Marketing Fundamentals: Analysis and Evaluation

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of marketing fundamentals, including the process and stages of marketing, marketing mix, role of marketing in creating value for customers, and stakeholder engagement. The report focuses on Unilever as a case study and explores various models such as SWOT and PESTLE to analyze internal and external factors impacting Unilever's marketing strategies.

MARKETING
FUNDAMENTALS
ANALYSIS AND
EVALUATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1A.........................................................................................................................................3
Process and stages of marketing along with marketing mix........................................................3
Role of marketing in creating value for customers......................................................................7
Stakeholder engagement and its impact on marketing activities.................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is function that is used by every organisation to market its products and services
to maximum number of customers so that it can earn large amount of profitability. Marketing
Mix has 4p and 7p that are used by marketing manager to effective promote products of
company over other competitors in the market. This report is about Unilever that deals in
consumer able good so that need of each individual can be fulfilled. It has used various models
such as SWOT and Pestle to analysis internal and external factors that impact on marketing
strategies of Unilever so that it can gain competitive advantages.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1A
Process and stages of marketing along with marketing mix
The concept of marketing process basically signifies the series of steps that are adopted by
the organisations in order to analyse and identify the unmet needs of the consumers and then
address them adequately. There are a series of steps that need to be followed in order to complete
this.
1. Situational Analysis:
This is the base or foundation where external and internal environment is analysed
thoroughly in context of a business so that correct decisions can be taken.
SWOT Analysis will be used for internal analysis of the Unilever Company where its
strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threats need to be analysed.
Strength
 The global presence of Unilever in
multiple countries gives immense
strength to the company and its
portfolio.
 The competitive advantage of the
company is very high (Gürel and Tat,
2017).
 Unilever exercises economies of scale
which helps in cost reduction and
Weaknesses
 The market is extremely competitive
and dominated by world class leaders
such as P&G, Nestle etc.
 The easy duplicity of the products and
their replacement with the substitutes is
the major reason of hindrance in the
growth.
 Many countries prefer traditional and
natural products over manufactures
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quality development.
 Extremely loyal customer base due to
pursuit of glocal strategies.
products.
Opportunities
 Unilever has a huge opportunity of
diversification and expansion targeting
customers who are new in the market
and increasingly want to life the
western lifestyle.
 The sustainability and CSR record of
the company is unbeatable and this can
be used to encourage ethical and eco-
friendly consumers in the society.
Threats
 The economic crisis has affected
profitability of al the FMCG sector
companies and the shrinking spending
power of consumers has affected the
Unilever as well (Phadermrod, Crowder
and Wills, 2019).
 Unilever has been in criticism due to
some of their practices and the
company has to ensure that in future
they are not involved in any scandals.
PESTLE analysis can be used to analyse the external environment in which Unilever is
operating currently:
 Political Factors: The current political ruling in UK is not very stable and with the Brexit
the situations have further worsened. The company however operates in the FMCG sector
and the government has always supported the FMCG sector. The simple rule and
regulations and greater access to the international markets and trading can be favourable
for the company.
 Economical Factors: The consumption rate of shoppers in UK has improved drastically
in the past years and they are willing to spend more in order to improve their lifestyle
(Perera, 2017). This can act as a major advantage for the Unilever company as they can
attract and retain majority of the customers.
 Social Factors: Since the products of Unilever are for the daily lifestyle and do not use
any harmful toxics or chemicals, society generally approves of the activities that are
being performed and the products that are manufactured by the Unilever thus proving
them to be very beneficial for company’s growth.
 Technological Factors: The use of technology, social media and other gadgets has
increased at a very fast rate and the technological environment of UK is very well
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developed (Achinas and et.al., 2019). This acts as a favourable situation for Unilever as
they are able to utilise such technological advents for better marketing and selling of their
products and services.
 Legal Factors: The Company is present worldwide in so many countries and therefore
legal compliance to laws and regulations that have been developed by each country is
necessary for the uninterrupted growth of the operations of Unilever. In UK, the legal
system regarding international FMCG companies is very simplified allowing them to
operate with ease.
 Environmental Factors: The environmental friendly activities, sustainability score, CSR
score etc. of the company is very well developed which makes this factor extremely
favourable for the company to operate (Gheibi and et.al., 2018).
