CASE STUDY

WILD CARD DOVE

DOVE CASE STUDY

The Brief in One Line:
Seeking new campaign communication ideas that bring alive Dove's strong social purpose of raising women's self-esteem
by making them feel confident with their beauty - in a manner that is relevant to the social cultural context of India.

About Dove:
Dove celebrates real beauty. It is a brand that strongly believes real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes, ethnicities, skin
colours, hair types and ages and is committed to featuring realistic and attainable images of beauty in all its
communications.
Mission:
To invite all women to realise their personal potential for beauty by engaging them with products that deliver superior
care. Dove believes that beauty should be for everyone because looking and feeling your best makes you feel happier.
Explanation of the mission:
Dove believes that beauty should be a source of confidence, and not anxiety. That's why Dove is here to help women
everywhere develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realise their
full potential by creating products that deliver genuine improvement to the condition of your skin and hair. Dove believes
that beauty should be for everyone, because when you look and feel your best, you feel better about yourself.
Objective:
To deliver Dove's mission to as many women in India - in a culturally relevant manner - so as to make a significant impact
to the Indian society at large.
Why Masterbrand campaigns?
While Dove is present across multiple categories in India like skin cleansing, skin care, hair care - consumer research
has proven that communicating our unique and motivating purpose (brand mission) drives stronger consumer affinity
and stronger brand differentiation, leading to better equity, strength, loyalty and pricing power.
Through the #Realbeauty proposition we have shown that profit and purpose can work well together with the right
balance and we are extremely proud to have a brand and social mission that makes sense for our business and provides
a wider benefit to society.

Context to the Brand Mission:

Our global research shows that only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful, and anxiety about
appearance begins at an early age.
6 out of 10 girls are so concerned with the way they look, that they actually opt out of participating fully in daily life - from
going swimming and playing sports, to visiting the doctor, going to school or even just offering their opinions.
We want women and girls of all ages to see beauty as a source of confidence, not anxiety. Because when women and girls
choose not to participate fully in life, society as a whole misses out. So we're on a mission to help the next generation of
women develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realise their full
potential.

The Indian Context:

To promote conversations which ultimately have a positive impact on women and girls, Dove conducted a research called
Care, Beauty and Happiness 2015. The research aimed to understand how women today are feeling about self-esteem,
beauty and how their opinions have evolved over time.
While Indian girls and women were found to be more happy with their life compared to the global total, the pressure to
comply to Indian beauty ideals stills exists with 80% Indian women and 76% Indian girls believing that to do well in life, they
need to look a certain way.
In a country with 631m* women, 29 states and 22 languages this new research conducted by Dove revealed that 76% of
Indian women believe, in today's society, it is critical to meet certain beauty standards.

DOVE CASE STUDY

On-going and Past Campaigns on this Mission:
In 2004, Dove started a ground-breaking, global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty. Since then,
we have launched numerous campaigns and initiatives designed to create a world where beauty is a source of
confidence, not anxiety.
This includes the on-ground one on one in-depth interaction through Dove Self-Esteem Project ( DSEP ), which has
delivered self-esteem and body confidence education to over 19 million young lives in 112 countries. Dove Self-Esteem
Project's mission is to reach 2.65 million young girls in India by 2020.

Why Communication Campaigns?:

While DSEP continues to reach women on-ground for a more deeper interaction, it is critical to also focus on communication
campaigns as there is a job to be done in building larger awareness of the concept of real beauty itself to begin the journey
of influencing and persuading. In the space of personal care, Dove stands out because it carries this message which can
have a huge impact on society.
It is the first to market to show this concept at a mass media scale.

Communication Campaigns:
3 years back global campaigns that brought alive the Masterbrand philosophy were promoted in India through YouTube
2013: Dove Sketches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE
2014: Patches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUHWBlU1qG0
2015: Choose Beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgd6qR-5Jg
These were global campaigns that had an insight relevant for women across the globe - however they did not really tap in
the real social cultural psyche of India which explains the reasons for Indian women's anxiety with her beauty.
Only 1 in 10 Indian girls appear to have high self-esteem.
Which is when in April 2016 Through a film shot with 85 women across India, Dove's new campaign, Let's Break the Rules
of Beauty, aims to redefine the existing beauty standards and inspires India to embrace its diversity in beauty.
Our goal is to represent realistic and attainable images of beauty in all of our campaigns, and the 'Let's Break the Rules of
Beauty' campaign is an important (first) step towards achieving this goal in India.
This research also reveals that 67% of women and 64% of girls in India wish the media did a better job of portraying women
in all their diversity. Therefore through the Lets Break the Rules of Beauty campaign, we're helping to answer this call by
celebrating all women in India, regardless of whether their beauty fits within the established boundaries.
However - there is a lot more to be done. A lot more to be understood.

The Challenge:
While Lets Break the Rules of Beauty taps into the issue of a narrow definition of a beauty ideal in such a culturally diverse
country like India, this is however just one dimension to the causes of anxiety amongst women with regard to their beauty.
What are the other insight spaces that need to be tapped into that make the proposition more relevant?
Are there more social and cultural nuances that need to be considered when communicating Dove's proposition?
For Example with such a strong influence of pop culture like Bollywood and TV shows - or social structures like joint family or
the current education system - how and what should the brand speak to the Indian women?
Emanating from this understanding, what are the communication campaign ideas for India?

Methodology:
To get a full-rounded understanding of the insight space
Meeting as many consumers that represent different aspects of the Indian society to generate as many insights that
explain reasons for anxiety amongst Indian women with respect to their beauty.
Meeting experts like psychologists, sociologists, key opinion leaders- active on media, authors, social organizations
working with women, even leading beauty experts.

DOVE CASE STUDY

Deliverables:
1. Communication campaign idea / or ideas
Just like tapping into the cultural diversity (i.e there so many states and ethnicities in India) with the Lets Break the
Rules of Beauty is one communication campaign idea , there could be several other cultural insight spaces to tap
into
2. Explain the Indian social cultural insight as the campaign idea.
3. Give an understanding of how this campaign idea would manifest itself - as a TV campaign or digital campaign or print
campaign.

Mentor:
Parnil Sarin, Brand Manager - Dove
Email Id: Parnil.Sarin@unilever.com

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