Analyzing Unilever's Competitive Strategies in the Global Market

This report analyzes Unilever's strategies for navigating the competitive global consumer market. It delves into four key strategic management tools: acquisition and merger strategy, niche marketing strategy, supply chain strategy, and product line strategy. The report examines how Unilever utilizes acquisitions to increase revenue and capital generation, sustain financial stability in diverse markets, and compete with major players like Nestle and Procter & Gamble. The analysis includes a review of Unilever's asset value compared to competitors, the impact of acquisitions like Lakme on capital generation, and the role of supply chain management in supporting its global operations. The report further investigates the company's focus on niche marketing and product line strategies to maintain a competitive edge in the food and beverage, personal care, home care, and water purifier segments. The findings highlight the importance of these strategies in enabling Unilever to sustain its position as a leader in the consumer goods market.

Running head: COMPETITION IN THE GLOBAL CONSUMER MARKET
Competition in the Global Market
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................1
About Unilever:...............................................................................................................................1
Main analysis:..................................................................................................................................2
Acquisition and merger strategy of Unilever...................................................................................2
Increase in revenue generation:...................................................................................................3
Capital generation:.......................................................................................................................4
Acquisitions and financial sustainability:....................................................................................9
Niche marketing strategy of Unilever:..........................................................................................10
Supply chain strategy of Unilever:................................................................................................14
Product line strategy of Unilever:..................................................................................................18
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................21
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................22
References:....................................................................................................................................25

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Introduction:
According to Slack (2015), operations management refers to management and control the
of entire business operations including production in business organizations. The operations
manager in the recent times needs to control diverse areas of operations right from customers,
finance, marketing to human resources so that operations can be done in an efficient manner.
According to Jacobs, Chase and Lummus (2014), in the recent scenario it can be seen that the
operations managers are responsible for efficient operations of the business organizations. These
facts apply more to the multinational companies where the operations manager undoubtedly
account for their high market performances. The aim of the paper is to discuss a contemporary
issue of operations management which operational managers face. The issue which would form
the crux of the study are the competitive threats from the market which MNC companies
face in the competitive market. The paper would delve into four strategic management tool
namely, acquisition and merger, niche marketing, supply chain strategy and product line
strategy which multinational companies take to counteract this issue. The multinational
company on which the entire study would stand on is Unilever.
About Unilever:
Unilever is consumer goods manufacturing company which has its base in Rotterdam,
Netherlands and London, the United Kingdom. The multinational company is listed primarily on
the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. The company, founded in 1930 operates
in more than a hundred countries under the leadership of Paul Coleman, its CEO and Margin
Dekkers, its chairperson. The product umbrella of Unilever can be divided into four main
divisions namely, food and drink, home care, personal care and water purifier. An analysis of the
product umbrella of the Dutch multinational company would reveal reflection or outcomes of

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four strategic management decisions of the company to counteract the competitive threat it faces
(unilever.com 2018). The first umbrella, consists of brands like Bru Coffee ranges, Cornetto,
Magnum ice-cream and Brooke Bond. Unilever uses Bru that competes with Nescafe, owned by
Nestle, one of the biggest competitors of the company in the food market. Cornetto and Magnum
owned by the company competes with Movenpick, owned by Nestle and the ranges of ice creams
by Baskin-Robbins. The next division consists of home care brands like OMO, Surf and
Domestos. The major competitors of Unilever are P&G and Reckitt Benckiser (us.pg.com 2018).
The third class of products Unilever offers consist of personal care, both for men and women.
The brands like Lux, Axe, Brut, Lever and Lakme come under the product umbrella. Unilever
encounters competition from multinational companies like P&G and L’Oreal. The company
competes with electronic giants like LG and Samsung when it comes to Pureit, the water purifier
brands it owns. The product line of Unilever consists of two strategies so that it can counteract
the intense competition, niche marketing and acquisition and merger (Brown and Bessant 2013).
The level of competitive threat under which Unilever operates can be gauged by the fact that
Krafts Heinz wanted to acquire it and failed. Unilever, in order to sustain in this competition and
operate globally as a leader in the consumer goods market adopts the strategy of acquiring
companies all over the world. The deadly strategy which the company uses to support its
acquisition, product strategy and niche marketing is supply chain management strategy, which
again spreads all over the world (Kotler 2015).
Main analysis:
Acquisition and merger strategy of Unilever
According to Jay and Barry (2016), the acquisition and merger is a strategic tool which
multinational companies use to strengthen their global competitive positions. The acquisitions

