Marketing Analysis of Unilever: Roles, Mix, and Strategic Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's marketing operations. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, emphasizing brand management, social media engagement, internal communication, customer listening, trend tracking, innovation, and communication with other organizations. The report then examines the relationship between the marketing function and other functional units within Unilever, including finance, operations, human resources, customer service, and IT, highlighting how these departments work together to achieve company objectives. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to evaluating the marketing mix of Unilever and comparing it with that of Procter & Gamble, focusing on product, price, place, and promotion strategies. The report concludes with a strategic marketing plan for Unilever, including an executive summary, mission, vision, and a detailed SWOT analysis to assess the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report aims to provide a thorough understanding of Unilever's marketing approach and its strategic direction.

Marketing Essential

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ROLES AND RESPONSIBLITIES OF MAREKTING FUNCTION.......................................3
ROLES AND RESPOSBILITY OF MARKETING RELATED TO WIDER
ORGANIZATION.......................................................................................................................4
Marketing mix of Unilever and P&G.........................................................................................5
STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN..........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Marketing means an activities which undertakes the promotion of buying and selling of
products and services. These also helps various companies as well business in being more
developed while by have advertising, promoting, different channels for goods and services
(Insights,2020). Unilever is consumer goods company, headquarter in London. The products
include foods, candy, energy drinks, tea, cleaning agents, juice, beauty products, personal care
and consumer health care products etc and its products are available in around 190 countries.
This report analyses the key roles and responsibilities of marketing function and their
relationship with other functional units. This report also evaluate how business objective can be
achieved using the marketing mix.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBLITIES OF MAREKTING FUNCTION
The marketing function helps company for being their more development and make their
market position as much they can developed them. Roles and responsibilities of marketing:-
Defining and managing brands:-
This involves in identifying their brands position among their customer and how their
brands stay much, where they stands. As Unilever company products and services are more
developed in market and they have the best position in market (Nardi, Rinaldi and
Cavicchi,2016).. It also defines the customer experience of people and partner how they interact
with business.
Managing social media:-
Unilever company required to manage their social media platforms in which they can
make more customer and they can easily maintain the social media pages. More customer should
also manage accounts as well what have been posted on online related to products.
Internal communication:-
Unilever company employee need to understand their employee communication as,
manager and employee need to maintain their relationship. leader in company make them
prepare in giving them values, goals and priorities about the company.
Listening to customer:-
Company must listen to their customer and help them in getting some problems about
products and services (Laczniak and Murphy,2019).. It is necessary to be closer with clients and

customer in order to listen their needs and wants. Creating surveys would help them in capturing
information about sales and better understanding their needs.
Tracking trends:-
Unilever have to track the trends of market and created their products in such a ways that
support them in making more customer. This could be also benefits in regarding information
about marketing competitions (Schäffner,2019).. While watching competitors company can
easily identify their mistakes and try to avoid them before making any strategies.
Innovative:-
At time of developing new products Unilever must be know about their innovative and
creative with ideas in which they can have more customer and easily take the best market
position. Company also give some offers with high level discount, as customer are demanding
for more.
Communication with other organization:-
Unilever must have better communication with other company. it means that they come
to know about trends and respect the principle of business ethics (Treder,2020).. The chain
between them must be strong so through which they mainly come to know about their trending
strategies.
ROLES AND RESPOSBILITY OF MARKETING RELATED TO WIDER ORGANIZATION
The showcasing capacity of association is engaged towards a compelling promoting plan
that can address the issues of changing taste of the client. It is likewise needed to set the costs in
like manner the current market costs The showcasing interaction of Unilever centres around
utilization of advertising instruments that contribute towards advancing their items in the
objective promoting sections (Treder,2020).
The interrelationship between marketing and others functional units-
Marketing and Finance: -
Marketing function keep supporting to Unilever in identifying their new products and
some new strategies that could help company for being more developed. Finance departments in
company need to prepare accounts and budgets that could be more important for company
(Insights,2020). Unilever company both the function play important in making their company

