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DOVE HAIR CARE

INTRODUCTION
After building its equity as one of the mildest soaps available in India and having created a small
space in the premium segment of soap market, Dove has extended itself into the hair care
segment.
The domestic shampoo market is split into three distinct tiers by price. The top end constitutes
the new entrant Dove, as well as LOreal, P&Gs Pantene and Head & Shoulders, HULs
Sunsilk, Garnier Ultra Doux, and Daburs Vatika. The average price points in this segment range
from Rs. 115-240 for 250 ml bottles. While LOreal and now Dove are at the top of the heap,
Pantene and Head& Shoulders occupy the next rung of pricing, followed closely by Sunsilk,
Vatika and Garnier Ultra Doux, which constitute the bulk of the market. HULs Cllinic Plus and
P&Gs Rejoice are the mid-level (price points: Rs 55-60 for 200ml), while low-tier brands include
Ayur and Chik. Sachets at price points of Re 1, Rs. 2 and Rs 3, meanwhile, continue to have
their stronghold, especially in semi-urban and rural markets.
HUL leads the overall shampoo market with a 48.3% share. Clinic, its biggest brand, has a
34.2% market share, followed by Sunsilk at 10.9%. However, the premium segment was
created and dominated by LOreal, and HUL felt that it should be having a brand in that segment
too. Dove was pitted against LOreal and is positioned as a premium shampoo with moisturizing
properties. The extension of Dove soap to shampoo is an example of brand extension.
CONSUMER INSIGHT
In recent years, hair-care products have been launched to address every type of requirement-
from shampoos with anti-aging and anti-frizz properties, to products aimed at specific hair
colours and hair-styling products for every conceivable type of finish.
The new Dove hair-care products address issues such as hair that has been either lightened or
darkened, together with more serious cases of hair damage, caused by either hair treatments or
environmental damage. The recently launched New Generation Dove Therapy (shampoo) is a
typical example of a product meant to prevent hair damage..
The new Dove range of shampoos has been designed to particularly focus on issues relating to
coloured hair. Advanced Colour Care is a new line of shampoos, conditioners, and specialty
conditioning treatments which are said to provide customized care for the different effects
colouring treatments have on the hair. Apart from the fact that there is a range of daily hair care
products with the special one-third moisturizer and another for extremely dry and frizzy hair.
BRAND ATTRIBUTES, BENEFITS, CONSUMER VALUES
Attributes: The presence of milk lotion acts as the differentiator. The Dove brand takes the
strength from the equity of its soap and will be trying to leverage on that strength. The brand
uses the tagline More beautiful hair with every wash to promote the range.
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Benefits: Instead of damaging hair by use of harmful chemicals, Dove hair care takes mild care
of hair and makes it more beautiful. The benefit is that hair is not only beautiful to look at but is
also cared for.
Values: The message that was spread was every woman can be beautiful. The value is that
of true beauty beauty thats from within.
BRAND PERSONALITY
The brand personality of Dove is honest, straightforward, and simple. She talks to you like a
friend. In a world where media depictions of beauty are based on physical attractiveness and
airbrushed images, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a breath of fresh air.. The Dove
mission is to widen the definition of beauty, states the Brand Manager of Dove. The real beauty
campaign ads continued in India through heavy customer interaction campaigns. . (One may
recall the B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L campaign that also featured on outdoor hoardings, which had
women with their hair luxuriously spread about their faces to form each alphabet of that word.)
PROMOTION AND ADVERTISING
The media agency, Mindshare was responsible for the promotion of Dove Hair Care in India.
The ad agency realized that it had to break through the clutter of shampoos in the market, all
claiming to make the hair longer, shinier and more beautiful.
The first step was to build awareness for the brand. An extensive television and outdoor
campaign (on women feeling beautiful after using Dove) was rolled out across India for three
continuous months after the launch of the range. The second step consisted of testimonials,
with a difference. These were short films (vignettes) by top women personalities aired on news
channels. They contained real-life consumer experiences on how the new range had changed
their look and made them feel better about themselves. The third step was collaboration with
Yahoo! Online discussions were held on the Internet, on the most commonly experienced hair
problems. Women discussed myths, facts and experiences through this forum .Lastly, a Dove
Beautiful Hair Gallery was created. Women who flocked to malls across the country were
allowed to experience Dove Hair Care products (wet sampling).
The entire activity resulted in Dove capturing 3% of the market share by December 2007, just
seven months after its launch.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
It is learnt that LOreal India is planning a strategy to counter the threat from Dove, which may
include tweaking the positioning of its LOreal brand. Action is brewing on the Dabur Vatika front
as well.
With such heavy competition in the market, the brand manager has to keep innovating on the
product or promotions to keep the customers loyal to the brand. Dove also gave away fashion
jewellery with its hair-care products. Such promotions are useful in boosting up sales in the
slack season, but they do not work in the long run, HULs real beauty campaign for Dove, which
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has been successful in enhancing the mass image of the company and also in increasing the
brand appeal, is an appropriate strategy.
Nowadays consumers are well informed and they like products which not only just mindlessly
make tall claims but also like information about whether these claims are really true. Dove can
increase its customer base by reaching out to customers to inform them about the product
attributes and benefits in a more comprehensive manner.
QUESTION
1. Consumers learn values enduring beliefs about things that are important. How effective
had Dove Soap been in its decision to extend the name in the product category of
shampoo?
2. Given the various consumer insights that the case study narrates analyze the message the
brand tried to convey. Every woman can be beautiful. Discuss the effectiveness of this
advertisement campaign. Assess the personality and positioning of the brand.