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and mergers serve several important roles for the multinational companies. The following are the
strategic factors which multinational companies seek to achieve through acquisitions of firms:
Increase in revenue generation:
The most important objectives that the companies try seek through the merger and
acquisition strategy is increase in revenue. As far Unilever is concerned, the company’s product
line is composed of food and drinks, personal care, home care and water purifier, all of which are
extremely competitive markets. For example, in terms of food and drinks, Unilever brands like
Cornetto, Magnum, Knorr and Lipton are present in the market. As far as Cornetto and Magnum
are concerned, Unilever faces competition from Nestle, which is the world’s largest
manufacturer of food products. Nestle is a multinational company listed on the Swiss Stock
Exchange (bloomberg.com 2018). Nestle just like Unilever is present all over the globe and in
fact, the two competitors share most of the markets. Nestle owns Movenpick which competes
with the ice cream brands like Magnum that is owned by Unilever. Unilever is already facing
stiff competition from its competitor based in the US, Baskin-Robbins. The latter is the world’s
largest ice cream chain. The two companies give tough competition to Unilever in the ice cream
market. The company in addition faces competition from low ice cream manufacturers in the
world. This means that Unilever faces financial risk of losing revenue due to extreme
competition in one of the market it operates (Zucchella et al. 2016). Acquisition of firms in
different and diverse market allows Unilever to sell a large number of products globally and
generate immense revenue. A classic example of one such acquisition was that of Lakme, the
Indian beauty brand in 1996. The brand also offers salon services as well. Thus, acquisition and
merger of Lakme allowed Unilever to enter the high-end beauty market. It is a high end beauty
and fashion product and its consumers are mostly upper class consumers. Lakme Fashion Week

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is a high end fashion show attended by international designers. Thus, by acquiring Lakme,
Unilever boosted its revenue generation power (Yamin and Mavondo 2015).
Capital generation:
Figure 1: 5 years stock comparison between Unilever, Nestle, P&G and Samsung
(Source: bloomberg.com 2018)
Acquisitions and mergers are formidable tools that multinational companies use to
expand their capital base in which in turn renders them their competitiveness. The figure above
shows comparison between Unilever and its three competitors Procter & Gamble, Nestle and
Samsung (us.pg.com 2018). The graph shows that the performance of Unilever has been better
than Procter & Gamble and Nestle but not as good as Samsung. One must note that all of these
companies are public limited companies listed on various stock exchange around the world.
Unilever, like its consumer base shares its investors’ base with them. Acquiring companies from
diverse markets not only allows Unilever to serve a diverse consumer base, but get access to to
the capital of these companies. The operations managers of Unilever can use the assets of these
companies as well to manufacture and operate in the international market more efficiently
(unilever.com 2018)

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.
Figure 2: Table showing asset of Unilever
(unilever.com 2018)

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Figure 3: Table showing asset value of Nestle
(Source: nestle.com 2018)
The two tables shown above compare between the assets held by Unilever and one of its
largest competitors, Nestle. The table shows that compared to approximately 109060 million
Euros asset value of Nestle, the asset value of Unilever is mere 60285 million Euros according to
the financial figures of 2017. One can also point that as far as food market is concerned, Nestle
occupies the top position. This means that acquisition of assets in form of companies contribute
directly towards the operational efficiency of multinational companies (Sheen 2014). This factor
has made Unilever acquire companies from diverse industries to boost its asset value. Unilever
acquired Lipton in 1971 and Brooke Bond for GBP 390 million in 1984. These two acquisitions
strengthened the position of Unilever in the tea market in England. Unilever acquired
Chesebrough-Ponds in 1987 which earned the company a great share in the beauty market in