budget and bring some more new products and services that would help their customer in making
satisfied.
Marketing and Operations :-
Operation departments in Unilever assist them in packaging their products with having
some innovative ideas and new creative. Both the departments are closer to them and work
together in developing their best market place (Nardi, Rinaldi and Cavicchi,2016). marketing
makes new strategies about their packaging and labelling, that could help operation in making
something new that could easily surprised to their customer. Marketing and operation play
important in developing their company along with that satisfying their company. While working
together they come to know more about raw material into finished goods.
Marketing and Human resource: -
Human resource work to hire new employee and that ensure about the market
departments of company. The HR of Unilever company help them in providing feedback of
company while having market department collaboration and feedback from employee that could
make them in achieving goals of company (Laczniak and Murphy,2019). Employees in
marketing departments is working for satisfaction requirements and individual’s goals are being
achieved by them in organization
Marketing and Customer service:-
This function work together for satisfying their customer needs towards products and
services. Customer services departments of Unilever company get feedback from marketing
departments about developing new products launched and experience about existing products.
hence, both the department work in making their positive relationship that could keep them in
company for having more products and help them for fulfilling their needs and wants. More
helpful in understanding product and services which are being introduce in market.
Marketing and IT:-
As they both work in together for ensuring innovation and advance technology
knowledge in best manner. Unilever company has business online in which they need to have
both the department collaboration and them more used for taking new innovation ideas and
developing them more customer satisfaction (Schäffner,2019). For having more advance
technology these may would help organization to achieve more target and being more beneficial

Marketing mix of Unilever and P&G
Unilever’s P&G
Product The Unilever’s products are the product the
company offer to its customer. The company
works in food products, refreshment
products, home care and personal care
products. Unilever’s made a lot of product
range and product varieties so that customer
can choose according to the taste and
preferences they like to have. It is one of the
ways in which company is focusing most to
provide the customer with a lot of product
services.
P&G works in all the product
qualities including the beauty
product range from premium
to normal and the company
also produce the grooming
products (HR, and Aithal,
2020). The company also have
healthcare, fabrics and baby &
family care products to offer
to the customer. P&G provide
a lot of product design and
variety so that they can choose
according to their needs and
wants.
Price The Unilever’s works in different pricing
strategies as they have different range of
product to offer to the customer and they
also have products to offer to premium
customer and for normal customer as well. It
is very important to have a low-cost strategy
so that the company can attract a lot of
customer and many customers can call the
Unilever’s as their important brand.
They also have product bundle pricing in
The pricing strategy of the
company are with all the ways
in market-oriented pricing
strategy of working. They also
have the product bundle
marketing strategy of pricing.
Premium pricing strategy of
the company to attract more of
the premium customer to
increase the product range.

their pricing strategies.
Place The global operation of the Unilever’s is the
reflection of extensive reach of the company
business in the audience market goods. The
company have all the reach in the market
which help the organization in making the
best use of the places they want to work and
to attract more of the customer with the
policies and place they have their stores at
(Išoraitė, 2016).
Place refer to the places where
the company put their stores
and provide the services to the
customer with the product and
services they are offering.
Company use the best places
to get the greater number of
audience and it help the
company
Promotion Promotion refer to the strategy the company
use in promotion of their product and
services in market. It is a way to connect to
the customer and make them aware about
their product and services in market they are
offering. The company use all type of
promotion including the advertisement, sales
promotion, public relation, direct marketing
and personal selling.
Promotional activity are the
activities which a company
use to promote their business
in the market to reach the
maximum number of people in
market so that company can
make the best use of market.
Company use all the ways of
promotion including the
advertisement, print media,
social media. It helps in
promotion and develop of the
product and services company
offering to their customer.
Both the companies work in the same sector and they are one of the top competitors of each
other, the Unilever’s is leading the one side of the industry due to its better strategies in the
product pricing and they way they promoter their product and services in the market is helping
them in increasing of the business with better results.

STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The strategic marketing plan consists of the goals and objectives of the organisation along
with analysing the macro and micro business factors, planning of product, implementation and
tracking its progress. This marketing plan is of Unilever which will help the company to develop
various strategies by analysing all the external and internal factors and the budget of the
company. The major reason of this is to evaluate existing market strategy for Unilever and
compare them with its rivals’ strategies.
MISSION
The mission of Unilever is to enhance vitality to the life of customers. The company tries
to meet the everyday needs in terms of hygiene, personal care and nutrition through the brands
that will facilitate people to look good, feel satisfactory and get more and best out of life (Young,
2017). This ensures that the organisation is able to satisfy the maximum customers in lives’
various aspects.
VISION
The vision of Unilever is to make the living of the people sustainable. The company
considers this as the best long-term approach for the Unilever business to face progress and
growth. It mainly focuses on the sustainability among the consumers (Young, 2017).
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
SWOT analysis
This helps in analysing the internal factors of Unilever through which various strategies
can be developed and implemented by the company (Weller, 2017).
Strengths: Unilever is the leader in terms of food products like soups, cream and tea. It also
leads in the processes of producing and supplying the Frozen Food products in Europe. It also
leads in production and sell of multiple brands along with having the art to produce products
which can suit the Unilever customers completely. The company prefers a multicultural
environment at the workplace which forces it to make investment in various parts of the country.

