Strategic Marketing Management for Unilever's Love Beauty and Planet

This report analyzes the marketing and communication strategies for Unilever's Love Beauty and Planet brand. It includes SWOT analysis, Porter's Five Forces analysis, Ansoff's Matrix, and strategic marketing recommendations.

Running head: STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Strategic Marketing Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Executive Summary
Unilever is a British-Dutch company that deals with a vast range of consumer goods. Over the
decades, the company has launched food, beverages, beauty, wellness, cleaning and homecare
products under various brand names. Most of the products that the company offers fall under the
convenience and the shopping goods under an umbrella product namely the Love and Beauty
products. The primary focus of the company has always been to the mass consumer base having
mediocre buying capabilities. However, with changing times the company has been able to
understand the need to launch certain specialty goods to capture the elite consumer base as well.
Hence, the company has come up with a natural range of beauty and wellness products that
targets the millennial consumer base. This report will focus on the possible marketing and
communication strategies that are to be taken in order to capture the new consumer base of the
global market. Moreover, some recommendations have also been given regarding the
implementation of more fruitful marketing strategies. By using the Ansoff matrix, the company
can plan their strategies to increase future growth. In addition to that the company should take up
mobile defense strategy in order achieve constant product upgrade. By applying the model, it can
be understood that the brand needs to come up with the greater market penetration and product
development. The key recommendation made in this report are attracting new consumers as well
as decreasing the competition in the market.

2STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Key Theories to Influence Marketing communication........................................................2
SWOT Analysis of Unilever’s ‘Natural’ line shampoo:..................................................2
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for Love Beauty and Planet.............................................5
Strategic Brand Position Using Ansoff’s Matrix:................................................................6
Strategic marketing Plan Using Defensive Strategies.........................................................7
Recommendation.................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
Reference:............................................................................................................................9

3STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Unilever is one of the leading companies in the global market of the consumer goods and
businesses. The company has recently launched a new ‘Natural’ line of shampoo under their
brand Love Beauty and Planet. According to the R&D team of the company, the primary aim of
the brand is to attract women between the age group of 18 to 35 ("shampoo", 2018). Moreover,
the brand boasts of their new range of shampoos that have natural ingredients and are completely
vegan. Hence, in order to capture the market and have a successful marketing communication
strategy, certain factors are to be analyzed. This report will analyze new directions for the
product, with the help of SWOT analysis and Porter’s Five forces model. Moreover, a new
strategic brand position is to be identified by employing the Ansoff matrix for marketing.
Key Theories to Influence Marketing communication
SWOT Analysis of Unilever’s ‘Natural’ line shampoo:
As the product is already catching attention of the millennials, a SWOT analysis of the
brand will be helpful in order to understand the strengths, weaknesses, possible opportunities and
threats of the brand.
Strengths:
Unilever, as an organization enjoys global recognition. Over the years, the company has
launched multiple brands under their patronage. The Love Beauty and Planet range of products is
also becoming successful in grabbing the attention of the consumers (Machmud and Sidharta
2014). The following strengths can be seen in the brand’s convenience goods business:

4STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
 The global recognition and acceptance of Unilever products are helping the brand to be
benefitted. This brand value ensures the products strong market penetration.
 The broad range of product mix of the brand will help the brand to gain significant
growth in the global market.
 The economy of scale, due to the large and cost effective production of the brand plays a
significant role in the gaining a competitive edge over the market rivalry (Dirisu, Iyiola
and Ibidunni 2013).
 The brand is also showing a significant market presence in the global market. The cost
effectiveness of the product is helping the brand largely.
 The product boasts of having natural ingredients, hence is eco-friendly. Moreover, all the
ingredients and the containers are biodegradable. This strategy is being helpful for the
Love beauty and Planet brand.
Weakness:
In spite of having a strong market presence, the brand has some weaknesses that can limit
its potential growth. The following are some of the weaknesses that the brand should address for
a better prospect:
 The products under the Love Beauty and Planet brand are highly imitable in nature. The
company though has invested heavily in the production and marketing strategies, the
imitability of these products cannot be overlooked.

5STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
 The biggest weakness of the brand is that it lacks direct approach to its consumers. The
brand, as well as Unilever as a company depends on the retailers (Amaral 2017). Hence,
the retailers always have the capability to influence the consumers.
Opportunities:
Along with the growing market and brand recognition, the brand has several
opportunities to witness a significant growth. The future opportunities of the brand are as
following:
 The Love Beauty and Planet brand already prides of using all natural ingredients as in
their new range of shampoos. It claims of the shampoos are infused with the natural
ingredients that are ethically sourced ("shampoo", 2018). An addition to this, the brand
can develop a variety of shampoos that are vegan and free of any chemical ingredients.
 The brand has the opportunity to step outside the personal care and hygiene products and
come up with a range of home and wellness products as well. As the target group of the
brand is the women between the age group of 18 to 35, introducing homecare products
that have natural resources as their key ingredients, will also be very helpful in their
business ("shampoo", 2018).
 Taking up new market development strategies can also be helpful for the brand.
Threats:
There are number of external factors that can be limiting the business of the
product as well as the brand. Following are some of the threats and risk factors that can hamper
the growth of the brand:

6STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
 The primary threat to the brand is the presence of strong product rivalry (Hasan 2015). As
the products of the brand are cost effective, the competitors can threaten the brand of
reducing the market share and consequent financial performance of the brand.
 As per the current trend, consumers are in favor of the products that have natural
ingredients (Amaral 2017). As a result of this, multiple companies are coming up with
products that have natural ingredients. Hence, product imitation can be a threat for the
brand.
 Moreover, some of the giant retailers re coming up with their own range of products, this
can be a serious problem to the brand.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for Love Beauty and Planet
Considering the vast range of operation of Unilever in the global market, Love Beauty
and Planet has to deal with a wide diversity of external factors. As shown by Porter’s five forces
model, these external factors can affect the business of a particular brand (Dobbs 2014). The
following are the forces that can create impacts on the Love beauty and Planet:
 Competitive Rivalry (Strong)
Competitive rivalry is the biggest factor that can affect the business of the brand. As the
‘Natural’ range of shampoos is cost effective and user friendly, there is a high chance that
the product will face rivalry from other brands. Moreover, Unilever faces high
competition from the existing market. The factors that play influential role in increasing
the competition are presence of higher number of firms, aggressiveness of these firms and
lower switching cost. The presence of large number of firms and their aggressiveness can

7STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
threaten the market of Unilever. In addition to this, the products have very low switching
costs.
 Bargaining Power of the Consumers (Strong)
The bargaining power of the consumers is another major issue that can affect the brand. It
is commonly seen that the consumer base of the convenience goods are highly volatile
and tend to shift their preferences frequently. However, the specialty consumer base does
not tend to change unless the quality of a given product reduces. Hence, customer
retention is a major issue that should be addressed by the company. The low switching
costs of Unilever products make enable the consumers to switch easily to other products.
Hence, customer loyalty is a big threat to Unilever. Hence, the buyers are capable of
bargaining for these products. Moreover, the consumers have vast information regarding
these retail goods. This is enabling them to decide whether to opt for another brand.
 Bargaining Power of the Suppliers (Moderate)
The suppliers influence the market of Unilever moderately. The availability of the raw
materials affects the overall production of the organization. In addition to that, multiple
factors influence the bargaining power of these suppliers. Unilever has a large number of
suppliers. Hence, there are fewer chances of depending on any particular supplier. As a
result of this, the bargaining power of the suppliers pose moderate threats to Unilever.
 Threats of Substitution (Weak)
The brand enjoys the wide recognition of the Unilever Company. Hence, it has very little
to no chances of being replaced by any other brand. Although Unilever faces higher risks
due to low switching costs of the products, threats of being substituted are low. The
reason behind this is the lesser availability of products that can substitute Unilever

8STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
products. Unilever products have higher rate of availability in the market; this makes
them easier to be obtained. In addition to this, it is seen that the substitutes have lesser
impact on the consumers along with insignificant difference in costs. Hence, threats of
substitution is less for Unilever products.
 Threats of New Entrants (Weak)
Threats of new entrants in the market can almost be nullified for the brand. The vast
global market and the huge brand recognition elements any risk from new entrants in the
market.
Summary

9STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Strategic Brand Position Using Ansoff’s Matrix:
Ansoff’s Matrix
In consideration of the growth of a particular organization or brand, the Ansoff matrix is
considered as highly effective of suggesting accurate and swift outcomes (Rawal 2013). Hence,
in the context of Love Beauty and Planet, the model can certainly be helpful in finding new
strategy for marketing communication.
 Market Penetration:
As it is widely known, market penetration is the safest option to influence in marketing
strategy of a newly launched product (Saaty 2013). The primary strategy taken by Unilever,
regarding the natural range of shampoo is the inclusion of eco-friendly and ethically retrieved
natural ingredients, the company should focus more on this factor. Hence, an expansion of sales
Market
Development
Diversificatio
n
Market
Penetration
Product
DEvelopment

10STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
of this product is possible by employing vigorous advertising campaigns. By applying proper
marketing strategies, Unilever can gain significant consumer base for their natural line of
products.
 Product Development:
The natural range of shampoo boasts of user-friendly ingredients. Moreover, it comes
with a variety of essence, hence at present there not much need of product development (Zeriti et
al., 2014). However, the company can work towards minimizing the chemical ingredients.
 Product Diversification:
As the brand has launched a new range of products, it can also come up with a variety of
homecare products under this brand name.
 Market Development:
The unveiling of the natural line of products is the companies endeavor to address the
fragmented marketplace (Huang and Sarigöllü 2014). Moreover, the company aims at shifting
towards high growth sectors in the market. As a response to this endeavor, the company is
aiming the millennial customer base.
Strategic Marketing
By analyzing all these factors, that might influence the marketing strategy of the Love
Beauty and Planet brand, it can be said that the brand needs to focus on the marketing strategy of
attracting a consumer base that has a comparatively higher buying capabilities. The ‘Mobile
Defensive’ strategy will be more helpful in this regard (Mintz and Currim 2013). To keep the

11STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
loyal consumer base, the first and foremost strategy that the brand needs to follow is the process
of constant up gradation of their natural shampoo and soap. Moreover, in order to grasp a new
market, flexible adaption is highly important.
Recommendation
In lieu with the analysis, it can be suggested that the brand must look forward to
attracting a new consumer base of its own. Unilever has launched the Love Beauty and Planet
brand so that it can fill the void that of their premier consumer base. Hence, the brand must work
towards reducing the competition in their market, with utmost importance.
Conclusion
To conclude the report, it can be said that the natural range of shampoo is likely to be
enjoying the brand awareness of the Unilever. This will definitely be helpful in their advertising
and marketing strategies. However, the brand must focus more on their strategy of aiming at the
targeted market base. As the company is opting for the market of specialty goods, it should be
more careful about the preferences of the consumers. Moreover, the products are claiming to be
free of Parabens, a product that a huge number of customers are unwilling to use. Hence, the
brand should focus more on these aspects and build a marketing campaign so that the new
changes in their products grab the attention of the consumers.

12STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Reference:
Amaral, A.C. 2017. Dove Real Beauty Campaign: A Local Perspective (Doctoral dissertation).
Dirisu, J.I., Iyiola, O. and Ibidunni, O.S. 2013. Product differentiation: A tool of competitive
advantage and optimal organizational performance (A study of Unilever Nigeria
PLC). European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 9(34).
E. Dobbs, M. 2014. Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry
analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), pp.32-45.
Hasan, M.M. 2015. Marketing Analysis of Unilever. Total Quality Management, 11, p.13.
Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E. 2014. How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand
equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132).
Springer, New York, NY.

13STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Machmud, S. and Sidharta, I. 2014. Business models for SMEs in Bandung: Swot
analysis. Jurnal Ekonomi, Bisnis & Entrepreneurship, 8(1), pp.51-61.
Mintz, O. and Currim, I.S. 2013. What drives managerial use of marketing and financial metrics
and does metric use affect performance of marketing-mix activities?. Journal of
Marketing, 77(2), pp.17-40.
Nacchia, F. and Massaro, V. 2017. A joint linguistic-marketing analysis of brand and product
names: the case of Unilever. Lingue e Linguaggi, 22, pp.169-186.
Rawal, P. 2013. AIDA Marketing Communication Model: Stimulating a purchase decision in the
minds of the consumers through a linear progression of steps. International Journal of
Multidisciplinary research in social & management sciences, 1(1), pp.37-44.
Saaty, T.L. 2013. Analytic hierarchy process. In Encyclopedia of operations research and
management science (pp. 52-64). Springer, Boston, MA.

14STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
shampoo. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.lovebeautyandplanet.com/us/en/hair/products/shampoo.html
Zeriti, A., Robson, M.J., Spyropoulou, S. and Leonidou, C.N. 2014. Sustainable export
marketing strategy fit and performance. Journal of International Marketing, 22(4), pp.44-66.