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Europe. Thus, it is evident that acquisition and merger plays an important role in evaluating the
competitive strength and asset value of the company. Since, Unilever is a public limited
company, it is dependent on the trust of the investors so that capital can be generated for
international operations. The decisions regarding acquisitions and merger have deep impact on
the decisions of the investors to invest in the funds of the company. This was further evident
when Unilever rejected the offer of Kraft Heinz to acquire it. This decision of Unilever actually
advertised and reinstated its prowess to sustain its global operations and give its investors
positive returns on their investments. The investors support increased for the company and its
share price soared to £ 39.78 (ft.com2018). The apex management of Unilever further pledged to
give short term return through its growth-driven operation model. Apparently the growth driven
model

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Figure 4: Unilever operating profits from its product umbrella
(Source: ft.com2018)
The figure above shows that operating profits of Unilever personal care increased from
2010 to 2016 compared to other products. This can be aligned to the fact that Unilever has
acquired more personal care product companies compared to the other segments.

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Figure 5: Share price of Lakme
(Source: bseindia.com 2018)
One can point out that acquisition and merger plays an important role in capital
generation and competitive strength of Unilever. The figure above shows the stock price of
Lakme Limited, which is one of the biggest acquisitions of Unilever. The graph shows that the
stock prices of Lakme is increasing which means that the company can generate more capital by
floating shares in the stock market. Since, Lakme is owned by Unilever, the latter can use the
capital of the former to enhance the efficiency of its international operations (ft.com2018). Thus,
this analysis shows that as far as Unilever is concerned, its acquisitions consist of public limited
companies which are capable of generating capital themselves. This adds to the capital base of
Unilever which ultimately adds to its financial power. This financial power acts a security to the
investors from around the globe in invest in the shares of Unilever which generates immense
capital for the company.

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Acquisitions and financial sustainability:
The acquisition and merger strategy enables Unilever to establish itself in the host
countries which already have competitive resident companies, thus making it operations
financially more sustainable. As pointed above the Unilever faces stiff completion from Nestle
and Baskin-Robbins in terms of desserts. Nestle is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange as already
pointed out and shares both revenue and stock market with Unilever. However, it must also be
pointed out that Baskin-Robbins, the next big competitor of Unilever in terms of frozen dessert is
owned by Dunkin’ Brands though it is not a listed company. Dunkin’ Brands is listed on
NASDAQ and thus contributes to the capital of Baskin-Robbins which attributes for the latter’s
competitive strength (nasdaq.com 2018). Thus, to counteract the competition of Baskin-Robbins
and Nestle, Unilever acquires several ice cream brands all over the world. The company acquires
Breyers which is also based in the US like Baskin-Robbins in 1993. This acquisition enabled
Unilever to establish itself as the largest manufacturer and seller of ice cream in the United States
which is one of its important markets (unilever.com 2018). One can also say these acquisitions
has enable the company to gain more competitive strength in the market and gain higher degree
of financial stability. The same can be pointed out in case of the acquisition of Dollar Shave Club
in 2016, a mens’ grooming company based in California which makes razors and grooming
products for men. One can also point out that though Unilever already owned Axe as its mens’
grooming brand, Axe does not make razors. Gilette, the men’s grooming brand owned by P&G
makes both shaving creams, gels and other accessories including razors (us.pg.com 2018). Thus,
by acquiring Dollar Shave Club, Unilever strengthened its position in mens’ grooming market
(fortune.com 2018). Again, one can point out that the traditional rivals of Unilever like Nestle
and P&G have stronger position that the former which challenge its revenue generation. The

