DOVE

INDEX:

1. Introduction to the company.

2. Environmental Analysis of the company.
3. Conclusion.
INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPANY.

Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever originating in the United Kingdom 1957. The products are
sold in more than 80 countries and are targeted at both women and men. Dove products are manufactured in
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan,
Philippines, Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and USA. Dove's logo is a silhouette profile of the brand's namesake
bird.

It entered India in the year 1953. It was positioned as a milder soap compared to the other ones in the market,
being harsh on the soft and sensitive skin of the women. Products include: antiperspirants/deodorants, body
washes, beauty bars, lotions and moisturizers, hair care, and facial care products.

In 2004, Dove began its Campaign for Real Beauty, and won the ‘marketer of the year’ award; followed by the
creation of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund in 2006. The brand purports to be "an agent of change to educate and
inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty and to make them feel more confident about themselves".

Dove’s present campaign has broadly two highlights of ‘real beauty’ and ‘self-esteem’.

Top three competitors of the company are: Proctor and Gamble, Nestle and Reckitt Benckiser. In particular,
Dove has attacked segments already dominated by other manufacturers, such as facial skincare, hair care and
deodorants. This has led to an escalating rivalry with Procter & Gamble's Olay and Johnson & Johnson's
Neutrogena. (Internal competitors- Lux, Lifebuoy, Rexona; External competitors- Camay, Nivea, Pears.)

Growth was rapid and dynamic in the 1990s and 2000s but has slowed significantly the recent years. At the
start of the 1990s, the brand existed only as a soap bar in the US. But now it has extended to various parts of the
world with a varied collection of body care products.

It is one of the leading brands of Unilever globally. It is a leading bar brand in US, UK and Canada. It is also
the fastest growing hair category brand in India.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF DOVE :

Internal influences are those factors which are determined and controlled by Dove, like image, market
position, company culture and strength.

External influences are the factors that cannot be controlled but are still very important in evaluating the
communications plan. For external influences, PESTLE analysis is used, which includes Political, Economic,
Social, and Technological, Global and Demographical Factors that affected Dove while entering India and are
affecting now too. Essentially, this breaks down the overall environment in which Dove exists.

Technological factors
Technology is necessary for the success of a company. It provides a competitive advantage and gives the power
for globalization. It includes: R&D activities, Informational Technology, New machines, etc.

Dove before entering India, had to analyze the current pace of technological developments taking place within
the market and see the different technologies being used by the local manufacturers, in order to gain a
competitive advantage in a new market, and grab the bigger market share. In order to provide and develop the
operations for the product advanced technology will help to achieve maximum output efficiently along with
best quality.

Technology has played a vital role for the company right from the history. Business continued to boom in
1950's with new technology being invented to boast production and improve quality. Dove has various research
and development centers and laboratories across the globe to develop its products, which is necessary for
powerful vitality based innovations, and in turn crucial for delivering sustainable growth.
 Demographic factors
Under this segmentation, Dove focuses on Women of all age groups above 16, who use beauty products. It
primarily targeted women with high purchasing power. It targeted women of all ages, shapes, and sizes. It
highly focused and focuses on working women as they don’t have much time to take care of themselves, so
it uses its USP of double benefits (soap and moisturizer) to attract target.

Market needs: high quality products, products that can enhance the health and well-being of the women,
affordable prices, easy to buy products.

Dove aims to create a psychology in women where ‘beauty’ incorporates all ages, body shapes and sizes.
‘You are beautiful the way you are’ is the message Dove promotes and wants every woman to believe.

Socio-cultural factors
Social factors include the cultural aspects and its influences, which vary region to region. It includes the
lifestyle, age, religion, education, etc. of the target market as well as the overall market wherein the product is to
be launched or used.

While entering India, as well as while functioning now, Dove segments the market on the basis of:
demographics and psychographics.

 Demographic segmentation:
Gender: females (working women).
Income: high income groups & upper middle class.
 Psychographic segmentation: it tries to change the psychology of an average looking women that she
can look equally beautiful.

It undertook an effective marketing strategy of popularizing the product through word of mouth, to help
increase the sales in the early stages.

Dove positioned itself as a personal care brand, not just as a soap but as the mildest bathing bar containing ¼
the moisturizer. The ad campaigns also included instances, by seeing the difference after using the soap on half
of your face (product differentiation). It is now considered as a “moisturizing bar” and “beauty bar” (image
differentiation).

Price quality inferences: consumers usually perceive that high prices are an indicator of quality. This came in
when the new Indian market started to accept its product, then was the time when people started perceiving that
Dove products are priced at a premium. (Product quality leadership: high levels of perceived qualities with price
just high enough not to be out of customers).

Economic factors
Economic factor has major impact on how business operate and make decisions in the future. This includes:
Economic Downturn of an economy, Interest rates that prevails, exchange rate, inflation rate, etc.

When Dove had entered India, the global position of the country wasn’t good enough to earn good amounts of
foreign exchange, or beat the foreign products in terms of technology and quality, mainly because of the
previously adopted import substitution policy by the government. Because that the economy didn’t have a
variety of products available in its market and the market was producer oriented, as in whatever was produced
was sold. There existed a very low rate of inflation, and the prices of FMCG goods were not too high.

