Dove: the Evolution of a Brand

Some companies such as Dove fight back against unrealistic beauty standards by having campaigns that promote a positive body image

Moreover, as Richins (1991) reports, women always make social comparisons between the advertising models and themselves. As a result, advertising images create negative affect and increases women’s dissatisfaction with their own appearance. Since those images are edited through the consistent usage of digital technology, these idealized images do not portray women in a healthy manner. Indeed, these enhanced images would give these young girls the impression that they need to be ‘perfect’, just like these ‘fake’ images. According to Reist in ABC’s Gruen Session (2010), ‘young women get the message that they need to be thin, hot and sexy just to be acceptable’ in this society. Therefore, by generating the wrong perception of real beauty, the responsibility is pushed to the marketers, as they portray women with this stereotypical body type as acceptable. In addition, as the brand, Dove’s tagline in its advertisement - What happened to the ‘real beauty’? (Reist, 2010), marketers need not market their products in manners portraying women as airheads. Consequently, marketers gave most consumers viewing the advertisement, the wrong impression that

Photoshop is known to fix even the slightest imperfections. This sets impossibly high standards for what women expect for themselves. Photoshopped images are destroying America’s body image. The media sets up high beauty and body standards for women. The media takes beautiful women and tells them they are not beautiful enough. Being beautiful nowadays is having a face covered in make-up, being “skinny” is having a thigh gap, and to be perfect is to have no flaws. Women need to start realizing they are beautiful with their flaws, but it’s a hard process to love your flaws and imperfections. Dove made a commercial about loving something as simple as your curls. A handful of young women (ages 5 to 11) were asked about how they feel about their

While not having an official slogan, the deodorant brand, AXE, aimed for men, has implemented the idea that if one were to use an AXE product all over themselves, the sex crazed females will follow. This ideology is displayed through their numerous advertisements occupying billboards and television time slots. One of their ad’s in particular feature a man pouring the promoted AXE shower gel all over himself, reflected with a slender woman smearing whip cream over her chest to suggest promiscuity. Conversely, the toiletry brand, Dove, has launched their Dove Self-Esteem Project which aims to influence awareness surrounding women 's self-esteem and the confidence needed to reach their full potential. A great portion of Dove’s running commercials encourage body positivity in woman of all sizes. More specifically, many of their ads aim to discredit the stereotypes women

According to Holt (2004), a brand can be defined as a term, name or a design that distinguishes product or service of one manufacturer from others. Brands are normally utilized in advertising, business and marketing. In accounting terms, brand is an intangible asset which is present within every organization. It is most valuable asset that is outlined in the balance sheet of a company. Brands owners need to effectively manage their brands in order to enhance shareholder value. Brand valuation is an important technique that associates money with a brand. Effective branding often results into high sales volumes of a particular product. A customer who prefers a brand is more likely to choose other products which are offered by the same brand. Brand can be stated as a personality that facilitates identification of a company, product or service. It even encompasses relation with other constituents like customers, partners, investors, staff, etc. Individuals distinguish psychological aspect of a brand from experimental

The Dove Beauty Campaign is a campaign to help women all around the world the world realize that beauty comes from within. The pressure on looking perfect and having the “perfect” body is stronger than ever, especially on teenage girls. The main reason behind wanting to look perfect has a lot to do with photoshopped images of those we look up to, like celebrities and models. Many women don’t realize how admirable they are because of their insecurities. The definition of beauty has been corrupted by society causing campaigns, like Dove, to change the way women see themselves.

The Dictionary defines the word Beauty as “A beautiful person, especially a woman.” Nowhere in that definition does it suggest the woman is a size 0 with big breasts, flawless skin and high cheekbones. This is the message Dove is trying to send by creating “Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty”, to make women of all shapes, sizes, and color feel beautiful everyday. However, shortly after Dove released their first campaign, media columnists such as Richard Roeper and Lucio Guerrero were quick to reflect their “professional” opinions. After reviewing Jennifer L. Pozner’s article on Dove’s “Real Beauty” Backlash and the naïve comments these active media members have made, I found through

In the theory, it defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate the offering from those of other competitors. Simply put, branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B, which is the promise to customers and tells them what they can expect from the products and services. (Lake, 2015) (Williams, 2014) Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand.

Dove gives the message ‘You are beautiful to way you are’ to all women to show that they are valuable. Also company tries to make women encouraged in order to believe what they say in their

In 2000, Unilever decided to reduce 1,600 brands down to 400 and then select a small number of them to serve as “Masterbrands”. One of the reasons to have fewer brands is to decrease control issues. It is harder to manage so many brands, especially when each one has its own particularities. As Deighton pointed, Unilever’s brand portfolio had grown in a relatively laissez-faire manner. In other words, the company’s brands were created without large interference.

The Dove campaign for Real Beauty was the brainchild of Ogilvy & Mathers, Edelman Public Relations and Harbinger Communications (to be referred to as simply Ogilvy) and the project was known as the “Evolution” campaign. The marketing campaign began in 2004 under the corporation known as Unilever. This diversified conglomerate is the parent company to the Dove Company’s line of beauty and body products. The campaign began as a result of survey conducted in which only 2% of women believed they were “beautiful.” Unilever saw an opportunity to reach a saturated market from a fresh perspective. After hiring Ogilvy, the message grew into one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Unilever’s storied history.

This essay will analyze the brand Dove from its evolution in 1957 to present day. To introduce Dove, it is apart of Unilever group of brands, they first started with their “Dove Beauty Bar” and have now expanded to a range of products including, facial cleansers, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner as well as body washes. Dove’s biggest competitors are, Nivea, Neutrogena, Olay, Garnier. Dove sells products for both men and women however it can be said that their advertising strategy is devoted mostly to women of all ages and ethnicities. The overall brand idea, is to make women feel good in their own bodies this is evident through the brand values which consist of self love, empowerment and beauty. Dove has created a positive brand image for itself through its products being, cleansing, feminine and welcoming, which are all characteristics which many woman look for in a product. It can be said that Dove is unique as it’s advertising strategy has positively developed since it was established in 1957. They seek set themselves apart from all competition through the use of campaigns which create a brand awareness. This essay will explore how advertising and brand communication have positively developed since the creation of Dove through the analysis of their “Real Beauty” campaign in chronological order from oldest to most recent. It will also explore how in their advertisements Dove challenges societal stereotypes in order to attract consumers to their product.

Dove had developed self-confidence work shops for women and girls, which are in line with its objective of maintaining the “Real Beauty” image. Using women from different ethnic background is also a good strategy for Dove to continue. This strategy welcomes international women differences and Dunleavy’s team gained a competitive advantage by using women of all shapes, sizes and color.

McCarthy, Perreault and Quester define branding as "the use of a name, symbol, design or combination of the three to identify a product" and more particularly a brand name as "a word, letter, or group of words or letters used to identify a product" (Basic Marketing, a managerial approach; 1997).

Many young women in today’s society struggle with confidence and their body image. This is a huge problem in society and many people have spoken out against the influence of media on women’s body image. However, it continues to be a major problem and more can always be done to raise awareness about societies unrealistic expectations for women’s beauty. Dove’s Choose Beautiful campaign was started to promote the self-esteem of women and encourage them to see their beauty, however there are some criticisms, including the company using this campaign to increase their sales. Dove is selling a product with the expectation that confident, beautiful women will purchase it, however people still have the ability to resist the ad industry.