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company already has established its presence in the electronic water purifier market in form of
Pureit where its strong competitors are absent. The company has acquired a majority stake of
Qinyuan Group which is a leading Chinese water purifier company which already generates sales
over €100 million (chinadaily.com.cn 2018). Thus, acquisition and merger allows Unilever to
enter various markets which allows it to diversify the competition in receives from its powerful
contenders. One can point out that moving into the electronic water purifier market brings
Unilever into competition from Samsung and LG, which have stronger presence in the electronic
market (lg.com 2018). However, Unilever can give both Nestle and P&G more competition in
revenue generation by its presence in electronics market. Again, it can diversify the loss of
revenue which it suffers owing to presence of stronger presence of competitors like Samsung and
LG in water purifier market. Moreover, acquisitions enable Unilever to establish itself strongly
in its main host markets and dominate them. Breyers and Dollar Shave Club earn the company
high positions in the US while Qinyuan Group help it to strengthen its position in Asia
(in.reuters.com 2018).
This analysis shows that acquisitions and mergers enables Unilever to gain financial
sustainability in various markets product wise and region, thus making its operations more
sustainable. Unilever though has weaker positions compared to P&G, Nestle or Samsung, is
able to give all of them tough competition through its acquisitions and merger strategy
(Stiglitz and Rosengard 2015).
Niche marketing strategy of Unilever:
The term Niche marketing is referred to as the marketing tactic that is employed to target
a particular market segment which is unique in nature. Niche marketing is often created as a
result of satisfying some very precise and specific needs of the customers. The management has

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the sole responsibility to identify the needs of the customers and create specific products
according to such demands. The target market of the niche products have to be selected in
advance to gain the maximum possible profit from sales. Unilever has been one of the most
successful companies of the globe with a variety of products in offering (Choudhary 2014).
There has been a recent trend in the growth of the niche marketing arena of Unilever. The
company has been long serving specific areas of interests for its consumers. This includes a
variety of food products, beauty products and many more as such. However the growth of the
niche market has also provided enough scope to the other enterprises to venture into this
particular category (Schaefers 2014). The following trend has increased the competitiveness
within the industry and customers have a lot options available in front of them to satisfy their
specific needs. The implementation of the niche strategy has helped the companies to avoid the
intense competition that is present in the normal markets. The sales growth of the high end niche
products has been another main reason behind the implementation of the niche strategies by the
variety of companies (Ponnam and Balaji 2015).
Unilever has around 7000 marketing channels and brand partners all across the world.
These partners and channels collaborate together and undertake a strategy development program
to develop the main aims of the business. The marketing strategy of the company is very much
unique in nature (Chae 2015). The management of Unilever believes in a connected world and
thus the motto of the business organization is “Crafting the brand for life”. The following motto
is a combination of three pillars namely;
1. People first- The aim of the organization is to put the people first in the category of the
needs. Putting the people at the core of the business operations is essential to the growth
of the business in the long run. The management of the business has aimed to make the

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business run according to the demands of the people and has pledged to fulfill all the
different specific needs of the people (Choudhary 2014).
2. Indispensible Brands- The fact that people cannot live without the use of brands is a
proven truth. The presence of a large number of different brands of Unilever provides
immense value to the customers and value to the specific range of products for the
consumers (Schaefers 2014).
3. Magical Experiences- The providence of immense value to both the products as well as
the consumers is of immense help to the customers as they enjoy a magical experience
from the use of the specific range of products.
In spite of the efficiently organized marketing system of Unilever the company faces a
number of operational issues in niche marketing, which makes it tough for them to address. This
are;
1. Imitable products- All the different types of products in the market manufactured and
sold by Unilever are easily imitable. The products are imitated mainly by the local
companies who try to gain the popularity of the already successful products by launching
the products with the same range of uses (Hasan 2015).
2. Availability of cheap substitutes- As mentioned earlier the customers nowadays have lots
of different options in their hand to choice from a wide range of products. The
availability of a number of different cheap products has made it one of the largest
weaknesses of Unilever.
3. High Dependence on the Retailers- The management of Unilever has a high rate of
dependency on the retailers as their products are displayed in the different retail stores