When Dove started its operations it had to gradually face competition from foreign brands entering India too,
making it a consumer oriented market for goods as the supply of goods in the economy increased wherein the
focus from producer had shifted to the consumers. This led to a rise in the inflation rates too, as now the
investment increased and the purchasing power of the consumers also increased. Which led to an increase in the
price of the products of Dove which were already priced high.

Political factors
Political factors have a huge impact on the business for developing new strategies and entering a new market.
These factors can affect how company operates, what are its costs, and what is the demand for its products. It
includes various factors like: Political stability, Tax Regulation, Trade Regulation, etc.

Both Unilever and Dove are subject to comply with the guidelines and regulations that are set forth by the
government agencies. These regulations control the ingredients in the products along with the manufacturing of
the product packaging and distribution methods. With Dove’s global manufacturing and distribution plants,
these new goals set by the Administration could ultimately affect where and how its products are distributed and
ultimately consumed.

The political factors also affect various taxes to be paid to the government towards the environment, education,
administration, welfare etc. which affect the profits and the functioning of the company. Many a times the
companies have to face problems for the import of various raw materials required for the production of the
product.

As during the 1993, when dove entered India, India was in the phase of transition wherein it opened the gates
for Liberalization, privatization and globalization, which posed a fair chance and a great opportunity for dove to
enter the Indian markets (with Indian National Congress being in power) and explore the potential market.

Legal factors
Legal factors also affect the business majorly, as it has to directly operate under the legal policies and laws of a
country, no- compliance of which may hamper the organization at large. Various legal factors that affect the
business and have also affected Dove while entering the Indian markets are the employment laws,
environmental laws, health and safety laws of workers and the product (including the ingredients), consumer
laws, etc.

One such issue that had surfaced when Dove entered India and it still affects the body and beauty care industry
of Dove is the issue of product testing on animals.

India was in the phase of banning the product testing on animals when Dove had entered, so it had to mold its
policies and research in a way to comply with the rule of the land, to do business and ensure its long term
growth and survival. It had done this by adapting to alternate technologies of product testing, so that no law was
broken or mended.

Environmental factors
Growing awareness about climate change is affecting companies very badly; it can create new markets or
destroy existing markets. It includes: Climate change, Diseases, Weather etc.

As most of the Dove products like soap, shampoo, etc. go down in drains; the harmful effects of which (if any)
when disposed of in the water bodies, are determined and assessed (often considered after wastewater
treatment). All of this had to be analyzed while entering different countries with different set of rules and
operations.

Dove depends on the natural environment for supplies of raw materials and water. As, people too like to buy the
products which are less harmful for the environment. They are also currently modifying their manufacturing
processes by reducing the CO2 emissions, decreasing water consumption levels, and creating a new plan for
waste management, Dove and Unilever are working towards which.

It keeps abreast of the latest technological advancements, to minimize the potential environmental impact and
foster environmental sustainability.

Global Business factors

Dove runs single advertisements globally through strong marketing campaigns, which gives them an advantage
of uniformity in the product and larger acceptability worldwide. This also serves diverse purposes and reduces
the cost too.

The dove soap with moisturizers was first developed as a household product, in the UK to protect the soft skin
of women from the harsh detergent based soaps. It was seen as premium brand or a luxury as it cost almost
double what regular soaps did, despite it lasting less long in terms of usage than the already available soaps.
 Dove saw this as an opportunity to enter various other countries after getting good feedbacks, addressing the
same problem. It then entered the Indian market targeting the higher middle class women and girls of all ages,
shapes, and size.

Dove having access to the resources of Unilever could expand easily than the competitive brands globally as
well as within India, by launching various other beauty and body care products for teenagers and men. By
opening various R&D centers in various countries including India it made its position more firm, by being able
to customize to the local environment of the country if required.

Conclusion

From the PESTLE analysis of Dove it can be seen that it had to face quite a few problems while entering into
the Indian market, in terms of product acceptability, price acceptability, etc. it also had to face problems in
terms of acceptance of various policies and laws of a new country to do its business. It had to formulate
different sets of policies to be able to function and be successful in a new environment, for which it conducted
various pre-analysis and surveys before entering into the market. As, improper planning and analysis may cause
a business to fail.

Recently also, Dove has availed the long pending opportunity of tapping into the market developing beauty
products for men. They have come up with products for men and have made them realize that beauty is not
restricted to women only. Another opportunity is of unified advertising technique used by Dove. They run
single ad globally, serving diverse purposes. It has continuously worked and currently works on the
improvement of the product. Continuous development of the products is what Dove has been working on and
should carry working on. It has created a niche for its products in the premium sector brands. By keeping
abreast of the various new policies and technologies in its business environment it can harness a powerful
market share worldwide.
References:
https://www.unilever.com/about/innovation/safety-and-environment/reducing-our-environmental-impact/
http://www.adbrands.net/us/dove_us.htm http://psucomm473.blogspot.in/2007/03/dove-campaign-for-real-beauty-case.html
http://strategyonline.ca/2007/12/01/tributedove-20071201/ https://prezi.com/iwmcrl851hm8/dove-case-group-1/