Dove Marketing Plan: SWOT, Mix, and Campaign Strategy

Situational Analysis and SWOT

Dove is an internationally popular brand specializing in personal care products and is owned by Unilever. The brand was created in 1957 to launch a new line of personal cleansing bars. It was later used to sell a new line of cleansers adapted from the formula of the original cleansing bar. These new cleansers were intended for use on burned or damaged skin, of which there were numerous cases following the Second World War (Deighton, 2008). The cleansers marketed under the Dove brand were highly innovative at the time, as they were non-soap cleansers that could remove skin dirt more easily than traditional soap. Over the years, Dove has grown into what is considered the world's top brand in cleansing products. The brand evolved from its origins to the present day, improving its image and products through intensive research and numerous marketing strategies.

A SWOT analysis of the Dove brand reveals the following key factors:

Strengths: product design, real marketing, cost-effectiveness, distribution channel, and being a valuable addition to the HUL (Hindustan Unilever Limited) portfolio.

Weaknesses: targeted solely at large urban areas; prices are not very competitive.

Opportunities: focusing more on men as part of the target audience; possibilities for brand diversification; an evolving market.

Threats: saturation of the market; lower popularity in less urban areas; potential brand imitators.

Product design: The Dove brand possesses a very unique product design. The product functions both as soap and as cream, performing a dual function of cleansing and smoothing skin. This unique design has attracted a devoted customer base to the brand.

Real marketing: Dove attempts to make its products more relatable to the masses by using regular people instead of celebrities in its marketing campaigns (Duffy, 2010). This has helped create a stronger connection with the brand's customers.

Cost-effectiveness: The brand conserves a significant amount of money during its marketing campaigns by not engaging celebrity endorsements. This strategy saves money without compromising the effectiveness of the brand's advertisements.

Distribution channel: Dove employs one of HUL's key distribution features, making its products available primarily in the most prominent retail chains and outlet stores. This bolsters Dove's image as a premium product available only in select, handpicked stores.

A valuable addition to the HUL portfolio: Dove is one of the most valued brands within the HUL company, ranking third among the most valued HUL brands, behind Knorr and Lipton.

Targeted solely at large urban areas: As a consequence of Dove's distribution channel, its products are mostly available in large urban areas such as metro cities. The majority of Dove's consumption is concentrated in these areas.

Prices are not very competitive: Dove products are considerably more expensive than those of competing brands such as Cinthol and Lifebuoy.

Focusing more on men as part of the target audience: Dove has an opportunity to expand its customer base—and consequently its sales—by appealing to male consumers. Men have become much more conscious about physical appearance in recent times, and products such as Dove are well suited to meet this need.

Possibilities for brand diversification: There are various opportunities for diversification within the personal care sector, creating possibilities for new product lines and product variants.

An evolving market: The dynamic market is shifting in the brand's favor. Dove has become more price-accessible to the public, and growing public investment in overall wellbeing—including good skin care—has made Dove much more attractive as a consumer product.

Saturation of the market: Numerous brands compete with Dove, including Neutrogena, Olay, and Nivea. These brands specialize in either soaps or creams and offer consumers alternatives when purchasing skincare products.

Lower popularity in less urban areas: The relatively high selling price of Dove products limits the percentage of the population that can afford them, restricting sales to more affluent and highly urbanized areas. This restriction is especially evident in large countries such as India, which has a greater proportion of impoverished and underdeveloped regions than highly urban ones, thereby limiting the brand's ability to capitalize on such a large consumer market.

Potential brand imitators: The strategy that allowed Dove to connect so effectively with its customer base was recently replicated by a competitor, Olay. Olay also adopted real-life people in its marketing campaigns to demonstrate product effectiveness and build a stronger connection with its audience.

Target Marketing and Marketing Mix

Dove is sensitive to its market and the financial situation of its target population. This sensitivity is best demonstrated in the company's price reductions in response to lower demand caused by high prices. Even with reduced prices, Dove products remain more costly than those offered by competitors. However, Dove maintains its strong market presence by justifying the cost of its products through their uniqueness and high quality. Thus, Dove's pricing strategy is governed by competitive pricing considerations and fluctuating product demand.

Dove has established a steady commercial presence in more than 80 countries worldwide and maintains this presence through the distribution network of its parent company, Unilever. Dove employs a specific distribution chain to facilitate the transfer of its products from the point of manufacture to the consumer. Products are transferred from the factory to a warehouse for temporary storage; from there, clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents sell the product to stockists, who in turn sell to retailers. Retailers include supermarkets, general stores, chemists, and wholesalers. Dove products are also sold by independent retailers on e-commerce websites.

