competitors such as Procter and Gamble, Beiersdorf’s Nivea, and Kao’s Jergens. Therefore,
Unilever might focus its positioning strategy of the brand on specific competitors so as to
demonstrate its superiority in offering the same product categories. This is by comparing their
products uniqueness, benefit or pricing with competitor products. In addition, the company can
develop taglines that make the brand seem the best among competitors.
Lastly, Unilever may position the brand by product user. Since the brand includes a wide
range of products, the company can associate the products with a different set of people. For
instance, various beauty products may be suited for a specific category of people such as young
and middle-aged individuals. Therefore, targeted individuals may become more accustomed to
the products being offered (Maarit Jalkala & Keränen, 2014). For most beauty products, the
company can associate the products with young women who love beauty hence being able to
create a target group.

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In all these position strategies, Unilever may seek to achieve three objectives for the
Dove brand. They include; differentiation, relevance and credibility/attainability. By being a
Masterbrand, Dove has to demonstrate these objectives so as to capture the attention of
customers and marketers. Beginning with relevance, customers of the Dove brand must be able
to find the brand appealing since if not; the brand can fail regardless of how credible or
differentiated it is (Equibrand Consulting, 2019).
Secondly, differentiation is considered as the primary driver for success in positioning.
This means the brand must offer products that are continually competitive and unique hence
attracting more traffic. Lastly, brand positioning needs to be both attainable and credible. This is
because if a company cannot match up with customer expectations, no progress can be made
(Equibrand Consulting, 2019). Besides, a first impression success may not always mean
continuous success. More has to be done to keep success close.
Question two.
Brand associations make up the sensory and visual impressions that customers are able to
relate with in regards to a brand (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). A customer may not buy a product
just because its branded since the customer may have a particular association with the brand.
Besides, brand associations assist customers to recall particular brands due to various tangible or
intangible properties. In the Dove brand, various associations can either be strengthened or
weakened. Beginning with those brand associations that should be strengthened, a brand
association based on benefits should be strengthened. The benefits should both be functional and
experimental in nature so as to associate a product with customers effectively (Huang &
Sarigöllü, 2014).

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Besides, the benefits can be symbolic such that the brand assists the customer to arrive at
a set social goal. For instance, it is said that the cosmetic industry heavily relies on association
based on benefits meaning that the benefits are the primer to enticing customers (Sasmita, &
Mohd, 2015). Therefore, the Dove brand should highly capitalize on associating its products with
benefits since it’s a brand in the beauty and health sector. This might help increase sales hence
boosting the profitability of the brand.
Secondly, we have a brand association based on interest. Interest is a basic parameter that
appeals to the consciousness or intellect of customers. For the Dove brand, this type of
association should be strengthened since the company can employ it in generating interest in the
mind of customers for particular Dove products. In addition, from a customer’s perspective,
using basic aspects that a customer can relate with in the products may help create more interest
with the brand (Sasmita, & Mohd, 2015).
Thirdly, we have a brand association based on celebrities. This form of association is
considered to be the most common in pushing brands (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). For instance,
an image of a celebrity can be adopted for the purpose of pushing products into the minds of
customers. This form of association also helps to sell products of a particular brand much better.
However, the selection of celebrities must be done carefully so as to ensure the brand being
promoted is somehow associated in one way or another to the celebrity. In the Dove brand, this
association should be strengthened so as to help in converting prospects to customers for the
purpose of making sales. For example, a beauty product can be associated with a young female
celebrity while a product such as a wrinkle lift cream can be related to an older celebrity.
However, the biggest drawback may come when a customer dislikes a celebrity endorsing a
specific product since the customer may not buy the product (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014).

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On the associations that can be weakened, a brand association based on attributes should
be weakened. Customers determine brand attitudes after they evaluate brands. Most customers
are not interested with attributes in brands but the benefits they can receive from the brands.
Even though having the attributes of a product such as an appearance or packaging may be
helpful in promoting a brand, more weight should not be placed on the attributes since if a
customer does not get any benefit out of the product, the product may not be worth buying
(Sasmita, & Mohd, 2015).
Secondly, a brand association based on attitudes should be weakened as well. Attitudes
may vary between customers since each customer may have his/her way of viewing things. In
addition, attitudes may either be linked to specific lifestyles such as environmental
consciousness, fitness oriented or celebrity oriented (Sasmita, & Mohd, 2015). Attitudes can at
times be miscommunicated hence leaving a customer unsatisfied and confused. Therefore, other
major associations that help build the brand as well as make sales can be prioritized so as to
direct the company resources to such an association.
This strategy can be implemented majorly through brand positioning. In brand
positioning, each brand association can be evaluated to ensure is promotes the growth of a brand
(Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). Brand associations allow positioned brands to be visible to potential
customers through creating sensory and visual impressions. In addition, through brand
positioning, the potentiality of a specific association can be monitored with time so as to
determine its effectiveness. Therefore, if a particular association is much promising than others,
it can be strengthened hence triggering the purchase decision in customers. For instance, the
Dove brand image can improve hence allowing the brand to increase performance in terms of
sales and profitability.

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References.
Equibrand Consulting (2019). Brand Positioning Strategy: Marketing Consulting Branding
Digital Innovation. Retrieved from http://equibrandconsulting.com/services/brand-
consultant/brand-positioning/strategy
Deighton, J. (2008). Dove: Evolution of a brand. Harvard Business School.
Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand
equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-
132). Springer, New York, NY.
Maarit Jalkala, A., & Keränen, J. (2014). Brand positioning strategies for industrial firms
providing customer solutions. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 29(3), 253-
264.
Sasmita, J., & Mohd Suki, N. (2015). Young consumers’ insights on brand equity: Effects of
brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image. International
Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(3), 276-292.
Singh, J., P. Kalafatis, S., & Ledden, L. (2014). Consumer perceptions of cobrands: The role of
brand positioning strategies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(2), 145-159.