Sunday, September 15, 2019
Dove, the Brand to Beat Essay
Dove is a brand under the many products of Unilever. It was in the 1890s when William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros popularized cleanliness and hygiene with his introduction of the Sunlight Soap in Victorian England. The Sunlight Soap led the advocacy â€Å"to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life ay be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products†. (www.dove.com) For three centuries, Unilever has proven its success over economic booms, depressions, world wars and the changing lifestyle of its consumers as the world advanced through technology. Dove is the leading skin care product since 1957. It is clinically proven and has been noted to be good for dry sensitive skin which half the women in the world has. And since the 1980s, Dove has launched more supporting products to the soap bar such as moisturizing body wash, deodorants, body lotions, facial cleansers, shampoos and conditioners. All of these products are aimed to solve skin needs comprehensively bringing out the true inner beauty of women. Dove is boasts of its number one in the race of cleansing brands with double-digit growth data. Sales in over 80 countries are over â‚ ¬2.5 billion a year. They estimate that over 1 billion showers are done using Dove products each year in the US alone. The success is due to the brands keeping of its clinically proven promises and understanding of its real market. Studies show that only 12 % of women are very satisfied with their physical attractiveness. 2% of women articulate themselves as beautiful. 68% knows that media almost always sets unrealistic standards of beauty and the 75% hopes that media would better itself in portraying diversity in women’s physical attractiveness that includes size, shape and age. â€Å"Dove is actively trying to address the root of the problem of negative self-image. Dove has founded the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, which funds programs to raise self-esteem in girls and young women. In the US, it’s working through the Unilever Foundation to sponsor a partnership with Girl Scouts, called ‘uniquely ME!’ It also supports the BodyTalk education program for schools in the UK and Canada.†(www.dove.com) The Dove Self-Esteem Fund has come along way since consumers saw that water alone was not enough to clean oneself. American consumers of the new millennium are more demanding than ever and value minded. Dove consumers pay a higher price for Dove due to its after sales value. The target market of Dove are the people who can afford to put a premium for added market values compared to cheaper alternatives such as Ivory. â€Å"According to Soap, Cosmetics, Chemical Specialties, aging baby-boomers were looking for milder, less irritating products. Soaps using vegetable-based fats, with no animal fats or animal testing, were also in demand. Other popular items included loofahs, oatmeal products, and chamomile leaves. In general, customers demanded performance and value in all their soap, shampoo, and detergent products, which were the driving factors behind the soap and detergents industry at the turn of the century.†(Thompsons, 2006) All these added value makes Dove cost more than the average bath product. Value leaders attempt to offer the best product at the cheapest price. These products cannot compare on quality and in the short term, competes for the value of each dollar. Ivory products advertise themselves on the price pitch that does not happen to Dove products. Each Dove product commercial does not mention price. this kind of advertising strategy may increase Ivory income by selling more quantity but soaps such as Dove and Dial remain successful as well by selling more expensive and keeping loyal customers at lesser volumes. â€Å"The bar soap market, which had grown at an average rate of about 4.1 percent annually in the early 1980s, entered the 1990s with a growth rate of about 4.9 percent. Beauty bars comprised the fastest growing segment of the bar soap market, with sales increasing at a rate of about 7 percent per year. Later in the decade, however, bar soap began to lose some ground to shower gels. In 1998, bar soap sales grew only 1.5 percent in value and slipped 4.5 percent in unit terms, while shower gel sales increased dramatically. However, even with their 18.1 sales gain in 1998, the shower gel market, with total sales of $450 million, remained slightly less than a third the size of the bar soap market, which totaled $1.4 billion in value in 1998.†(Thompsons, 2006) Dove has been successful in its campaign to increase and sustain loyal consumers due to its steadfast supporting of its timeless belief in their original product. Compared to the rest of the competition, Dove remained the soap that held on to its ‘added moisture’ selling point. From that, Dove has evolved and widened its strategies in cornering a wider and global market. For one, it’s campaign-promoting self-esteem in women cuts above the rest. The ‘campaign for real beauty’ ad that models larger than average smiling women in white underwear has sent advertisers of other soaps amok. The message of this ad is a statement against the usual advertisers that project the beautiful woman with impossibly physical proportions. This strategy of using controversy for advertising worked so much for Dove. â€Å"The women in these photos appear to love who they are and the way their bodies look. Sue Ontiveros of the Chicago Sun-Times says, â€Å"It’s the joy on their faces that I really like. There’s just so much happiness in their smiles that I feel as if these women are saying ‘this is the real me and I like her.’ Boy, is that rare and just the message I’d like females to get and embrace.†Just because your booty can’t fit into a size four doesn’t mean you’re not sexy. The joy and confidence of the Dove models allows them to look sexy without having to wear seductive facial expressions.