Consumer Behavior for Unilever Personal Care Division

Table of Contents
Introduction: Rationale of the assignment.......................................................................................2
Background of the outlet.................................................................................................................2
Consumer demographic profile.......................................................................................................2
Findings from the research..............................................................................................................3
Observation..................................................................................................................................3
Questionnaire...............................................................................................................................4
Recommendations for in-store promotions.....................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8
Appendices......................................................................................................................................8
Questionnaire...................................................................................................................................8

Introduction: Rationale of the assignment
Unilever is a leading brand in the personal and home care product category. There are various
brands under the umbrella of Unilever. These including leading personal care product brands
including Sunsilk and Dove. Sunsilk offers an extensive range of hair care products. This
includes anti dandruff, smooth and straight, scalp care, hair fall solution and dry and smooth.
There are various factors that guide the consumer behavior in the process of buying a product
(Solomon et. al., 2014). This report aims to identify various such factors with the help of two
critical research methods; Observation and Questionnaire.
Background of the outlet
For observation, we selected Watsons in the Sunway pyramid mall located in Bandar Sunway of
Selangor, Malaysia. The mall was opened in 1997. It is a large supermarket which stores a large
number of products ranging from personal care, groceries, food items and stationary products.
The average daily footfall at the supermarket is over 1200 people on weekdays and between
2500 and 2800 people on weekends. The store is located at a centralized location and has a large
number of people visit the market during evening. This is why we decided to conduct this
research after 6pm.
Consumer demographic profile
We observed the super market for over 6 hours. In the process, we did not interact with any of
the customers but simply observed their buying patterns. Over 70% of customers entering the
personal care section were women. The customers were aged between 15 and 45. Hence, the
brand is targeting a wide range of customers. Most of the customers appeared to be white collar
employees and working professionals.
A lot of the customers were shopping with families. They were locals of the area and it was clear
that they visit that particular supermarket frequently. They all belonged to different religions and
a few looked like they have a different ethnic origin.
For the questionnaire, we targeted individuals who were aged between 15 and 38. 75% of our
target audience included women. As per the income distribution, 15% of the respondents

belonged to the lower income group, 60% to the middle income group and 25% to high income
groups.
Findings from the research
Observation
The very first thing that we observed at the super market was that over 40% of the women knew
exactly what they wanted. They entered the personal care aisle at the market, picked up the
shampoo and conditioner they needed and left. The remaining 60% of the people who did not
know exactly which product they wanted took a long time.
Price was a major deciding factor for customers to choose between leading hair care brands.
Those customers who were not sure of what they wanted to buy, turned different bottles and
checked the price of the product as the first determining factor. Many customers compared the
prices of a few brands before shortlisting the product that they need. A couple of customers
compared the price of the product at the store with online platforms as well. Upon noticing the
discounts offered by Ecommerce platforms, they decided to order to product instead. Therefore it
is important that marketers price their products in an effective manner to positively guide
consumer behavior (Armstrong et. al., 2015)
A few customers were seen talking amongst themselves or reading online reviews before
finalizing the product. When we had entered the store, there was immense in-store promotion
about the new sunsilk bottle where Unilever was offering a free 80ml bottle of conditioner with
the 340ml bottle of the shampoo. Many customers were excited about this offer and a lot of them
even calculated the amount of money they were saving via this combo. At least 30% people who
needed a shampoo, took this opportunity and bought the combo.
Over 75% of customers did not know the exact product but they were aware of the kind of
product they wanted. This included anti-dandruff, think and long hair or products for damaged
hair. A lot of young women also considered the product packaging as an important factor to
judge the quality of the product they were buying. Most such women preferred to buy L’Oreal
products as the shampoo bottles had bright colors.