What Makes A Brand? Why Does Unilever Want Fewer Of Them?

A brand is what can either attract people to you or make people avoid you; people would identify you by the brand you portray. One can communicate their brand through actions and words. “It is essential to understand that wherever we are, in whatever we do, we are all building our brand”.

In the theory, it defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate the offering from those of other competitors. Simply put, branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B, which is the promise to customers and tells them what they can expect from the products and services. (Lake, 2015) (Williams, 2014) Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand.

And it uses principally the same competitive strategy tactic in all the markets (Countries) where the company has a presence, sells much the same products everywhere, strives to build global brands and coordinates its actions worldwide. Strategy followed by Unilever is also called a think-global and act-global strategy. Once Unilever successfully launched its product in numerous markets, it expands its popular and successful brand to many other markets and starts competing globally. Unilever has a theme to swift Unilever managers to integrate and coordinate the company’s strategic moves all around the world and to expand into most, if not all nations where there is a noteworthy buyer demand. Building a global brand name is one of the most important prospect on which the company puts substantial strategic emphasis. Along with that Unilever focuses on aggressively chasing opportunities to transfer ideas, new products and competences from one country to the

have interpreted the detergent in six different attribute and expects these attributes to be attained in the detergent powder. So, perception plays a critical role to make a decision on buying the detergent powder. 2.2.2. Social Influence

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.).

Brands are essentially products infused with a "personality", meaning that it has its own identity of sorts. They are created through consistent messages sent to consumers about a product or company, often differentiating it from other brands.

Unilever is a complex organization. Unilever has two holding companies: Unilever PLC, which has its registered office at Port Sunlight in Merseyside, United Kingdom and its head office at Unilever House in London, United Kingdom; and Unilever N.V., which has its registered and head office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Unilever PLC and Unilever N.V. and their subsidiary companies operate as nearly as practicable as a

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

• How a particular brand evolved and grew and in turn became a powerful brand in today’s competitive market

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.

Unilever Global is a company dedicated to producing quality and nutritionally balanced foods to indulgent ice creams, affordable soaps, luxurious shampoos and everyday household care products. They also produce world-leading brands which include Lipton, Knorr, Dove, Axe, Hellmann’s and Omo, alongside trusted local names such as Blue Band, Pureit and Suave. Furthermore, Unilever Global is one of the world’s leading fast-moving consumer goods companies with products sold in over 190 countries. Arguably, more than 2 billion consumers worldwide use a Unilever product on any given day. According to its website, the vision of Unilever is “to make sustainable living commonplace place, working to create a better future every day,

The American Marketing Association defines the term ‘Brand’ as “A name, term, symbol or design, or a combination of them, which is intended to signify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.” Thus , a brand

Unilever has brands on four main division which are Personal Care, Foods, Refreshment and Home Care.

Unilever N.V. and Unilever PLC are a dual listed company; running as a single operation and sharing a board of directors. According to 2013 revenues, they are considered to be the third largest consumer goods company in the world. Unilever is broken down into four divisions: Home Care, Personal Care, Foods and Refreshments. Their portfolio consists of over 400 brands with products that can be found in 190 countries around the world. However, Unilever focuses on 14 brands which have generated over 1 billion euros in sales. The focus brands are: Hellmann’s, Axe/Lynx, Lipton, Dove, Knorr, Magnum, Sunsilk, Surf, Lux, Omo, Becel/Flora, Heartbrand, Rama, and Rexona.

Unilever brands are trusted everywhere and, by listening to the people who buy them; they've grown into one of the world's most successful consumer goods companies. In fact, 150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. They create market and distribute the products that people choose to feed their families and keep themselves and their homes clean and fresh. People's lives are changing fast. As the way they’ll live and work evolves, Unilever needs and tastes change too. At Unilever they aim to help people in their daily lives. So they keep developing new products, improving tried and tested brands and promoting better, more efficient ways of working. They have a portfolio of brands that is popular across the globe - as they’ll as regional products and local varieties of famous-name goods. This diversity comes from two of Unilever key strengths: