Analyzing Unilever's Branding Strategy and Marketing Mix (4Ps Focus)

This marketing management report provides an in-depth analysis of Unilever's branding strategy, focusing on how the company positions itself in the market. It examines Unilever's branding approaches and marketing mix, with a specific focus on the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). The report also offers recommendations on how Unilever can improve its marketing strategy, considering factors such as purpose, consistency, emotion, and employee involvement in branding. The analysis covers Unilever's product diversification, place strategies, and promotional activities, aiming to provide insights for enhancing the company's market performance. Desklib provides access to this report and other valuable study resources for students.

Marketing Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Analyze their branding strategy, providing an insight into how they are positioning themselves
in the market space......................................................................................................................1
Based on their branding approaches and positioning, examine their current marketing mix,
focusing on the 4Ps......................................................................................................................4
Provide recommendations on how Unilever Company can improve its marketing strategy......7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing management is the process of changing the potential consumers into the actual
consumers.it is the process of controlling the marketing prospects like setting the goals of the
organization. The marketing management of the organization is based on creating, planning and
implementing some innovative strategies for meeting the objectives and goals of the
organization. The report based on the marketing-management which is the organizational culture
or discipline that focuses on the practical implementation of the market orientation, methods and
the techniques inside the enterprises and the organization (Deepak, and Jeyakumar, 2019). This
also focuses on the management of the firm's activities of the management and the resources of
the organization. The report further will be discussing the branding strategy of the Unilever. The
report will be discussing the branding approach of the company, positioning of the company.
Report based on the Unilever will be giving the brief output of the marketing strategies adopted
by the company and further on the marketing mix will be shown in the context of the company.
The report will be discussing the recommendation for the Unilever's marketing strategies for the
better performance in the near future.
MAIN BODY
Analyze their branding strategy, providing an insight into how they are positioning themselves
in the market space
Branding strategy is basically a long term plan that is used for making the brand more successful
in the target market. This plan has been used by the organizations for creating the value and
worth of the products and services in front of the potential customer in order to promote and
increasing the sales. Once the organization has developed a good marketing and branding
strategy than the consumers will associate with the products and services and what it does
without being knowing about the organization. The organization who have successful brand
strategy are more developed and have more growth rate as compared to the one who have less
branding strategies. Most of the large companies like coca cola, unilver plc. Have a very good
branding strategy for promoting their products and services. Basically a brand strategy is an
action plan used by the organizations for determining the type of image the company wants to
have and build in front of their potential customers (Leventhal, 2018). There are some key
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components of the marketing strategy of and which are purpose, consistency, emotion and
employee involvement.it is the responsibility of each and every individual of the organization
from the top management to the lower level employees. Whenever an organization creates a
branding strategy than they should set the business goals that they want to achieve by
introducing the brand. The company should also able to identify the target audience which will
help in increasing the effectiveness of the organization.
Similarly the branding strategy used by the Unilever Plc. Company is that it is a
brand with a purpose.it has been observed that the Unilever Plc. Company is using one of the
best strategy which integrates the global strategies with the local individuals for attracting the
customer who are influenced by the products that are popular across the world. For instance, the
Hindustan unilver which is a subsidiary of unilever in India has been established as one of the
most loving brands by the audience of India. For years it was considered as the top five most
valuable organization of India (Hamann, Williams, and Omar, 2020). The reason behind the
success of this company is its association with the values of the middle class and old fashioned
essence. While promoting the brand the Unilever plc. also focus on achieving the upper hand in
the communication to the audience without compromising the delivery of the brands. For
example, the tagline of surf line is “diet is good “and it has been portrayed in various forms and
also the advertisement of Brooke bond tea bring a change in the social views of the tea lover. So
by all these branding strategies the unilever is one of the most leading company despite of being
the oldest one in the industry. The unilever company also keeping the sustainability at the heart
of its branding strategy and the company has also been committed to the gender equality and it
has been observed that almost % of the employees are females employees over there. For more
understanding of the brand strategy there are basic four components of branding strategy and
these are as follows:
Purpose-when creating a good brand strategy the first step involves in this is to create a
successful brand strategy the focus of the organization should always be on the value that the
company wants to provide to their customers rather than focusing on the analysis of the financial
performance. The customers tend to focus on the stronger connection to the brand with a great
purpose other than making the profit (Rao, Agarwal, and Dahlhoff, 2018). The Unilever plc.
