Dove Case Study Outline

Title: “The Dove Company”

Names: Carys Jacobs, Theresa Klinitski, Ivy Sorvillo, Amner Carmona
Time: 30 Minutes
1. Introduction
a. Attention Getter
i. **Self-esteem activity**
ii. Dove is a unique company in that unlike other beauty product lines
who showcase unrealistic interpretations of women, Dove seeks to
make women and girls feel better about themselves, helping people
build life-long self esteem. Maybe this is why Dove sells more soap
than any other company.
iii. Dove only shows “real” women in their ads and campaigns,
everyday people, not models. Dove is seen to have ecological
power by controlling the physical environment of the beauty
industry products (Hackman & Johnson, 2013, p. 142). They
influence followers with every advertisement and product released.
b. Thesis
i. We will analyze all aspects of the Dove Company US including
strengths and weaknesses of their leadership, most impactful
campaign and company culture. At the conclusion we will provide
recommendations for improving weaknesses we discovered
through our analysis of the company.
2. Overview of Dove
a. History
i. “Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever originating in the
United Kingdom.
ii. Dove products are manufactured in Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Ireland, Japan,
Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, South Africa,
Thailand, Turkey, and United States.”
iii. Dove began in 1957 in the United States with the “Dove Beauty
Bar” and now sells products in over 80 countries.
b. Symbolism
i. The dove is known as “an emblem of peace, love, gentleness, and
purity” which relates to how the company’s mission and goals,
helping women feel confident and beautiful in their own skin.
ii. The yellow color of the dove featured in the company's logo
represents “joy and prosperity” while the blue color represents the
“excellence and reliability” of the Dove products.
iii. Through their manipulation of symbols like the company logo and
their product, Dove is constantly challenging the status quo and
seeking new idea for their products to satisfy their follower
Hackman & Johnson, 2013, p. 103).
 c. Mission / Vision
i. “Our mission is to ensure the next generation grow up enjoying a
positive relationship with the way they look – helping girls to raise
their self-esteem and realize their full potential.”
ii. Beauty is not defined by shape, size or color – it’s feeling like the
best version of yourself. Authentic. Unique. Real. Which is why
we’ve made sure our site reflects that. Every image you see here
features women cast from real life. A real life version of beauty.”
iii. “In celebration of Dove’s 60-year anniversary, we are renewing our
commitment to women globally by launching the Dove Real Beauty
Pledge, consisting of 3 vows:

1. We always feature women, never models.

2. We portray women as they are in real life. We do not digitally

distort our images.

3. We are helping 40 million girls build self-esteem and positive

body confidence.”

3. Leadership
a. Dove is one of the 400 brands owned by the company Unilever, a Dutch-
British transnational consumer goods company. Unilever produces food,
drinks, cleaning products, and personal care products.
b. In 2009, Paul Polman succeeded Patrick Cescau as the CEO of Unilever.
c. Paul Polman is a dutch businessman, born in 1956. He has received
several awards related to sustainable development, and is also chairman
of the World Business Council for for Sustainable Development.
d. He has been involved with the companies Proctor & Gamble and Nestle
before becoming the CEO of Unilever.
e. According to Polman, businesses need to “learn to be successful while
contributing to society and supporting ecosystems and biodiversity.”
According to The Guardian, at the root of his philosophy “is a recognition
of the importance of reconnecting business to a sense of purpose beyond
just making money and getting bigger.”
f. Paul Polman is represented both as a “good guy” and a “bad guy” in the
media. While he has many positive things to say about his goals and
values, his company Unilever is seen as flawed and has been known to
abuse its workers.

4. Culture
- “One thing you may note in examining Dove’s line of products is that absent are
any sort of makeup or cosmetics supplements. This is because Dove believes in
helping consumers embrace the bodies that they have, and does not encourage
the use of coverups, makeups, or concealers.”
 a. Dove encourages young women to embraces themselves. They do this
through their artifacts, the tools used by Dove, like on their campaign,
advertisement, and products (Hackman & Johnson, 2013, p. 1301).
b. Dove believes that beauty is the source of confidence, not anxiety.
c. Dove believes in raising self-esteem for the next generation by
implementing their values.
d. Their slogan is: you are more beautiful than you think.

