Unilever: Hypocrisy or Good Marketing? Created under the guidance of Prof. Sameer Mathur in a marketing internship, IIM Lucknow

1. TITLE
Unilever
Hypocrisy or Good Marketing
Axe & Dove

4. The multiple faces of
Unilever
• Axe
• Dove

5. • Launched in 1983
• Introduced in United States in 2002
• Most popular men grooming brand
• Unilever’s best seller
• Targets audience : Youth age 15-25

6. Marketing Strategy
• Uses Sex and Humor for attraction
• Skinny, average guys attracting
beautiful girls by dozen
• Makes brand more
Aspirational & Approachable

7. Attractive Slogans
• The Axe effect
• Bom-Chicka-Wah-Wah
• Make love not war
• Even angels will fall
• The cleaner you are,
the dirtier you get

8. Effective use of
unconventional media
• Edgy online videos engages young adult males
• Advertising on male-dominated networks
such as :
MTV, ESPN, Comedy Central
• Endorsing popular stars
Video here:

9. • Proper use of print
as well as social media
• Ads on Playboy,
Rolling stone, Maxim
• Regularly updating
Facebook, Twitter accounts

10. Conclusion
• Worked hard to keep the brand fresh,
relevant, and cool with its fickle young
audience
• Launches a new fragrance ever year

11. • Completely different product
from Axe
• Formulation of dove bar 1940’s
• Brand speaks to women with
different tone & massage
• Late 1990’s extension of Dove’s
range of products

12. Marketing Strategy
• Started Seven day dove challenge,
which attracted women for trying
dove at least for once
• Real beauty Campaign, a great
success for all kinds of women

13. Real Beauty Campaign
• Research revealed only 2% women
consider themselves beautiful
• Phase 1: Asking consumers online about
their looks
• Phase 2: It featured candid and confident
images of curvy, full-bodied women

14. Effective use of
unconventional media
• Integrated multimedia campaign, combining
TV and Print media
• Real time voting for women & displaying
results on giant billboards
• Dove’s website became a crucial component
for initiating dialogue b/w women

15. Pro-Age Campaign
• It featured older, nude women
asking questions like;
“Does beauty have an age limit?”
• Instantly, the company got
positive feedback

16. Dove on Reel
Released 2 films, one of which;
• Evolution, won cyber & film grand
prix award
• No wonder our perception of
beauty is distorted
• 15 millions view online & 300
million people worldwide

17. Conclusion
• Dove’s campaign has touched
women all over the world
• It is been mentioned in over 800
articles in leading newspapers

18. Question 1: What makes personal
marketing work? Why are Dove and
Axe so successful at it?
Unilever use to communicate with its customer and try to solve
their problems. Dove is very famous and profitable brand for
Unilever. In recent years as the result of a marketing campaign
that has consistently generated attraction since 2004. Dove and
Axe are the important representative in Unilever’s personal care
division one of its two major product groups. Unilever understands
the importance of personal marketing and target specific age
groups, demographics and life style. Axe wins abundant advertising
awards because of the using unconventional media channels which
were the very effective and unique way for advertising.

19. Question 2: Can personal marketing go
too far in a company? Why or why not?
Unilever has verity of product for food, home care and
personal care brands. Its method for marketing is very
interesting. Unilever speaks deferent customer but their
effort is for “vitality” mission. 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.

20. 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 do not think that there is any type of conflicts which I see
when I see the advertisement of HUL. They are equally fair
and same for both the gender. Now speaking about AXE yes I
believe that there can be other tactics which the company
can use instead of putting women sex symbol to attract more
male customers. The reason is because the advertisement can
be misleading to male.

21. Summary
Although both campaigns have
sparkled much controversy &
debate for different reasons,
they have been credited with
boosting Unilever’s sales and
market share all over the globe.

22. Disclaimer
Thank You for your time!!
Created by Rajat Nagar, IIT Kanpur,
during a marketing Internship by
Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.