Dove Hopes Super Bowl Ad Will Change American Men

Posted by Barry Silverstein on January 6, 2010 12:49 PM

Men in America do not buy beauty products affiliated with women. They just don't. It's an unwritten and widely accepted truth in the branding industry.

But Dove plans on changing that. And what better place to start than the Super Bowl.

Dove has actually advertised during the Super Bowl before, in 2006, but with a very different goal in mind: reaching women. The brand launched "Campaign for Real Beauty," which created enormous buzz and won acclaim because it broke with conventional wisdom and celebrated ordinary women's bodies. The campaign also helped reinvigorate a soap brand that has been around since 1957. As part of the campaign, Dove launched the "Self-Esteem Fund" and later provided free materials so women could organize "Dove Self-Esteem Workshops."

This time, however, the brand is targeting men in a culture where men do not respond well to products typically thought of as feminine. While details of the ad campaign are nebulous, Dove's parent company, Unilvever, will be launching the Dove Men+Care line during Super Bowl XLIV. Though the product line that features soap bars, body washes, and scrubbers was promoted last year in Italy, this marks the line's introduction to the US marketplace.

A stubborn male demographic isn't the only obstacle Dove faces. The category is dominated by such brand names as Old Spice and Axe which are familiar to men. As Ad Age explains, "brands with more of a female identity" have not done well.

It will be interesting to see how Dove approaches the male market -- and whether or not the brand can repeat the breakthrough performance of its "Campaign for Real Beauty."

More about: Dove, Campaign For Real Beauty, Old Spice, Axe, Super Bowl, Self-Esteem Fund

Michael Gold says:

This article is asking the wrong question. It's not whether or not men will respond to this brand extension, but whether this brand extension is a better long term decision by Unilever than introducing an entirely new brand for its male oriented products. What effect is this significant restructuring of the brand proposition going to have on Dove's current consumer base? I wonder whether they are trying to insulate their communications to this new market segment from the millions of "real women" who think that Dove is all about them.

January 7, 2010 11:03 AM #

Rudy Vetter says:

Assuming Dove asked for the permission to stretch the brand I think this is a very smart move. They have penetrated global female personal care markets very well and created huge brand equity.
Taking the fact that with their Axe brand they cover and lead the "manly" man segment already it seems only logical to go with that stretch instead of creating something independently.
There is huge potential out there among men who do not believe or don't care for the sex and seduction stories of Axe and Old Spice. Here starts the Dove universe - and not to forget: Buyers of male personal care are still a lot of women. It seems to be a home-run to attract them with a brand they know already by own experience.

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2222 seduction stories of Axe and Old Spice. Here starts the Dove universe - and not to forget: Buyers of male personal care are still a lot of women. It seems to be a home-run to attract them with a brand they know already by own experience.

April 13, 2010 12:26 AM #