Introduction
Dove is part of the Unilever Company that specializes in skin products including body lotion, shampoo, body wash, antiperspirant deodorant, and body wash this journey has been long and can be traced as early as the 1940s where the company first launched the dove bar the journey continues through 19902 whereby beauty wash cream was launched. Dove has got a wide range of products which not only target both the gender but also the specific skin conditions that the world has been demanding for the solutions (Dove 2015)
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Evaluation of Doves Internal and External Marketing Communication Strategy
Dove launched a Real beauty dove’s campaign in 2004. This campaign earned the company praise from people in advertising companies all over the world together with their customers as it represented a diverse idea from the usual fashion advertising. The campaign included video, sleepover events, the publication of a book, workshops, and the production of a play. The notion behind the campaign was to celebrate natural physical variation personified by all women and inspire the women to be confident and comfortable with their beauty. The campaign was in three phases the second one and the third one being held in 2007. According to the company, the campaign returned $3 for every 1$ spent (Dove 2015).
The campaign had its own challenges. Besides the fact that the campaign was launched to boost self-esteem and at the same time creating awareness for the company product, the campaign was creating friction with the company’s products which to some extend tend to contradict the natural beauty notion for instance the fact that the company markets creams, lotion, and deodorant that alters the natural way for the skin the campaign is seen as fighting the core business to add unto that the self-esteem fund which was created by the campaign with the emphasis on promotion of real natural beauty, the company produce products that adds flavors to the natural look (Dove Skin Care 2004)
Advertising
The main objective of advertising is the creation of awareness (Boothman 2003) according to Dove’s campaign the initial part of the campaign started with major advertisements which were conducted on TVs, radios, billboards, and newspapers. This was a success as you could hardly get a person who was not aware of the campaign in America. The adverts had a brand message which was “Real beauty comes with all shapes, sizes, and colors.” Through advertisements, real beauty models who weren’t so much in the spotlight before started frequenting the most-watched shows in America a good example being Oprah’s shows.
Videos/film
The company started dove esteem fund to change the mindset of models as being ultra-thin ladies. Instead, it wanted every woman to feel special and feel like a model. To change this mindset dove ordered a series of highly successful online short films that focused on boosting the self-esteem concept. For instance, the movies the daughters which lasted for 75 seconds film were shown during the super bowl the show created massive awareness of Dove’s products, and this further reflected in the increased sales in that period of time. (Dove Skin Care 2005).
Workshops
Dove provided new self-esteem tools to moms and girls during the workshop based on boosting their esteem (Dove Skin Care 2007).
Internet Media
Dove created a website for the campaign where girls could access self-esteem tools and also be able to take part in a self-esteem interactive session. For instance, self-esteem discussion boards, based on the internet campaign dove’s evolution beauty became one of the most viewed videos on you tube this paved way for a new way of advertising where companies could maintain their niche by developing creative video and advertising.
Sales Promotion
The sales promotion ensured an increase in Dove’s sales volume and made the brand affordable.
The campaign was a success in terms of the creation of awareness and brand building as it reached all its stakeholders with the right message customized to each stakeholder. However, the campaign raised the eyebrows when for instance Unilever being the mother company has products like fair and lovely which ran campaigns that contradicted Dove’s one when it comes to the message. Excessive sales promotion done during this period of a campaign by dove led to brand erosion.
INTEGRATED MARKET COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR DOVE
The process by which an organization engages with its diverse audiences is called management communication. Organizations seek to develop customized messages to their audiences and other groups by understanding their audience’s environment before evaluating and acting upon the process. This process triggers a response from the audiences and is where the intention of IMC lies. Companies started moving to integrated marketing communication in the 1980s as it tends to evaluate the functions of a variety of communication tools and its effectiveness when it comes to its impact on communication (Bothman 2003)
For Dove, the following would act as the best IMC plan for 24 months
Identifying the target audience
Based on its products the target audience would be aged between 16-50 years of age majority being women based on a wide range of girls’ products that the company has. The target audience would be both existing customers and new customer (Pike 2008)
Determining communication objective
This covers the goals and things that dove needs to accomplish and the milestone that needs to be reached by the integrated marketing plan.
For Dove the core objective is when it comes to marketing communication is to provide effective information that can change the target consumers’ behavior, mind set and attitude towards the brand (Dove Skin Care 2007).
