Unilever Marketing Strategy Report

This report analyzes Unilever's marketing strategy, covering its internal and external environment, competitive advantages, segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies. It also examines the company's marketing mix and provides recommendations for future success.

MARKETING STRATEGY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This file is all about marketing strategy which adopt by Unilever in the organisation. It is
about growth rate, profitability and sales rate of the organisation. This file will include the
environmental analysis of the organisation with internal and external both factors. It has been
summarised that the organisation also have competitive advantage such as USP and also uses
promotional marketing strategy in order to attract wide range of customers towards them. Moreover,
the report also concluded the process of STP which shows that it segments into different parts in
order to reach with wider level of success.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................4
PART 1..................................................................................................................................................4
Marketing audit................................................................................................................................4
Evaluation of competitive advantage of Unilever...........................................................................7
PART 2..................................................................................................................................................1
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of Unilever in UK..........................................................1
Recommended objectives and Goals...............................................................................................2
Marketing strategies using marketing mix.......................................................................................2
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing strategy is the long term approach to planning with the fundamental goal of
achieving sustainable development and competitive advantage. It is the important part of the
organisation. Marketing refers to the thing in which the information exchange from customer to
organisation or organisation to customer. A marketer is the mediator between them. Marketing is all
about need and wants of customers and measure their satisfaction level. Unilever is the public
limited company which deals in condoner goods industry. This file will include internal and
external analysis of the organisation and its market situation, competitive advantage of the
organisation with situation analysis of growth, sales and profitability, segmenting, targeting and
positioning and marketing mix applied to the organisation.
PART 1
Marketing audit
Marketing audit refers to the overall audit of the organisation include external and internal
sources. It includes Goal, strategy, principles to ascertain the area of problem and opportunity to
recommend the plan of action to enhance the firms marketing performance (Davcik and Sharma
2016). Marketing audit is conducted by the third person. Audit should be comprehensive,
systematic, independent and periodically. Components of marketing audit are following-
 Macro-Environment Audit
 Task Environment Audit
 Marketing Strategy Audit
 Marketing Organization Audit
External analysis
Political factors- Political factor plays significant role in the external factors of
environment. This factor affects the organisation too much. It makes impact on the organisations'
profitability. Many of the rules and restrictions which has to be follow by the organisation and this
kind of things make impact on the overall production and profitability of the Unilever. It can
include – government policy, political stability or instability in overseas markets, foreign trade
policy, tax policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions and so on. Political instability in
country also effect the organisation because if the government changes then the rules and
regulations also changes which sometimes makes it difficult for organisation to run its operations
smoothly and makes bad impact on the organisation.
Economic factor- It also has the significant impact on the organisation. Economic factor

includes growth rate, inflation rate, deflation rate, disposal income, etc. These all kind of rates make
impact on the organisation. Unilever is the organisation which produced the consumer goods. It
makes big contribution in the economic development of the country (Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016). This
factor impact on the organisation in terms of profitability and productivity. Through affect of
economic factor the price of product decrease and impacted overall profitability.
Social factor- Society, culture and way of doing things make impact on the organisational
culture. Society is the place where the goods' sell by the organisation. It includes attitude of the
consumer towards the product, education level and standards. Organisation has to know that what
their consumers want from them and after that they have to make product according to customers
choice. This is the most important factor which effect the Unilever. Organisation has to develop
new strategies for the selling of goods in market. Feedback from customer is the most powerful
thing to innovate the product and attain success in market by offering products as per their needs.
Technological factor- In today's world everything depends on the technology. This is the
most important thing for the organisation to survive in the competitive world. Every new day comes
with an innovation and invention. Technology helps to innovate new things in the organisation and
also motivate to the invention. Over the last 5 years the industry has been move fast in technology.
This factor contribute in the overall profitability of the organisation(Astuti, Silalahi and Wijaya,
2015). Technology impacts business operations of the firm too much. It makes impact on
productivity and selling strategy. Use of advanced technology in business operations helps in
gaining competitive advantage in market.
Environmental factor- Environmental factors become important due to the increasing
scarcity of raw materials, pollution targets, doing business as an ethical and sustainable company,
carbon footprint targets set by governments. These all are the issues which faced by the marketers.
The more factors like whether, climate change, pollution and they all are affect the overall
profitability of the organisation.
Legal factor- Legal framework affects the organisation too much. Many laws such as
consumer protection law, labour law, employment law, health and safety law affect the organisation
too much. Unilever affected by the legal factors. As a consumer goods company, Unilever is
subjected to many laws and legalities. They own over 400 brands in food, health, personal care and
several other industries. It is required by Unilever to adhere the laws made by government as it
helps company in operating its business activities smoothly and effectively.
Internal factors
Swot analysis and recommendations for Unilever's

