Unilever's Marketing Strategies: A Comprehensive Report

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MARKETING FUNDAMENTAL
UNILEVER
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Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................5
OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY..................................................................................................5
TASK A...................................................................................................................................... 6
1. STAGES AND PROCESSES OF MARKETING INCLUDING MARKETING MIX......................6
MARKETING......................................................................................................................6
MARKETING PROCESS...................................................................................................... 6
MACRO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS................................................................................7
PORTER’S FIVER FORCES MODEL......................................................................................8
SWOT ANALYSIS............................................................................................................... 8
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SWOT ANALYSIS...............................................9
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING............................................................9
MARKETING MIX............................................................................................................ 10
2. MARKETING ROLE IN CREATING CUSTOMER’S VALUE................................................12
SOCIETAL MARKETING CONCEPT....................................................................................12
BRANDING AND ITS ADVANTAGES.................................................................................13
ANSOFF MATRIX.............................................................................................................14
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING............................................................................................15
3. ENGAGEMENT OF STAKEHOLDER AND THEIR IMPACT ON MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF
UNILEVER........................................................................................................................... 16
STAKEHOLDER................................................................................................................ 16
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS....................................................................16
IMPACT OF STAKEHOLDERS ON COMPANY....................................................................17
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS...........................................................................18
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TASK B.................................................................................................................................... 19
CONCLUSION OF TACTICAL COMMUNICATION TOOLS WHICH ARE USED FOR GENERATING
AWARENESS....................................................................................................................... 19
COMMUNICATION..........................................................................................................19
KELLER’S BRAND EQUITY COMMUNICATION MODEL....................................................19
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION................................................................20
TYPES OF PROMOTION USES BY UNILEVER....................................................................20
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 22
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Ansoff Matrix............................................................................................................14
Figure 2 Relationship marketing of Unilever..........................................................................15
Figure 3 Stakeholder Analysis Model.....................................................................................16
Figure 4 Keller’s Brand Equity Communication Model...........................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
This assignment will be presented based on marketing by including its functions, roles and
processes within Unilever. This assignment also emphasis on the objective, mission, strategy
etc. and emphasized the macro-environmental factors which affect the company. This will
discuss the five forces of Porters by applying on Unilever and SWOT analysis for identifying
its main threats, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities. This will analyse the marketing
mix and discuss the STP of the company as well as it will also convey the concept of societal
marketing and practices of Unilever. This will state the whole information of branding and
the strategies used by the company to gain competitive advantages. This will also discuss
the key stakeholders of the Unilever by including external or internal and their impact on
the company. At last, it will discuss communication and types of promotion uses by Unilever
OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY
Unilever is a consumer’s transitional goods British-Dutch company which was founded on
2nd September 1929 by William Lever, Georg Schicht and some more. The company serves
its products like consumer goods worldwide. The company has 400 brands which get served
globally.
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TASK A
1. STAGES AND PROCESSES OF MARKETING INCLUDING MARKETING
MIX
MARKETING
Marketing brings up the activities which are taken by a company for promoting the selling
and buying of any service or product. This also involves selling, advertising and delivering
products to the businesses and customers which are known as b2b and b2c marketing. It is
based on the critical thinking of any company for providing satisfaction to the customers for
retaining them for a long time (Kotler et al., 2015).
MARKETING PROCESS
It is a process which is used for analyzing the market by taking opportunities, selecting
targeted markets, developing marketing mix and putting efforts of marketing. This will be
based on Unilever product DOVE (Unilever, 2015).
Mission statement: the mission of the company is to ensure that the growth of the next
generation will be enjoying a positive relationship with their looks and help young people
for raising their self-esteem with fill potential (Unilever, 2015).
Objectives: to comply with the needs of the customers and to foresee the interests of the
customers in acknowledging their product ambitiously (Unilever, 2015).
 Analyzing market: with the help of researching, the company finds and surveyed
that their products are highly demanded by the customers which become a strength
for the company by maintaining the presence in the competitive and emerging
market (Unilever, 2015).
 Marketing strategy: the product Dove was launched by Unilever for women and now
the company has also launched products for babies and men. The company has
launched many campaigns for educating the people on purchasing products by the
customers for increasing brand awareness which resulted in changing of the societal
perception (Wilson et al., 2016).
