Unilever's International Market Entry Strategies: A Comparative Analysis

This report analyzes Unilever's international market entry strategies, focusing on the selection of India and France as target markets, the method of market entry, and potential marketing strategies.

Investigative Report

Executive Summary
The report is based on a business entry into new market. It must be noted that market
entry strategies are different from market strategies. the former are used by businesses while
entering into new market while the latter is used by the company for being successful in the
entered market. It is an investigative report on Unilever’s international market aspect. Unilever is
a multinational having British origins, the company deals in consumer goods. When a company
wants to enter into a new market it uses some strategy for the purpose. Some of the common
market entry strategies that are used widely includes direct exporting, licensing, franchising,
partnering, joint ventures, etc. The report covers strategies that Uniliver adapts to. There are
various strategies that are available to a company aiming at establishing market an analysation of
which helps in deciding the best strategy.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Background of Unilever..............................................................................................................4
Two International Markets..........................................................................................................5
Reason for Selecting the Market..................................................................................................6
Analysing the method of Market Entry.......................................................................................6
Reviewing Potential Marketing Strategies..................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The current report will include the background of the selected global country that is
Unilever. Two international markets of the company that are India and UK will be compared in
the report on the basis of the various selection criteria. The report will highlight the reasons for
selection of these markets by the company. Further the report will be analysing the market entry
modes and review the potential marketing strategies.
MAIN BODY
Background of Unilever
Unilever plc is Britain origin multinational company that deals in consumer goods. The
dealing products of the company are ice cream, food, cleaning agents, beauty and personal care,
and condiments products. The company is largest soap producer in the world. Almost 190
countries all -round the world are available with the company. For the year 2021 total revenue,
operating income, net income, total assets, total equity and number of people employee for the
Unilever are €52.444 billion, €83.702 billion, €6.621 billion, €75.095 billion, €19.746 and
149000 respectively. Global market report is defined as a report which includes the research a
company do in order to know about a new market. Researching global market means collecting
and analysing the information of the market that is not domestic market for the company (Tien,
2019). It is important for businesses like uniliver to do global market research and prepare the
report for improving the operations for cost reduction and also for making them successful in the
foreign market as what works in the domestic market successfully may not be a success in the
outside one. Further it is essential for better understanding of competition, and gathering of
opportunities in such market. Unilever tries to know as much as it can be relating to the regions
the business targets. It effectively designs its approach for the research. Data is collected and
potential results are analysed by including the understanding regarding the culture. Company use
advertising and marketing for informing the targeted audience about benefits of the innovations
and products that the company offers. It is seen as a way in which company engages with the
customers.

Two International Markets
Two international markets selected are France and Indian markets. Unilever follows a
specific process for market selection in international expansion. Firstly, the company formulates
its objectives and goals for entering into the particular market. Next what products the firm
wishes to begin its sales within the international market are selected. All the distinct features of
the product like its price, quality, etc. are considered and verified whether these are unique to the
foreign market or not (Tien and Ngoc, 2019). Global product cycle is also considered by the
managers for defining the scope and costs that has to be incurred in the product for adapting it to
the foreign market. Next the target market is identified by the company for specifying to what
people in the non –domestic market will the company sell its products. Then the entry modes are
selected and marketing strategies are developed. Preliminary screening is the stage of model for
international market selection (Verbeke and et.al., 2019). It is done to minimize any probable
risk to the company in the expansion purpose.
Selection Criteria Country A – France Country B – India
Demographics: Population of the nation
is 68 million.
Population of India is
138 crores, second most
populated country.
Consumer spending
power
Average customer
spending is 100 million.
The customer spending
power of the nation is
22.6 trillion rupees.
Infrastructure Availability of reliable
and robust
transportation.
Adequate infrastructure
is present.
Language The majority of the English is common in

people speaks French so
the products of the
company needs to be
advertised in French.
the country.
Reason for Selecting the Market
There are certain factors that are considered by the company while deciding the country
to enter for expansion of business. First type of factors is the firm related factors in this
ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric factors are considered (Costa e Silva, Meneses and
Radomska, 2018). Approach in ethnocentric factor is that the operations of international market
are secondary and with this vision of the company is to centre its focus on the domestic market,
polycentric follows the approach that each market is independent in relation to any other market
in this vision of the company is that markets are unique. And last geocentric has the approach
that the entire world is a single market, the vision in this is global. Uniliver selected to operate in
India and France following the polycentric factor. Further the general factors that made the
company to select Indian market are the economic factors, business regulations and political
factor. Further the specific factor includes that trends of the domestic market of each of the
countries. Also the raw materials for the production processes are easily available in both the
nations.
Analysing the method of Market Entry
The strategies namely are direct exporting, licensing, franchising, partnering, joint
ventures, buying of a company in such country, piggybacking, turnkey projects, and greenfield
investments. The strategy that was adopted by Unilever for entering into Indian and French
market is joint ventures. In joint venture strategy of entering into a market involves creation of a
new company with a partner that is generally from the market in which the company want to
enter. In joint venture the company is able to take the benefits of its partner in terms of
infrastructure, reputation in the local market and knowledge about such market. Hence joint
venture can be defined as an enterprise having two or more number of investing parties that have
rights over property and operation in sharing. The new company is provided by the management
team by these two companies. There are various advantages that are enjoyed by Unilever by
using joint venturing as a strategy to enter into complete new market. To begin with the company

