Unilever Case Study

AXE, one of Unilever largest and most well-known personal care brands, the case focuses on adjusting brand communication to improve their appeal to the target consumer. The case also provides a platform to understand the role of consumer insight research in brand management decisions. In this case the company was experiencing stagnating sales. Than the company decided to segment and develops a target market for increased effects of its advertising campaigns. Survey was conducted in early 2000 among 100 males between the age group of 15-50. The branding team of the company then decided to use the concept of Masculinity to target the segment. Here started the major problem. It was later found that customer preferences were now changing and that the major target group lies in the age of 15-25. Since this was the target segment who were most likely to have the disposable income and the desire to buy a personal grooming product.

Operation of Unilever around the world starts fragmenting, but Unilever continues to expand globally and investment made in R&D is increased.

This report aims to analyse the financial position of Unilever PLC within its daily operating activities and it also compares the company’s performance with its key competitor, the Proctor and Gamble Company (P&G). The report also includes background of both the companies and an industry overview. To better understand the performance of both the companies, the segmental analyses have been done for both region and products. Due to the global crisis, Unilever and P&G both are facing price rise and inflation pressures, also instability in the Eurozone. All these factors are strongly impacting their operation activity and long-term growth decision plan. Finally After a careful examination of the financial ratios of both the companies, we recommend Unilever as a good company to invest as compared to P&G .The reasons for the following can be seen in the report below.

Unilever understands the ever-evolving market and its economic implications, which brings us to suggesting that Unilever leverage from Ben & Jerry’s social statement that propelled it to its success by encouraging social activism. Additionally, with that being said, Ben & Jerry’s can certainly leverage from the existing resources from its larger counterpart Unilever can provide. It can and should take advantage of the marketing tools at Unilever s disposal as it an reach a much broader audience in getting its unique business culture and product across to a much wider variety of audiences. Additionally, product innovation can also be expanded upon at Unilever, but with the core origin of Ben & Jerry’s in mind. Conclusively, Unilever in managing Ben & Jerry’s will have to ultimately shift focus from a quality-oriented philosophy to a more efficient and improved model which Yves Couette seemingly aims to build

The NAV ratio is drastically decreasing over the years, showing that the company is slowly becoming more undervalued in 2013 to 2014. This shows that the shareholders are not earning their investment.

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is one of the strongest FMCG Company having a long standing in India with the motto that what is good for India will be good for HUL. HUL is a household name in most of the categories of the products. With right vision statement which includes the environmental vision the company is growing as sustainable company. The brands are manufactured in 29 owned factories across the country having more than 18,000 employees. The company has over 1800 suppliers and associates, 3500 stockists and coverage of 7 million outlets which includes direct coverage of 3 million outlets through their distribution partners Project Shakti. The turnover of the company in the fiscal year 2014-15 was 30,170 crores. HUL has products in categories of personal care products, cleaning products, food category and water purifier and most of their brands are market leader in their category.

Unilever differentiates itself from other market players by having a business model that approaches profitable growth and responsible growth together. It prides itself on doing business with integrity and taking into consideration the interests of those that their activities can affect. It has also a Code of Business Principles which must be upheld by all people at Unilever (Unilever, n.d.).

Unilever being a global manufacturer of packaged consumer goods, caused a high number of brands under its control. A problem they faced was the brands portfolio growing into a laissez faire manner.. For example, Unilever was one of the largest producers of ice cream, distributing across many countries including the UK, most parts of Asia, the Algida brand in Italy, Germany, Brazil, Netherlands, and the United States. With such a high production of ice cream in all these countries and with many other products distributed globally, these product categories had “checkered Identities.” With this said, the company introduced ia new strategic initiative called “Path to Growth”. The initiatives main goal was to reduce more than 1600 brands down to 400. With the main surviving brands of the 400 they wanted some brands to be their “Masterbrands” and mandated these brands to serve as umbrella identities over the range of product forms. With the use of the new initiative, Unilever can have brand managers in specific countries allowing direction for each of their products. Global brand units have the responsibility for creating a global vision and charged with inspiring cooperation from all geographic markets, including connections between brand managers in different countries.

This helps product development as internal chefs can freely do experiments and explore new food solutions

Unilever was founded in 1930 as result of the merger of the Dutch company Margarine Unie and the English company dedicated to the manufacture of soaps, Lever Brothers.

Unilever possessed, first, strong capabilities in branding and marketing. It understood local markets, and it knew how to market to them. It was at the frontier of market segmentation strategies in packaged consumer products. It opened up new product categories in deodorants and household cleaners. Unilever 's brands were not strong enough to prevent the growth of private labels in Europe, but they were sufficient to maintain Unilever 's strong position in higher margin products. It was able to leverage knowledge of brands and products between countries throughout the world, matching them to income levels and changing aspirations.

Unilever today is a trusted name in both Bangladesh and other parts of the world. Listening to the people, who buy our products, helped us to grow into one of the world 's most successful consumer goods companies. In fact, 150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. In the last four decades, Unilever in Bangladesh are dedicatedly bringing new and quality products for the hardworking Bangladeshi people to refresh them after long day at work. About 90% of household in Bangladesh use one or more of our products.

ULIP’s have 25% response, this is due to the fact of lack of awareness among the investors, and moreover it has a lock in period of 5 years.

With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people 's lives in so many different ways. 150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. From feeding one‟s family to keeping one‟s home clean and fresh, Unilever brands are part of everyday life. Unilever‟s mission is to add Vitality to life. It meets every day needs for nutrition; hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life

Unilever’s distributors have a very good relationship with them. and the important thing is that they must integrated into total marketing mix because of time and money required to setup an efficient channel.