The third aspect of situational analysis involves analysis of the Porter’s five force model that
can be applied for Unilever in following manner:
 Existing Rivalry (High): The existing rivalry of the company in the current FMCG
market is very well developed and there are many firms who are currently giving a tough
competition to Unilever such as P&G, Nestle etc.
 Threat of Substitutes (Low): The brand Unilever stands for its quality of products and the
optimum pricing strategy that they utilise (Lewis, 2017). It is not easy to substitute the
kind of products that are being sold by them thus making this factor of lower impact.
 Threat of New Entrants (Low): Unilever has globally established itself in the FMCG
industry over a course of many years. There are many new entrants who can enter this
industry easily but they do not present any major threat to Unilever because of its
supremacy in this industry (O'Hara and et.al., 2017).
 Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Medium): The Company can gain suppliers easily
where if one supplier denies agreeing to the contract pricing that has been developed,
they can easily identify another supplier who would do so willingly. Therefore, the
bargaining power of suppliers is moderate.
 Bargaining Power of Buyers (High): Since there are many companies giving similar
products, the consumers can easily shift over to next best alternative that gives them the
high bargaining power, the company Unilever cannot exercise any control over such
buyers (Varelas and Georgopoulos, 2017).
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2. Objectives
This is the second step in the marketing process and for Unilever their objectives can be
developed in following manner using SMART objective pattern:
 Specific: The Company aims to reduce the carbon footprint incurred in production, improve
health and lifestyle of people and give livelihood to more people.
 Measurable: The energy consumption is aimed to decline by 40% and the sales is expected
to rise by 25%.
 Achievable: The goal is achievable because the portfolio is diverse and the value chain can
be strategically modified along with using correct production strategy for genuinely healthy
products.
 Realistic: Company has always maintained sustainability and growth hand in hand and
therefore this is a realistic goal for Unilever.
 Timely: All the objectives are expected to be achieved within one year.
3. Strategy
This is the third step where the marketing mix and STP analysis of the company would be
done:
STP Analysis: Unilever can be said to target all the segments of the public ranging from child to
an old person, from males to females, from high class to low class people. They have something
for everyone and targeting is done by using correct pricing strategy depending on the product
type and market conditions (Yan and et.al., 2016). There is no particular positioning as company
operates in multiple dimensions but it tends to give high quality products at medium prices thus
placing themselves in second quadrant of the positioning map.
Marketing Mix: The 4 P’s of the company can be analysed in following manner:
Marketing Mix P’s Analysis
Product The product range of Unilever is very wide
covering foods, refreshment, home and personal
care for all segments.
Price The bundle pricing, premium pricing and market
oriented pricing strategy are the major
classifications of pricing that Unilever employs
(Blut, Teller and Floh, 2018).
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Place The distribution strategy of Unilever is mainly by
establishing own stores, through retailers or in the
manner of kiosks.
Promotion The company uses all traditional and modern
promotional techniques such as advertising, sales
promotion, public relation, personal selling, use
of social media etc. (Išoraitė, 2016).
4. Implementation
The implementation of the current strategy that has been developed will be done by
adopting all the relevant tools and tactics (Bolon and et.al., 2018). It has already been identified
that the presence of Unilever is very strong and implementation will also be very strong.
5. Control
All the practices will be regularly monitored using variety of strategies such as KPI,
Benchmarking, standard costing etc. so that quality and quantity both can be controlled.
Role of marketing in creating value for customers
The basic purpose of marketing is to create value for the customers by addressing their
unmet demands and needs and making them attracted towards the product that will fulfil their
unmet desires. The customers are satisfied by the marketing activities where they are deliver a
product or service that will adequately address the want of the customers and thus create value
generation of the customers who are consuming it (Kumar and Reinartz, 2016). Unilever, for
instance, has recently launched a lover beauty and planet brand for their customers where they
are selling beauty products that are nature friendly and does not exploit the nature nor does they
use any chemical. Before this launch the female customers that they have majorly targeted did
not realise that they could use products that were friendly for nature as well i.e. the nature had
not been exploited in any manner.
This is just one example as Unilever has always carried out innovation right from the
earlier years. Lifebuoy was one such innovative soap idea by Unilever where thye introduced
hygiene and sanitation within a soap by advertising it as the one that kills 99% of the germs
(Rundh, 2016). This was a very innovative idea where earlier only fragrance was being
considered as the major aspect behind a bathing soap. After this product, the customers realised
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that they need to be safe from germs as well and therefore the sales of this particular product
increased heavily. Therefore, it can be ascertained that in this manner the role of marketing in
creating value for its customers is immense.
Stakeholder engagement and its impact on marketing activities
Stakeholders are those parties that are interested in the activities of the organisation and its
performance as well. There are two types of stakeholders i.e. internal and external that can affect
the decision making of an organisation (Abdollahi, Hosseini and Alimohammadzadeh, 2019).
It is necessary that the stakeholders of the company that are engaged in the business
activities are properly managed and this can be done by the use of following stakeholder
engagement matrix:
Figure 1: Stakeholder Matrix
Source: Rasheed and et.al., 2017
 The meet their needs category is the first category of stakeholders that must be kept
satisfied at every point of time because their power or influence if very high even if their
interest is comparatively lower. For Unilever, these include the customers and the
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government regulations as they are not interested in the internal activities but can affect the
decision making (Cuppen, 2016). The competitors also fall in this category of stakeholder.
 Second category is of key players that are the most important stakeholders who have high
power as well as are highly interested in the activities of company. For Unilever, they are
business partners, the investors of the business, the suppliers in the company etc. who can
affect the functioning of entire business.
 Third category is of least important stakeholders who neither have any interest nor any
influence over business and these generally include no one for Unilever (Rasheed and et.al.,
2017). For them there is no stakeholder that is least important.
 Last comes the show consideration category that needs to be kept informed about all the
decisions and practices or plan that the company is developing. These include the employees
of Unilever mainly who are the actual workers and therefore, they need to be kept informed
about the business performance and activities at all times.
It is important to keep the stakeholders engaged and informed about the business that is
going on as the approval of stakeholders is necessary in the continuous growth of Unilever
(Baernholdt and et.al., 2018). For instance, if a particular strategy or plan is not approved by the
BOD’s of the company then it cannot be implemented and similarly, if any campaign is targeted
in a wrong manner then the government might call it off. Therefore, this affects the stakeholders
of the company significantly as they can completely call of the marketing activities and
ultimately the process of working of the company as well.
Therefore, it can be adequately concluded that the stakeholders of the company affect the
overall marketing activities and decision making of the entire company.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that marketing is an important function that
helps in enhancing sales volume and productivity of firm. Marketer of Unilever uses various
marketing tool and strategies to effective promote products and service to large number of
customers. The report has clearly explained about external factors such as policies of UK
government, customer’s preference and choice in recent trends and economic condition so that
marketer of Unilever has used to effective promote its varieties of products to different
customers. Technological changes and various laws, measured implemented by government has
also identify by marketing department so that company can easily operate its various function
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and earn maximum amount of profitability. There are various advantages of marketing of
products to customers as well as companies such as customers are able to know about various
products that company offers so that it can select best suitable option to meet it needs and
requirements. Customer can easily compare products of Unilever with products and service of
another company that deals in similar industry. Swot analysis model is also used to identify
internal strength, capabilities of Unilever that helps in influencing large number of customer to
prefer Unilever over other company so that it can gain maximum market share and competitive
advantages. Swot helps Unilever to effective identify various available opportunities in the
market so that it can effective utilise and earn large amount of profitability. At the same time it
protect company from various threats such as change in customer preference, increase
competition or new policies of government. Company sales have been increased due to
effective marketing strategies and manufacture of qualitative products by company to retain
customer satisfaction and loyalty. From the above report it can also be concluded that
stakeholder analysis is used to identifying number of stakeholder, their level of participation and
interest with organisation. Unilever by identifying stakeholder interest, level of participation is
able to formulate marketing strategies that can satisfy needs and preferences of interested
stakeholder of company. Marketing manager of Unilever has formulated effectively target,
segment and position its products and service in mind and heart of customers so that they can
prefer company product over other competitors in the industry. It can also be analysis from
above report that various external and internal factors impact on effective implementation of
marketing strategies so that company can earn maximum amount of profitability. Therefore at
last it can be illustrated that effective marketing strategies of Unilever has lead to increase brand
image, customer satisfaction and long term growth of organisation.
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