M020LON CW2: Buyer Behavior Analysis of Dove from Brand's Perspective

This report provides a comprehensive buyer behavior analysis of the Dove brand, a personal care product owned by Unilever. It examines how Dove's marketing activities influence the buyer decision-making process across its five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. The report incorporates theoretical concepts and models from consumer psychology and social factors to explain consumer behavior. It explores Dove's strategies, including its focus on psychological factors like self-esteem and motivation, and social factors like family influence and sensory marketing. The analysis includes comparisons with competitor brands like Pears and Nivea. The report concludes with recommendations for Dove to enhance its marketing strategies by considering demographic factors and social media engagement, ultimately aiming to improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.

Buyer behavior analysis

Buyer behaviour analysis 1
Executive summary
The buyer behavior is all about taking actions concerning the buying and using products. In
order to understand buyer behavior, the brands are required to understand the way customers
make purchasing decisions. This report includes the buyer behavior analysis of Dove. The
report defines the need recognition of the customers and the information search comprising
theoretical concepts with the examples. The alternatives have been also evaluated along with
the purchase and post-purchase evaluation. Finally, the recommendations are given to Dove
to better understand buyer behavior. In the end, it can be concluded that Dove focuses make
use of the psychological and social factors, but can better cater to the needs of the customers
by undertaking democratic factors.

Buyer behaviour analysis 2
Contents
Executive summary...............................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Need recognition...................................................................................................................................3
Information search.................................................................................................................................4
Evaluation of the alternatives................................................................................................................5
Purchase................................................................................................................................................6
Post-purchase evaluation.......................................................................................................................6
Recommendation...................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8
Appendices..........................................................................................................................................10

Buyer behaviour analysis 3
Introduction
The buyer behavior is stated as the study of how an individual or a group choose and evaluate
a product or service. The study of the purchasing habits of the customers is regarded as buyer
behavior. It is mainly used for marketing purposes. The buying behavior is the entirety total
of a purchaser’s attitudes, preferences, intentions, and decisions regarding the customer’s
behavior at the market place when obtaining a product or service. This report comprises the
buying behavior of the customers regarding Dove. Dove is a personal care brand possessed
by Unilever. The products of Dove are sold in over 150 nations and provides for men,
women, and babies. The product line of Dove comprises body washes, soaps, lotions,
deodorants, hair care, and facial care products.
Need recognition
The buying behavior is comprehended in accordance with the area of interest which is
consumer psychology. The psychology deals with the way individual are engaged in
consumer activities and the effect on the customers personally. The psychological factors
comprise internal influences consisting of insight, attention, and interpretation. Motivation,
emotions, and personality are other psychological perspectives. The insight, attention, and
interpretation are essentially the way an individual views, processes and interprets the
products and services. The specific purpose has by the customers led to a specific purchase
(Mittal, 2015). The belief and attitudes form the insight of the customers regarding the
product. For instance, the customers are likely to have exquisite fond of the products of Dove
so they are likely to The motivation is basic degree behind purchasing a specific product or
service. If the motivation of purchaser is high them the perception of the customer is reflected
strong. A high degree of motivation pursues a person to content the requirement by
purchasing that product. The motivation is more properly concerned to the “hierarchy of
needs” which states that the human beings vigorously pursue to satisfy the physical needs
first followed by the safety, social, esteem and self-actualization requirements. Companies
like Dove successfully fulfill these needs and motivate customers to purchase the products
(Mathras, et al. 2016).
Buying behavior is also affected by social factors. These features are prevalent in society
where customers reside. A society is made up of various individuals who have varied
inclinations and behaviors. These behaviors inspire the personal preferences of the customers

