Dove: Evolution of a Brand

Dove: Evolution of a Brand

What is a brand? Why does Unilever want fewer of them?

According to the American Marketing Association a brand “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.” A brand is also more than just that definition; it is something that conjures up specific images or has a particular status in the market. Brands exist perceptually; they are based on emotions, and can really only be quantified within an individual consumer’s mind.

Unilever wants fewer brands because they simply had too many of them. The plan for Unilever was to reduce the number of brands it had from 1,600 down to 400. Some of the remaining 400 brands would be selected as “Masterbrands” so they could act as umbrella brands for other offerings. The reasoning behind this was to create a more cohesive message that could provide an identity to a broad number of products. Unilever thought that they could strengthen their brand equity by grouping brands together and sending out a consistent message across all geographic markets.

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What was Dove’s market positioning in the 1950s? What is its positioning in 2007?

Brand positioning is defined as “…the act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target customer’s minds.” (This definition comes from the PowerPoint notes of Marketing II page 5 on February 22, 2012.) In the 1950s Dove sought to define its offerings in customer’s minds by its product and the functionality of it. Dove emphasized the superiority of its toilet bar compared to soaps in the market. The main focus was that the Dove bar was one quarter cleansing cream and would not dry the user’s skin. Dove was offering a product that was better than its competitors on meeting the consumer’ needs and desires. In the 1950s, Dove did not venture beyond strictly promoting its product and why consumers should buy that product.

The brand positioning of Dove by 2007 was vastly different than 60 years earlier. By 2000, the company realized that it could not rely on its previous positioning of functionality alone. Since functionality can mean different things to different people, Dove began to redefine its market positioning based on a company point of view or belief. In the coming years, Dove would not exclusively focus on its products, which were sometimes never mentioned in ads. It would instead position itself as a company that cares about society; it is concerned