Practical Application of Key Marketing Principles on Unilever plc

This report discusses the practical application of key marketing principles on Unilever plc, including the 7Ps of marketing. It also covers the communication mix of Unilever plc and the rationale behind marketing decisions taken by the company. Unilever plc is a British multinational company that operates in more than 150 countries and deals in multiple product ranges such as health care, personal care, daily use products, and beauty products.

Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Practical application of key marketing principle on Unilever plc...............................................3
Communication mix of Unilever plc...........................................................................................6
Rationale of marketing decision taken by Unilever plc...............................................................7
Concept of segmentation, targeting and positioning on Unilever plc.........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is related to those process under which certain efforts are made increase the
demand of consumer towards the goods and services of organisation. Nowadays marketing
becomes essential need of every business to become success in this highly competitive market.
Unilever plc is the organisation which is chosen here to describe various principles of marketing.
Principles of marketing generally include seven P's of marketing (Ahmad Shukor, 2020). This
report contains various rational of marketing decision and practical application segmentation
targeting and positioning. Unilever plc is a British multinational company operates their stores in
more than 150 countries. Its headquarter is situated in London, United Kingdom. It deals in
multiple range of products such as health care, personal care and beauty products. Unilever
maintains more than 700 brands in their business in different countries of world. This company
was formed in 1929 after the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British
soap maker lever brothers.
TASK
Practical application of key marketing principle on Unilever plc
Marketing mix related to set of action under which business organisational acknowledge
their customers about various aspect of their products and services such as product, price, place
and promotion and the further are process, physical evidence and people. The brif discussion
related to these 7P's of marketing on Unilever are given below.
Product
This factor of marketing is related to the actual output which company provide to their
customers as their product and here product means products and services both. It is basic
requirement of any company having a product to sell them in market. It is seen in many case
study that many company develops product first and then try to sell them in market but it is not
right because product can be developed after analysing the needs of consumer in market. In case
of Unilever plc, it offers more than 400 brands in market. It deals in multiple product range such
as health care, personal care, daily use products and beauty products. It also deals in
refreshments such as beverages and ice creams. The refreshments category includes heart brand
ice cream and brook bond teas. It deals in home care products such as detergents and

dishwasher . The personal care products include close up toothpaste, vaseline, Dov soap and
shampoo.
Price
It is related to the amount or money charges by business organisation for their products
and services from their customers. The pricing strategy of product is the most difficult process of
company because the success and failure of brand is majorly depends on their pricing structure.
The price of the product depends on many factors such as cost of products, price of substitute
product and consumer budget. Price should be set according to the product quality and consumer
budget. In case of Unilever plc, company deals in multiple range of brand so company uses
differentiation pricing strategy in their business operation. Company charges different prices for
their different products. Different pricing strategy of Unilever are market oriented pricing
strategy, premium pricing strategy and product bundle pricing strategy. Under market oriented
strategy Unilever considers the price charges by their competitors for particular product.
Unilever charges premium prices for their superior products such as for Dove and occasionally
company provides heavy discounts on bundle buying of products.
Place
This factor of marketing mix is related to the area and market where company sell their
products and service. The place of selling goods must be decide on the basis of consumer
preference. It is required to choose those place where the consumer does not find any difficulty
to reach. One of the most important aspect to be considered in this section is distribution
channels of the company. Effective distribution channels enables the company to provide their
product at every place where the demand of product arises at right time. Unilever plc operates
their business operations in more than 150 countries so it requires most effective distribution
channels to provide their product at every possible location on time. Unilever operates different
distribution places to provide their products to customers such as Retailers, Kiosk and Stores.
Retailers are the primary selling place of Unilever's products because it has large number of
customer reach. Company also has some products which only sell in their Kiosk and some
company brand stores where only Unilever's product are available.
Promotion
It is related to any method marketing which is used by business organisation to advertise
their product in market. This method is very useful to knowledge the buyers about the merits of