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(Hasan 2015). The buyer’s behavior is thus dependent on the behavior of the retailers in
promoting the niche products to the customers visiting the stores.
4. Limited diversification of the business- The absence of a widespread diversification of
the niche products is one of the main threats of the business. The absence of a proper
marketing strategy to deliver the niche products to the end users has been the gaining
grounds for the competitors. The competitors have utilized the following opportunity and
have come up with a variety of measures to gain a significant foothold in the niche
market arena of the business (Weinstein and Winston 2016).
The entry into a Niche market though seemed much too safe for the mentioned private
organization, the problems it faces from a large number of competitive threats. The niche market
entry requires a basic number of main requirements which were initially avoided by the
company. This includes;
a. Entering a Niche requires adaptability of the plan- The entry into the niche segment
requires a compact and effective plan so that any threats that may arise from
competition can be dealt with strongly. There is a misperception that niche market is one
of the most safest places in the market and has the least amount of threat. This is never
true in all the cases as because other companies will also offer similar kind of specific
products that will no doubt limit the scope of the profitability for the organization.
b. Duration of the Niche market- The duration of the niche market is not stable as because
the availability of a large number of similar products from time to time will limit the
duration of the niche tag and will make the particular product fall into the normal
category of the market (Chae 2015).

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c. Growth of the Niche Market- Unilever entered the niche market with a specific range of
beauty and home products (Weinstein and Winston 2016). The brand Avon which is a
range of beauty products has been manufactured by the business organization was
unique in nature as it catered to the specific beauty demands of a large scale of women.
However the availability of other similar quality products has made the brand fall under
the normal category of the product lines (Zucchella et al. 2016).
Supply chain strategy of Unilever:
Unilever is considered to be one of the leading suppliers of fast-moving consumer goods
in the world. It has three major global divisions, one is the food, the other is the home care
products and the last is the personal care products. It has huge chain of supply as the organization
intends to satisfy all their customers with their brands and products. In the last five years the
company has have concentrated on the supply of their products. It is concerned about the needs
and the demands of their consumers. In order to improve their supply strategy the company
intends to focus on the core strategy of supply. The organization intends to introduce the
specialty industry in order to increase their supply chain. The organization intends to restructure
the supply chain. There are few reasons for the same (Chae 2015).
The first and foremost strategy is the announcement of the special interim dividend. The
other strategy is the growing popularity of the internet and the telecom stocks which were
moving from the consumers to the old stock. The company has adopted a “Path to Growth
Strategy”. The company spent a huge amount on the raw materials and packaging from over ten
thousand suppliers in the year 2009. In order to have a complete focus, the company cut down
the vast brand portfolio from 1600 to 400. The supply chain strategy was focused on
restructuring of the plan that was developed around five areas of focus. This include the supply

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chain organization, global procurement, involvement of the supplier, and the development of the
information technology systems. The methodology that has been applied in this case include the
agree targets, the identify projects, the provide resources, the measure and track and the ensure
enablers respectively (Coyle et al. 2016).
The organization has grown with the passing years. It has undergone certain major
thrusts. There are certain recognized threats that has been adopted by the organization. The
organization has implemented the executive purchasing. It has attracted and developed the
retaining of the world class supply management executives. This further includes the
professionalizing the purchase of the non-production items. The organization has focused on the
technological advancements, as the system of e-sourcing taken up within the organization has
helped in managing the supplies in an effective manned. This further includes the accelerating
and leveraging of the simplification within the supply chain. The organization drives the
information and the management which is an essential part of the supply chain strategy. In order
to make the supply chain strong and successful, the organization intends to increase the
partnerships (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). This is possible through the process of
redistribution and retailing. The product are sold in many retail stores and over 10 million small
stores. The majority of the sales are from the developing and the emerging markets. The
organization has been able to increase its partnership through Tesco, Walmart, Metro, Casino,
Auchan and others. The division of supply chain has installed two electronic communication
system. These systems are accessed for the use of internet only. It helped in saving up of time
and provided ready access to information on all the activities of supply chain. The size of the
supply chain, the risk related to it and the resources can be analyzed through this system. The
organization aims at creating a healthy relation with the suppliers. It was reported that the

