Geographic Segmentation

The market can be geographically segmented to urban and rural. The requirements of urban and rural
consumers are quite different. The rural consumers use shampoo for hygiene while urban consumers
consider shampoo to be a beauty product. They are also increasingly associating shampoo with overall
well-being.

Demographic Segmentation

Age, Income and Gender

Based on the age, following segmentation can be achieved:

<11 years - Goes by the parents’ choice of choosing the shampoo
11-18 years – Could influence the choice of the parents in choosing a brand
>18 years - Makes the buying decision based on perceived value of the product

Based on the income, the market is segmented as low, middle and high-income groups.
As the requirements and usage varies with gender, male and female segmentation is required.

Pyschographic Segmentation
Strategic Business Insight’s(SBI) VALS framework is widely used for psychographic measurements.It
divides the consumers into eight categories based on their personality and life style – Thinkers, Believers,
Achievers, Strivers, Experiencers, Makers. Based on expectations from Shampoo usage, the five segments
identified are :

Thinkers – matured and reflective people seeking functionality and value in the products
Strivers – Trendy, fun loving people opting stylish products, but resource constrained
Believers – Conservational people responding to traditional methods.
Achievers – Successful people focusing on premium products and those that get admiration from Peers

Behavioural Segmentation

Needs and Benefits: According to our consumer survey, consumer buys shampoo for following four
primary reasons: Dandruff Control, Moisturising Hair, Hairfall Control, Nourishment.

Loyalty Status: The shampoo market can be classified into loyal and shifting loyal consumers.
Targeting:

The urban consumers concerned with overall well being, aged between 11-18(can influence the
purchase decision) and aged greater than 18 years who decides. Though both women and men use
the product, the usage varies and must be catered to with separate products. Women have been an
attractive segment for the shampoo industry. However, we find that men are also increasingly
interested in haircare and the potential in Men’s HairCare is untapped largely.

While there are numerous products in the market focusing on the style
and trends in HairCare, none addresses to breaking the stereotypes.
Hence the believers, who are reflective and seeks value are target
consumers

Also, Dove’s offerings generally tend to be priced a little higher than

mass marketed products. Thus, Dove’s marketing is usually more
targeted towards the urban dwelling middle-income group consumers
who can afford Dove.

Differentiation & Positioning:

Dove’s point of difference with other brands in

terms of product mainly hinges upon the fact
that it contains moisturizing cream in addition to
shampoo in the same product. One could easily
get the benefit of both shampoo and
moisturizer in one go saving time and effort on
part of the consumer.

Secondly, Dove is also known for its hair damage

repair ability. It has stayed away from stereotyping a particular type of hair and instead focused on
providing damage care for all types of hair.

Also, Dove has positioned itself as high quality brand available at a fair price. It’s pricing at higher
than mass market products signal its premium quality compared to other products within similar
price range.

On the other hand, its points of parity are the usual benefits offered by other branded shampoos
namely hair fall protection, providing smooth and healthy hair, acting as an anti-dandruff agent etc.

In terms of brand positioning, Dove has effectively established a unique point of difference compared
to its competitors by utilizing its “Real Beauty” campaign. Through this campaign they seek to
celebrate the natural beauty of women instead of an unrealistic and narrow idea of beauty espoused
by other brands which may never be attained by majority of the people. Here Dove targets entire
women community of all age, color, size and shapes. The tagline in their website states “Beauty is an
all-ages show”.1 It encourages every woman to be comfortable with herself instead of feeling inferior.
 Dove positions itself to help one be beautiful
as she has always been. Dove’s movement for
Self esteem and Dove Real Role models
complement its efforts to this end.

Suggestions: Dove is perceived to be a premium brand even among some middle-class people. On
the other hand, it is not considered as luxury brand by the high-income segment consumers. Dove
could work on this problem to further refine its target segment.

Suggestions

From our consumer analysis, we identified untapped potential for Dove in the following avenues:

1) Dove marketing is focussed only on women. However, we found that 31% of the male respondents of
our survey are using Dove shampoo designed for women. Though Dove has men specific Shampoo
available in India, due to lack of Marketing, men are unaware of the product. With research showing
that Indian men consider hair to be the most important aspect of beauty and surveys showing men’s
interest in Dove, we believe Dove has potential to tap into in this segment. 2

2) The marketing of Dove is about embracing the self. Though Dove features different hair types in its
advertisements, Dove doesn’t have product range in this segment in India(it does offer curly hair
products in the US). The awareness to the needs of different hair types are growing and there is high
participation on social media advocating the need to recognize different hair needs.
https://www.curlsandbeautydiary.com/reader-testimonial-priya-hari/ With Dove catering to this
market globally, it is time Dove introduced these products in India.

3) Through our consumer survey, we found that Dove Shampoo is not performing well in Anti-Dandruff
segment. This is affecting Dove’s brand image as addressing the Dandruff is a prevalent issue in the
Dove’s target segment and is losing out to competitors.

4) Is Dove a premium brand? There exists ambiguity in the brand perception largely because Dove
soaps are priced higher than mid-range soaps, but Dove Shampoos are priced at mid-range. Through
our survey, we found that women in Tier I cities do not consider Dove to be a premium product and
opt for other products. Dove has Advanced Hair Series product line, but due to lack of marketing are
not used.
1 https://www.dove.com/in/hair-care/shampoo.html
2 https://omicus.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Nielsen-Hair-Care-India.pdf