products and also notify about the changes in existing products. There are extensive competition
which Unilever faces in market and also there are many rivals in global market such as Walmart
which provides severe competition. To overcome this competition and achieve competitive
advantage, Unilever uses many promotional activities on their products and services. Unilever
uses many tactics such as sales promotion, public relation and direct marketing. Company use
many tactics at the tile of sale such as provide benefits in sale of particular product. Unilever
collaborate many advertising agencies to advertise their products.
People
This factor of marketing mix is related to both employees and customers of the
organisation. Both of these are important for the development of business organisation.
Employees of the organisation helps to built the image of organisation in front of their
customers. Effective workforce enables the organisation to conduct their business operations
with great superiority in this highly competitive market and loyalty of customers helps the
company to operate in long term. In product base industry employees plays many roles in
different department such as production, selling and advertisement. In case of Unilever plc,
company operates around 190 countries of world and the execution of business in these countries
require huge number of work force for production, distribution and marketing of product.
Unilever has many loyal customers in these countries which only uses the products of company
because of their trust.
Process
This section of marketing mix is related to various processes followed by business
organisation in different function of their business such as production, distribution and
marketing. It is very important for business organisation to choose best process for the
production of goods and services because it plays an important role in cost of the product.
Effective production techniques enables low per cost unit of product which ultimately increases
the profit margins of company. Unilever is a large organisation operates in highly competitive
market and required effective process in their business operations to gain competitive advantage
from market. Unilever uses internet of things technology in their business to make their
operations effective. It uses various advance technologies in their marketing department.
Physical evidence

It is related to those actions and things which reminds the customer about the
organisation products and services and helps the company to retain their customers. There are
many things which can be works as the physical evidence for organisation's product such as Key
chains and extra benefits along with the products. These things contains the trademarks and
symbols of company which reminds the buyer about the company's products and services.
Unilever performs this function by a way of providing carry bags containing print of company's
logo.
Communication mix of Unilever plc
It is related to those tools which business organisations uses in their business operations
to communicate with their customers. Under this method company takes with some techniquies
such as social media, product marketing, sales promotion and exhibitions. These methods are
very useful to enhance the sale of companies product and services of the organisation. The brief
discussion related to various factors of communication mix on Unilever plc is given below.
 Advertisement: - advertisement id related to the paid presentation of goods and
services of business organisation through any source of media such as television,
radio, newspaper and print media. It is one of the most successful and attractive
method to advertise the product of company. One of the basic need of tthis type of
advertisement is huge amount of funds because iit iis one of the most costly
method to advertise product (Doctoral dissertation). Unilever is large organisation
and has considerable profits to conduct these marketing. Unilever provides
multiple variety of products which require to be in knowledge of buyers. Company
can use any method of advertisement to advertise their products and services.
 Sales promotion: - It is related to those methods of marketing under which the
marketer provided extra benefits to customers at the time of sale. This type of
marketing is conduct at the time of actual sale. It helps the company to retain their
customers and enhance their sale. Unilever perform much sales promotion
technique in their marketing programme. It provides various schemes such as buy
one and get one free. Under this scheme customer get extra product at the purchase
of specific quantity of any product. This method helps Unilever to enhance the sale
of their particular product.