Company biggest achievement is that they focus on the purpose of the products and services.it is
very important to understand the purpose of the products and services by the organizations and
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asking some questions like “how the products of the company will help in solving the customers
problems” and this can support the business in articulating the purpose and helps in
differentiating the company form its competitors.
Consistency-consistency include all the assessing actions and activities of the enterprise and
choosing whether the actions which are aligned with the brand image has been presented to the
entire world. The same has been followed by the Unilever Plc. Company and also the company
is showing a consistent and familiar behaviour to their customers. Consistency of the
organization should always go beyond the logo of the company and it involves many key factors
like font styles, imagery, colours and the last one is style of language.it becomes very easy for
the customers to recognize the brand by the help of consistency in the organization. The one
method which is using by the Unilever Plc. is they always present some consistency in the
message they convey to their customers like they provide style guide. This helps in providing
relevant information on every factor of the business from the voice of editorial to using the logo
of the company online and how to position the products and services online (Knox, 2019).
Emotion-Humans own a distinctive aspiration for building connections and relationships as
well. The business of the organization can feel and touch the emotions of the target market by
finding a direction for relating with them on a deeper level. Similarly the Unilever Plc. Company
is using the emotions for having a good relationship with their customers and hence the
customers wait for long period of time for getting the best product from the organization. Also
the organization raises a community where the customers can share their opinions, ideas, can ask
queries and getting the latest updates about the latest products and services that they are working
on.
Employee Involvement – This is the last component of the brand strategy and employees are
considered to be one of the most isolated ones in the enterprise space in spite of being a crucial
aspect of the branding procedure. The employees are the one who are the front lines of the
company and they represent the organization in daily operational work. They are very important
asset of the company as they communicate with the customers about the products and services.
One of the best procedure of getting into the potential of the team members is to learn them
about the identity of the brand the organizations can provide some training sessions and
induction programs on how to voice the brand in a more effective manner on their social
platforms (Jones, 2021). Another method which can be adopted by the organization for
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employee involvement is to offer the practical resources and tools to the employees for creating
some emotional data and that will be distributed to the potential and worthy customers of the
organization.
Similarly the Unilever Plc. Company is continuing in placing the “vitality”
at the centre of all the brands positioning as per the president for home and personal care
components of the organization. The organization is positioning their brands by hiring some top
celebrities for promoting and advertising their brands. For example sun silk shampoo has created
a very good position in the mind of the customers by promotion, packaging and price.it is one of
the largest hair care brand in the nation
Based on their branding approaches and positioning, examine their current marketing mix,
focusing on the 4Ps
Marketing mix is a great strategy basically used by most of the organizations for creating and
developing right plans and implementing those plans and strategy in order to achieve the goals
and objectives of the organization. Marketing mix is a strategy used for advertising and selling
the products and services in the competitive target market.by the help of marketing approaches
and promotional strategies the companies used to sell their products into the market for getting a
competitive edge. The products has been sell to the customers at the right time, at the right place
and to the right cost by the help of marketing mix strategy. Marketing mix provides a direction
to the organization for selling their products into the market and also provides various innovative
strategies for promoting those products and services (Borden, 2018). There are basically four
factor in the marketing mix strategy and which are product, price, place and promotion. All the
elements of marketing mix strategy have some interrelations are providing benefits to each other
in some or another way.Unilever Plc. company is also using the concept of marketing mix
strategies for selling and promoting their products in the target market and by the help of this the
company is able to have such a valuable position in the market. The marketing mix strategy of
the Unilever Company is helping the organization in making more profitability and also helps in
increasing more revenue and profit margin. Product and place factor are the most significant and
most effective factor of the Unilever Plc. Company but the promotion and price factors of
unilever Plc. are also providing utmost benefits for increasing the growth and sales of the
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organization. The four elements of Unilever Plc. has been described below with proper
illustration for having a better understanding (Thabit, and Raewf, 2018).
