SBR 76: Why DOVE INNOVATION IS SO SUCCESSFUL.
Earlier this year, in the space of five weeks, Dove launched three major innovations into market: a refillable antiperspirant, a whole-body deodorant, and a serum body wash. On paper, that looks like a heavy innovation pipeline but in practice these innovations are helping Dove continue to be understood and loved by today’s consumer.
What Dove understands, better than most is that a brand platform only works if it moves. Real Beauty is a system. One that evolves through product, not just comms and all ladders back into a clear strategy for growth. And the most recent launches are proof points.
Take refillable deodorant, not a category first as it was disrupted here with Wild, but Dove’s take is o-brand. The language doesn’t shout sustainability and doesn’t need to. The format does the talking. Instead, Dove stays in its lane: care. Just like it always has done.
“Beautiful fine fragrance-inspired scents.”
“Premium protection.”
Refillability is there, but not the main take-away. Most brands would lead with virtue. Dove leads with it’s core values and that restraint reflects something deeper: clarity.
Clarity before creative. Before campaigns. Before noise. There is a clear understanding of what the brand is here to do. Dove doesn’t need to reinvent its message every time it launches something new. The decisions have already been made; real beauty; care for real bodies, in the real world. Everything else is an expression of that. And they have form for this. When they launched Dove shampoo, they didn’t talk about the cleaning power or anti-dandruff. They focussed on the moisturising effects on your hair. Who knew you needed that, but it worked and was on brand.
When that level of clarity exists, creativity becomes sharper, more focused and more effective.
Then onto their next innovation; whole-body deodorant, in my eyes it’s arguably the most interesting of the three and the most on strategy “Smell beautiful everywhere.”
It’s a simple line, but it opens a space most brands avoid. Dove is continuing to normalise the reality of bodies; sweat, odour, insecurity and bringing it into the open. This is Real Beauty doing what it does best: making the uncomfortable feel every day. It’s done in soft tones and not shouty and so ends up being bang on brand.
And once again, it starts with clarity. A clear role in people’s lives and an understanding of the tensions worth addressing, only then does the creative follow.
Finally, they launched their body serums at the beginning of March with “Whatever stresses you go through, your skin feels it too. No talk of fixing, reversing, or optimising. There’s no anti-ageing language or miracle claims. Just care, support and restoration. Laddering back to what Dove stands for. It successfully operates in a category obsessed with correction and positions itself as a companion; care. That’s great strategy based on a deep *attitudinal* understanding of an audience.
Nothing in these launches feels bolted on and everything ladders back to the brand, because the up-stream thinking has been done and is clear. Dove shows the power of knowing exactly what you stand for first. Clarity before creative.
Get that right, and everything else products, comms, innovation compounds. Get it wrong, and no amount of creativity will save you.
Dove gets it right.