Integrated Marketing Communications

The Dove Case

How did Dove’s brand positioning change from the mid 2000? Justify your
answer.

Do you think that the new positioning has been successful?

In order to analyze Dove’s brand positioning and to establish a comparison between the period
before and after “The Campaign for Real Beauty”, the framework presented by Percy and Elliott
(1997) will be used. In this way:

 At the macro level, the X-YZ model will allow us to understand the position of the brand
in the product category and in relation with other brands;

 At the meso level, the I-D-U model will help us to analyze the benefit or set of benefits
that were emphasized by the communication plan;

 At the micro level, the A-B-E model will allow us to recognize whether the focus was on
attributes, benefits, emotional consequences or a combination of them.

Macro positioning location: the X-YZ model

Given that the previous Dove’s positioning is not defined in the case through a clear positioning
statement, our goal will be to derive it from the ads that were used. This is a reverse strategy,
since positioning statements are defined after the specific positioning decisions have been
made.

Before After
Brand loyals, other brand
Target audience switchers, favorable brand Women
switchers
Frame of Dove is a differentiated brand of Dove is a differentiated brand of
reference health-beauty products health-beauty products
The benefit of protecting your
The benefit of feeling beautiful
skin, because Dove has one-
Points of every day, by inspiring them to
quarter moisturizing cream
difference take greater care of themselves
(problem removal, problem
(sensory gratification).
avoidance)

Advertising should:

 Emphasize the broadness involved in the concept of beauty – every woman is beautiful
(positive emotions)

 Omit product specifications (one-quarter moisturizing cream)

 Minimize product and brand evocations

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In what regards to target audience, we decided to construct the hypothetical positioning
statements using different standpoints in order to emphasize the significant change of approach.
Indeed, after the campaign, Dove’s positioning turned to a much broader audience, whose
definition goes beyond the classifications of consumers regarding their relationship with the
brand. By this we mean that although the new positioning statement was focused on the same
target audience (brand loyals, other brand switchers, favorable brand switchers), the fact that it
was focus on women of all ages, colors, races and sizes, independently of their relationship with
Dove, was far more important. The fact that some ads did not mention either a product or a
brand provides a good example of such approach, which can be summarized by a shift from a
product-as-hero positioning to a user-as-hero positioning.

While maintaining their frame of reference (being a differentiated Brand of health-beauty

products), Dove dramatically changed its points of difference. Its initial emphasis of the product
and its specificities gave place to an emphasis in emotions. This leads us to the second
positioning model, presented below.

Benefit emphasis: The I-D-U model

The purchase motivations should be taken into concern when selecting the benefit or set of
benefits that will be emphasized, so that the brand is positioned on the strongest motive. In spite
of the subjectivity involved in the identification of the purchase, we would state that Dove’s initial
positioning was defined over the assumption that the underlying motivation is either problem
removal or problem avoidance (both are negatively originated or informational motivations).

The Real Beauty Campaign, however, was clearly designed over a completely different
purchase motive: sensory gratification, which consists of a positively originated or
transformational motivation.

Following the three steps of the model (importance, delivery and uniqueness), we can
summarize Dove’s positioning before the campaign as follows:

Before After

The important benefit to the target

The important benefit to the target
Importance audience is to feel clean and
audience is to feel beautiful.
hydrated.

This is delivered by Dove’s This is delivered by Dove’s

Delivery
products… products…

… because besides taking care of

… because they are have one-
Uniqueness your skin, they provide a broad,
quarter moisturizing cream.
natural, real concept of beauty.

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Benefit focus: The A-B-E model

Now that we have understood the location chosen for Dove in the buyer’s mind (the X-YZ
model) and selected what benefits to emphasize (the I-D-U model), we now have to analyze
what aspect or aspects of the benefits did Dove concentrated in at the microlevel. In order to do
so, the A-B-E micromodel of benefit focus will be used. Firstly, it is important to highlight that
benefits can be displayed in three forms:

 Attributes (product specificities that may or may not be perceived as benefits – what
product has);

 Benefits (attributes that have emotional consequences or emotional antecedents,

depending on the particular purchase motivation they are connected with – what the
buyer wants);

 Emotions (what the consumer feels). It is also possible to use a combination of these
three elements.

Prior to the campaign, Dove chose the path a  b, that is, it focused on a benefit (washing and
hydrating your skin) that derived from an attribute (one-quarter moisturizing cream). Given the
path chosen, the fact that only one benefit is emphasized is effective because buyers are not
able to memorize a long list of benefits.

By contrast, after the campaign Dove used a pure emotion focus. The path b  e+ (emotion
focus derived from a benefit) doesn’t fit that well because almost no reference is done to what
buyers want from the product. Instead, the focus is clearly emotional. This was a very effective
choice, given that Dove delivers easy-to-imitate benefits (healthy-beauty products with a
moisturizing cream component that prevents your skin from drying) and the fact that is a
positively motivated (transformational) brand.

Given the high number of competing and, in the end, homogeneous products, Dove could also
explore the possibility of “going back to attributes”. However, this was already proven not to be
very effective, as shown by the ads prior to 2000. Dove made instead the call of “going forward”
to emotions, and it was the right thing to do.

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Conclusion

The new Dove’s positioning was extremely successful. In September 2006, Dove had grown
about $1.2 billion and was considered one of the 10 brands with the greatest percentage gain in
brand health and business value in the past three years. It is difficult to exactly determine the
contribution of the Real Beauty Campaign, but the fact is that it “touched a nerve with the
public”.

A communication “halo effect” was established due to the combination of traditional media (TV
ads, print ads, public relations actions) with the new media (online, virals / downloads, word-of-
mouth). This campaign generated a big buzz in chat rooms and blogs, and its effect was
amplified when Oprah decided to dedicate an entire show to the Pro Age and Katie Couric spent
16 minutes with Dove’s Firming girls on the Today Show. There were also some adverse
reactions, as Seth Stevenson’s quote demonstrates: “Talk about real beauty all you want – once
you’re the brand for fat girls, you’re toast”, but in the end this also contributed to expand Dove’s
brand awareness and conviction.

In my opinion, the most striking aspect of this campaign is its “back to basics” approach in a
fast-moving, dynamic world. Although operating at a global scale and thus facing a likely
diversity of purchase motives worldwide, Dove’s positioning was able to be defined over only
one purchase motive because extensive research identified what all women really want from the
products they use: to feel beautiful about themselves. This proved to be an extremely effective
positioning.

To conclude, the huge impact of this campaign relies on a very simple idea, which was used as
its core concept: “to help more women feel beautiful everyday by inspiring them to take greater
care of themselves”.