For this marketing communication plan, it will seek to achieve the following objectives
To successfully penetrate the elderly market by creating awareness and brand building preference by 20% in two years
To increase the urge and desire of its products by the consumers worldwide by 30% in two years.
Media selection
This determines the kind of media that would be used to carry out the advertising and promotion campaign. The perfect media to use is one that will ensure Dove achieves its IMC objectives in the sense that the information would be disseminated to the right audience at the right time and the way it was intended (Pike 2008). The speed at which the message should reach the target audience makes social media and TV’s a perfect combination. Among the social media to be used are Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Adverts would also run through Radio, TV’s Newspaper, billboards, and magazines
Message source
This is the message or information that will ensure the communications objective is achieved the message should be that which is easily memorable, it should sellable and convincing. The source of the message in this instant would come from Dove’s product. One thing comes clearly from all Dove’s products and that is protection and recovery of skin and hair. This is the message that will be pushed (Percy 2008).
Feedback collection
This is where the effectiveness and efficiency of the market communication plan will be measured, it is the evaluation part of the process where the measurement of the outcome of the process would be against the objectives, the measures will both be a pre-and post- (Bothma 2003). The procedure of evaluation should point to the objectives and there should be an indication of how they are achieved in this instance the initial measurement would just determine the current level of awareness and product desire and the post- will measure the margin by which the campaign will have moved it. This will later be put against the percentage figures of the objectives which are; creation of awareness by 20% and an increase in desire by 30%.
For a successful integrated marketing communication process there has to be a comprehensive response or feedback process that the organization may go through to determine the degree of its promotional efforts to the target consumers. Three response models are commonly used, they include the AIDA model, the Hierarchy of effects model, and the information processing model. In Dove’s case three models Hierarchy of effects model will be used (Belch & Belch 2004)
Awareness: Advertising will be done in this phase to ensure customers are aware of the promotional message and Dove’s products
Knowledge: This is the phase where the target market will begin gaining knowledge about the products offered by Dove. To achieve this Dove will use the Internet, retail advisors, and product packaging to ensure success.
Liking: The Company will promote a specific feature that is likable by its audience. In Dove’s case, the message about maximum protection of skin and hair would be majorly used
Preference: Dove will disconnect their products from the rivals by highlighting the brand’s benefit and unique selling point for the consumer to be in a position of differentiating it from the rivals
Conviction: This is the part that would evaluate the desired part. Dove would encourage conviction by giving out samples to customers and this would ensure them the purchase is safe.
Purchase: this would be an evaluation of the purchasing power the company will ensure ease in the payment process when it come s to Dove’s product
Budget
The budget for this plan will establish the amount of money needed for the achievement of integrated marketing objectives. Enough money will be allocated for advertisement and promotion of doves products together with any expenses that might come with it (Percy 2008). For budgeting Objectives and tasks, a method will be used. This method will ensure the budget is based on the role that the IMC is going to play
Conclusion.
For coming up with an effective and efficient integrated marketing communication plan an understanding of the communication mix is very essential. IMC is a proper tool as it ensures all marketing communication tools operate as one towards a defined objective
References
Bothma, N. (2003). Integrated marketing communication. Claremont, South Africa, New Africa Books.
Dove and Axe Examples of Hypocrisy or Good Marketing – PDF by lucky. 2015. Dove and Axe Examples of Hypocrisy or Good Marketing – PDF by lucky. [ONLINE] Available at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22818236/Dove-and-Axe-Examples-of-Hypocrisy-or-Good-Marketing. [Accessed 17 April 2015].
Dove Skin Care, Hair Care, Body Cleansers, Lotions & Beauty Tips. 2015. Dove Skin Care, Hair Care, Body Cleansers, Lotions & Beauty Tips. [ONLINE] Available at http://www.dove.us/. [Accessed 17 April 2015].
MC Plan Outline. 2015. IMC Plan Outline. [ONLINE]
Percy, L. (2008). Strategic integrated marketing communication: theory and practice. Amsterdam, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Pike, S. (2008). Destination marketing: an integrated marketing communication approach. Amsterdam, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Belch, E. G. & Belch, A. M. (2004), Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 6th ed., McGraw-Hill.
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