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organization would form a collaborative rather than a traditional combative relationship with the
suppliers (Gualandris et al. 2015).
There were many companies under Unilever that managed the activities of procurement.
The companies were not dependent on the systems and the staffs. The company went in to
partnership through the business platforms so that the products and services can be provided in
an effective manner. This strategy helps the organization to consolidate the purchase, enhance
scale for the company and the supplier, guarantee quality merchandise and it enabled the process
of creating automatic information that acts as a base to manage the above mentioned materials.
The launch of the systematic IT department was one of the most remarkable supply strategy. The
company made remarkable change in the IT environment. It used many systems of legacy so that
proper established internet service can help in linking with more than 80000 desktops in the
entire world that will help the company executives across the world to access and share the
knowledge (Lee and Vachon 2016).
The most important part of the supply strategy is the distribution. It developed
warehouses in each region so that the operation can take place by handing over the system to the
third party. The organization introduced the process of combined shipping in order to reduce the
cost in a positive manner. It prepared the transportation software tool so that the supply chain of
the organization can be improved with respect to the products preferred by the consumers. It
arranges a process of change that can bring better and brighter future in the company and within
the work environment. The organization hires representative who provide the list of potential
suppliers in order to bring innovation in the team of supply chain. In the regional level, the
company recruits the innovation manager in order to receive help to identify the potential
suppliers (MacCarthy et al. 2016).

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Threats:
The global economic crisis and the competitive mindset has emerged as the largest threat
for the FMCG companies. This is same in the case of Unilever. There is a huge competition
between the companies under the FMCG groups. There has been a shrinkage in the disposable
incomes of the global customers that are buying less and are insisting more on the monetary
value. This has led to constant thereat of low revenue within the organization (Ng et al. 2015).
The practices that are present within the company are not liked by the customers and this
motivates them to switch over to new companies. The rise in the competitors for the company
has caused a shift of the consumers as well. The company should therefore concentrate on the
sustainability factor and it should maintain the focus especially when it is famous in the world
(Roh, Krause and Swink 2016).
The company operates in the local market sector where the local products and the local
brands proliferate in the emerging market. This is the reason it faces the threat from the smaller
and local upstarts those are capable of providing more value for lesser amount of money without
the associated costs that global giants. The entry of the Asian multinationals into the global arena
has added a strong competitive threat for the company. The organization intends to face a huge
competition from the Asian conglomerates that has started to spread the wings in the
international level (Ross 2015).
The organization has set up the branches and factories in many countries. They have
numerous competitors across the globe, which are inclusive of Nestle and P&G, as they are
global enterprises with strong brands and huge experience in the management. On the other hand
the local companies understands the demand and the needs of the customer, as they receive

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support from the local government that turns out to be huge threat for the company (Wilhelm et
al. 2016). The company faced a loss due to decreasing sales that rose in the recent years. This
was because of the growing threats from the local competitor. It was reported that the company
faced competition from the US ice cream where Unilever lost the market share to Halo Top
which is a new low-calorie brand that capitalizes on the growing demands for healthier products
(Wilhelm et al. 2016). The change in the taste of the consumer, along with the acceptance and
demand of the online shopping and other systems like the home-delivery plans is changing the
traditional scenario and the multinational companies like Unilever, Nestle and others. The
business models of the same needs to be changed. In order to overcome the threat of competitive
defeat the organization must increase the cost of advertising and marketing. Moreover the
upcoming brands lay their focus on building a strong relationship with their customers. This can
be a strong threat for the organization, as Unilever has no direct communication with the
customers (Wang et al. 2016).
Product line strategy of Unilever:
The term Product line is referred to as a group of related products under a same single
brand sold by the same company. The companies have the tendency to expand their offerings by
expanding the existing range of product lines (Bocken et al. 2016). This is done mainly because
consumers always prefer to use the brands which they are more familiar with. Unilever has a
variety of products that competes in the market with similar brand of products offering the same
benefits. Some of them are as follows;
1. Sun silk vs. Pantene- Unilever developed Sun silk and Pantene developed by Unilever are
quite similar in their uses. They are the direct competitors of each other and try to outclass
each other in the market. However, the diverse range of product line of Sun silk is a huge