Buyer behaviour analysis 4
required to perform the activities. The social factors comprise of the family. The family
influences the behavior of an individual in one or more ways. The family plays a critical role
in shaping the preferences and behavior of the customers. Moreover, it proposals an
environment which wherein individuals progress, advance personality and attain values. The
children develop purchasing behavior by observing their parents and likely to buy the same
products even when they become old. The family has attained the capability of influencing
the buying behavior of an individual in dual ways. The family stimulates the attitude, nature,
characteristics, and beliefs of a person. The family also impacts the decision making of
individuals with the concern of the specific goods and services (Murphy, and Dweck, 2016).
It has been considered that a distinct crosses through 2 families, family of orientation and
family of proliferation. In the family of orientation, the individuals have taken birth in this
family and parents hold a robust inspiration on the behavior of the individuals. On the other
side, the family of proliferation is the family which is created by the individuals comprising
spouse and children. The behavior of these individuals is likely to change through the
inspiration of the spouse. The family forms the basic structure of the initial reference group
(Hofacker, Malthouse, and Sultan, 2016).
Information search
In order to comprehend the significance of the psychological factors for the buyer behavior
more explicitly, the product line of Dove defends a person from the routine wear and tear of
life. The products of Dove comprising hand and body care products have comparatively
moderate product involvement relied on the insight of the customers. The products of Dove
incline to stay consistent across all the income group of persons. It demonstrates that the
prices of Dove are comparatively low and temperate. Moreover, the skincare products of
Dove can be purchased with adequate frequency, resulting in reasonable product involvement
(Oke, et al. 2016). The customers with low and medium-income perceive Dove to be a high
market. The customers within the age of 16-24 years believe that Dove boosts confidence by
endorsing the perception of real beauty. The ability of Dove has the capability to please
customers and it leverages product involvement. The campaigns initiated by Dove have made
a robust emotional association with the customers and have an optimistic impact on product
involvement (Haugtvedt, Herr, and Kardes, 2018).
Most of the women are motivated to utilize body care products because of hedonic needs.
The customers with high and low self-esteem are robustly driven to have positive feelings

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and are predicted to create a robust emotional attachment with Dove from the promotions.
Considering Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Dove focuses on the self-esteem needs and
encourages developing positive self-esteem where women are likely to feel confident in their
individual beauty (Zeugner-Roth, Žabkar, and Diamantopoulos, 2015). The brand motivates
to acquire the products and assist the changed idea of what exactly beauty is. The customers
with both high and low esteem are highly deliberated to have positive feelings and develop an
emotional attachment to Dove by advertisements and self-verification procedure (Mandel, et
al. 2017). The customer’s need also becomes a motive for the brand which directs the
customer behavior.
The social factors in the case of the products of Dove are likely to ignite individual’s
exposure, leads to practical product discovery. In order to capture the customer’s attention,
Dove focuses on the incitement factors like colors and uniqueness of the bottle shapes. The
sensory marketing is used to drive the families such as the smell of the product, insight, and
touch. The families are also tending to follow the affective interpretation procedure. The
creative advertisements are also used by Dove to influence social factors. The repeated claims
and the message claims have a great role in increasing the effectiveness of the advertisement.
The social factors have redefined the beauty standards and have promoted women’s self-
esteem (Feng, Govindan, and Li, 2017).
Evaluation of the alternatives
Brands like Pears and Nivea are found to be alternative of Dove. Pears is a well-known brand
of Unilever. Pears has attained popularity for the translucent soap. The extensive range of the
soaps is offered by Pears like oil clear and soap bar, gentle soap, pears pure, pears soft and
fresh soap bar. The brand has even added face washes and hand washes in the product
category. Pears is one of the oldest brands is preferred by the families most (Godey, et al.
2016).
Nivea concentrates on several body care products. It has been considered as one of the top
companies when it comes to skin care. The products category of Nivea caters to the
requirements of the customers (Zhang, 2015). The product category of Nivea includes scrub,
shower gel, cream, face wash, soap, and lotions. The cream and soap of Nivea are making
available in the several forms like for the dry skin, oily skin, and combination skin. Nivea is

