Despite Dove’s strong equity, multicultural families felt underrepresented in beauty advertising. The category focused on products and styling techniques, while overlooking the emotional experiences many women and girls had with their natural curls. As a result, Dove Hair faced declining relevance, weakening consumer connection, and a decade-long sales decline.

Rather than leading with product benefits, I decided we need to listen to this new consumer audience. Through the listening session, we identified an opportunity to celebrate the real experiences of women and girls learning to embrace their natural curls. The strategy focused on authentic storytelling, curl representation and content that reflected real lived experiences of the new consumer.

The campaign restored retailer confidence and reversed a ten-year double-digit sales decline, year one we increased sales by 4%, improved by 70 basis points. Dove Love Your Curls earned multiple industry awards and became a defining example of how consumer understanding can drive both meaningful connection and measurable business performance.