Analyzing Marketing Mix and Research for Unilever Sri Lanka - PCM

This PCM assignment report, prepared for the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever Sri Lanka's marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to the company, its vision, and product portfolio, focusing on three selected products: Vaseline, Signal, and Marmite. The report then delves into the marketing mix of Lifebuoy soap, examining product, place, price, and promotion strategies. Furthermore, it explores the key stages of the marketing research process, outlining how Unilever can conduct formal market research to understand its customers. The report concludes by assessing the impact of the macro environment on Unilever's operations, providing a holistic view of the company's marketing approaches and challenges. This report is a valuable resource for understanding the application of marketing principles in a real-world FMCG context, offering insights into market research, product analysis, and environmental influences.

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF
MARKETING RESEARCH TO IDENTIFY CUSTOMER
INSIGHT IN ORDER TO SATISFY TARGET CUSTOMERS
BY DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE MARKETING MIX
ELEMENTS AND MONITORING CONSTANTLY THE
“MACRO ENVIRONMENT” FORCES THAT WOULD
IMPACT THE OPERATIONS OF AN ORGANIZATION
Prepared by
C. P. M. T. P. Fernando
0000039137
SLHS Academy - Kalutara
JUNE 2019
Preliminary Certificate in Marketing
SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF MARKETING

Table of Contents
1. Introduction to selected organization
a. Brief Introduction………………………………………………………04
b. Selected three products…………………………………………………07
2. The Marketing Mix of selected organization
a. Product…………………………………………………………………12
b. Place……………………………………………………………………12
c. Price…………………………………………………………………….13
d. Promotion………………………………………………………………14
3. Marketing research process…………………………………………………….15
4. Macro environment…………………………………………………………….18
5. Reference……………………………………………………………………….22
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1. Executive Summary
This PCM assignment has mainly focused on understanding the importance of Marketing
mix, stages of marketing research process and macro environment.
There are four main tasks in this assignment. The first task is selecting a FMCG business
organization and presenting a brief on the products and the company background.
The second task is the analysis of marketing mix by applying the organization for the
selected services. The third task is about the key stages of the marketing research process and
how the Unilever Company should undertake in order to develop a formal market research
study on its customers.
The last task understands the impact of macro environment for selected FMCG
organization. In this report we can understand,
 Background of the Unilever company
 Product portfolio
 Information about three products selected and the Marketing mix elements.
 The external factors which can affect to Unilever Company
 How we can do a Marketing research
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Task 1
Selected organization: Unilever Sri Lanka–
1. About the organization:
Unilever Sri Lanka has 70 years of manufacturing history in this country and produces
95% of all the products it markets in Sri Lanka. This significant investment reflects
Unilever’s commitment to its presence in Sri Lanka. At a time when global organizations are
consolidating production in countries that offer greater economies of scale and lower
production costs, credit goes out to the local management for retaining manufacturing
operations in Sri Lanka. This will ensure that Unilever will continue to provide Sri Lankan
consumers with their favorite brands while adding substantially to the nation’s economy.
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2. Vision of the Company
The vision of the company is to grow their business, while decoupling their
environmental foot print from their growth and increasing their positive social impact.
Unilever Sri Lanka is one of the biggest FCMG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company in
Sri Lanka, with 29 market brands in categories such as Home care, Personal care and Foods.
Established in Sri Lanka in 1938 with brands such as sunlight, lux, pears rose, today Unilever
manufactures 95% of its products locally. Unilever’s corporate purpose is to make
sustainable living common place. The Unilever sustainable living plan sets out to decouple
the company’s growth from environmental impact, while increasing its positive social
impact. The plan has three big goals that by 2020 will help improve people’s health and well-
being, reduce the company’s environmental footprint, and enhance livelihoods across its
value chain.
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The product portfolio of Unilever Sri Lanka organization is mainly divided into three
product categories. They are
I. Home care
II. Personal care
III. Food and drink
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Home care
House Hold Care
vim
Domex
Comfort
Water Purifier Pureit
Laundary
Rin
SurfExcel
Sunlight
Food & Drink
Food
Tea
Marmite
Astra
Knorr
Lipton
Laogy

3. Selected Three Products
 Vaseline
 Signal
 Marmite
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Personal Care
Soap
Lux
Lifebouy
Cream & Lotion
Ponds
Vaselin
Fair & Lovely
Tooth Paste
Signal
CloseUp
Shampoo
Sunsilk
Dove
Clear

Vaseline:
Vaseline is an American brand of petroleum-gel based products owned by British Dutch
Company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum-gel and a selection of skin creams,
soaps, lotions, cleansers, and deodorants. In our country We can see following in the market.