gets the opportunity of gaining new expertise and capacity in complete new market. Uniliver also
gets the advantage of sharing of risks along with the costs widely (Cheng, and Huang 2019).
Further the possessed knowledge and expertise of the foreign market partner is the biggest
advantage.
The potential marketing entry strategies that can be used by the company is export which
is the simplest of all the strategies. In this there are further two ways one is selling of the
products of the company directly of the consumers in the market, this is known as direct
exporting. Other way is indirect exporting in this intermediaries are involved for the activity of
selling goods, distributor and agent are two examples of such intermediaries. These enables the
company to have benefits that comes from the knowledge possessed by such intermediary.
Reviewing Potential Marketing Strategies
The marketing strategies are of number of types. To being with the first one is the brand
positioning strategy, it is a detailed plan by which the company finds a correct place in the
market for its brand and place is also find in the minds of the market (Zou and Yu 2020). Next is
the public relations strategy, such relations are considered responsible for establishment and
maintaining a connection with the public in a positive manner. These relations are important to
be established for the purpose of avoiding a situation where the company falls behind its
competitors of the market. Another strategy is the product marketing strategy; this is basically
acting as an interface between the marketing, sales and product development. This is
implemented by following a six staged process which goes as first knowing about the customers
of the company, researching the market properly, giving shape of product positioning, creation of
full -fledged strategy, briefing of sales and marketing and lastly final launching of product and
monitoring its results. Furthermore, the another one is digital marketing strategy, in this a set of
planned actions aims at achieving specific goals of the business through online platform (Wu and
et.al., 2022). Inbound marketing strategy is another strategy that is used to engage and attract
customers by the organization into new markets. This strategy is needed aiming which the value
and trust are earned by the company. With the strategy of inbound marketing instead of trying to
attract new customers of the market the customers that previously purchased the products of the
company are attracted to again be a regular customer of the such products. SEO content strategy
is one that is content based. It is the strategy of organizing the content over the website with the
topic in order to remove the chances of being visible in search results. Content marketing

strategy is a strategy that is used for attracting, retaining, engaging the customers by the creation
and sharing of articles, podcasts, etc. similar media that is relevant to the products and objectives
of the company. It is highly useful when there is need to establish expertise and promotion of
awareness regarding the brand and positioning the business at the top in mind of customers.
Social media content strategy is yet another marketing strategy which details the information that
the company publishes on various social media platforms and in the way it also describes how
connection will be established with the customers (Tong, Luo and Xu 2020). It enables in saving
of a lot of time by helping in effective management of social media accounts. Email marketing
strategy can also be used and it is crucial for every type of business, using emails businesses
interact with the customers for the purpose of segmenting them in order to set strategy for the
further marketing plans. Video marketing strategy is a trend that keeps on increasing always.
This is evident from the returns that businesses get by spending on marketing campaigns over
platforms like YouTube and Tiktok. This method of marketing is no doubt time consuming but
the returns from this are commendable. Internal marketing strategy is focused on the building the
levels of employee loyalty, their competence and overall engagement in the activities of the
organization (Al-Surmi, Cao and Duan, 2020). Competence and engagement are increased in the
selling of the products of the company.
CONCLUSION
Based on the study conducted in this report the meaning and way an investigative report
is prepared has been learnt. The selected organization on which the entire report is based
Unilever that operates in a global market. The two markets in which the company operates
namely France and India have been selected for the report. These two have been compared on
the basis of their selection criteria. The report has covered reasons that influenced the Unilever to
start their operations in the selected countries. The strategies adopted by the company to enter in
such markets have been covered. The report also included the marketing strategies that were
used by Uniliver.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Surmi, A., Cao, G. and Duan, Y., 2020. The impact of aligning business, IT, and marketing
strategies on firm performance. Industrial marketing management. 84. pp.39-49.
Cheng, H. L. and Huang, M. C., 2019. The trade-off between institutionally proximal and distal
markets: The impact of home market pressures on firms’ export market
selection. Industrial Marketing Management. 76. pp.98-108.
Costa e Silva, S., Meneses, R. and Radomska, J., 2018. A holistic perspective on the
international market selection phenomenon. Journal of East European Management
Studies. 23(4). pp.579-602.
Tien, N. H. and Ngoc, N. M., 2019. Comparative Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of
the Modes of Entrying the International Market. International journal of advanced
research in engineering and management. 5(7). pp.29-36.
Tien, N. H., 2019. Comparative analysis of multidomestic strategy of P&G and Unilever
Corporation. International journal of foreign trade and international business. 1(1). pp.5-
8.
Tong, S., Luo, X. and Xu, B., 2020. Personalized mobile marketing strategies. Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science. 48(1). pp.64-78.
Verbeke, A. and et.al., 2019. Five configurations of opportunism in international market
entry. Journal of Management Studies. 56(7). pp.1287-1313.
Wu, X. and et.al., 2022. Market entry strategy in the presence of market spillovers and efficiency
differentiation. Naval Research Logistics (NRL). 69(1). pp.128-143.
Zou, L. and Yu, C., 2020. The evolving market entry strategy: A comparative study of Southwest
and JetBlue. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 132. pp.682-695.
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