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advantage to Unilever. Sun silk offers a wide number of different products like Sun silk
peach dark, Sun silk dandruff remover, Sun silk long and silky and many other such
products which are hard to compete for Pantene. Pantene generally does not have the huge
range of variations in its product line which limits its scope in the market (Yamin and
Mavondo 2015).
2. Ponds Age Miracle vs. Olay- Ponds Age Miracle is a product of Ponds which is Unilever
Company’s skincare brand line. The product was launched in the vox pop format which saw
people from different fields of life providing valuable reviews about the product. The
company launched a TV commercial before the launch and finally launched the product after
a continuous campaigning for 6 months. This helped to build the market and extend the
value of the product to the users (Hammervoll and Toften 2014). On the other hand Olay a
product of P&G was launched to tap the anti-ageing market did a market research and
launched the product. These two products offer similar kind of services and compete against
each other. However Unilever uses a variety of innovative strategies to stay sustainable in
the market (Banerjee 2017).
3. Magnum Vs Buskin Robbins- Magnum is one of the most premium ranges of Ice Creams
that is produced by Unilever. It directly competes with a varied range of premium ice creams
of other brands like Buskin Robbins. The ice cream is priced at a much higher amount than
the other range of ice creams produced by the organization. Buskin Robbins can be cited as
the best competitor of the brand in this group. Both of the brands have a similar range of
products and both of them are priced much higher which promotes their individual values.
Thus Unilever has to innovate a wide range of similar products to compete in this particular
segment (Zucchella et al. 2016).

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4. Axe vs. Gillette- Axe is owned by Unilever and has entered the market much after P&G
owned Gillette. Though the products offer similar range of uses but Axe has to struggle
much more to gain competitive ground in the market.
The acquisition and merger strategy of Unilever contribute to another deadly operation
strategy, the product line strategy. The company as pointed above faces competition from MNCs
like Nestle and P&G. The unique product line of the company allows it to give competition to all
these powerful rivals and sustain in the market. The company enters diverse market which is
evident by its product line which makes it impossible for any single competitor to compete with
it (Zucchella et al. 2016). For example, Lakme allows Unilever to enter the highly competitive
market of high-end beauty and fashion where P&G cannot compete with it. Lakme has
established itself a top international beauty brand which enables Unilever to collaborate with
multinational designers and fashion houses. This in fact enables the company to expand its
business in areas where its traditional competitors cannot compete with it. This, however, brings
the company into competition with the leading brands like L’Oreal and Avon (loreal.com 2018).
However, it must be pointed that Nestle is one of L’oreal’s biggest shareholders and thus it again
collides with Unilever here (nestle.com 2018). Again, entering the water purifier market,
Unilever competes with Samsung and LG where Nestle and P&G cannot compete (lg.com 2018).
Thus, the product line of Unilever enables it to compete with a large number of competitors
and diversify the loss of revenue it suffers to this competition.
Conclusion:
Therefore from the above analysis this can be concluded that the competitive threat is the
major threat faced by the organization. It has been researched that the multinational companies in
the contemporary faces the threat from the potential competitors. Unilever is one of them. The

