International Business Plan: Dove Soap Market Analysis and Strategies

This report presents an international business plan for Dove Soap, a product of Unilever. The analysis includes an introduction to the global market and Unilever's background. It focuses on key points such as Dove's strong financial position, competitive advantages, market share, and brand recognition. The report examines Unilever's management styles, from autocratic to democratic, and the historical strategies that have contributed to Dove's success. It details the successes of the 'real beauty' campaign and provides recommendations for future growth, including acquiring smaller companies and expanding retail outlets. The report concludes with a list of references.

International Business
Plan
TASK 1

Table of Content
 Introduction
 Background of the brand and product
 Key points analysis
 Management style
 Historical strategies
 Success and failures
 Recommendations
 Conclusion
 References

Introduction
 International market offers huge
opportunities for business to grow
their business and make a strong
position in the competitive market.
There are different ways through
which organizations can become
globalised.

Background of the brand and product
Unilever is a British-Dutch company having its business in international markets. The headquarters
in London, United Kingdom and Rotterdam, Netherlands. It deals in cleaning agents, beauty,
food, beverages and personal care items. In the context of this report, the product chosen is
“Dove Soap” which is one of its successful product in beauty products. It is manufactured in
many different countries. It is sold in about 150 countries and are offered for men, women and
babies.

Key points analysis
Key points affecting the business have been
discussed below:
 Financial position: Dove soap has a strong
financial position in the industry as its has
sufficient financial resources with effective
strategies for allocation of the funds.
 Pricing strategy: Unilever follows a
competitive pricing strategy for Dover soap.
 Competitive advantage: Unilever is a
successful brand because of products like
Dove which is always in high demand.
 Market share: The market share of Dove
soap is significant in many developed,
developed and developing countries.
Brand recognition: It is a famous brand which has
been recognised in variety of countries.

Management style
Management is crucial for the managing the employees within the organization. This is done for
maintaining co-ordination among all the units working in an entity. There are various styles which
is applied by leaders for handling the employees at the workplace. On talking about the
leadership/management style, Unilever has followed different types of styles for effective
management of people working in the company. It has used autocratic when conducting business
within domestic boundaries. With the expansion at international level, it changed leadership style
to democratic wherein parties in concerned companies were free to decide their own policy for
high selling of Dove soap.

Historical strategies
Earlier, Dove was not as popular as it is in the current
scenario that also at global scale. The position of
Unilever specifically this product is achieved with
the appropriate strategies. These have helped it
gaining a position which has resulted in many
positive results. Dove focused on following
different kind of legislations and rules on it in all
those countries in which it has its operations set up.

Success and failures
Dove soap has seen ups and downs in its journey till this date. The positive or success were in the
form of world recognition. This was achieved when it used real women in the advertisements
instead of celebrities or models. This changed the definition of beauty which further attracted
huge number of women to use this soap in a their routine. With this, it receipt awards,
appreciation and even free media exposure. These kinds of initiatives has made it reach the level
of successful product list in international market.

Recommendations
The product is doing good in the globalised markets. However, it should acquire small scale
companies in Venezuela to form its own retailer and wholesale outlets. For which it can raise funds
from existing shareholders and obtain loan from banks or financial institutions. Setting up stores in
a whole new country where shortage of beauty products has been noticed will require sufficient
amount of funds. Furthermore, it should focus on acquisition of those brand which are already
established. This will help it form its place of business without much hindrance. In this way, it can
sell its products in physical shops to huge number of customers.

References
Abdelal, R., Blyth, M. and Parsons, C. eds., 2015. Constructing the international economy. Cornell University
Press.
Pour, S., Bakhshizadeh, A. and Barati, E., 2012. An empirical study to measure the relationship between
management style and conflict management. Management Science Letters. 2(6). pp.2249-2254.Financial
position of Unilever. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.unilever.com/investor-relations/annual-report-and-accounts/>.
Unilever's strategy. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.unilever.co.uk/about/who-we-are/our-
strategy/>.
Success and failure of Dove soap. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.prweek.com/article/1582147/doves-real-beauty-campaign-won-nearly-lost-its-audience>.

THANK YOU