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 Collecting and analyzing data: with the help of researching, the company has found
that the customers are becoming more prices and beauty conscious which become
an opportunity for Unilever to launch its product Dove in the market (De Mooij,
2018).
 Implementation and control: this is the last step of the process where the company
tends to analyze the overall data of researching for finding out where the company
needs to focus more and improve its effectiveness (Unilever, 2015).
MACRO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
The macro factors which impact on the Unilever product "Dove" are being analyzed by using
Pestle analysis:
Political factors These factors impact on the profitability and the survival chances
of a company as their risks differ from sudden decision changes
taken by the government. Political factor-like taxation impact
negatively on Dove for increasing their profit (Kiesha, 2017).
Economic factors The factors like foreign exchange rate, inflation rate, interest rate,
rate of unemployment etc. impact on Dove negatively as Dove is
the fastest-growing item of Unilever which get affected by GDP
growth rate in the UK (Kiesha, 2017).
Social factors The demographics like gender and age and class distribution of
the people have impacted the company in providing premium
products to the general public because they rely on niche
marketing (Kiesha, 2017).
Technological factors For increasing the revenue the company has to improve its
technology and transform the products by offering something
new which impacts positively on Dove also (Kiesha, 2017).
Environmental factors The weather conditions impact negatively on the ability of the
company to manage the transportation of dove and other
products and resources (Kiesha, 2017).
Legal factors Legal factors like the law on intellectual property and data
protection help the company positively by securing their policies,
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innovations and data from the competitors (Kiesha, 2017).
PORTER’S FIVER FORCES MODEL
This model is used for analyzing the competitive forces in the market which is used by
Unilever for determining the microeconomics of Dove (Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
 The threat of new entry: there is less threat for Unilever product Dove, as the
company has a well-known brand image all over the world which is said to be
strength for the company (Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
 Bargaining power of suppliers: there is less bargaining power of the suppliers as
Unilever has a strong brand name and not any supplier want to break the deal with it
because there are so many other suppliers present in the market (Daniel Kissinger,
2017).
 Bargaining power of buyers: there is high bargaining power of the buyers as they
have many more opportunities to take the product of other competitor brands so
the company has to make its pricing strategy according to the customer's choice.
 The threat of substitute: there is a high threat of substitute so the company has to
continue its investment in research and development for lowering the risk of losing
its market presence (Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
 Rivalry among competitors: the rate of competitors is high in the market which
becomes difficult for Unilever to earn more profit from its product Dove. The main
competitors of Unilever are Johnson & Johnson, Colgate Palmolive and many more.
SWOT ANALYSIS
This is used for analyzing the threats, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities of a
company. Following analysis is based on Dove the product of Unilever:
Strengths  Unilever has a strong brand image in the world and this is
also the strength of Dove (Daniel, 2017)
 The company has a broad product mix as the company has
increased its product portfolio by mergers
 Unilever has the support of economies of scale for
effective production by adopting a competitive pricing
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Weaknesses  Unilever is lacking behind due to its imitable products like
Rexona and Dove where the company invest more
 Customers get influenced by the retailers as they depend
on retailers not on the company (Daniel, 2017)
Opportunities  Unilever has the opportunity of diversifying its brand and
product all over the world by reducing risks and improving
business flexibility
 It can innovate its products in concern to the health of the
customers and enhance the conservation of the
environment also (Daniel, 2017)
Threats  Unilever faces tough competition due to the similar
products of the rivalry players which affects its market
share and financial performance (Daniel, 2017)
 Local players are also making similar products like Unilever
brand and offering customers at lower cost
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SWOT ANALYSIS
Advantages:
 Unilever can take the opportunities by cutting down its weaknesses and threats for
gaining a competitive advantage in the market (Daniel, 2017)
 Unilever can also diversify and develop a market for its potential growth
Disadvantages:
 Similar products in the rivalry market can impact the company
 Lowering cost can reduce the profit for the company (Daniel, 2017)
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING
Segmentation: Market segmentation is the process of dividing the targeted segments into
groups and these groups get divided based on demographics, psychographic, behavioural,
geographic and customer-value based segmentation. Dove is the product of Unilever which
is segmented for women only (Schlegelmilch, 2016).