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report include the strategies that have adopted by the company to overcome their threads. One of
those is the acquisition and the merger strategy. It has been treated as a strategic tool to
strengthen the global competitive positions. This include the increase in the revenue generation.
The consumers look forward to different types of products under one single brand. It can be any
product. It can be of any category. For example, different flavors of ice-cream under one single
brand. This can be huge challenge for the company. The acquisitions and mergers further are
considered to be an effective tool that are used to expand the capital that is a necessary part of
business. The report portrays certain research that shows that acquisition and merger plays an
important role in improving the competitive strength and as it is the asset value of the company.
In order to make this successful the company needs to choose the investors tactfully. The
investors has a huge role to play in the factor of acquisition and merger. The other point that can
be considered under this include the Niche marketing strategy of Unilever. This has been taken
into account in the report. The management performs the sole responsibility of identifying the
needs of the customers. The organization has a good reputation in such segment. In order to
avoid the unhealthy competition the company has adopted the niche strategy. The organization
has around 7000 marketing channels and brand partners all over the world. This is the reason the
company considers people as their priority. They consider the indispensable brands to be the
other factor that the company considers to be important. The organization focuses on the
availability of the cheap products. It considers the high dependence on the retailers. This further
includes the limited diversification of the business. The report provides a brief description of the
growth of the niche market and the duration of the niche market. Apart from this the report
considers the product line strategy. It includes the competitive ways between the brands. In this
report a brief comparison has been done between Sunsilk and Pantene. A comparison has been

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COMPETITION IN THE GLOBAL CONSUMER MARKET
done between ponds age miracle and Olay, magnum verses Baskins and Robins, axe verses
Gillette, Lakme verses L’Oreal and finally pure-it and other water purifiers like Samsung and
LG. The report further takes into account the supply chain strategies and the threats that are
associated with it. The major reason of smooth functioning of the organization is highly
dependent on the supply strategies. The report analyses many such strategies and at the same
time it analyzes the risks that are related to it. The report offers a recommendation that might
turn out to be an effective one for the company. The recommendations are related to the flaws
and the pitfalls that have been discussed in the report.
Recommendations:
The analysis of the following essay will lead to the formation of a number of different
recommendations that will seek to address the different issues related to the use of the
completive threats in the management of operations by the Company. They are as follows;
1. Utilize the Social Network- The main aims of the business will be to make its operations
much smoother by reaching out to a large base of customers as well as retailers. The
modern trend of utilizing the social network strategy will be of immense use to the
company as social network provides the perfect base for the management to spread the
operations of the company to distant places and also target a wide range of customers.
The traditional techniques of marketing by booking TV slots and promoting the brands
through different channels does not attract customers anymore. The use of graphics and
innovative advertisements in the internet and the different WebPages or the social media
applications will reduce the competition in the market and create a specific demand for
all the different kinds of products.

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COMPETITION IN THE GLOBAL CONSUMER MARKET
2. Focusing on the Uniqueness of the Niche Product- The management of the company
must focus on the uniqueness of a particular product. This helps the customers of the
company to identify the product in a much better way. The company has to convince
them that their product is unique and exclusive in nature. They should also explain the
consumers about why they should buy the particular product and what special benefits do
the particular product promotes than the other product in the market. The successful
understanding from the part of the organization can help in the creation of a unique
competitive advantage for the company in the niche market segment.
3. Targeting the Networking opportunities within the market- Effective networking is
critical to the success of the business organizations within the market. The presence of a
narrowed and targeted niche market of the business organization makes it necessary for
the management to utilize the networking in the most prominent way. The marketing
department of the company has to be aware all the time and search for adequate
networking opportunities from any form of legitimate sources.
4. Being an Expert to the target audience of the company- The selling of a premium
product to the customer need some specific details. The management needs to provide a
detailed and a sincere attention to the specific niche category of market and also act as an
expert to the particular customer for convincing him to buy the product. It is utmost
important for the management to act as an expert for the customer as he may get confused
over the actual use of the product.
5. Electronic segment expansion-Unilever must enter the electronic segment more strongly
to operate more competitively in the global market. The company has presence in the
electronic water purifier market which means that has scope to expand its product line in

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COMPETITION IN THE GLOBAL CONSUMER MARKET
the direction where its traditional competitors cannot compete. This would allow the
company to earn more revenue and cement its global position as a consumer product and
electronic product manufacturing giant.

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