Strategic Management: Analysis of Unilever's Competitive Positioning

Strategic
Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Porter five forces..........................................................................................................................3
Pestle Analysis.............................................................................................................................5
Porter generic force model...........................................................................................................7
Bowman’s Strategy Clock...........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Top management is responsible for framing various strategies so that company can earn
more profit margin and market share in competitive environment. There are several changes in
competitive market so manager of company need to make changes in its strategies so that it can
retain its positioning. Unilever is firm that operates in consumer able good to earned maximum
customers satisfaction and profitability. This report have make use of various model such as
porter five force, pestle analysis and Bowman clock is examine success of company.
MAIN BODY
Porter five forces
It is another effective model that is used to analysis and evaluates competitive
positioning of any enterprise in particular industry so that appropriate strategies can be
formulated for growth and sustainability of firm. Therefore, Porter five forces model can be used
to analysis strategic position of Unilever in market. Such as:
Existing rivalry (High)
There are large numbers of stores and competitors in Consumer able good industry with
range of products and services to meet needs of individuals. Unilever by providing unique,
qualitative and varieties of products to diverse people within single store is able to motivate
customers to select specific products of firm (Ethiraj, Gambardella and Helfat, 2018). Therefore
despite of tough competition level in Industry firm is able to build and maintained its strategic
positioning by innovating its products as per expectancy of customers.
Threat of new entrance (High)
Various individual and entrepreneurs are planning to start and operates their business in
comsumerable sectors as it is one of the growing industries and includes necessary products and
services for customers. Lot of amount of resource, capital needed to be invested by people to
start their business in particular industry which create barrier for new firms to enter into market.
At the same time there are numerous competitors with large products portfolio, strong brand
image or reputation and market share like Unilever so it is difficult for new enterprise to easily
expand its business operation (Muriuki, Thomas and Joyce, 2017). Globalisation has also
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contributed in increasing threat of new entrance but company by providing products as per its
promise made to customers is able to grow and expand.
Power of consumers (High)
It is another element that can be used to understand the way Unilever have gained
competitive positioning in consumerable good industry. UK have huge population with different
needs and preference thus they have more power to influenced operating and strategy of
companies. There are large number of enterprise in industry Unilever operates so there is low
switching cost for customers to select one company product to another for better satisfaction of
their basic requirements (Phillips and Moutinho, 2018). Unilever by manufacturing highly
qualitative and effective products and services those are beyond their expectancy of customers is
able to reduce power of consumers to some extend and promote its operation.
Power of suppliers (Low)
Every company require raw material for manufacturing finished products which can be
delivered to end user in market for earning maximum profit margin. There are large numbers of
suppliers that offers similar quality products so company have opportunities to select best
possible alternative at lower prices in order to render maximum value to end customers. Strong
brand image, credit score and effective relationship between suppliers and company have helped
enterprise to get products at reasonable rates (O’Neill, 2016). Thus low power of suppliers
contributed in reducing overall cost and offering maximum value products to range of individual.
Threat of substitute products (Moderate)
Substitute products refer to products that can be used in place of specific goods such as
tea and coffee can be interchangeably used for satisfaction of individual needs. There are several
small and medium enterprise which in order to attracted or influence customers manufacture
similar products to large organisation so that they can earn huge profitability (Drobyazko and
et.al., 2019). Therefore Unilever in order to protect products or method of delivery being copied
have made use of intellectual property such as patent and copyright. Thus used of patent and
copyright lead to development of strong reputation, brand image of enterprise.
Therefore it can be stated from above analysis that Unilever by changing its strategies as
per market condition able to manage and enhanced its share of sales volume and profitability.
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