Unilever is a leading consumer goods business in the global market. Swot analysis a tool to
identify the strength and weakness of the company. That can help to achieve the long term goal of
Unilever company. Swot analysis is also helpful to identify the external strategic factors that are
opportunities and threats. Swot analysis helps in determining the opportunities for firm regarding its
international growth and expansion. Unilever should includes all theses factors for the global
operation. A swot analysis indicates towards the external conditions of the company.
Unilever's strength-
It is an internal strategic factor which is based on the conditions such as- production process,
organisational structure, human resources and the investment.
All the significant of strength are written below-
 Strong brand
 economies of a scale
 broad product mix
 Strong global market presence
All these are the strongest factors of Unilever's. Unilever is one of the strongest brand for the
consumer goods. Production mix factor show the variety of products. That means company is
producing different kinds of consumer goods. Company has already increased its market presence
through international expansion.
Unilever's weaknesses-
There are some weaknesses also of Unilever which limits its potential growth. Swot
analysis is also helpful in determining barriers to organisational and business development. There
are some weakness of the company and theses are-
 Limited business diversification
 dependence on retailers
 Imitable products.
Unilever's product like Dove, rexona spend a lesser amount of money. Unilever has
diversification of its products outside the industry. Unilever is not adopting the different marketing
strategies just because of the retailers. It is a cause of weakness of the company (Davcik and
Sharma, 2016).
Opportunities for Unilever-
Unilever should take an advantage in consumer goods in the market. This factor helps to
expand business of the company by determine external strategic factors that can be facilitate
business development. Following are the business opportunities of the Unilever company.
 Business diversification- diversification of the products reduces the risks and improve

business position. Company is continuously innovation new products.
 Product innovation for health- it is one of the biggest opportunity for the Unilever to
introduce new products for the health conscious people.
 Business and environment interaction- company has an opportunity to make the business
environment friendly to attract customers(Bharadwaj, 2015).
Threats facing Unilever-
Unilever is facing a numbers of competitors in the market. Following are the threats for the
Unilever-
 Competitive rivalry- it is strength of the other companies. All the competitors promote the
factors which can reduce the market shares and financial performance of the company.
 Production imitation- it is also a major threat of Unilever company.
 Popularity of retailers house brand- wall mart, Kirkland has its own house brand that
directly compete against the products of Unilever.
Position of Unilever- It exists in the market with 169000 employees. It serves the product
worldwide. It has big share in the market and its growth rate is too good. Approximately half market
share covered by Unilever.
ranking where listed position
Global top 100 brand corporations 87
The Gartner supply chain top 25 1st
Britain's most admire companies 1st
World most innovative companies 70
Net income of Unilever is US$7.561 billion.
Its worldwide market share is 49.6%.
Evaluation of competitive advantage of Unilever
Unilever has customized marketing, catering meticulously to the psychology of their target
markets. Unilever takes on disruptive brands. Provide products with high quality and low price.
Competitive advantage earn by the organisation through selling good quality product with applying
the best strategy. For gaining the competitive advantage the organisation has to improve its
efficiency of work. It gains by the organisation when the organisation is able to work better in the
competitive environment. For gaining competitive advantage, the organisation should have to
engage their employees with high performance of work. High performance of work creates
employee engagement and employee engagement create competitive advantage to the organisation.
It is the best situation for the organisation. Gaining the competitive advantage makes the