 Healthy white
A skin lightening lotion that restores for visibly fairer skin in 2 weeks. Enriched with
micro-droplets of Vaseline Jelly, it helps heal dry skin and makes it look fairer. Also
this contains Vitamin B3 that helps skin look fairer by inhibiting melanin transfer &
production.
Best for: daily fairness, uneven tone, dry and damaged skin, dull skin
 Advanced repair
Vaseline Intensive Care Advanced Repair Unscented Body Lotion moisturizes dry
skin and it can moisturize and repair stubborn dry skin. Contains micro droplets of
Vaseline Jelly to lock in moisture and deeply moisturizes to heal dry skin in 5 days.
Best for: dry skin, sensitive skin, dry irritated skin
 Total moisture
Clean-feel formula combines pure oat extract and Stratys 3 multi-layer moisture to
leave the skin deeply moisturized and feeling healthy, soft and smooth. Also
moisturizes top three layers of surface skin (stratum corneum) and contains pure oat
extract. Absorbs fast for a non-greasy feel.
Best for: dry skin
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Signal Toothpaste:
Signal toothpaste is available in different sizes and these products are available in most of the
supermarkets.
1. Signal strong teeth Tooth Paste 70g Rs.85.00
2. Signal strong teeth Tooth Paste 120g Rs.124.00
3. Signal herbal Tooth paste 160g Rs.145.00
4. Signal Tooth paste Fresh Mint 120ml
5. Signal Tooth paste Essential Anti-cavity calcium 120ml
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Marmite:
Marmite is a British food spread produced by Unilever. Marmite is made from yeast extract,
a by-product of beer brewing. Marmite is a sticky, dark brown food paste with a distinctive,
powerful favor which is extremely salty.
Marmite Large 210g Rs.570.00
Marmite Medium 105g Rs.325.00
Marmite 55g Rs.175.00
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Task 2
1. Marketing mix analysis on FMCG Product - Lifebuoy
This task is presenting an analysis of the marketing mix for the selected FMCG product
of Lifebuoy Soap. The marketing mix is being used by marketers to achieve the
marketing and business objectives. If they don’t use the marketing mix they can’t
achieve the expected results and marketing mix is the main tool of achieving the
Unilever marketing objectives. The traditional marketing mix can be classified into 4
Ps. They are being illustrated here.
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1.1 Product Mix
The product Lifebuoy is a well-established one in the world. As the world’s leading
health soap, lifebuoy aims to make a difference by creating accessible hygiene product (soap)
and promoting healthy hygiene habits. With this in mind, lifebuoy aims to change the hand
washing behavior of 1Billion people by 2015.
The brand lifebuoy has been positioned well among the sri lankan customers as well as in
the global customers. The brand name is playing a main role in the product mix and Unilever
marketers are always try to be the market leader in this soap sector.
The outer package is also doing a main function of this soap and the marketers have
being changing many times the package. The red, white and blue color including white color
package has been used by the brand managers of Unilever. This gives an attraction to the
customers and that package is providing the information about the soap such as price,
ingredients, special features, manufacturers, etc.
The design of the soap has also been changed periodically. The present one has curved
from the body of the soap. The design is also giving a competitive advantage.
Quality and the smell could also be considered as an important element in the product
mix. If the quality of Lifebuoy is high the customers loyalty would be existing for a longer
time.
The marketing managers of Unilever has managed well the product mix and the right
product decision are important as this brand at the maturity level.
1.2 Price Mix
The next item of the market mix is the price. This is giving a profit for the Unilever by
managing well. All the other items are incurring a cost but price. There are few elements to
be analyzed in this price mix.
The pricing strategy is important for the Lifebuoy soap. The present strategy is the
market based pricing method. The Unilever company is setting the price after analyzing the
cost calculation, adding a markup and considering the market situation.
The retail price is for the customers and the distributor price is different. Special price
discounts are being arranged for the special channel members.
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1.3 Promotion Mix
The marketers of Unilever have been successfully executing this effort. They have
positioned the Lifebuoy brand in the sri lankan customers with the aggressive promotional
campaign.
The following mentioned main tools are being used by Unilever.
