Marketing Management Plan for Knorr Soup: A Case Study

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan for Knorr soup, a product line of Unilever, focusing on the South East Asia region, particularly Malaysia. The report begins with an executive summary and proceeds with a detailed situation analysis, including SWOT and PESTEL analyses to understand the internal and external environments. It identifies the market segment and positioning of Unilever, focusing on Knorr's product line. The marketing objectives are clearly defined, followed by strategic objectives and a discussion of marketing strategies and programs, including the marketing mix. The report covers segmentation, targeting, and positioning of Knorr products, alongside marketing monitors and evaluation metrics. Finally, the report concludes with recommendations and conclusions to improve sales and market share, as requested by the assignment brief. The assignment is a response to a decline in sales and market share for Knorr products in the region.

Running Head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
The report has helped in analyzing the different marketing strategies of Unilever company
and regarding the product line named Knorr products. The marketing plan has been
conducted in nature which has helped the company in analyzing the external and internal
environment. Furthermore, there are different kinds of issues in the company which has
helped them in analysis of the marketing mix and segmentation, positioning and targeting of
the company in an effective manner. Lastly, the implementation of the plan has to be
analyzed in an effective manner which has assisted them in managing the differences and
solved them effectively.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
About the Company...............................................................................................................3
Market Segment and Position of Unilever.............................................................................3
About the Product Line..........................................................................................................4
Situation Analysis......................................................................................................................4
Marketing Objectives.................................................................................................................8
Strategic Objectives for Primary Objectives..........................................................................8
Marketing Strategies and Programmes......................................................................................9
Marketing Mix Strategies.......................................................................................................9
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of Knorr.............................................................11
Marketing Monitors and Evaluation........................................................................................12
Recommendations and Conclusions........................................................................................17
Recommendations................................................................................................................17
Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
The report helps in analysing the marketing plan of a fast-moving consumer good
wherein the review is required to be done on one such product line of the company.
Furthermore, the situation analysis along with marketing objectives is required to be adopted
as this will help in analysing the different marketing programmes and strategies. The external
and internal analysis is required to be done which will help in improving the different kinds
of strategies and to perform the tasks appropriately.
About the Company
Unilever is British Dutch transnational consumer goods organization which is
headquartered in London, United Kingdom and Netherlands. It was founded in the year 1930
and the areas that is served by the company is the entire worldwide. Furthermore, Unilever
owns more than 400 brands in which the turnover rate of the company in the year 2016 was
more than 50 billion euros and there are different product lines under Unilever that is sold by
them are Hellmann’s, Knorr, Sunsilk and Surf (Unilever global company website, 2018).
Market Segment and Position of Unilever
Unilever is one of the largest FMCG companies that has segmented their market
based on different geographic, demographic and behavioural segmentation. Furthermore, the
growth of the sales is 3.7% and this has helped them in being in the top position.
Furthermore, the constant earnings of the company have risen to 7% and this has helped
Unilever in succeeding in the entire competitive market. The entire segmentation is done on
the basis of soaps, detergents along with other beauty products that are sold to the customers
in an appropriate manner (Adams, Gabler and Landers 2017).

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About the Product Line
Knorr is German food and beverage brand and this is owned by the Dutch-English
organization Unilever since the year 2000. Knorr brand produces dehydrated kind of soups
along with meal mixes and condiments. The respective brand was founded in the year 1833
and previously it sold different food items under Lipton brand effectively.
The product that will be analysed is Knorr Soup and there are different other products
which are required to be marketed in an effective manner. The situation analysis is required
to be done to establish distribution channels which will help in achieving the marketing share
in an effective manner. Proper external and internal analysis is required to be done which will
help in analysing the different strategies in an effective manner (Refreshment 2018).
Situation Analysis
Proper situation analysis is required to be conducted for Knorr Cup Soup as this will
help in analysis of the collection of the methods that will be used by the managers in order to
analyze the internal and external environment of the product or the entire brand in an
appropriate manner. Furthermore, the SWOT analysis is required to be performed in order to
analyze the internal environment of Knorr brand and gain more insight on the different
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in an appropriate manner (Bromiley et al.
2015).
Strengths
 Level of the brand awareness is high in nature (Welford 2016)
 The brand heritage is strong in nature (Carroll, Primo and Richter 2016)
 Proper expansion of the distribution network (Hsu 2016)
 Offers the customers with wide variety of tastes to the different customers in the
market

