Dove did what it does best all over the world – not use supermodels to endorse the brand. Rather it got real women who used the product to give testimonials of their experience with the brand. In India, Dove’s brand team in the 1990s, led by Harish Manwani, now Unilever’s president , Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, decided to adopt the same line of thought for the Indian market too. “In some ways the brand was the opposite of Lux, the beauty bar of film stars. Dove showed beauty in ordinary people,” says cinematographer and film director, Rajiv Menon, who was involved in making the earliest ads for Dove.
Studies showed that 57% of Dove’s Target audience was averse to regular advertising. Hence testimonials became even more critical for the success of the brand, say HUL executives. The team identified close to 50 women from uppermiddle class Indian households and handed them trial packs of Dove soap. After trying out the brand, their reactions were recorded and the most spontaneous responses (8 of them) were chosen to be the face of the brand. Remember the ‘Is it love? No it’s Dove’ ads?
In the 1990s, when everything had to be low priced, consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever launched a brand of soap that was considered expensive, frightfully expensive , for the times we lived in. For about Rs 30 for a bar, it was nearly twice as expensive as any toilet soap brand that was then sold in India. This was a time when hanging out for coffee was at the neighbourhood Udupi restaurant that charged Rs 6 for a serving and not the Barista where a mug of coffee cost Rs 50. To get consumers living with that mindset to graduate to a brand like Dove was a big leap.
The Business plan on Dove Soap Report
1.1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW: Fast moving consumer goods are products are products that are sold quickly and generally consumed at a regular basis at a relatively low cost. India’s FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy. FMCG sector is an important contributor to India’s GDP. FMCG principal constituents are household care, personal care and food and beverages. The FMCG industry ...