Weaknesses: Some of the products of Unilever are underperforming such that the set targets are
not achieved such as the frozen foods, household care, prestige perfume etc. The people became
more health conscious which declined the market share of the slim products.
Opportunities: As the customers tastes and preferences are changing so Unilever can change its
market segments by targeting towards more health conscious people and the women who prefers
expensive products. It can also develop its market in the developing countries. The company can
also make use of market penetration by penetrating in the Latin America Region. The adoption of
new technologies can also help in customer as well as financial management (Assenova, 2018).
Threats: There is a tough competition from the rivals’ side in the industry such as DANONE,
Sainsbury and M&S. The company do not produce dietary and health conscious food which loses
the trust and confidence of the customers in the Unilever products as they start preferring the
reduced fat and performing exercises. The subsidiaries also do not stock the enough quantity and
quality of products.
PESTLE ANALYSIS
This framework helps in drawing the outline of the growth opportunities in the
international market of consumer goods. The main focus behind the PESTLE analysis is that
various strategies can be developed which can help in overcoming the threats, exploit the
opportunities and achieves higher position of business by focusing on product innovation.
PESTEL analysis of Unilever is as discussed below:
Political factors: These factors include the decisions of the government and the macro
environment which impacts the firms. The political stability of some countries like US provides
the opportunity to the company so that it can extend its growth in these markets. This helps in
minimizing the challenges which can be faced during the strategic implementations. On the flip
side, the political issues which are created in the European union becomes threat for the
company’s operations in the consumer goods market of the region (Smithson, 2017). The
company can expand its free trade relations especially with those which involves the developing
countries.
Economic factors: These factors decide the business performance of Unilever. The increasing

wages can be a great opportunity for the company to earn higher profits. This can be considered
as a threat also because of the increasing costs which states that the company has many facilities
of manufacturing in different regions. The high growth of developing country and the financial
stability of the developed countries also becomes opportunity for the company (McDONALD,
2016).
Social factors: Unilever can make use of the change in the preferences and taste of the people as
they are becoming more heath conscious, the company can produce the dietary food and the food
which does not cause harm to the people. The rising environmentalist behaviours also provides
great opportunity to the company as it can attract large number of customers by improving tits
impact on the environment. Unilever can reduce the consumption of energy through adoption of
new and more energy efficient technologies.
Technological factors: Technology supports the Unilever in order to enhance its consumer
goods business. Advanced technology can become opportunity for the company as it will
increase the operational efficiency by installing new equipment for business processing. But on
the other hand, it can be a threat to the company as the competition level increases because the
small ones in the local markets also use the technologies (Kreutzer, 2019). The rise in the
Research and Development leads to more competition which threatens Unilever. Also, the lower
cost of transportation due to technological automation can lead to low cost of operations thereby
contributing in the business growth. Still, it can be a threats as it makes the competition tough.
Legal factors: It is must for the Unilever to adhere to all the regulations which can reduce the
barriers in the business of consumer goods. The company can make use of the opportunity in
order to enhance the corporate image by integrating the CSR with the environmental regulations.
Also, if company strengthens international patent laws, it can facilitate the growth of Unilever.
Unilever can use those patent laws in resolving its problems and also the consumer right laws
can be used to improve the customer-service quality and the product quality standards. These
efforts of the company can help in enhancing the attractiveness of the brand of Unilever.
Environmental factors: As the interest of the people is rising in terms of environmentalism, the

company can use this opportunity by improving its environmental programs to attract large
number of customers who shows much concern towards environment (Sadeghpour and et.al.,
2017). The company can also strengthen its sustainability programs which can gain a greater
competitive advantage. The strategies can use the advanced technology for product innovation in
order to reduce the environmental impact.
OBJECTIVES
 To develop sustainable profitable growth and shareholder’s value by enhancing the
profits by 10%.
 To increase the investments on advertising the majority of its products by allocating
the budget of marketing of about 5000 million pounds.
 To boost the sales and the margin by using the growth strategies by 8%.
 To enhance the market’s share and maintain effective leadership in the core products
of the company by ensuring the loyalty among customers and producing the products
which meets the specific needs of the consumers in market.
MARKETING MIX STRATEGIES
Product: Branding strategies in the products whose launching will be low but customers will be
attracted towards the branded products.
Price: High quality low pricing strategy for ensuring that the company retains its markets share.
Place: The company will target the places where both the high and average income people lives
to offer the products at low prices. It also introduces smaller branches in the countries at the
place of subsidiaries in new areas.
Promotion: Pull strategy where Unilever will promote the products and motivates the people to
buy.
Process: It will use various processes in delivering the products such as online, delivery at
doorsteps, at the stores etc.
People: The people at Unilever are very talented and skilled.
Physical evidence: It is presentable as the established stores in UK and in many countries along
with its evidence can be found on the social networking sites and online platforms.

SEGMENTATION, TARGETTING AND POSITIONING
Segmentation basically refers to the process in which heterogeneous market is broken
down into smaller homogenous segments where members of the group have certain needs.
Targeting is the identifiable group where Unilever directs its efforts in order to satisfy the clients.
Various strategies are made for the target market by combining all the elements of
Marketing Mix. The target is the households for the products of home care as well as the
individuals who are health sensitive.
Unilever has positioned itself as personal care and food producers along with the
company positioning itself having the products which are high quality and pocket friendly
(Rintaugu, 2019).
MARKETING BUDGET
The overall budget calculated in the marketing of products and services of Unilever is
£5000.
S No Particulars Amount (in £)
1. Market research 1000
2. Traditional advertisements 2000
TV And broadcasting 800
Direct mail 200
Print ads and Promotional brochures 300
Banner advertisements and hoardings 400
Promotions and discounts 300
3. Online marketing 1000
Social media marketing 100
Endorsements 200
Web advertisements 300
Database marketing 400
Miscellaneous 1000
Total expenditure 5000

MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL
MARKETING METRICS:
 Return on marketing investment (ROMI)
 Analytical tools and techniques: Attribution tools, web analysis, Mobile analytics,
campaign automation, social analytics and tag management (Akuamoah, 2017).
 Bottom line performance and Contribution Margin Key performance indicators
KPI:
 Increase in profit and Sales revenue
 Inbound marketing return on investment
 Customer Lifetime value
 Customer Acquisition costs
 Social media traffic and conversion rate
 Abandonment rate
Besides all these above mentioned, there can be other methods to measure and control the
marketing strategic plan such as Sales analysis, market share analysis, customer satisfaction etc.
The main aim of marketing is to persuade the customers for purchasing product or investing in a
service. The company can do this by monitoring the feedbacks of the customers through polls
and surveys. Sales can be estimated by the revenue which is generated or the profit capital. The
main focus of the marketing plan is to evaluate the impact it has on the market targeted. Actual
sales are considered to analyse that whether changes are necessary or not. Market share is
defined as the percentage of consumer saes which is dominated by particular product. Plan helps
in outlining the product’s market share before its implementation and the changes are projected
to the marketplace.
Evaluation
The strategic management plan can be evaluated in many ways. It can eb done by checking the
reaction of the competitors (market reaction) as this decides the success or failure of strategic
implementation. If the competitors decide to copy the company, then this means the plan is
affecting them leading to success. The customers’ response also helps in evaluating the
effectiveness of the marketing efforts. This can be gained by customer service feedback or

engaging them online which will help in knowing the thinking of the customers regarding the
marketing efforts of the company. The sales performance of the company must also be evaluated
as it decides whether the plan is working or not. The sales conversion if effective can contribute
in achieving rapid growth, therefore the success must be focused instead more focusing upon
generating the leads. ROI can also prove to be the top concern when the focus is on evaluating
the return from the marketing expenses which decides that whether the marketing expenses
results in gaining overall profit or not. By using these approaches, it becomes very easy to
achieve the organisational strategic goals and objectives.
CONCLUSION
The overall report was based on the marketing of the products and services of Unilever
which is in London. It was started by describing the roles and responsibilities of the marketing
function. It was followed by the interrelationship of marketing function with the other functions
of organisation such as finance, operations etc. Furthermore, the marketing mix was performed
for Unilever and its competitor P&G. At the end, a marketing plan was made which helps the
company in implementing the strategies successfully to increase the customer base and the
profitability in the decided budget.

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