To Conclude

Dove began as the trustworthy household bar of soap and has experienced tremendous success after undergoing a complete and daring repositioning with the launch of their "campaign for real beauty"; their campaign created invaluable media attention as the controversial adverts caught the attention of the masses. Unilever faced controversy surrounding Greenpeace and their use of palm oil, however Unilever quickly responded to these accusations, faced up to the facts and took immediate action. 

Despite some scrutiny towards the paradoxical approach to Dove and Axe both brands are successful. Axe is known for having more sex appeal, a strong identity, open minded and with strong leadership (Lovemarks test). 
Contrariwise, Dove's main associations are high self-esteem, purity, honesty, sincerity, freshness; all women are beautiful in their own way. Dove has strong brand equity, high values, is recognized as reliable, secure, and comfortable. (Lovemarks test).
To increase these associations, Dove uses a lot of images and pictures which represents “girls next door”, and also emotions through their testimonies. 
Axe's main associations are young, cool, fun, masculine, sexual confidence. Axe promises to its consumers that the brand will make them smell good, feel good and look good to seduce women. 
 It would be a great opportunity for Dove to create brand extensions addressed to men like shaving gel for example. 

Today both Dove and Axe are well known brands that one can buy in more than 50 countries. Each of the brands has its own loyal consumers, because each of the brands has its own spirit, idea and goal. Since each of the brands has its own strong stories and vision, each brand is a market leader in its target consumers' market. 
However, while Dove helps women as well as in the reality (The Dove Self-Esteem Project) as in the advertisement. Axe has a more digital influence. So, one can conclude, that Dove cares about its consumers a lot, contributing to some real life actions and bring to life more, than just a nice shower gel or soap.

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