9

SWOT ANALYSIS OF

DOVE

Prepared By:
Name: Prachi S. Naik
2nd Year
3rd semester
Roll No. 9

Unilever: Dove

Introduction
Unilever is a leading multinational corporation which was formed by Anglo-Dutch
cooperation in 1930 as a result of merging the Soap maker Lever brother and Dutch
company Margarine Unie. The merger resulted to a large export of palm oil product
which promoted the growth of the company. The Company has expanded since then
opening branches all over the world. It has so many outlets in the world and has a large
share of het world consumer product market with several brands in the catalog. The
company also owns foods and beverage brands, cleaning brands and other personal
care brands. The company has a large work force of more than 180,000 people in the
world with revenue of more that US$58 billion. The company was established from
Roternd and London companies which also act as the mother companies for all other
branches in the world. (Unilever, 2008b)
Recently the company has been engulfed in one of the most heated controversy in the
history of business world arising from its advertisement. The company has been
engaged in a various criticisms before but the recent one seems to have attracted the
attention of unlikely quarters from politicians to the human reign activists. It has become
a subject to social conversation all over the world due to its mode of advertisement.
There have been many blogs in the internet that have been used against the company
and its advertisement strategy especially the recent one Axe/dove advertisement which
has attracted most criticism even before they make their impact on the market.
The market of the two brands Axe and Dove have attracted the advocacy groups who
have been campaigning for the need to have commercial-free childhood
advertisements. The campaign has in form of writing several letters to the company in
order to force it to withdraw the advertisement from the market.

SWOT ANALYSIS

WHAT IS SWOT ANALYSIS

The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats) analysis has been a useful tool for
industry. The process of utilizing the SWOT
approach requires an internal survey of strengths
and weaknesses and an external survey of threats
and opportunities.
SWOT is a simple, easy to understand technique.
It can be used an end in itself. The purpose of this
paper is to demonstrate how SWOT can be used by
administrators to analyze and initiate new program
offerings in vocational education.

SOWT ANALYSIS OF DOVE

STRENGHTS
STRENGHTS OF DOVE
o

Unconventional strategy

Effective advertising, Free publicity

Continuously evolving the campaign

Strong emotional touch

Cross-selling Possibilities

WEAKNESSES

WEAKNESSES OF DOVE
Contradictory in nature
Objectification of women
Women featured were comparatively slim
Use of idealized images in other brands under the same flagship
Contradictory Japanese campaign

OPPORTUNITIES

OPPORTUNITIES OF DOVE
Target male customers
Maintain better standards of quality
Unified advertising throughout the globe
Continuous innovation

THREATS

THREATS OF DOVE
Risk of being a brand for fat girls
Involved marketing risk
Copy by the competitors
Undermining the aspiration of consumers
Sustainability of campaign in long run

Strength, Weakness :
Unilevers worldwide establishment
Unconventional marketing strategy
Word of mouth and Word of Mouse free publicity
Campaign has a strong emotional touch
Social responsibility- Dove established self esteem fund, which conducted self
esteem workshops along with Girl Scouts to improve the self esteem of girls
Doves brand loyalty Best known for functional superiority, i.e. beauty bar
which does not dry the skin
Changing perceptions of people is difficult
Opportunities: Threats:
Huge opportunity to develop products for other target customers, i.e. male
users
Communicating one advertisement message throughout the world
Inclusive of 98% of the target market which is largely ignored
Gain mind and heart share If the message is not conveyed right, Dove may
become brand of oversized people
Copy by the competitors
Sustainability of the campaign in the long run
Excessive media criticism
Issues:
1. Doves marketing strategy should plan for continued momentum of the
campaign Short term
2. Dove should address the criticism on Campaign for Real Beauty effectivelyShort term
3. Changing peoples perceptions about the brand Long term
4. Address the competition from other brands Long term
Problem Statement:
The objectives of Unilevers Dove market study and campaign are to establish
Dove as an umbrella brand and increase the sales of the various Dove beauty
products by debunking the stereotypes of definition of beauty by the society.

Case Response:
Prior to the year 2000 Unilevers Dove brand has only one product, i.e. beauty

bar. The brand name depended upon the functionality benefits of the beauty
bar, i.e. moisturizing benefits. In the year 2000 Unilever wanted to introduce
various beauty care products under the Dove's umbrella brand by Brand
Extension. As a Masterbrand Dove should create a strong association between
other...
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