1.3.1 Adveertising – Company is using TV channels regularly and every day the different
commercials are telecasted. Radio advertising is also can be seen. In addition the
different types of news papers ads and posters, bill boards, printing materials are
used on this purpose.
1.3.2 Public Relation – Public relation activities are launched through hospitals, schools
in order to build up a good brand image among the nation. The company has been
spending millions of rupees for the public relation activities. Unilever has introduced
WORLD HAND WASH DAY as a new concept. This is also coming in the public
relation activity.
1.3.3 Direct Marketing – Direct marketing activities are also being carried out by the
marketers to communicate the message, direct emails, catalogues, can be considered.
Facebook, Twitter have also been used as the tool of direct marketing.
1.3.4 Sales Promotion – Special programs to boost the sales of Lifebuoy soap. Special
seasonal offers could be executed by the management. In addition the branded offers
together with other sister brands are been introduced.
The company has successfully managed the promotional mix and the brand name of
Lifebuoy is a result of all kind of promotions.
1.4 Place Mix
The place/distribution plays an essential role in the marketing mix. Product is established
and the pricing method and promotional campaign is also strong but what if the place mix is
not efficient. The all the 4Ps are equally important.
Different distributors of Unilever are engaging in distributing the Lifebuoy soap from the
manufacturer to the end customers. The company agents, wholesalers, retailers, Direct
Supermarkets would be the different channel members.
The sales managers and executives should have a good relationship with the channel
members to get the efficient distributional framework. The managers of Unilever sometimes
distributors are being motivated. The rewards offering for the distributors would be making
the distribution more effective.
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So far the intensive distribution strategy is being followed by the Unilever as the
Lifebuoy is a FMCG product.
Marketers should manage and execute well the four elements of the marketing mix to
achieve the business, sales as well as marketing objectives.
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TASK 3
1. The key stages of the marketing research process and how the
Unilever Company should undertake in order to develop a formal
market research study on its customers
Definition of marketing research by The American Marketing Association:
Marketing research is “The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about
problems relating to the marketing of goods and services”.
Marketing research covers finding out information about all elements of the marketing mix,
markets, customers, competitors etc. Thus we can summarize that marketing research is
systematic and disciplined, relates to needs and wants, provides information about marketing
problems.
 Defining the problem and setting specific objectives
The most significant part of the marketing research process is defining the problem. In
order to do any research and collect data, the researchers should know what they are
going to learn from the research. The problem the researchers want to solve will
determine what the information needs are and how they are going to collect those data.
For an example if Unilever wants to introduce a new consumer good for a specific
demographic area they can do a research by setting specific objectives. The researchers
can develop a set of questions and define the problem very accurately.
 Designing the research plan
After identifying a research problem accurately and then translated in to specific
research objectives then there should be a proper plan for achieving those objectives.
There are key elements of the research plan such as
1. Types of Data required: The researcher can collect secondary data and if it
doesn’t meet the requirements they have to seek primary data sources.
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2. Selection of research techniques: If the researchers made a decision to use
primary data collection methods, they can do observations, experiments, survey,
depth interviews to collect data.
3. Selection of research instruments: After selecting the technique the researchers
should identify the most suitable instrument for doing the research.
4. Designing the sampling plan: The researcher must define the target population
which they focus when they continue the research plan. The researchers should
study about the sampling methods.
5. Selection of contact methods: This element is applicable where the research
technique being used is the survey method. There are three main methods as how
to contact respondents such as personal surveys, telephone surveys, postal/
internet/ fax surveys.
 Collection of Data
This step initiates the implementation of the marketing research plan. Actually the
researchers can get quantitative and qualitative data which are descriptive and
observational. When collecting data the researchers have to be careful to make sure
that those data are valid and unbiased.
1. In house marketing research
In this method usually research will be performed by the marketing department.
This method will be more confidential and secure for sensitive topics such as new
product launches. It is more cost effective to use internal personnel. Although
external agencies may be aware of the latest and most sophisticated marketing
research techniques, they may have less knowledge of the product, the market
situation and the company’s customers.
2. External research agencies
There is a chance that an external agency would be bringing expertise in
marketing research which an organization might not be able to supply in house.
External research organizations are often used for overseas research.
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According to the research problem, the researchers can decide what method they
can use to gather data.