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 It offers the health consciousness products to the customers who maintains proper diet
and this helps them in gaining competitive advantage (Chang 2016)
Weaknesses
 Low salience levels as there are different customers in the market who are not aware
about the benefits of the brand (Gomes, Barnes and Mahmood 2016)
 Limited distribution of the products and services (Armstrong et al. 2014)
 It helps in offering suitable for the different urban markets in an effective manner
Opportunities
 The net disposable income of the different individuals has been raised over the last
few years and this has helped in increasing the purchasing power of the different
individuals
 The different customers are becoming healthy and they are becoming more health
conscious in nature (Sheth and Sisodia 2015)
 The consumers exposure has been increased to the different foreign brand products
and this is one of the biggest opportunity for Knorr brand (Grant 2016)
Threats
 There in influx of the different foreign brands in the same kind of category of Knorr
such as they are offering soups or instant noodles and this has provided Knorr with
sterner competition (Strauss and Frost 2016)
 The frozen food can affect and curtail the sales which will affect the brand image of
Knorr Company in the entire competitive market (McDONALD 2016)
On the other hand, the external analysis of Knorr is required to be done which will
provide a proper insight on the different kinds of insights on the political, social, economic,

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environmental, social and technological factors. The PESTEL tool is adopted by Knorr which
is the brand under Unilever to identify the impact created by them on macro environment of
this international brand.
Political Factor is the first and foremost factor that is required to be analyzed by
products that are sold by them. The political stability of the most countries relating to the
Knorr soup is one of the opportunity for them and this will help them in growing free trade
relations. On the other hand, there are different issues related to the political issues in the
European Union which is the threat for the company in a negative manner (Moutinho and
Vargas-Sanchez 2018). The political stability of the countries helps in providing opportunity
for Knorr brand to grow in these markets. The political stability in the United States will help
the company in minimizing the different kinds of challenges in the strategic implementations
of the country in an effective manner.
Economic Factors is the other factor which is essential in the organization and the
business performance of Knorr brand helps in outlining the influence of the economic
conditions on the different firms and their impact on the macro environment effectively
(Mastropieri and Scruggs 2017). There are different threats along with opportunity for the
Knorr brand that includes the different kinds of increasing wages in the developing countries
which has affected their brand image of the company in a negative manner. Furthermore, the
increasing wages in the economy in developing countries that has increased the sales and this
will increase the potentiality of the brand in a positive manner (Pride and Ferrell 2016).
Social Factors is the other essential factor which is required to be considered by
Knorr, brand of Unilever that creates affect on the business performance of Unilever and
Knorr brand as well. The social factors create a huge impact on the FMCG of Unilever that
includes the different opportunities that include rising health consciousness among the

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different customers in which it has been noticed that Knorr brand needs to analyze the
behavior of the customers in which this will help and provide insight to Knorr brand in
including different products which will help them in becoming more popular in the economy
(Gronroosn 2016). Knorr brand or Unilever needs to address the different demands of the
customers which will include the health consciousness factors as this is trending in the
society and this will help them in managing the preferences in an effective manner.
Technological factors are the other important factor that is required to be analyzed in
an effective manner. Unilever depends on the different kinds of available technologies which
helps them in supporting the consumer goods business. The rising automation of the business
is the opportunity and threat for them wherein it has been noticed that Unilever needs to
analyze the brands impact on the purchases done by the different customers effectively.
Furthermore, decreasing cost of the transportation based on efficiencies of technologies help
them in increasing the operational efficiency (Helfat and Martin 2015).
Environmental Factors are the factors wherein it has been noticed that this will
influence the macro environment in a proper manner. The rise in the interest in
environmentalism of the business is the opportunity in which it helps in increasing the
business efforts on sustainability and this helps them in increasing and enhancing the
sustainability programs of the company and maintain business efforts on sustainability which
will increase the overall impact on the business in a positive manner (Krishnan and Malick
2015).
Legal Factors play a significant role which plays a major role in the Unilever
Company. It has been seen that Unilever needs to satisfy the regulations and this helps in
minimizing the barriers to the consumers good business effectively. The increasing
complexity of the different environmental regulations is the opportunity which will provide

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the company in following the various patent laws that is needed in order to maintain their
position in the entire economy. Proper strengthening the consumer rights law is the other
essential component which is essential and is required to be followed by Unilever for
matching the corporate social responsibility strategy with environmental regulations
(Krishnan and Malick 2015).
From the PESTEL analysis along with SWOT analysis, this can be analyzed that the
situation analysis is essential which has been performed for Unilever as this assisted in
gaining more competitive advantage and gaining more insight on the different performances
of the company and brand effectively. With the internal and external analysis, it has been
analyzed that there are different weaknesses which is required to be made their strengths and
gain more strategic competitive advantage in the entire economy effectively.
Marketing Objectives
There are different marketing objectives of Knorr brand which falls under Unilever
and the main objectives include the following:
 To mark up more than 10% profit each year in a sustainable manner by valuing the
different stakeholders along with the different employees along with maintaining
loyalty among the different customers (Baker 2014)
 To increase the percentage of the sales by increasing manufacturing rate of the core
brands such as Knorr (Jarzabkowski and Kaplan 2015)
 To spend the part of the budget on the different advertisements and introduction of
the adoptive products in the local markets with proper innovation in the research and
development which is required to be done in an effective manner (Kotler 2015)
The main and overall objective of the company or the Knorr brand is to expand their
services in the entire world with the product penetrating technology into the different local

