Thursday, November 17, 2016

Baby Dove : Johnson's Baby Soap now have a serious competition

Dove, one of the premium soap brands from Unilever has extended into baby care products . The move is expected to give serious competition to the market leader Johnson & Johnson. According to ET, Indian baby care product market is worth Rs 4000 crore. Johnson & Johnson is the undisputed market leader with a share of 74%. The nearest competitor is Dabur with 9.9% share. 

Although many brands tried to break the stronghold of  J&J, none succeeded so far. Now the war has begun with India's premier marketing giant decided to challenge the market leader. Interestingly, Unilever chose to extend Dove to fight J&J.

Dove which was launched in 1993 grows from a soap brand to a Rs 1500 brand which endorses multiple categories of products. 

Dove positioned as mild soap with 1/4 moisturiser is an ideal candidate to challenge Johnson's who has incredible brand equity among the consumers. 

Dove has decided to name its extension as Baby Dove which is a smart choice. The positioning of the extension is the same as the parent Dove brand. Baby Dove was first launched in Brazil in 2015.

Another interesting aspect is the pricing. Unilever has priced Baby Dove almost the same as Johnson's but a little extra. While the 75 gm Johnson's Baby soap costs Rs 45, Baby Dove is priced at Rs 48.

Unilever already started the campaign for Baby Dove. The pitching is similar to J&J - the bonding between the mother and child, purity, skin care etc. The TVC follows the parent brand's comparative advertising strategy of testing the mildness quality of the soap with the competition.

The brand also have a different logo for the extension. The logo designed by Dew Gibbons + Partners feature the iconic master brand's  Dove and a golden baby dove besides it. 

Baby Dove has launched a series of products in the category. This include soap, lotion, skin care wipes etc.. 

With the strong distribution muscle and marketing acumen, Baby Dove is expected to give tough competition to J&J. The market with one large player dominating will definitely have space for a competitor. The launch of Baby Dove is not going to dilute the parent brand's positioning since the positioning of Baby Dove is complimentary to the parent brand. 

4 comments:

  1. That's nice analysis sir. Indeed Johnson & Johnson being the undisputed market leader till now in Indian markets now faces serious competition from Dove which is in general perceived as being a very gentle soap. Hence mothers would feel safe using for their baby. Nice brand positioning strategy by Dove.

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  2. Shaun Ortega3:55 PM

    Choosing a baby soap is really a tough part for every parent, mostly parents are choosing Johnson products just because of its suitable features and skin friendly nature. But apart from Johnson Dove is also provide different types of baby products especially baby soap. Here from this article, we should learn some better comparison in between these two brands and find how Dove gives a tough competition to Johnson.
    Baby Steals

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  3. I would say its a very late entry by unilever being an FMCG giant. Also Many people in rural markets fail to distinguish between two similar brand names. To identify Dove baby and Dove in rural markets is going to be tough for the consumer. It wont create that required market but many of the customers may use Dove baby anticipating it as the normal original Dove. The brand distinguishing should have been much more higher.

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  4. Really a great article. Often when I am searching for Baby Care blogs , I found them both informative and interesting.

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