organisation market leader(Bharadwaj, 2015). Good brand recall and sustainable practices are the
USP of company which helps it in developing good brand image in minds of customers.
Unilever’s Generic Strategy- It is the strategy which applied by the organisation to achieve
competitive advantage. It uses broad generic differentiation to implement the best strategy. It
includes five force model of porter. This strategy is applied by the organisation to understand the
product of other companies. They focus on the product differentiation. People wants quality product
and Unilever make the quality product in comparison to other companies.
For example Unilever produce the skin care products to satisfy the need of consumer. Some
people likes nourishing skin care product with the best quality and the organisation provides them
according their needs and wants. A strategic objective based on the differentiation generic
competitive strategy is to grow Unilever through intensive efforts in product development. Their
strategy is to attract customers with product differentiation and quality products. On the other side
the financial objective linked to the generic strategy is to grow Unilever revenue in developing
country.
Unilever’s Intensive Strategies - Unilever applied the market penetration strategy. Its main
aim is to attract the consumers towards them with the best quality product according to their need
and wants. In this strategy the company increase the sales volume to improve its profitability and
revenue. Unilever applied this strategy to increase the overall profitability. It makes the product
differentiation and attract customers toward them. Through it the organisation gain competitive
advantage in the market over rivals (Kiseleva, 2017).
Product development- Product development is the secondary strategy which applies by
Unilever to make the growth in competitive market. Product development is based on the marketing
strategy. The marketers use customers reviews to develop the product. They understand the needs
and wants of the customer and after that they understand all the situation of the product and brand in
the market then apply the strategy of product development. The organisation introduces that product
which meet with the need and wants of the consumer. For example entirely new or new versions of
Unilever’s personal care products are released over time to maintain or increase the company’s
market share.
Diversification- Unilever uses this strategy to supportive incentive growth. This strategy
focuses on new establishments. Sometimes Unilever adopt any other business to increase the market
share. It is the best strategy to develop the organisation in the entire market. Through this strategy
the organisation develop itself worldwide(Bharadwaj, 2015).
Market development- It used in supportive intensive growth strategy of the business.

Unilever can grow by marketing its current products to new market segment. However, the
company already has significant presence in practically every consumer goods market segment
worldwide. This organisation entered in new market with new segment and attracts the customers.
Growth rate- 12.60% per year
Profitability- It rises with 9%
It is clear that Unilever is the growing company and it is grown by time. Its profitability
rises with 9% growth rate and it is not abnormal rate. Its growth rate is 12.60% and it is abnormal. It
is not easy to grow up within the competitive market (Growth of Unilever.2017).
Competitive performance of Unilever is good. It has not more impacted by the other
organisations because the organisation have strategy to overcome with competitors. Effective
strategies of company helps it in gaining high competitive advantage over its rivals which
ultimately improves its performance in market.
PART 2
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of Unilever in UK
Unilever is one the top and leading company in the world and it is considered as a premium
brand and follow comparative pricing strategy in order to attract wide range of customers towards
them.
Segmentation: it refers to the market which is divided into many sections which further
match to different peoples which affect the purchasing power. Firm divided their markets on the
basis of demographic, geographic, psycho-graphic and behavioural segments which is mentioned as
below:
Geographic: Unilever reach to wide range of people because of having high distribution
channel and it supply its detergent into rural and urban areas in order to make its product popular in
the market (Weerawardena, 2018).
Demographic: Under this, this factor consider the economic level of a customers and for
this reason, Unilever offer washing powder for those people who cannot afford high price of
detergent and as a result, it stresses on Value for money. For this reason the company provide the
product at least and reasonable rates.
Psycho-graphic: in this segmentation, Unilever in UK has made people relate to brand at
that time when people cannot afford some branded detergents of higher price and that is why they
use local soap bars. To protect people from such situation, firm started providing its product at rural
area with low and affordable rates.

Firm chose geographic segmentation in order to reach at wider level of people which help to
raise company's overall profitability as it supply its detergent to rural as well as sub-urban area and
through geographic segmentation it can easily enhance their production level.
Target: Company target sub urban people and rural people who tend to buy cheap products
even without considering the quality of products. By analysing the needs of their customers, firm
actually target urban and sub urban middle class people who can easily afford the products. Apart
from this, as the people start using detergent of a quoted firm, then Unilever set its price with a very
low and affordable level and this made a company to go ahead in this competitive world (Sowter,
2018).
Positioning: Unilever in UK, occupy the good position in buyers mind by offering them
best branded products with high quality indifferent ways than their competitors do. Further the
company also improve the quality of their products with low and affordable price with high brands
that ultimately helps a business to position itself high in the mind of buyers. Because of the low
cost of its washing powder, it spread vigorously over the years and positioned itself as one of the
powerful strain remover with an affordable rate. Apart from this, Unilever UK also have some
unique features which makes its consumer more friendly and builds loyalty among them which is
considered as highest advantage for a firm (Dolnicar, Grün and Leisch, 2018). Moreover, as the
company have wider customer base and its main aim is not to only to gain profit but also to fulfil
the needs of their customer's and also make changes from time to time.
Recommended objectives and Goals
 To increase sales by 20 percent in coming 2 years.
 To provide the best quality of products with low and affordable rates and to half the
environmental footprint of their group's products.
 To reach at further level of success in coming 5 years by offering the best quality of products
to their customers.
Marketing strategies using marketing mix
Marketing mix is a process that helps a firm to take right decision at right time. It is a broad
level of marketing decision which further consists of many specific factors such as product, price,
place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. These factors are explained in detail
mentioned below in the context of Unilever :
Product: Unilever Provide the best quality of goods and also have different variety of
product which are provided at reasonable rates such as it offer washing powder, deodorants, home
products, personal care items, refreshments such as Lipton tea (Stead and Hastings, 2018). Firm
also focused on innovations to deliver the best and great brand experience which support to retain