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Targeting: the company targets the segmented groups of upper and middle-class people for
its products as their main focus is on providing best services to the customers especially
female as Dove is the product used by many of women and they also prefer baby products
of dove brand. Dove is not so highly expensive so it can be easily affordable by any of the
segment (Schlegelmilch, 2016).
Positioning: Unilever has the strong position in the market of the UK as well as all over the
world which has a good number of buyers through providing good quality products and
affordable price of the product for competing with the competitors in the substitute market.
The share of Unilever in the market of beauty soap is around 43% which is having a great
position about its fragrances, packaging and design (Schlegelmilch, 2016).
MARKETING MIX
It is said to be an operational and tactical part of the marketing plan and the service
marketing includes product, place, price, promotion, process, people and physical evidence
which a company blends for producing the response it wants from the targeted market
(Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
Product The products of Unilever are the consumer goods which are an
array of products and brands. The company has more than 400
brands all over the world. For example, Knorr, Sunsilk, Dove,
Rexona, Lux etc. It also provides items of refreshment, homecare
and food (Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
Price FMCG has grown in a highly competitive market where it is
insolent that the brands are using their strategic pricing method
for remaining competitive. The company Unilever has also
adopted a competitive pricing strategy for gaining a competitive
edge (Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
Place The company Unilever uses both modern and traditional
approaches for sales and distribution. Direct communication
reflects the traditional approach of distribution and internet-
based distribution is known as a modern approach. Unilever mixes
its channels of distribution in the way of online shopping and
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retail stores for providing goods conveniently to its customers
(Daniel Kissinger, 2017).
Promotion The FMCG company Unilever uses both digital media and the
traditional method of promoting its products and brand. The
company uses print media and television for promoting its brand.
It also runs promotional campaigns by having the aim of
recognition of the brand by the customers easily. Unilever also
plans promotional activities for Dove by highlighting in ads like 7
days challenge for dove users (Charlottle, 2019).
People The company Unilever is having the effectiveness of its employees
who helps the company in delivering services and also influences
the customers for taking any product of the company by changing
their perceptions. The people can be included employees,
stakeholders, customers, investors, government etc. (Daniel
Kissinger, 2017).
Process There are many perceptions of the process of concept within
Unilever and marketing which means to achieve the result. The
company provides effective services to the customers after
analysing and implementing the marketing process. This also
makes the interaction between the customers and the company
for dealing with each other during the process (Daniel Kissinger,
2017).
Physical Evidence The company is having its physical evidence in the UK as it has
many distribution channels spread all over the world for reaching
towards many of the customers for providing them effective
services and wants to retain them for a long time (Daniel
Kissinger, 2017).
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2. MARKETING ROLE IN CREATING CUSTOMER’S VALUE
SOCIETAL MARKETING CONCEPT
It is a concept which puts the welfare of human on top before focusing on earning profit and
wants satisfaction. It emphasises on responsibilities of society and helps the company in
developing a market strategy for sustaining the success for long term for providing value to
the customers so that the company can improve and maintain the well-being of both
customers and the society better than the market competitors (Bresciani et al., 2016).
Objectives of societal marketing:
 To develop a relationship with customers for a long time frame
 To make a better image of the company in society
 To develop awareness in society about the brand
 To carry all the responsibilities of society (Bresciani et al., 2016)
Benefits of societal marketing:
 It helps in increasing sales and shares in the market
 It facilitates growth and expansion of the company for the long run
 It helps in retaining customers (Bresciani et al., 2016)
 It ensures sufficient economic planning more important and fruitful for society
The societal marketing concept is well followed by the Unilever to provide satisfaction and
protection to the customers and society for their well-being. Unilever is a giant FMCG brand
which uses many advertisements by highlighting the benefits of the poor people by proving
them education and employment (Bresciani et al., 2016). The company communicates with
the customers for understanding their opinions and beliefs. The company is helping to the
rural areas people by sending their agents for selling door-to-door services for consuming
their products. It also has created variations in the countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Egypt, India etc. in terms of distributing products and services (Bresciani et al., 2016).
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