Two Major Competing Brands under the Same Parent Corporation Essay

Two Major Competing Brands under the Same Parent Corporation - Essay Example This essay declares that Dove and Axe are the two competing brands under the same parent corporation, Unilever. Dove is Unilever’s personal care brand that offers products for both women and men and has business interests in more than 35 countries across the globe. At the same time, Axe is a brand that deals with male grooming products under the parent company Unilever. This discussion explores that while dealing with more than one competing brands, an organization might face several challenges. In contrast, Unilever has succeeded in its promotional tactics for Dove and Axe in the international market. Although the success could be attributed to several competitive advantages, as per the reports, globalization greatly contributed to the faster growth of Dove and Axe in the international market. Globalization refers to a process by which national economies and cultures are integrated into an international economy so as to enhance international trade, direct foreign investment, migration, and technology sharing. Both Dove and Axe get the opportunity to attain benefits from foreign markets since the offshore countries provide better business conditions such as cheap raw materials and labor, liberal government laws, and large number of potential customers. The company highly encourages fair competition so that brands like Dove and Axe vehemently dominat e the market in which they operate. The designed purpose and principles of the company state that it always works with integrity, which is also applicable to Dove and Axe (Personal care brands). Both the Dove and Axe brands practice the concept of market segmentation. It is obvious that both these brands target people between the age 18 and 24; and hence they focus their business to areas where youngster highly indulge. Since the two brands deal with almost similar products, they are forced to compete with each other in the same market segments. Kapferer (2008, p.403) opine, under such market conditions, both brands must avoid all references to the parent company when they operate under the same corporation because this practice would help to maximize the perceived difference between the two. As per the Unilever code of conduct, both Dove and Axe managements continuously try to