its loyal customers.
Price: Company follow penetration pricing strategy which help to understand the immense
competition in this sector or industry. Under this pricing strategy, it offers high quality of products
with low and affordable prices. Apart from this, it also follows the competitive pricing strategy and
it does have to do intense research for market (Larimo and et.al., 2018). On the other side, prices are
also changes as per the conditions of market and as a result, Unilever also supply to all cost
segments which are ranges from low price to high price and created a prestige division in the mind
of their customers by providing higher quality of products with reasonable rates.
Place: The quoted firm operates its stores in more than 150 countries which shows that it
has a brand image in market and having a diversified distribution strategy. it supply all its brand
products with millions of retailer at worldwide level. The company also takes an advantage with
global manufacturing and distribution channel and because of this, it also located its store in
those places where the transportation can be done in easy manner, apart from this, the company in
UK have wide channel of distribution that consist of more than 40 agents and more than 3000 retail
store which cover direct retail of outlets (Wu and Li, 2018).
People: For Unilever, the people are their staff members and stakeholders who help a
system in order to enhance the sales. Moreover, as the company operates its unit in more than 150
countries therefore, the customers assistant also plays an extremely important roles in order to get
the success for a firm. Apart from this the employees are also competent and firm also invest a huge
amount in order to provide them training and development.
Promotion: Listed firm spends lot of amount in order to promote their business and make
people realized that it offers different products with the least price. Unilever also uses digital
marketing as well as e- commerce which helps to raise the sales in market and this promotion
technique helps customers to determine the products online or through online video channel. It also
uses celebrities in order to promote their products such as film stars, sportsman their brand at
worldwide. Listed firm also uses other promotional techniques such as print media, hoarding and
also offer different discount vouchers in order to raise the sales (Hanssens, 2018). Beside this,
Unilever also uses hoarding as well as social media which also boost up the sales of the company.
Process: It refers to the set of those activities which are performed in order to achieve the
success. Its offline stores, customer service and self- service machine help a system to complete the
work on time, without wasting any time.
Physical evidence: It refers to those things are tangible as well as non- tangible which
actually represents the firm. This includes all the products which are offered to their customers and
its brochures, website, annual report, logos and equipments. In addition to this, its offline stores also
navigates all products and are categorised in well manners that makes it easy for the customers in

order to choose their products.
Among all, the marketing strategy for Unilever is promotion strategy which further includes
different promotional tools that help a company to promote its products in order to raise sales. The
company chooses this marketing strategy in order to let people realize about all new products. In
traditional method, Unilever opt hoarding and free sample, print media for better performance. In
addition to this, Unilever also offer discount facility in order to draw attention of many customers
towards them. Using discount vouchers, Unilever also raises the sales as well as profitability which
further enhances its current financial performance.
It is to be recommended to Unilever to use promotional strategy in order to achieve the
SMART objectives. Besides this, promotional tool also includes some digital media that rapidly
increases sales. As it also uses celebrities too which help to promote their brand at global level.
Firm should choose both modern and traditional promotion method in order to let their people know
about all new products. This marketing strategy helps company in attracting more number
customers towards brand which in turn results in accomplishment of firm's objectives.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above, it has been concluded that Unilever is one of the leading brand in
UK and also offer detergents and different products. As report describe PESTLE and SWOT
analysis which help to determine the micro as well as micro environment factors. The firm also
have competitive advantage such as USP and also uses promotional marketing strategy in order to
attract wide range of customers towards them. Report further concluded that through geographic
segmentation fir can easily reach to wider level of success. Report further concluded the SMART
objectives in order to raise its sales as well as profitability by using promotional market strategy.

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Online
Growth of Unilever. 2017.[Online].Available
through:<https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/fmcg/13494-unilever.html>