Unilever

Unilever is a leading global manufacturer of packaged
consumer goods, operates in the food, home and
personal care sectors of
the economy.
Present in around 100 countries in the world and
employs 223,000 people.
Annual sales of £2.5 billion.

AXE and DOVE being the most
successful ones

ABOUT AXE
• Most popular male grooming brand in the world
• Launched in 1983
• Unilever’s best seller
• Considered cool, fashionable and stylish
• Target Audience: Youth aged 15-30
• Available in more than 60 countries
• World leader in male toiletries

MARKETING STRATEGY
• Uses sex and humor for attraction
• Targets 15-30 year old people
• Improvement in appeal to the opposite sex
• Strategizes through effective media use
• Shows skinny guys attracting beautiful girls
• Makes brand more approachable

APPEALING CATCHPHRASES
•Find your magic
•Make love not war
•Even angels will fall
•Bom chicka wah wah
•The cleaner you are, the dirtier you
get

EFFICIENT USE OF MEDIA
• Edgy online videos attract young people
• Advertised only on male dominated channels
like NYC, ESPN etc.
• Partners with NBA and NCAA which draw
young males
• Uses Facebook, Twitter and chat rooms
• Endorses popular and well known faces
• Ads on Playboy, Maxim etc.

CONCLUSION
• The company launches a new fragrance
every year
• Refreshes its online communications
constantly
• Today, the brand is the most popular male
grooming brand

ABOUT DOVE
• Women’s personal care brand
• Originated in 1955
• Completely different from Axe
• Connects with women differently
• Products include: antiperspirants/deodorants, body
washes, beauty bars, lotions/moisturizers, hair
care, and facial care products.

MARKETING STRATEGY
• Started Seven Day Dove challenge
• Attracted women to try Dove at least once
• Launched campaigns like Real Beauty, Choose
Beautiful, Let’s break the rules of beauty, Ad
Makeover etc.
• Appealing taglines like ‘You are more beautiful than
you think’, ‘No wonder our perception of beauty is
distorted’ etc.
• Released a series of films and movies

REAL BEAUTY CAMPAIGN
• Study revealed only 2% women considered
themselves beautiful
• Campaign celebrates women of all age, shapes,
sizes and color
• Phase 1- Asking consumers about the looks of
women
• Phase 2- Featured confident images of women
• Campaign touched many women worldwide

PRO-AGE CAMPAIGN
• Featured older, nude women
• Asked questions like ‘Does beauty have an
age limit?’
• Company got positive results immediately
• Heard positive feedback from its older
consumers

FILMS AND MOVIES
• Released 3 short films: Evolution, Onslaught and
Sketches
• Evolution won both Cyber and a film Grand Prix
Award and became an instant hit
• Onslaught showed a young girl and the promises of
Dove’s products
• Sketches became the most watched video
advertisement in its first year alone

CONCLUSION
• Dove’s campaigns have effectively targeted
their customer base
• Used personal strategies and spot-on
messages
• It has focused on promoting positive self-
esteem among women
• Sales have jumped from $2.5 billion to
$4billion

Question 1: What makes personal
marketing work? Why are Dove and Axe
so successful at it?
Personal dialogue and interaction between the consumers and the company plays an
important role in maintaining a strong bond and ensuring marketing success. This also
helps the company in testing alternative media and message to find the most cost-
effective approach. Thus, personal marketing can help a company to communicate with
its customers and try to solve their problems.
Dove and Axe, both are very famous, profitable and successful brands of Unilever and
have used personal marketing effectively. Both the brands use social media efficiently to
connect with their customers and reach out to them. Unilever understands the
importance of personal marketing and targets people accordingly. Both are so successful
in it because they use the unconventional media in a very unique and effective way for
advertising themselves.

Question 2: Can personal marketing go
too far in a company? Why or why not?
Unilever is one such company who sells a variety of products and goods like
food, home care and personal care stuff too. Its method of marketing is very
unique. It takes the help of personal marketing and advertising. By these
practices company can manage brand status and become unique among target
market. Unilever highlights the example of Dove and Axe inter-brand
relationship works. Both the product’s marketing says how they look and feels
which build people’s confidence and self-esteem. All in all Unilever emphasizes
on its marketing and awareness of its brand and mission which shows long
term planning. Personal marketing allows marketers to uniquely target
different customer segments. Dove and Axe used Websites, Advertisements
and Sponsorships to target the right customers at the right time.

Question 3: Is there a conflict of interests in the
way Unilever markets to women and young
men? Is it undoing all the good that might be
done in the “Campaign for Real Beauty” by
making women sex symbols in Axe ads? Discuss.
I don’t think there is any conflict of interest in the way Unilever
markets to women and young men. It is equally fair to both the
genders. Speaking about Axe, I just believe that the company can
use some other strategies and tactics to advertise its products to
the young men. The advertisements and marketing strategies
that they use can sometimes be misleading to young men.
Instead of putting women as a sex symbol, they should definitely
think of something else to promote their product.

SUMMARY
• Unilever’s most successful brands, Axe and Dove, both
used personal marketing to advertise their products.
• Both the brands have had clever marketing strategies and
targeted the right customers at the right time
• Effective usage of unconventional media and internet also
added to their success
• Although the Axe and Dove campaigns have both sparked
much controversy and debate, they couldn’t be more
different.

DISCLAIMER
Created by Nishant Kakkar, IIT Delhi during a marketing internship by Prof. Sameer Mathur,
IIM Lucknow

Unilever

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