Unilever Marketing: Process, Planning, Objectives, and Strategies

This report provides an analysis of Unilever's marketing process and planning, detailing the company's approach to marketing in the 21st century and the role of the marketing function within the organization. It explores how the marketing function interacts with other departments such as production, finance, and human resources, and examines the extent of Unilever's marketing mix, including product, place, promotion, and price strategies. The report evaluates how the adopted marketing mix contributes to Unilever's success in meeting its overall business objectives, offering recommendations for improvement. Furthermore, the document analyzes Unilever's strategic marketing plan, marketing objectives, research methodologies, situational analysis using SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter's Five Forces frameworks. It also includes budget plans, tactical actions, monitoring channels, media plans, and justifications for multimedia activities used by Unilever. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and highlighting the importance of marketing in achieving organizational success. Desklib provides access to similar documents and study tools for students.

MARKETING PROCESS
AND PLANNING

Table of Contents.
PART1:Briefing paper.....................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAINBODY....................................................................................................................................4
2.0Explaining the concept/ definition of marketing in the 21st century......................................4
3.0Describing the role of marketing function in the supermarket chain Unilever.......................5
4.0Analysing how the marketing function works and interact with other departments..............5
To create competitive sales team for selling products in the market...........................................6
5.0Explaining extend of marketing mix in the Unilever supermarket chain...............................6
6.0Evaluating how marketing- mix adopted by Unilever contributes in its success while
meeting their overall business objectives. ..................................................................................8
7.0RECOMMENDATIONS-...........................................................................................................8
8.0CONCLUSIONS-.......................................................................................................................8
9.0REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9
PART2: MARKETING PLAN......................................................................................................10
1.0-Analysation of how Strategic marketing plan links with the overall organizational mission,
corporate strategy and objectives in the context of “Unilever”:................................................10
2.0-Setting of Clear and SMART marketing objectives for the firm “Unilever”:.....................10
3.0-Marketing research to support the new product line launch of the firm “Unilever”:..........11
4.0-A situational analysation:....................................................................................................11
4.1-swot analysis of the firm:.....................................................................................................11
Pestle analysis of the firm “Unilever”:......................................................................................11
4.0analysation of the organization:............................................................................................12
4.1.2-Porter analysis of the firm “Unilever”:.............................................................................12
4.3-sub segments of the firm “Unilever”:..................................................................................13
4.4-Analysation of the new product value proposition of the consumers of the organization:. 14
4.5 development of the marketing strategies applied for the market extension:.......................14
4.6 overall budget plan including the overall spendings:..........................................................14
4.7-Tactical actions of the firm “Unilever”:..............................................................................14

4.8-identification of the appropriate monitoring and controlling channels for goal achievement
in the firm “Unilever”:...............................................................................................................15
5.0-A media plan that supports the planned marketing campaign of the firm “Unilever”:.......15
5.1-media budget of the firm “Unilever”:..................................................................................15
5.2-Recommendations and rationale for selected and integrated multimedia activities in the
budget setted off:........................................................................................................................16
5.3Appropriate digital, offline and social media channels for communication that company
Unilever is using........................................................................................................................16
5.4Justifying multi-media plan based on quantitative and qualitative criteria-.........................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

