LEVERAGING A BRAND ASSET

Dove

In 1955, Unilever (then Lever Brothers) introduced Dove, which contained a patented, mild cleansing ingredient, into the soap category. It was positionedthen and nowas a "beauty bar" with one-fourth cleansing cream that moisturizes skin while washing (as opposed to the drying effect of regular soap). Advertisements reinforced the message by showing cream being poured into the beauty bar. In 1979, the phrase "cleansing cream" was replaced with "moisturizer cream" when a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist showed that Dove dried and irritated skin significantly less than ordinary soaps. Based on this study, Unilever began aggressively marketing Dove to doctors. Soon about 25 percent of Dove users said they bought the brand because a doctor recommended it, greatly enhancing the bar's credibility as a moisturizer. By the mid-1980s, Dove had become the best-selling soap brand and commanded a price premium.

In 1990 the Dove soap patent ran out, and arch-competitor P&G was soon testing an Olay beauty bar with moisturizing properties, a product that rolled out in 1993. One year later, Olay Body Wash appeared and soon garnered over 25 percent of a high-margin sub category. Blindsided, the Dove brand team belatedly recognized that Dove was in the best position to compete as a moisturizer body wash and that they had missed the chance to be a leader in this new subcategory. In response, the firm rushed Dove Moisturizing Body Wash into stores. The product did not live up to the Dove promise, however, and a reformulation in 1996 was only a partial improvement. In 1999, though, Dove finally got it right with the innovative Nutrium line, based on a technology that deposited lipids, vitamin E, and other ingredients onto the skin. The advanced skin-nourishing properties provided enough of a lift to allow Dove to charge a 50 percent premium over its regular body wash and ultimately pull even with Olay in the body wash category. By leveraging strong brand equity, pursuing innovative technology, and being persistent, Dove was able to overcome a late entry into the market.

In 2000 Unilever made Dove a masterbrand, which meant that it would invest in extending Dove's authority to a broader set of categories, including hair care, lotion, and deodorant. For example, Dove introduced a deodorant line with uncharacteristically bold advertising (one tag line was "Next stop, armpit heaven"). As it turned out, the deodorants were named as one of the top 10 nonfood new products in 2001, garnering over $70 million in sales with close to 5 percent of the market and making Dove the number-two brand among female deodorants. The "one-quarter moisturizing lotion" positioning, effectively communicated as protecting sensitive underarm skin, generated a Dove spin on dryness that differentiated the product line.

The next product extension was Dove Hair Care, with moisturizing qualities directly responsive to one of the top two unmet needs in the category. The product's branded differentiator, Weightless Moisturizers, is a set of 15 ingredients designed to make hair softer, smoother, and more vibrant without adding any extra weight. After achieving top-selling status in Japan and Taiwan, Dove Hair Care entered the U.S. market in early 2003 with a massive introduction campaign, joining a product family used by nearly one-third of American families. Two years later it introduced Dove Body Nourishers Intensive Firming Lotion, formulated with collagen and seaweed, intended to give the user firmer skin after two weeks.

These extensions contributed to a dramatic sales success. The brand's business grew from around $200 million in 1990 to over $5 billion today by some estimates (exact figures have not been reported since 2011). Geographic expansion also contributed. Dove's presenceincreased to over 100 countries, far more than in 1990, with particular strength in Europe (where it gained 30 percent of the cosmetics and toiletries market), Asia-Pacific (25 percent), and Latin America (11 percent). Kantar's brand valuation has Dove at $5.5 billion dollars and the eighth most valuable personal care brand in the world. How did Unilever pull off this feat?

By 2004, with no major geographic expansion or brand extension in sight, Dove looked to another route to add energy and purpose to its brand. Global company research involving 3,200 interviews revealed several surprising facts about how women thought about themselvesonly 2 percent of women described themselves as "beautiful," 5 percent "pretty," and 7 percent "good looking,"50 percent of women thought their weight was too high (60 percent in the United States), and two-thirds of women felt that the media and advertising set unrealistic standards of beauty. Dove saw an opportunity to take a leadership role in what was ultimately called the "The Campaign for Real Beauty."

The result was set of advertising campaigns (first created in the United Kingdom) featuring "real women" instead of ultrathin models. In the early tick-box campaign, viewers were shown pictures of a range of women and asked to vote on billboards in popular locations such as Times Square for the words "outsized" or "outstanding," "wrinkled or wonderful," and "44 and hot or 44 and not" by phoning 1-800-342-DOVE. In other campaigns, Dove photographed groups of women in their underwear claiming "Real Women have Real Curves." The campaign received enormous exposure in the media with over a thousand stories and parodies, most, but not all, positive (some felt it would be ineffective, others pointed out that Unilever was still using models for its other products, and still others thought Dove was promoting obesity). It generated a 10 percent sales boost.

Based on this response, in 2006 Dove took even bolder steps by developing a Super Bowl ad, which showed adolescent girls with comments under their pictures, such as "Hates her freckles," "Afraid she's fat," "Wishes she were blonde," and ending by saying "Let's change their minds...because every girl deserves to feel good about herself and to see how beautiful she really is." This ad was a smashing success as was the program that Dove called "The Self-Esteem Fund," which funded workshops for girls to counterbalance other media and cultural ideas about beauty. Dove's social mission was to encourage girls to develop a positive relationship with beauty, helping to raise their self-esteem and thereby enabling them to realize their full potential. Over 119 million young people in 115 countries have received help from 2005 through 2015.

Other campaigns followed, including the very popular 2006 "Evolution" ad that won awards at the Cannes advertising festival and went straight to the web. This provocative footage shows a women going from a makeup session to a billboard and all of the alterations that are made to her and to her image in the process. This ad has spawned hundreds of such transformations and parodies on the web. In 2013, the Dove "Real Beauty Sketches" ad involves a blinded forensic artist capturing women's descriptions of themselves compared to other women's descriptions of these same women. The comparisons were striking with most women describing themselves as less attractive than others described them. The byline "You are more beautiful than you think," supported Dove's position. More recent campaigns to "Love your curls" encourage mothers and daughters to celebrate their curly hair and "Dove Selfie" involves girls and their moms capturing their own individualized beauty and to "redefine beauty one photo at a time."

As intended, the Dove brand now serves as an umbrella for products in four main groupsbar and body wash, deodorants, skincare lotions, and haircareand more than 100 different lines including facial wipes, firming lotions, shampoos, body washes, anti-aging cleansers, skin

1.What is your opinion of the "Real Beauty" campaign? Why does it work? What are its biggest challenges?

2.How should Unilever manage the Axe-Dove tension, if at all?

3.How should Unilever measure the success of the "Campaign for Real Beauty?"

4.Will the campaign sell in China? If not, should the brand position be adapted and if so, how? Discuss the costs and benefits of doing so.