Applying Marketing Principles in the Global Environment - Unilever Case Study

This report discusses how Unilever successfully implemented key principles of marketing in an international context. It explores the 7P's of marketing mix and provides recommendations for making marketing decisions in an international context. The report includes a case study of Unilever, a British multinational company that sells various consumer goods in almost 190 countries worldwide.

Applying Marketing
Principles in the Global
Environment

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
BACKGROUND OF UNILEVER_............................................................................................3
Exploring and analysing the 7P’s organization and explaining how the organization has
implemented the 7P’s...................................................................................................................3
Analysing how key principles of marketing has been successfully implemented in Unilever in
international context-...................................................................................................................5
Recommendations for making marketing decisions in an international context.........................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as he set of activities that business initiates in order to promote its
products and services in the market. Marketing includes seven type of P's in it that will be going
to discover in this report. Unilever plc is a British multinational company that sell various kind
of consumer goods in the market. It operates from London, United kingdom. The report will be
discussing background of Unilever and how successfully Unilever organization has applied key
principle of marketing In the international context. This report will further going to address and
recommend different marking decisions that company can take in the global market.
MAIN BODY
BACKGROUND OF UNILEVER_
Unilever British multinational company operates in consumer goods and has
headquartered in London (Murphy and Murphy, 2018). The company was founded in 2
September 1929 and today is has become one of the largest super-chain store in the world.
Company sales various kind of products like the food, ice cream, beauty products, personal care
products etc. the company is the largest producer of soap in the world. The company today is
operating in almost 190 countries all around the world. The biggest brand company owns in
dove, sun-silk. Lux, sunlight etc. Unilever has organized itslef into three main divisions-
 Food and refreshments products
 Home care products
 Beauty and personal care products
Exploring and analysing the 7P’s organization and explaining how the organization has
implemented the 7P’s
Unilever is a well-known international organization who deals in various products such as
clothing, beauty and personal care, footwear and such more. It is a supermarket store based in
UK where it is required to keep their focus on its marketing strategy and can be able to obtain the
definite results and outcome. However, here mentioning the 7ps of marketing mix approach and
how it can be implemented within the Unilever.
Product: The term product simply means an item for which an individual customer pay for it in
exchange for the particular good and item. Product strategy is an important factor to be
considered by an individual firm from where they can be able to obtain the definite outcome and
can drive the growth at successful level (Ghuman and Merchant, 2018). However, Unilever can

adopt and implement this kind of product strategy by focusing on their products which satisfy the
customer needs and desires at successful manner. For example, the customer always looks for the
product material, presentation of how it looks and most importantly its packaging which
influence consumer to purchase the items.
Price: The term price means the value which an individual pay in exchange for any products and
services. Price factor plays an important role in the marketing terms where the brand can be
successful with the effectiveness of the pricing strategy. Unilever can put the prices of the
products and goods to be affordable which help them to win the entire market people and also
drives their success at beneficial level (Ing, Osman and et.al., 2020). Also, the company can put
the price at luxurious and higher only for the products which is unique and can create a huge
demand for that particular product which is owned by Unilever only and customer have to
purchase the product from the organization only.
Place: Place simply defines the process of how the customer will reach to the company and its
brands. It can be easily understood by the appropriate location from which the people can be able
to get the products and services accordingly and can deliver the accurate benefits as well.
Unilever can implement this place strategy at their place by deciding the various channels of
distribution, storage and warehousing. The company has already operates in 190+ countries
which help and support them to attract and influence the people at definite level and can grow
accordingly.
Promotion: Promotional strategy is required essentially to be understood and used by the
companies from where they can reach the people at effective manner. The promotion simply
means as an advertisement which can easily shore the company's information related to products
and services and can drive the organization at successful level. The promotional strategy includes
different channels like television, radio, media, social media platform and such more which can
easily advertise and promote the Unilever products and services at effective level and can
influence the customer as well to purchase the product accordingly.
People: People mix is regarding an individual inside and outside who affects the business
effectively. In general, this factor is directly and indirectly involved in the deliveries of the
services where the company can get the appropriate outcome and results (Sirothiya and Chavadi,
2020). Unilever keep and consider their workplace people or employees in valuable manner and
believes that without them the operations cannot be able to run in definite order.

Process: The activities which takes place when there is an interaction and connection between
the customer and business. Process is a step by step activities which is needed to be adopted by
the company to grow and develop the organization at effective level. Each and individual work
task has its own process to be done. For example, the people who visit the Unilever store and
make a purchase then there is an essential process of providing the billing in actual procedure.
Physical evidence: The things which are defined as intangible. In other words, the physical
environment which can be felt by the consumers at the place and store then it is known as
physical evidence such as company's website, annual accounts, equipments and buildings, logos
and even business cards as well.
Analysing how key principles of marketing has been successfully implemented in Unilever in
international context-
There are generally seven elements that need to be considered and Unilever has tried to consider
all of them to successfully survive in international market. All the seven elements are as follows-
Research-
Research is basic principle of marketing in the international context as without proper
research it is not easy to survive in international market. Research includes long list of things to
be checked in target country, their requirements, culture, laws, rules-regulations etc. (Srivastava,
Singh and Dhir, 2020) Unilever has separate research department for this as company operates in
190 countries and has over 400 brands and it needs to follow all the basic requirements of
consumer as consumer has power to switch to another similar products. Unilever has also
researched on demographics of different countries to find exact consumer base for their products.
Infrastructure-
Online and offline infrastructure both are needed to serve consumer in international
market (Ugolkov and et.al., 2020). This is very important principle as it is going to be he place
where consumer connects with the company and buy their products. Unilever has made its
existence in both physical form and in online form. Unilever has its own websites where
company sales its product directly to the consumer and also has different retail store and the
retailer that sale products on the behalf of company. Existence of company in various forms is
also important to gain more profits than the other competitors that are selling almost same
product in the market.