PART1:Briefing paper
INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to all the tools and the techniques that company uses in order to promote goods
and services that company is offering in the market. It includes 4P's of marketing mix that are
product, place, promotion and the place. Marketing helps companies in growing efficiently in the
market and boost their profitability by attracting large consumers (Thabit and Raewf, 2018).
Marketing in its core, identify the right consumer for its product. Unilever Plc the British
multinational company is one of the largest supermarket chain in the world that offers its product
in more than 190+ countries and owns more than 400 brands worldwide In this report we will see
the concept of marketing and the marketing function in the supermarket chain Unilever. Further,
will be Explaining the concept of marketing mix and how it is adopted by the supermarket chain
Unilever. Not only this we will also identify the marketing plan adopted by the company
Unilever and will develop the media plan to support the Unilever's marketing campaigns.
MAINBODY
2.0Explaining the concept/ definition of marketing in the 21st century.
The 21st century is the advent of new economy, as this is highly dependent on the
technology development and the new innovations. This economy provides more information to
the buyers regarding the products and services available in the market, and that's why now only
top management instructions are not enough while making product for the consumer (Kartajaya,
Setiawan and Kotler, 2021). Today, marketing is totally based on advertising goods and services
digitally through different social media platforms and this happened because the digital
revolution that increased the speed of the communication.
 One major thing that has been observed in 21st century is the need of streamlining cost
reduction process through streamlining (Shpak and et.al., 2020).
 Another thing that has been seen is the encouragement of the entrepreneur mindset in the
companies that helps companies in improving productivity of the organization.
 The companies are also trying build long term relationship with the consumer by social
media campaigns and other promotion techniques.

3.0Describing the role of marketing function in the supermarket chain Unilever.
The marketing functions are the set of activities that are performed while marketing the
products in the market (Sarkum and SYAMSURI, 2021). It starts with finding the right
consumer for the product and ends after satisfying the needs of consumer in the market. The
main role of marketing function in the company Unilever is as follows-
Getting the attention of the consumer-
Unilever company tries to gain consumer attention by building trustful relation with
them. Building trust worthy relation is only done through transparent communication and
responsible marketing. The most important thing that Unilever keeps in mind is to provide the
products that are safe and secure (Morad, Rekia and NASSER). At the time of labelling
Unilever is also transparent in providing all the right information to the consumer about its
ingredients, properties and the nutrition values. Proper marketing helps company to reach to right
consumer and in changing the behaviour.
Helping them in figuring out if the products are fit for them.
The another role marketing plays is to make consumer understand if they are in need of
the product or not. Unilever company tries to advertise in such way that it helps company in
getting attention, interest, desire and action of the consumer. Right marketing role is to facilitate
the decision marketing process of the consumer and to do this Unilever company first
understands what actually it is offering in the market to its ideal consumer that are loyal towards
to the brand.
Lowering the risk of consumer
This role of marketing functions help consumer in lowering the risk that they tend to feel
after buying the product. This is normal tendency of human behaviour that consumer is losing
out good products in the market because consumer is buying one company's product. In this case
supermarket like the company Unilever offers different discount rates, gifts, free samples to
lower the risk of the consumers.
4.0Analysing how the marketing function works and interact with other departments.
Marketing is the concept of philosophy and is not only related with the marketing
department. Developing an effective marketing function that can help company in enabling

proper promotion and marketing can only be done through linking marketing function with other
departments (Naujoks, 2020).
Marketing and production-
The marketing department of the company Unilever regularly interacts with the
production department for ensuring following things-
 The item to be manufactures should be according to the demands and desire of the
consumer.
 Adequate research and development for satisfying consumer needs.
 The volume of orders generated by the marketing department must be met by the
production department in the schedule time.
Marketing and finance-
 The marketing department must work with finance department in order to ensure that
there adequate budget available to meet the finances of research, promotion and the
distribution. The marketing and finance both are responsible in ensuring that the business
operations of Unilever is in its financial capabilities.
 The marketing department is responsible for concentrating the sales volume of Unilever
while the finance department is more tilted towards the side of cash flow, cost of the
products and the paying back investments.
Marketing and the human resource management-
The marketing department should work closely with the Human resource management in order
to ensure that-
 All the appropriate human resource with appropriate skill are in right places for research
and production targets.
 To ensure that the HRM department appoint people that can meet production targets.
To create competitive sales team for selling products in the market.
5.0Explaining extend of marketing mix in the Unilever supermarket chain.
The Unilever supermarket chain consist of the complex marketing mix techniques that
helps company in making different products and services to its consumer in more than 190
countries (Jasmani and Sunarsi, 2020).
Unilever product mix-