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markets. This will help in attaining the loyalty among the different customers and this will
help in advancing the expectations of the customers in an effective manner as well.
Strategic Objectives for Primary Objectives
As the main strategy of the company Unilever is to maintain customer relationships in
an effective manner by establishing additional product range in their menu as this will help
them in retaining their position in the market and this will help them in meeting the
expectations of the customers in an appropriate manner. Knorr, the product line of Unilever
needs to:
 To maintain their position with gradual growth to lead the entire world (Koseoglu
2016)
 To maintain proper relationships with the different stakeholders which are enhanced
in nature along with proper and strong international management which is essential in
nature to be conducted by Unilever (Holliman and Rowley 2014).
From the different marketing objectives, this can be analyzed that there are different
objectives which is required to be adopted by Knorr brand in order to maintain competitive
advantage. This has been seen that there are different kinds of decline in the sales of the
brand Knorr and this is essential in nature for Unilever to take steps such as increasing their
sales by analyzing the position of the other competitors in the economy and understand their
position effectively and work upon the weaknesses effectively (McDonald and Wilson 2016).
Marketing Strategies and Programmes
There are different marketing strategies and programmes which is required to be
adopted by Unilever and Knorr, the product line of Unilever. Proper marketing mix is
essential to be conducted in order to analyze the different market development strategies

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which will help Knorr brand in managing and driving margins and efficiency. Furthermore,
Unilever helps in believing profitable growth and it is responsible for growth as well.
Marketing Mix Strategies
Product- Knorr is the leading packages food and beverage brand that is based in
Germany and this offers huge variety of the products in the marketing mix in ready to cook
and frozen food segment. The Knorr soups are made of 100% vegetables and there are no
such added preservatives in it as well. The classic flavors include different hot and sour
vegetable, sweet corn soups and chicken delight soups as well. The company has furthermore
launched eight kinds of masalas that includes Biryani masala and this has helped them in
becoming more popular in the approaches that are adopted by them in an effective manner
which will help them in managing the differences.
Price- The different products of Knorr brand are bit lower in pricing in comparison to
the other competitors in the market. Furthermore, the brand needs to follow the product
penetration strategy as the company has major competition in the market from the other
companies that are already existing in the market (Serra and Kunc 2015). In the Asian
markets, it has been noticed that there are other brands such as Nestle owned Maggi which
has helped them that holds more than 50% of the market share. In comparison to the other
competitors in the market, it has been noticed that the prices are lesser in nature in
comparison to the other competitors in the market and they are even lesser in fewer
categories (McDonald and Wilson 2016).
Place- Knorr products are being sold in more than 75 countries around the world and
this utilizes the existing channel of Unilever in each of the countries for the purpose of the
distribution along with delivery as this is the sub brand under the FMCG giant’s umbrella.
Knorr is the subsidiary of Unilever and it has more than 4000 redistribution network channels

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and the products of Knorr are being sold by them in different organized and unorganized
retail stores in an effective manner. On the other day, this can be analyzed that Indian
example of Big Basket is the other brand in which the different products as well (Lasserre
2017).
Promotion- Knorr follows the aggressive kinds of promotion and marketing strategies
in the marketing mix for the different products. Most of the different advertisements that are
undertaken by the Knorr brand are still via television along with different other commercial
channels (Mastropieri and Scruggs 2017). Each of the new launch of the product is followed
by heavy advertisements and there are different endorsements for the products in a positive
manner. In the recent era, it has been noticed that Knorr has been active on the social media
websites which includes launching of the different products in which this helped them in
launching new products with the help of Facebook and other social media channels and this
helped them in gaining more popularity in the entire competitive market in an effective
manner.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of Knorr
Segmentation is done by Knorr in the following manner:
Geographic Segmentation
 High End Product
 Targeting Lower income group
Demographic Segmentation
 Family Size: More than 3 (nuclear family)
 Occupation-Working and Housewives
 Age- 28-40years (buyers) and 8-10 years (consumers)
 Gender- Female along with teenagers