At this point of time it has positioned as number one cleansing brand, with sales of $2. Billion and presence in 80 countries. It started with a product beauty bar and now extended to body wash, face care, hair care, deodorants, anti- persistent and body lotion. Huge investment is done for the brand promotion in advertisements, films, campaigns, events etc. The purpose of these campaigns could be that it wants to move to real beauty from cleansing agent. But before, one should know the core identity and extended identity of Dove, and does it need to be changed with time.
Dove 1957 Dove 2007 BMW Case Write Up Dove: Evolution of Brand Basically Dove is known for moisturizing the skin. The customer value reposition is the non dry skin, which has given it a unique position in the market. They have never called themselves as soap; it is always as a beauty bar. But beauty is not its core identity, it could be the El. As per the research (Exhibit 4) only 2% of the consumers are comfortable to describe themselves as beautiful and Dove want to capture that market.
Is Dove doing the right thing? Can Beauty can be added as the CLC of Dove. But the case clearly shows that the company is applying all possible By Rasher Sings [PAGE 09, Chary School of Management, Bangor] ways to pitch on beauty, for which it was never known for. After analyzing response of the people (Exhibit 4- study highlights) belonging to developed countries shows that, beauty is not very important to them. Unlikely in the developing countries where it is beau’ is more prominent.
The other option for Dove to extent it brand could be being natural, which is similar to its CLC and the brand image will be unchanged. The other point for discussion is whether Dove should be made master brand for the unrelated product such as deodorants, anti persistent etc. For the related products body lotion, face care the CLC “moisturizing” remains unchanged, but it does matches with the deodorants, anti persistent. If a brand is doing well it does not mean that it can be stretched to any extent.