Unilever has been able to expand its consumer goods and product market since 1992, and
this has resulted company in broadening its products according to the taste and preferences of the
consumer in different countries today, Unilever has 400+ brands that has been organized into
three divisions that are food and refreshment, Home care and Personal care and that consists
brans such as Axe/Lynx, Ben& Jerry's, Sun-silk, Sunlight, Heart-brand ice cream etc. and this
indicates that the Unilever's product mix is highly diversified.
Unilever Place mix-
The operations of Unilever in Place mix is wider as Unilever works in Consumer goods
all over the world. The place mix involves the place where the transaction of consumer goods
takes place and Unilever place mix three distribution places Retailers, Kiosks, Stores. Retailers is
the first place of distribution where consumer purchases goods from the retailers. The second
kiosks involve personnel selling. The third stores are the place where company sells its product
direct to the consumer.
Unilever's promotion-
Unilever promotes its product at larger scale because of the competition that keeps on
arising in global consumer market. Unilever uses the following promotional methods-
 Advertising
 Sales promotions
 Public relations
 Personal selling
 Direct marketing
The company uses advertising as primary source of advertisement as there are various platforms
available to promote the product like Instagram, Facebook, Television, Newspaper etc. Another
important source of promotion mix are discount rate, various coupons and the personal selling.
Unilever's price strategy-
Unilever is able to maintain the wide variety of price points because of the diversification
of the product that Unilever has. Price has been determined by following some strategies that are
needed in the organization for the different businesses and that are as
Market-oriented strategies- normal price based on market factors.
Premium pricing strategies- for premium products offer by the Unilever.
Product bundle pricing strategies- discounted prices for the people purchasing in bundles.

6.0Evaluating how marketing- mix adopted by Unilever contributes in its success while meeting
their overall business objectives.
1. Marketing mix helped Unilever in attracting consumer by offering lower prices that the
competitive supermarket chains operating in the world (Krizanova, and et.al., 2019).
2. Marketing mix has enabled the company to create new products according to the
demands and designs of the consumer worldwide.
3. Marketing mix has improved the business ideas for innovating new products in order to
survive in the long term in the market.
4. Marketing mix has increased the product portfolio like there are various ranges and
varieties of product company Unilever offers in the market.
5. Marketing Mix has also helped in producing different products from the products of the
competitor that they are offering in the market.
7.0RECOMMENDATIONS-
The company should have sufficient budget in order to promote its product worldwide to
gain consumer attention. Promotion includes various tools like advertisement, sales promotion,
personal selling etc. and this can only be done through when company has enough financial
resources. The company works for the profit and larger profit needs large size of financial
resources for attracting larger audience at once.
8.0CONCLUSIONS-
From the report, we have been able to conclude that the marketing is an important element in the
success of the organization. It helps company in knowing and understanding what consumers
demand from the companies in order to increase the profitability of the company and this same
happened with the company Unilever. The another thing that has been addressed in this report is
the elements of the marketing mix and how marketing mix has been adopted by the company
Unilever which helped it in attaining the higher level of success.

9.0REFERENCES
Books and journals
Thabit, T. and Raewf, M., 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case study.
International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies.4(4).
Sarkum, S. and SYAMSURI, A., 2021. The Role of Marketing Function for Competitive
Advantage. Quality-Access to Success.22(180).
Morad, I. S. M. A. I. L., Rekia, M. E. L. A. H. I. and NASSER, B., Importance of service quality
in gaining consumer satisfaction: Case study of Ooredoo mobile operator.
Naujoks, T., 2020. Marketing functions and B2C e-marketplaces: An exploratory analysis.
Journal of Marketing Channels.26(4), pp.250-262.
Kartajaya, H., Setiawan, I. and Kotler, P., 2021. Marketing 5.0: Technology for humanity. John
Wiley & Sons.
Krizanova, A., and et.al., 2019. The effectiveness of marketing communication and importance
of its evaluation in an online environment. Sustainability, 11(24), p.7016.
Shpak, N., and et.al., 2020. Digitalization of the marketing activities of enterprises: Case study.
Information.11(2), p.109.
Jasmani, J. and Sunarsi, D., 2020. The Influence of Product Mix, Promotion Mix and Brand
Image on Consumer Purchasing Decisions of Sari Roti Products in South Tangerang.
PINISI Discretion Review.1(1), pp.165-174.