 Data Analysis and Interpretation
In this step of our marketing research process the collected raw data transformed in to
information that is useful for marketing decision-making. This is done through careful
analysis and evaluation. This is the critical step in the research process. At this stage,
a researcher must draw upon many talents, including analytical skills, intuitive
understanding skills, and communicating skills. In present the computer enables
sophisticated analytical procedures to be used, and the data will be edited and coded
so as to be entered in to the computer system.
 Presentation of the research findings
This is the final stage of marketing process. The gathered results should be
communicated and subsequently acted upon by marketing management. Marketing
researchers should present the information in such a way that marketing managers
should understand and can use them. The marketing researchers should keep reports
simple and brief. Researchers should always focus on the audience and identify their
boundaries. It is very easy to understand when researchers summarize the major
findings. Researches can give indications to decision managers, research managers of
implications for decision making. It will be very easy if they use visually present
information such as graphs, diagrams. Statistical analyzing will be important for some
processes. Gathered data can be used in this step also, in order to find out what are the
sides they can improve their selves.
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TASK 4
Macro environment
Unilever Company’s ability to address external factors in its macro environment contributes
to business prominence in the global consumer goods market. This can be considered as a
tool to decision managers to check the influence of external factors towards the organization.
Political Environment
Unilever’s performance can be affected by the political landscape.
 Political stability of most countries – It can be taken as an opportunity.
 Political issues in the European union - This can be a threat
 Growing free trade relations - This can be an opportunity
The political stability of most countries can be an opportunity for Unilever to grow in these
markets. When there are growing free trade relations Unilever can expand their market
globally. Unilever has to address the challenges linked to the political conditions of the
European Union.
Economic Environment
Unilever’s business performance is dependent from the situation of economies around the
world. In the consumer good industry, the following economic external factors are influenced
on Unilever Company’s performance
 Increasing wages in developing countries
 High growth of developing countries
 Economic stability of developed countries
.
When people get higher salaries their power of buying products become high, therefore
Unilever Company can gain profits from higher potential sales. This can be a threat as well
because the manufacturing cost can be increased considering the manufacturing facilities
located in developing regions. If a country is economically stable there will be no more high
influence to Unilever Company to care about.
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Social and Cultural Environment
Socio cultural trends and issues influence the business performance of Unilever Company.
 Rising health consciousness
 Rising environmentalist behaviors
 Gradual dismantling of the gender divide
Unilever can make profits through addressing the pain points of health in customers. For an
example Unilever product can introduce more options for marmite paste which can add with
various foods in day to day life. Unilever products can be environment friendly manufactured
with minimized energy consumption. Unilever Company can do innovations to make profit
through these external factors.
Technological Environment
Unilever depends on available technologies to support their consumer goods business.
 Rising business automation
 Rising research and development investment
 Decreasing cost of transportation based on technological efficiencies
To improve operational efficiency business automation is an opportunity. For example there
can be inventory monitoring to support supply chain and distribution efficiencies. The other
competitors also can develop their efficiencies and be a threat to Unilever Company. This
can be a threat to Unilever Company because it can increase the competitiveness of other
firms. If the operational cost and transportation cost decrease it will make high profit and
Unilever can make competitive advantages.
Ecological Environment
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The effects of the natural environment and related issues are described in this external factor.
 Rising interest in business environmentalism
 Increasing business efforts on sustainability
 Increasing complexity of environmental programs
The rising interest in business environmentalism is an opportunity for Unilever to improve
environmental programs and attract customers towards them. Unilever can do complex
environmental programs for new innovations.
Ethical Environment
Marketing ethics are moral principles that define right or wrong behavior in marketing.
Unilever organization should be responsible for the health conditions of people without
violating their health habits. For an example they should concern about the ingredients of
their marmite products. They should be aware of health issues that can be arise if the proper
quality is not met.
Legal environment
Unilever should satisfy regulations in order to minimize barriers to its consumer goods
business. In this section it helps to analyze and understand the impact of legal systems on
firms. Unilever must satisfy the issues based on the following legal external factors:
 Increasing complexity of environmental regulations
 Strengthening consumer rights law
 Strengthening international patent law
By matching the organization’s corporate social responsibility strategy with environmental
regulations, Unilever has an opportunity to enhance its corporate image. In addition,
international patent law can facilitate the company’s growth. Stronger customer right laws
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create an opportunity for the company to provide a quality service for customers and
continue a strong bond between company and consumer.
References
https://www.marketing91.com/what-is-macro-environment/
https://www.Unilever.com/
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https://blog.oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com/
PCM book and Social Media
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