†(www.campaignforealbeuty.com) The challenge that lies on the Dove self-esteem campaigns is to make sure that they do not get caught playing two sides. A teener realizes that the big women ad was sporting big tight thighs. Dove was getting the most of this because their thigh-tightening product was being launched. A critic also realized that letting women with underwear pose on camera was still diminishing respect for women even if they were all size large. The most significant challenge that advertisers faced was fueled by the growing global concern of consumers over environmental issues. Consumers demanded that products like Dove have to be manufactured and marketed using ‘earth-friendly’ products and processes without sacrificing quality. Dove’s dishwashing liquid leads their earth-friendly products. Using the dishwashing liquid leaves the hands moisturized, the plates squeaky clean and the rivers unpolluted Another important strategy for Dove products to stay in the lead is using technology to further their market reach. The website of Dove and its dealers are well-made and very user friendly. Buying online is very convenient. Using the internet as part of the marketing efforts, Dove can ensure the existence of its loyal customers who pays more to buy Dove soap. The prices below gathered from the websites show comparisons in prices of different common leading bath soaps. Dove fits in the middle of the price war as it is appreciated by the market as the soap that has more value compared to the usual everyday common soaps such as Dial and Coast but not too expensive like the signature and specialty soaps like Cetaphil or Neutrogena. Price Comparisons Dove              3.08 Dial                0.99 Ivory              1.89 Cetaphil         4.09 Neutrogena    3.95 Coast              1.20 Table 1. User ratings between Dove competitors Product name Pears Soap Imperial Leather Original Soap Palmolive Original Soap Bar Dove Extra Sensitive Cream Bar Lux Milk & Honey Beauty Soap Oilatum Soap Bar Camay Classic- Toilet Soap Overall user rating:  Recommended by 100% (13 Reviews)  Recommended by 95% (19 Reviews)  Recommended by 50% (6 Reviews)  Recommended by 86% (28 Reviews)  Recommended by 100% (1 Review)  Recommended by 100% (2 Reviews)  Recommended by 33% (3 Reviews) http://www.ciao.co.uk/product_comparison.php?Pid=1%2C10%2C10534%2C15372%2C5015455%2C5231365&IDs%5B%5D=70462&IDs%5B%5D=70445&IDs%5B%5D=70457&IDs%5B%5D=70440&IDs%5B%5D=70450&IDs%5B%5D=5628139&IDs%5B%5D=70438&Compare=Compare          The table above shows user ratings from the ciao website. Recommendations between Dove competitors are tabulated. Though Dove Extra Sensitive Cream Bar had an 86% recommendation ratings, it had the most number of reviews totaling 28 as compared to Imperial leather Original Soap that seconded the list with 18 reviews, a far ten reviews short of Dove. This short sampling will show that there are more Dove users who connect to the internet as compared to the other products.            Dove moves forward in its goal to build a strategic global ‘master’ brand. Backed by Unilever’s expertise in product branding, Dove with its good quality material for hygiene and beauty preservation will continue to focus on making their brand lead by promoting the value of their brand as against the price of the soap.            â€Å"Dove was an instant hit, generating $55 million in sales its first six months, per Information Resources Inc. This year, sales climbed to $79 million for the 52 weeks ended April 22. Dove’s current market share stands at 4.7%, equal that of Procter and Gamble’s Old Spice. P&G’s Secret brands still collectively dominate the $1.6 billion category, but have been losing share to Dove. Total Secret sales were $229 million as of April 22, down 8% from $248 million for the year ended Sept. 10, 2000, per IRI.†(Ward, 2003)            I have personally using Dove for the past ten years and have been more than twice tempted to try other brands. Though I did try out one or two other brands during such time, I always went back to using Dove because of its simplicity, truthfulness and mission to add social value to a common daily commodity. In a world where brand names are easily communicated with visuals only technology knows how far will go, Dove will remain as a trustworthy partner in my personal health care. References: U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Industry and Trade Out-look ’99. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1999. U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Census Bureau. 1997 Economic Census. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1999. Van Arnum, Patricia. â€Å"Consumer Product Majors Soak in a Renewed Outlook.†Chemical Market Reporter, FR3-5. Ward, John. 2003. Does Market Share Really Apply to Apple? http://www.vectronicsappleworld.com/2003/opinion/0306.html www.ciao.com www.dove.com www.answers.com Dove’s extension into deodorant is a prime example of Unilever’s long-term strategy to build a set of global â€Å"master†brands with new products and heavy marketing support. The launch was backed by more than $30 million in media spending, a level usually reserved for new brands. Dove marketers also wanted to develop a product specifically for women. While a number of existing brands are gender neutral (Ban, Sure) or targeted to men (Brut, Right Guard, Old Spice), not since P&G introduced decades-old Secret has a manufacturer captured the collective attention of the female audience. Preferred language style: English(U.S.) †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Dove Soap (brand I want researched on)†¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Think about a product you love, that you use all the time. In this first part of the assignment, your goal is to uncover as much research about the brand and it competitors as possible. †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨You`ll want to know the history of the brand, the characteristics of the people who buy/use the brand, and everything else possible about it. But don`t forget to look into the competition. What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong? 5 pages 4 sources History Characteristics of its market Competition status What they are doing right? What they are doing wrong? Â
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