PART2: MARKETING PLAN
1.0-Analysation of how Strategic marketing plan links with the overall organizational mission,
corporate strategy and objectives in the context of “Unilever”:
1. Helps in evaluation of the current environment: marketing plan is the criteria under
which the company's position and situation of work is being assessed (Sivakumar, 2021)
The data being collected while the research done in the market is essential for good
understanding of the market where the firm will operates and with these efforts will be in
effectiveness.
2. Establishment of marketing goals: the establishment of the marketing goals and
objectives are defined by the marketing plan of the firm. The firm should keep the goals
achievable and the targets that the firm will build should be done during the situation
analysis of firm.
3. Helps in identification of actions for achievement of goals: the last term of the model
consist of the day to day functioning comes in action. This activity is the essential activity
to set overall activities. Smart goals and plans in the market activities will work as the
key factors for the competitive advantage.
2.0-Setting of Clear and SMART marketing objectives for the firm “Unilever”:
Smart and clear goals of the firm to achieve the goals are as stated:
 The focus of the firm should be on generation of revenue from luxurious products by
attaining the online sales for the growth of the business.
 The firm must maximize the profits by using the different platforms for the attraction of
the customers.
 Business must understand that given objectives are attainable in the given span or not.
 The result of sales volume and profitability of the firm must be measured to bring out the
best probable results.
 The business must focus on customer satisfaction and brand development of the firm.

3.0-Marketing research to support the new product line launch of the firm “Unilever”:
The firm has identified the market approach of the business and the need of the consumers in the
comfortable and pocket friendly needs. Firm is now focusing on the luxurious product line in the
market as per the desire of the consumers in the run.
4.0-A situational analysation:
4.1-swot analysis of the firm:
Strengths: the firm has its global footprints by operating in many of the international countries.
The firm combine its global values with the locals and win the hearts of consumers (Teoli, and
et.al, 2019).
Weakness: the weakness of the company is that it face the market conditions with other
competitive giants like P&G and nestle.
Opportunities: the company have the opportunities of the growth in market as it have the
consumers in large quantity.
Threats: the firm may face the threats of diminishing revenues because of the global economic
crisis.
Pestle analysis of the firm “Unilever”:
Political factors: the company have a huge portfolio of the products and with that the company
must follow the regulations of the food and drug administration. By the time, the other rules and
regulations are implemented by the government then the firm has to accept them.
Economic factors: with the increasing and developing economy the company will likely have
more revenues. There are high chances of growth for the business.
Social factors: as the firm operates in many of the countries it needs to launch the products that
are as per the needs and wants of the social demographics of the company. Better positioning,
targeting and segmentation is required for the firm.
Technological factors: the organization must keep up with the technological advancements in
the company to grow on the rapid pace. Completely acquired with the technology can help the
company to save time in the operations.

