Brand Building Example: Dove By Unilever

In 2004 Dove started its now-legendary Real Beauty campaign that took #sales from $2.5 to $4 billion in its first ten years. This made Dove the number one preferred soap brand in the U.S. and Unilever’s best selling product company-wide.

Dove did two very specific things right. 

1. They differentiated their brand through values - Dove looked at their competitors in the beauty industry and concluded that the status quo vision of #beauty was so narrow that the vast majority of women weren’t represented in it. They decided to create an inclusive vision of beauty, one where every woman in their target market could see a representation of herself as beautiful. By aligning the brand to the worldview of their target market they outcompeted their competitors.

2. They did more than create emotionally appealing ads. The Dove difference was built by projects aimed at improving women’s self-esteem. Most recently they partnered with Getty images to build the world’s largest photo library aimed at shattering beauty stereotypes called #showme. 

Brand building isn't about pretty images and words posted on a website. It's about showing the world who you are through your actions.