Unilevers Dove brand was launched in the market as a cleansing bar soap in 1957. The soap was based non-irritating cleaner and moisturizing component. By 1970s, Unilever had enhanced the soap into a beauty bar, which was milder and promised women of moisturized skins. The popularity of the soap at this time soared, and Unilever started expansion into the global market and by 1996, the brand was selling in over 80 countries. Between 1995 and 2001, Unilever expanded the range of products under the dove brand to include moisturizers, face creams, deodorants, shower gel, shampoos, conditioners, among other wide range of beauty and care products.
Now a days it can be very difficult to find a company that cares about people, and not just selling their product. Dove was one of these few rare occasions where I really believed the company cared about women. I first got this impression when I saw a Dove advertisement called “sketches” where women would describe themselves to an FBI sketch artist. Then a stranger would describe them to the same FBI sketch artists and the drawings were compared. It was obvious that the sketch that was created based on the personal description was less accurate than the one described by the other person. This shows how women have negative perceptions of themselves, and their beauty. While this perception is not held by others. Dove’s campaign wanted to fight these negative self-esteem issues, and promote positive social beauty standards.
In the early 2000s Dove launched a campaign about society’s standard of female beauty, the campaign became a quick success and gained Dove global attention. The campaign started because of a global survey in 2004 that found that 23% of women felt that they are responsible for their own definition of beauty . This led Dove to launch a series of advertisements that featured “average” women of various ethnicities, sizes, and shapes. These women were featured all over billboards in the United Kingdom and Canada with voting opportunities for “Fat or Fit?”, “Wrinkled or Wonderful?”
Instead of taking a traditional approach, Dove took on a social problem, then selling a specific product to their audience. In doing so, Dove established credibility with their consumers in the process and adopted a tone of social change and feminism. Dove was able to target women all over the world, and persuade the audience that the company cared more about women in general than selling their product. Their advertisements became less about selling the product but supporting good self-esteem and making the audience share similar opinions. Dove sales quickly increased as women bought their products in support of the company’s good intentions and agenda. Dove’s revolutionary campaign built rapport with their audience, ultimately selling more products due to the “good nature” of the brand.
This campaign was definitely a success for Dove, as they saw an increase in sales, and an increase in their public image. Dove’s sales to increase from $2.5 billion to over $4 billion over the course of the campaign . While their The Tick-Box campaign led to over 1.5 million visitors to the Campaign for Real Beauty website, which further promoted Dove’s products and brand. This campaign increased their credibility with their consumers as they were now seen as good organization looking out for women everywhere. Women wanted to buy Dove products after this campaign because they weren’t just buying the product because they like it but wanted to support the company . It targeted the current generation of consumers and the next. As “This next generation of consumers is all about affiliating themselves with brands that align with their own personal value systems,” said Janet Kestin, a member of Dove’s creative team. This targeting of the current generation and next resulted in an increase in sales, showing that the campaign was successful in its intentions.
Overall, Dove’s campaign refocused the brands attentions. Instead of trying to sell a product, the company decided to sell an idea. This campaign made Dove a household name, as more people began to buy their products and know the company’s good intentions.
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