Prior to the launch of “The Campaign for Real Beauty,” Dove focused mostly on the brand’s functional benefits in its advertising. Dove products were packaged simply, and the name “dove” implied purity, freshness and cleanliness. It was also very feminine. To customers, Dove was viewed not as soap, but as a moisturizer because of the brand’s constant emphasis on the one-quarter moisturizing cream added to its beauty bars. Because of this, women flocked to the brand in hopes of trading in their dry skin for soft, smooth skin. Exhibit 1 shows a brand association map for the Dove brand prior to the introduction of “The Campaign for Real Beauty.” As shown in the Exhibit, a lot of Dove’s associations are in the functional category or teetering between functional and emotional. This is because of the way Dove introduced itself – the brand was so determined to set itself apart from its competitors because of the moisturizing differences in products, but Dove became stuck in the functionality view point. It’s hard to create a story and brand personality for something which is only viewed as a functional product.
Question 2
The main reason “The Campaign for Real Beauty” was created was so that Dove could become a Masterbrand. This meant that Dove had to expand its product line to include other personal care products besides in the beauty bar category. Dove tried to launch its new personal care products using techniques similar to those of the beauty bar, but to unify all of Dove’s products, the branding team had to create a new vision so that they could sell Dove as a brand rather than individual products.
The key brand associations (taken from Exhibit #1) are healthy skin, beauty, and moisture. Dove wanted to introduce deodorants, hair care products, facial cleansers, body lotions and hair styling products. For each of these products, beauty is important. Every girl wants beautiful hair, beautiful skin and even beautiful underarms. Moisture is important