 Personal selling: - It is related to those technique of marketing under which the
marketer personally selling their product to reach at the buyer’s doorstep and
aware the customer about the customer about the merits of company’s product and
services. It is one of the most common used techniques by Unilever plc. Under
this technique the marketer of Unilever reached at the door of customer and
provides the product of company to customers for free and asks them to use. This
initiative helps the customer to erase all their doubts about the product and service
of Unilever.
Rationale of marketing decision taken by Unilever plc
It is not easy for Unilever plc or any other organisation to make decision on any factor of
marketing mix (Collins, 2018). It requires various professional skills and academic knowledge of
marketing mix. The brief discussion related to these decision of Unilever on marketing mix is
given below.
 Product :- It is not easy to make decision on product of the organisation. Function
requires extra ordinary market knowledge and superior skill of execution of ideas.
Product is considered the basic structure of company. There are many techniques and
process present in market to develop a product. Some companies develops product first
and then develops marketing strategies and selling strategies of product. This process is
quite risky because it contains the chances of product failure in term of public neglect the
product. Another method which Unilever applied in their organisation is that it analyses
the needs of customer from the market first and then develops a product according to the
needs of the people. Unilever analyses the increasing trend of beauty product in market
so it introduce many products to satisfy the needs of beauty in consumers.
 Price :- Decision related to the pricing strategy of a company is the most critical function
which company needs to perform. It is important because the major part of success are
depends on this factor ( Deligeorgiou, 2018). To establish price for any product,
company has to consider various factors such as cost of product, market trends, price of
related product and price of substitutes. Unilever analyses the market and prepares three
pricing strategy for their products such as market oriented strategy, premium pricing
strategy and bundle pricing strategy. Unilever makes decision on market pricing strategy

on the basis of their competitors because there are many competitors in retail business
and to establish their market share Unilever provides some products in less price than
their competitors. Their premium pricing policy is prepared to earn adequate profits for
the business and their bundle pricing strategy is developed to sell their product at bulk
quantity.
 Place :- The decision related to place of a business contains two aspect one is the
selection of market and another is development of distribution channels. Consumer reach
is necessary for the company to keep in mind at the time of selecting a place for selling a
product. Place should that where the number of customers are high and also the demand
of product available. Distribution channels requires huge investment to become
effective . Unilever analyses that retailers carry high number of consumer and it has huge
reach so it decides to provide their products to consumer with the help of these retailers.
To establish effective distribution channels, Unilever establish their production
department in many countries and uses many methods to provide their products at every
selling point at right time.
 Promotion :- This section is related to the decision taken for the techniques and methods
of promotion used by business organisation to advertise their product in market. This
section requires specialise knowledge of marketing and also huge of funds are required
for this function. The expenditure incurred on advertisement is very high and some
companies are not able to write off in same year so it regarded these expenses as deferred
revenue expenditure and be write off in many years (Che Rusli, 2020). Unilever is well
established organisation and has huge amount of profits and funds so it is not difficult for
Unilever to perform any marketing function. Unilever analyses the needs of marketing
due to change in business environment and also the increase in competition in market so
it follows many promotional activities such as sales promotion, direct marketing and
established relations.
 People :- In this section company requires to take decision on two issues such as
employees of the organisation and their customer group. Both the parties are important
for business organisation because employees help the organisation to conduct their
operations effectively and customer is important for revenue generation. Unilever needs
talented employees to operate their business and this require effective human resource

department. It is required to hire talented employees to have best remuneration skills and
to also have desirable working conditions. Unilever offers different range of products
such as beauty and health care products in market to develop considerable consumer
group.
 Process :- This section provides a knowledge related to the decision of company on
various process used in business operation. It is very important for the cost structure of a
company. There are number of processes for any individual functions and it depends
upon the decision taking ability of a company that what process is desirable and
profitable for organisation. Unilever wants to achieve economies of large scale
production so that it decide to use modern machinery in their process of production so
that their profit margins can increases. Company also wants to increase the sale of their
products so it uses modern process of advertising such as television advertising and
social media advertising to enhance their sale of products and their revenue will increase.
 Physical evidence :- It is related to various actions and things followed by business
organisation to remind the customer about their product and services. This factor requires
specialise knowledge about marketing and their principles. Unilever wants to retained
their customers and also adds new customer base in their company so it started to provide
logo printing hand bag along with their products. These handbags reminds their
customers about the company at the time of need any product.
Concept of segmentation, targeting and positioning on Unilever plc
Segmentation, targeting and positioning is a well established model of marketing
framework of any organisation. Under this marketing analysis, marketer divides the whole
market in small segments which contains similar needs of particular product.
Segmentation
Segmentation is related to those process of marketing frame work which include
identification and choosing of particular segment of market includes customer group having
same needs. Next plc wants to conduct segmentation of market for their clothing brand, It
analyses the needs of western garments in the market so first it prepares the list of buyers
wearing western clothes clothes by a way of market surveys and then developed the separate
segment of these buyers for the product positioning (Bacon and Tate, 2019). Next plc also