Legal factors: company with the large portfolio of products must keep up with the rules and
regulations and must protect its patent as well. This will help the firm to maintain its customer
loyalty and brand image.
Environmental factors: as the firm operates in the successful environment and maintained one
the firm is able to make up to the word. By working in the environment friendly ways the firm
must reduce its carbon footprints for the company and customers both.
4.0analysation of the organization:
Company: the firm Unilever has its strong brand image in the market. Company's finance
background is strong and thus it can invest in the resources and increase the product line of
luxurious goods.
Customers: the firm have its potential customer base and firm always try to understand and
work as per the needs of their customers. Hereafter, there new luxurious product-line will help in
satisfying their needs of customers.
Competitors: company works as per the competitive strategies to come up with the best
outcomes as the competition in the market is relatively high.
Collaborators: the firm operates with many of the suppliers and other partners. The success of
the company depends on the collaborators that provides them with the resources to continue the
business in the market.
Climate: the particular factor depends on the legal factors that company follows and which
affects the operations of the business. The company follows all the legal and social factors to
continue the business operations.
4.1.2-Porter analysis of the firm “Unilever”:
Competitive rivalry: competition comes as a major force in Unilever's environment. The
external force of the firm depends on the following factors:
 Huge numbers of firm.
 High competitiveness.
 Low level of switching cost.
Power of customers: the firm depends on the consumer's response on the products. The firm
must address the following factors to come up with the good response:

 Lowered cost to switch.
 Higher qualities of information.
 Small size of consumers.
Power of suppliers: suppliers impact the business by providing a urge on level of supplies. The
firm must address the following facts for the assessment:
 Moderate size of individuals.
 Small population of the suppliers.
 Moderate supply.
Threats of substitutes: revenues of the firm can be reduced by the substitutes in the competitive
run. The company must look about the respective factors for the reductions of threat:
 Low substitute availability.
 Lower price ratio performance of substitutes.
Threats of new entrants: Unilever competes with the established firms and also with the
consumer good market. The following features must be addressed by the firm to reduce the
threat:
 Low switching costs.
 High cost on brand development.
 Higher economies of scale.
4.3-sub segments of the firm “Unilever”:
Geographical segmentation: the firm must focus on segmenting the customers based on upper
social class in international and out of the boundary context. The firm must focus on wants,
habits, and interests of the customers to segment its product in the market and target the upper
class people.
Demographic segmentation: the firm can directly segment the product as per the demographic
ways and factors like gender, age, income, education and relations (Lawrence, and et.al, 2019).
This will benefit the company as this is the most straight forward way of segmenting.

4.4-Analysation of the new product value proposition of the consumers of the organization:
The term product value proposition refers to the statement which articulates the product uses,
features and differentiations and the tag that the organization uses is “experience the difference
by embracing your health”.
4.5 development of the marketing strategies applied for the market extension:
The company by using the marketing mix for the firm can also use the digital medium for the
business extension and can run offline as well as online marketing campaigns for the expansion
of the business and the product distribution and the price is also a major factor that is needed to
be determined by the firm.
4.6 overall budget plan including the overall spendings:
Particulars Amount (in Pounds)
Research 800
Advertising 1030
Hardware 230
Recruitment 280
Software 307
Social media marketing 270
Local media 262
TOTAL 3179 pounds
4.7-Tactical actions of the firm “Unilever”:
Under the criteria of development in the marketing plan that helps the organization in achieving
their organizational goals with the help of launching a luxurious product line within the targeted
market, the company may use of the following:
 The Unilever may undergo a business analysis in accordance to influence the best
opportunities associated with the growth and improvement of the business.
 The Unilever may create a range of objectives that the organization will achieve in order
to raise its growth and profitability in the market.

 For the purpose of developing a marketing plan that helps the organization in extending
the reach of the company and increase the sale of the products launched within the new
product line, the Unilever will make an effective use of social media marketing, local
advertisements, and traditional marketing tools for the promotion of their luxurious
product line.
4.8-identification of the appropriate monitoring and controlling channels for goal achievement in
the firm “Unilever”:
Return on investment in contribution in profit to marketing and it is divided by the invested
amount or risked. It is just like the return on investment (ROI). The other term customer lifetime
value is total income a business may accept to bring in from the side of customer as account of
client (Mason, and et.al, 2021). Both the terms helped the firm to monitor its all time revenues
generated from the specific investment made during the span of time.
5.0-A media plan that supports the planned marketing campaign of the firm “Unilever”:
5.1-media budget of the firm “Unilever”:
Particulars June (in
pounds)
July (in pounds) August(in
pounds)
September
(in pounds)
Research 200 200 200 200
Advertising 250 300 220 260
Hardware 50 60 55 65
Recruitment 65 85 110 20
Software 80 82 70 75
Social Media
Marketing
60 40 120 50