Dove's strong focus on its female audience is clearly reflected in its promotional strategy, whose central theme is to present an aspirational vision for women. The campaign encourages women to raise their self-esteem by embracing their inner beauty. The brand celebrates diversity and the individuality of each person, regardless of age or race. Dove's advertising strategy is built on achieving maximum relatability with its audience by using non-models in marketing campaigns. These individuals are typically of varying body sizes, races, and ages. The brand also promotes its image through videos and short films, some of which have gained immense popularity worldwide.

Marketing Strategy and Campaign Plan

Sales Objective: Establish a growth in sales of a minimum of 0.7 percent in the year 2021.

Marketing Objective: Increase the customer base by converting 10 percent of high-end, upscale body wash users from competing brands to Dove Body Wash users in 2021.

Advertising Objective: Impress upon users of high-end, upscale body washes produced by competitors the superior quality of the Dove product, justifying its higher price. Reinforce the Dove brand's commitment to "real" women.

This product's primary targets are multi-ethnic women aged 18–49 who are currently married, have no children, and earn a lower household income. In identifying the intended target, an evaluation was conducted to determine which portion of the population uses high-end body washes. The identified group consists of women of various ethnic backgrounds. The evaluation also determined that female users of high-end body washes are highly likely to be married and childless, and that a large portion of this population falls into lower-income ranges.

A national campaign will be employed to promote the product, with particular attention and additional promotion directed to the following seven cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami–Fort Lauderdale, Florida; San Francisco, California; and Washington, D.C.

These additional promotional efforts, termed local heavy-ups, are intended to provide advertising beyond the nationwide campaign to capitalize on these regions' large populations. The local heavy-up efforts in each of the seven cities will reach seven large markets, which together make up 16.6 percent of all United States households. Three of the cities selected for local heavy-up efforts are among the top Nielsen DMAs, and members of the target population are highly likely to reside in these regions: Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; and Washington, D.C.

The nationwide campaign will run continuously throughout the year, with the additional heavy-up promotional efforts scheduled for the entirety of the fall and winter months. The heavy-ups will also serve as a direct response to the competition's advertising efforts during these periods.

The year-round nationwide campaign will help maintain the Dove brand's commercial presence at all times, aiding in brand retention and market share. The heavy-ups run during the fall and winter months will serve a dual purpose: keeping pace with the competition and advertising the Dove product during the period when it is most useful, as the Dove body wash can help repair dry skin—a very common occurrence in the cold, dry months.

Advertisements will be aired at the times of day when the target audience is most likely to encounter them. The best-recognized time slots include weekday morning hours, evening hours, primetime, late-night, and evening commutes. Advertisements will also be broadcast on the radio during select periods throughout the year.

This scheduling strategy is intended to maximize exposure to the target audience by selecting times when members of that audience are most actively consuming media. Advertisements will also run on weekends at similar hours to the weekday schedule, as members of the target audience tend to consume media at comparable hours on weekends.

In each of the seven cities selected for the heavy-up marketing efforts, an estimated 80% of the target audience will be reached an average of 3 times, producing 250 GRPs throughout the year 2021. The heavy-up marketing efforts will target each of the seven cities from March through October. A second heavy-up effort will ensure constant product exposure during the remaining four months of the year.

In markets without heavy-up marketing efforts, an estimated 70% of the target audience will be reached an average of 2.2 times, as designated by the Ostrow (1982) method. There will be a marked difference in reach and frequency in non-heavy-up markets during the March-to-October period. However, there will be a marked increase in reach in those markets during the periods when heavy-up efforts are active in other markets, reaching an estimated 80% of the target audience an average of 3 times.

The heavy-up marketing efforts scheduled for November through February will increase reach and frequency in markets without additional efforts, ensuring that the Dove body wash reaches as large a portion of the population as possible during the period when competition will also be intensifying its own advertising efforts.

References

Crilly, J., & Kirkham, P. (2017). Strategy in practice. Building an Entrepreneurial Organisation, 36.

Deighton, J. (2008). Dove: Evolution of a brand (pp. 9–508). Harvard Business School Publishing.

Duffy, B. E. (2010). Empowerment through endorsement? Polysemic meaning in Dove's user-generated advertising. Communication, Culture & Critique, 3(1), 26–43.

Ostrow, J. W. (1982). Setting frequency levels. In Effective frequency: The state of the art. Advertising Research Foundation, Key Issues Workshop.