conducts geographical segmentation, under which it puts Europeans nations because of high
demand of western clothes there.
Targeting
Targeting related to that process of marketing which includes the selection of most desirable
segment from the segment prepared in Segmentation. Business organisation generally select
those segment which gives more revenue generation and increases profit under available
resources at minimum cost. Unilever plc targeted those countries of European nations where its
store already exist, select the consumer group which are having to be look beautiful and
classifies these segments into two groups first, low price section and second high price section.
Unilever plc analyses the dynamic needs of these age group customers and continuously work on
the innovation of existing product. And also produce the product at low cost so that the needs of
the low price buyer segment will satisfy, and also considers the environmental conditions of the
selected countries because cold weather is the common weather conditions in selected countries.
Positioning
Positioning related to the process of setting brand image in the minds of the segmented
buyers. In this process, business organisation prepares the strategy to inform the segmented
buyers about the product by a way of advertising. Unilever plc select the buyers segment young
ladies group and different price sections buyers and continuously informed their segmented
buyers about the changes in existing cosmetics new brands of company, changing trends,
different sale schemes , price drop on any product. Unilever plc also makes the changes in their
websites and adds low price section in their website under which the segment of low price buyer
can access. Under this campaign Unilever plc uses the different techniques of marketing like
television marketing. Fashion shows, monthly magazines and social media marketing.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that marketing plays an important role in the success of product
and services in this highly competitive market (Aller De Las Casas and Ortiz Calvo, 2018)(.
Nowadays there is a cut throat competition in the market and to overcome this competition
company requires establishing various strategies related to marketing of products and services.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmad Shukor, N.A.U., 2020. Report For The Business Plan Business Name: Dressmaker
(Amaryllis Couture).
Aller De Las Casas, G.F. and Ortiz Calvo, R.E., 2018. Easybrewers business plan.
Bacon, K. and Tate, S., 2019. Preparing a Food Processing Business Plan.
Che Rusli, N.H., 2020. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship (ENT300) Business Plan: Artisticake.
Collins, C., 2018. A Microbrewery Business Plan (Doctoral dissertation, CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE).
Deligeorgiou, A., 2018. Business plan and enterpreneurship.
Ericksen, J., 2020. Jamie’s Italian ice business plan.
Freeman, P., 2020. Your Business Plan For Member Engagement—Does It Emphasize Health
Span?. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 24(5), pp.63-64.
Geraldo, J.V. and Gama, P.M., 2019. WHAT DO INVESTORS LOOK FOR IN A STARTUP
BUSINESS PLAN?. Revista de Empreendedorismo e Gestao de Pequenas Empresas, 8(3),
pp.231-256.
Hong, X., 2020. Business plan for a company in the lure market.
Horák, L., 2019. Podnikatelský plán: Business Plan (Doctoral dissertation, Brno University of
Technology).
Inkon, K., 2019. A cross-sectional study on the relationship between business plan, entrepreneur
type, development stage and profitability of US SMEs. Academy of Entrepreneurship
Journal, 25(1), pp.1-21.
Lin, E., 2019. The Business of Bariatrics: Creating a Business Plan.
Paterson III, H., 2019. Archives: Features without a business plan.
Sirera Martín, T., 2019. A business plan for Dynamico.
Sousa, R.R., 2019. Business plan of a sensorial museum

https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs/marketing-theories-the-communications-mix/