Local Media 70 80 45 67
Total 775 847 820 737
5.2-Recommendations and rationale for selected and integrated multimedia activities in the
budget setted off:
It has been known the product line that the Unilever is launching in the market is from
the premium quality with premium prices in the market for the targeted upper social class of
people. Hereafter, the organization must selected the social media marketing and the influencer
marketing strategies in order to promote the product line among the customers of the
organization. The use of social media marketing has helped the company in attracting young
customers towards the product and thus increase the sales and profitability of the company
within the market (Hanlon, 2019). Influencer marketing will also help the company by
appointing the famous peoples to promote their products in effective way and make their product
a status symbol with the help of marketing done by the influencers.
5.3Appropriate digital, offline and social media channels for communication that company
Unilever is using.
The company Unilever communicate about its product through digital, social media and the
offline channels (Yoga, Korry and Yulianti, 2019). The first digital channel of Unilever is its
own website with its brand name that is Unilver.com where communication process can be done
between the company and its consumer from all over the world digitally that starts from
advertising companies products to the order placements.
Offline channels of communication is newspaper advertisements, e-mailing, broacher,
events etc. where company like Unilever advertise its product in order to retain and attract
consumer and then there are various social media platforms which has grown in recent years like
the Unilever's Instagram and Facebook pages which are able to attract larger size of audience at
once.

5.4Justifying multi-media plan based on quantitative and qualitative criteria-
Multi-media refers to the plan that helps company in determining how, when and for what
audience the advertising takes place (Ye, and et.al.,2022). This consists of the steps that are as
follows-
 Developing the multi-media programme to advertise products in the market.
 Outlining the activities that are planned in the programme.
 Developing flowchart through text, graphics, animation etc.
 Prepare the budget for the multi-media process.
CONCLUSION
This type of multi-media campaigns has helped Unilever company in selling more products in
the market and achieving higher success for the organization. Multi-media quantitative measures
includes the framework of base, engagement, reach While the qualitative measures is more
towards collecting insights of engagement and does not work on numbers.
Further, in the report the marketing plan of the firm is shown and have concluded about the
different topics like strategic market plan, smart objectives, marketing research, swot-pestle and
5c analysis of the firm is done in the report (Stevens, and et.al, 2021). The report have also
shown about the comprehensive media plan supporting the marketing plan and media budgets
have been made in the context of the company. Further, the report have shown about the
recommendations and justification have given and appropriate digital media and justifications
are given in the quantitative and qualitative analysis criteria of the company.

REFERENCES
Hanlon, A., 2019. Digital marketing: strategic planning & integration. Sage
Lawrence, and et.al, 2019. Sustainability as opportunity: Unilever’s sustainable living plan. In
Managing Sustainable Business (pp. 435-455). Springer, Dordrecht.
Mason, and et.al, 2021. Social media marketing gains importance after Covid-19.Cogent
Business & Management.8(1), p.1870797.
Sivakumar, S., 2021. Study of Internationalization Process of Unilever. Available at SSRN
3939738.
Stevens, and et.al, 2021. Marketing planning guide. CRC Press.
Teoli, and et.al, 2019. SWOT analysis.
Yoga, I. M. S., Korry, N. P. D. P. and Yulianti, N. M. D. R., 2019. Information technology
adoption on digital marketing communication channel. International journal of social
sciences and humanities.3(2), pp.95-104.
Ye, K., and et.al.,2022. Physiological and psychological influence of multi-media in urban
business districts. Sustainable Cities and Society.77, p.103546.