Buyer behaviour analysis 6
dedicated to the demands of the several customers across the globe. The brand even provides
products different for the men and women. Nivea has attained enough popularity and the
products are also reliable enough (De Mooij, 2019).
Purchase
Initially, Dove was positioned as a beauty brand for the women only. Although, the brand
repositioned itself in 2010 to cater to the needs of the men. The product line of Dove has
attained popularity as a beauty brand among both men and women. The customers purchase
the products of Dove are:
 Men and women who usage beauty products
 Both men and women who are conscious of the beauty and skincare
 Men and women having the least acquiring power of the product
 People who are in the age group of 21-50 age group
 Working women belonging to the higher income groups and upper-middle-class
(Richard, and Chebat, 2016)
Dove offers the maximum value of the products which is bear by the customers. The products
of the company provide a solution to the need of the customers. Dove makes use of every
updated strategy to appeal to customers at every entry point. The company even knows every
stage of buying decision procedure. Dove first recognises the need of the customers. The
customers search the information and evaluate the options among different brands.
Afterward, the purchase decision is made by the customers as per their need (Bradford, et al.
2017).
Post-purchase evaluation
The post-purchase evaluation is considered to be the final step of the decision-making
procedure of the purchases. The journey does not complete after making a purchase. Here
customer reflects that the decision made is right or not. The customer deliberate if the brand
has completely met the needs. It is decided by the cost and the promises delivered by the
brands. When it comes to the case study of Dove, customers feel satisfied with the purchases.
When the customers are satisfied, they are likely to come back for another purchase (Richard
and Habibi, 2016).

Buyer behaviour analysis 7
Recommendation
Dove is recommended to appeal to more customers in the need recognition phase by being
more active in the campaign. Other than the psychological and social factors, the brand is
recommended to focus on the demographic factors as well. As per the demographic factors,
Dove can produce products as per the profession and income of the customers. The company
can even focus more on producing products as per the age of the customers. Dove can even
change the perception of the customers regarding the brand by being more active on social
media posts. A campaign can even be promoted in order to identify the insights and the
motivation behind purchasing the products. This way, the brand can increase sales in the
marketplace. The company can even better respond to the beliefs and attitude of the
customers towards the brand by influencing their buying behavior. The culture of the host
country has a great role in the attitude and beliefs of the customers, therefore Dove can focus
on these (Xiang, Magnini, and Fesenmaier, 2015).
Conclusion
The buyer behavior in the case of Dove is considered to be everything. The buyer behavior
focuses on the whole consumption process. The persistence of this paper was to discover the
several aspects of buying behavior through psychological and social factors. Several topics
covered affect describes the ways consumption affects to the buyers and their behaviour. The
campaigns promoted by Dove helped in comprehending the behaviour of the buyers in the
specific manner. The psychological factors helped in bringing forwards the individual
differences of the buyers by discovering many-sided features of buyer psychology such as
motivation, beliefs and perception. The psychology cannot be easily influenced but the
outlining of the motivation, beliefs and insight. The social factors helped in identifying the
origin of the interests of the customers towards purchasing products. The family and
reference groups have a great stimulus on the purchasing decision of the purchasers.

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References
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preferences and consumer behavior. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 55(2-3), pp.119-145.
De Mooij, M., 2019. Consumer behavior and culture: Consequences for global marketing
and advertising. SAGE Publications Limited.
Feng, L., Govindan, K. and Li, C., 2017. Strategic planning: Design and coordination for
dual-recycling channel reverse supply chain considering consumer behavior. European
Journal of Operational Research, 260(2), pp.601-612.
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R.,
2016. Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and
consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
Haugtvedt, C.P., Herr, P.M. and Kardes, F.R. eds., 2018. Handbook of consumer psychology.
Routledge.
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Imminent opportunities. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 33(2), pp.89-97.
Mandel, N., Rucker, D.D., Levav, J. and Galinsky, A.D., 2017. The compensatory consumer
behavior model: How self-discrepancies drive consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer
Psychology, 27(1), pp.133-146.
Mathras, D., Cohen, A.B., Mandel, N. and Mick, D.G., 2016. The effects of religion on
consumer behavior: A conceptual framework and research agenda. Journal of Consumer
Psychology, 26(2), pp.298-311.
Mittal, B., 2015. Self-concept clarity: Exploring its role in consumer behavior. Journal of
Economic Psychology, 46, pp.98-110.
Murphy, M.C. and Dweck, C.S., 2016. Mindsets shape consumer behavior. Journal of
Consumer Psychology, 26(1), pp.127-136.
Oke, A.O., Kamolshotiros, P., Popoola, O.Y., Ajagbe, M.A. and Olujobi, O.J., 2016.
Consumer behavior towards decision making and loyalty to particular brands. International
Review of Management and Marketing, 6(4S), pp.43-52.

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Richard, M.O. and Chebat, J.C., 2016. Modeling online consumer behavior: Preeminence of
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review. Open journal of business and management, 3(1).

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Appendices
(Steps involved in the buying behaviour of the buyers)