Product-
Product should be localized In such a way that the consumer can relate to the products
they are serving in the market. It is the most important principle as selling those products that
consumer can't relate will give losses to the company. The formulation, label, distribution
infrastructure all must be created as per the requirements of the consumer. Unilever company has
almost 400 brands that is because of different requirements of the consumer in different counties.
Unilever has always produced products that are according to the wants of consumer and is
diversifying its products by thinking same for their ultimate consumer.
Marketing-
Localizing marketing is again an important principle as products that sound unfamiliar
won't work in international market. Marketing is a concept that includes various elements it and
all those elements must be created in a way that is create drive in the minds of people to purchase
this product. Unilever is using this principle of marketing from so long as company knows that it
isn't easy to sale products in international market with the name of a British company like
Unilever operates In India as Hindustan Unilever company so that people do not find this
company as an outsider.
Communication-
Proper communication is needed to deliver message of marketing clearly (Szkudlarek,
and et.al., 2020). As marketing is the main reason which will ultimately going to drive the need
of purchasing products. Marketing will no do favour to company if transmission of message to
marketing goes wrong. Unilever company has always been doing this by communicating proper
message to the consumer through different techniques of marketing. Company focuses on all
kinds of promotion techniques either in online form or in offline as both helps to widen to base
of consumer in the market.
Inbound marketing-
Inbound marketing is defined as the strategic way to create valuable content that will
align company's target audience with the consumer for the long time. Inbound marketing is
creative as it is related with Blog post, Videos, Webinars, social media etc. Unilever has been
doing this kind of marketing in almost all the countries where Unilever operates so that it creates
consumer that stick with company for much longer time. International marketing is not an easy

task but these ways of marketing runs on every country that makes easy for the company to sale
its products and generate higher level of revenue (Dakouan, 2019).
Outbound marketing-
Outbound marketing is defines as the form of marketing that is designed to capture
consumer in non—digital way. This forms of marketing include direct mail, billboards, TV etc.
The world still have people who are not into online platforms, to target that audience company
opt online form of marketing as their promotion techniques. TV ads reach to the masses of
people every day. Unilever also does marketing activities through this mode and has captured
different segment of consumer to attain higher level of success in the market.
Recommendations for making marketing decisions in an international context
To establish any company or a business, it is important to understand the actual concept of the
marketing process. There are many companies who do not keep their focus on the marketing
factor and obtain various issues and difficulties as well (Sawmong, 2022). However, Unilever is
a multinational organization who already operates in global market but needs to be aware of the
various marketing strategy which can help them to drive their growth and develop further at
successful level. It has been recommanded that the company should adopt and implement the
marketing mix strategy at their workplace from where the appropriate results and outcome can be
obtained in definite manner and can grow accordingly. Along with this, to expand the business at
international level the company should successfully apply the key principles of the marketing
and can get the profitability which can provide the appropriate results to the organization.
CONCLUSION
The above mentioned report has concluded the importance of the marketing which plays
a crucial role in the business operations and functions. To establish any business at national and
international level it is required for the management to understand the concept and effectiveness
of the various strategies of the marketing and can grow and develop the organization
accordingly. However, the report has included the brief about the company and analysed the
marketing mix strategies which can help the organization to implement the entire process in
definite manner. Along with this, it also provided and mentioned the key principles of the
marketing in regard with the international context which an individual organization needs to
consider while expanding business at global level. At last, it has provided some relevant and

appropriate recommendations which will help and support the company to grow in the particular
marketplace in successful manner.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Dakouan, C., 2019. Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing.
Ghuman, K. and Merchant, H., 2018. Reconfiguring the Marketing Mix to Counter the
Counterfeits in the Global Arena. In Emerging Issues in Global Marketing (pp. 179-
204). Springer, Cham.
Ing, P., Osman, Z. and et.al., 2020. Marketing Mix and STP Strategies: An Exploratory Study
into Grocery Retailers in Malaysia. Asian Journal of Entrepreneurship, 1(4), pp.129-
143.
Murphy, P.E. and Murphy, C.E., 2018. Sustainable living: unilever. In Progressive Business
Models (pp. 263-286). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Sawmong, S., 2022. A study of rice mill innovation for using in household that effects the
marketing mix satisfaction of farmers in Thailand. Journal of Public Affairs, 22(2),
p.e2315.
Sirothiya, M. and Chavadi, C., 2020. Evaluating marketing strategies ofcompressed biogas
(CBG) companies in India using decision tree analysis. IIMS Journal of Management
Science, 11(3), pp.219-237.
Srivastava, S., Singh, S. and Dhir, S., 2020. Culture and International business research: A
review and research agenda. International Business Review .29(4). p.101709.
Szkudlarek, B., and et.al., 2020. Communication and culture in international business–Moving
the field forward. Journal of World Business .55(6). p.101126.
Ugolkov, I.,and et.al., 2020. The evaluation of content effectiveness within online and offline
marketing communications of an enterprise. Innovative Marketing .16(3). pp.26-36.
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