5. Situation / Problem (SWOT Analysis)

a. Strengths
i. Campaign for Real Beauty -- Dove launched the “Campaign for
Real Beauty” in 2004, in response to the findings of a major global
study, The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, which had
revealed that only 2% of women around the world would describe
themselves as beautiful (Etcoff, Orbach, Scott, & D’Agostino,
2004). The main message of the Dove campaign was that women’s
unique differences should be celebrated, rather than ignored, and
that physical appearance should be transformed from a source of
anxiety to a source of confidence.
1. Initiated a global conversation to widen the definition of
beauty.
2. Selected real women whose appearance was outside the
stereotypical norms of beauty
3. Campaign gained momentum and resulted in over $150
million in free advertising and won several awards.
b. Weaknesses
i. According to National Review, Paul Polman’s company Unilever
has gone against “virtually every gospel that Polman has
preached.” While Polman claims that he will not tolerate businesses
who behave in unjust or unfair ways, his company Unilever is
known to mistreat and abuse their workers in .other countries.
ii. According to National Review, in the year 2011 Unilever was
underpaying their female workers in Kenya. The women were also
living in low-quality housing, and were reported to be spending their
wages bribing their bosses to avoid sexual harassment. This is an
ethical issue.
iii. Last year, Unilever’s Indian workers suffered from mercury
poisoning at work. These workers were also reported to be denied
health benefits by Unilever.
iv. Objectifying women can cause conflict if the message trying to be
communicated is misinterpreted through the media/campaign.
Incorrect use of language in this action model of communication
can miss the target of the campaign and offend women (Hackman
& Johnson, 2013, p. 8).
v. The conflicting nature of the campaign: on one hand they are
spreading the positive message which has the goal of changing
 women’s attitude toward the perception of beauty. On the other
hand, consumers are well aware of their goal of increasing sales.
c. Opportunities (external)
i. No Conflicting Campaign: One opportunity for Dove to grow and
develop is to avoid putting out conflicting campaign in different
countries. They advertise beauty in a natural way but represent
beauty very different and not natural for example in Japan. This will
increase the credibility of Dove and thus not succeed in influencing
people to purchase more Dove products (Hackman & Johnson,
2013, p. 166). Keep credibility by staying true and ethical in
campaigns.
ii. Target Males: We believe that Dove should also have the
opportunity to target men more by presenting more products for
men. Dove has earned their reputation among women, however, by
increasing advertisement for men, Dove can become a family
product for more couples to use. This is mentioned again in
recommendations.
iii. Seek New Idea: In order for Dove to avoid closed mindedness and
groupthink within their leadership, they should seek innovation
within other departments and outside assistance (Hackman &
Johnson, 2013, p. 215).
d. Threats
i. Other Competitors: A main threat we examined that can affect
Dove is are other competitors. Dove has been successful in selling
their product all over the world, but must also consider their
competitors. Threats of newer and better products can cause Dove
to lose clientes which is why they must become innovative in their
ideas to stay on top of the market.
ii. Employee Satisfaction: Aside from the products we think Dove
should invest in their employee/follower satisfaction. Treating their
followers like they matter to the organization will help also help
improve employee work.
iii. Not Listening: A last threat we found in leadership is if they do not
listen to all their followers, including employees. Without feedback
from below leadership may miss the clues indicating failure of a
product. Failing to listen can cause problems within the
organization.
6. Recommendations
a. Dove carries a variety of men’s products, however, they do not often
include men and boys in their ads and campaigns. Men can also suffer
from issues with self-esteem, and should be represented more by the
company as long as they’re selling men’s products because men are their
followers too. To increase this follower communication leadership must get
the men engaged and not isolate them. Right now men are bystanders
when shopping Dove products with their significant other, if Dove were to
get them to participate in the shopping of men products then they to
 become activist for the product and hopefully become a diehard follower
as much as the women (Hackman & Johnson, 2013, p. 55).
b. Dove must honestly take a good look at how their factories are treating
workers in other countries. To be an upstanding company they need to
treat all of their workers well while staying within the normal culture of that
country. Developing a relationship with the followers in these factories or
work environments. Dove can come off as a product oriented company
and not much employee oriented which is why a good recommendation is
to transition into incorporating their followers more Hackman & Johnson,
2013, p. 49).
c. Dove should continue to inspire its followers and be an example for good
self esteem and don’t stop showing ways to build this into your normal
everyday life. We recommend for Dove to continue building a culture
through their products in a transformational, creative, and innovative ways.
(Hackman & Johnson, 2013, p. 103).
7. Conclusion
a. Overall Dove is a good company, led by ethical leaders who appear to
truly care about all of their followers including employees and consumers.
As with any large company mistakes can and will be made; however, if
Dove continues to pay attention to their impact on the world they will
continue to succeed.
 Resources

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● Dove (toiletries). (2017, September 13). Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_(toiletries)
● Dove. (n.d.) Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
https://www.unilever.com/brands/our-brands/dove.html
● Welcome to Dove. (n.d.) Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
https://www.dove.com/us/en/home.html
● Murdock, D. (2017, April 01). For Corporate Social Hypocrisy, See Unliver’s
CEO. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
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unilver-ceo-exemplifies-its-hypocrisy
● Confino, J (2011, November 21).Unilever CEO Paul Polman: ‘The power is in the
hands of the consumers’. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
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interview
● Paul Polman. (2017, September 28). Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Polman
● Unilever. (2017, October 01). Retrieved October 02, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever
● Dove Company History and Review: Real Beauty, Real Soap! (2017, September
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company-history-and-review-real-beauty-real-soap/
● D. (2013, April 14). Dove Real Beauty Sketches You’re more beautiful than you
think (3 mins). Retrieved October 06, 2017, from
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