Unilever Product’s – This is the first component of marketing mix strategy of Unilever Plc.it
has been studied that the company is providing almost four hundred multiple brands across the
world at present and these brands have a very high value and demand with respect to customer’s
choice. This component is also known as product mix and this will focus on the output or result
of the company which is providing by them to their desired customers. There are various
multiple products which has been provided by the Unilever Plc. to their customers like food
items, beverages and ice cream, home care and personal care products. The food component of
the company include many products like sandwich spread, sauce and food mayonnaise. Brook
Bond tea and heart brand ice cream comes under the beverages and ice cream category. The
Unilever Plc. Company sell detergent powders and dish wash bars or liquid gel in the home care
category of the product mix strategy. The last one is the personal care and in this the shampoo,
lotion, creams and many more beauty products comes under this category. This shows that the
organization uses diversification in selling and promoting their product component of marketing
mix (Hanaysha, Al Shaikh,and Alzoubi,2021).
Unilever Place’s-The place component is the second factor in the marketing mix strategy of
Unilever Plc. company and this means choosing a venue where the company wants to sell their
products to the customers. It can be an online website or some retail stores or some local shops
as well. In accordance with this the Unilever Plc. Company is selling their products in multiple
various places like retailers, kiosks and various stores.one of the most common place for selling
products to the customers are Retailers and Walmart is the example where the Unilever Plc.
company is selling their products to the customers. For selling the products directly to the
customers Unilever Plc. is using the kiosks and also sell some of their in multiple stores like
some marts or reliance stores.
Unilever’s promotion-The fourth factor in the marketing mix strategy of Unilever Plc.
Company is the promotion factor. Promotion factor means the way of advertising some products
for increasing the sales and revenue of the company. The promotional strategy also helps in
increasing the brand awareness of the product.by using this component the organization is able
to increase the overall performance and productivity of the company (Zafar, and Habil, 2020).
There are many strategies which are used by the Unilever Plc. for promotion and advertisement
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of the products like publicity, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct
marketing. The organization use online and social platforms for promoting their products. One
of the most significant method of promoting the products is sell the package of three with the
Dove soap at a discounted price. The company is also selling their products to the customers by
using one tactical strategy which is buy one get one free and this is highly influencing and
attracting the customers for purchasing the products(Rahman, and et.al, 2018).
Unilever’s price- Price is the amount the customer pays for buying a product. This is the third
factor of the marketing mix strategy of Unilever Plc. Company. It is one of best strategy used by
organizations for marketing mix. There are basically three types of price factors used in this
factor and which are oriented pricing strategy, premium pricing strategy and product bundle
pricing strategy. For the Dove soap the Unilever Plc. Company chooses premium pricing
strategy as compared with the competitors and sometimes sell their products which have less
value with some discounts. The company always choose some affordable and reasonable price
for the products and they always want to sell their products according to the needs and
requirements of the customer. The company never want to lose their customers because of the
pricing issue.
Similarly it has been understood that it is very important for the organization to have a good
marketing mix strategy as there are many benefits of using this strategy like it helps in
understanding the product and services the organization is offering to their customers, by the
help of marketing mix strategy the company will be support in planning a successful offering for
the product. The Unilever Plc. Company is using the marketing mix strategy for planning ,
developing and evaluating the effective marketing tactics .this helps the business in utilizing the
their strengths and opportunities and reduce the unwanted cost that has been spending in the
organization.it helps in determining that the products or services are suitable to their customers
in\according to their needs and requirements.by this the organization helps in recognizing and
understanding the needs and requirements of the customers. This is the best way the company
can adopt for promoting their products and services by using many platforms like email, social
media and many more.
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Provide recommendations on how Unilever Company can improve its marketing strategy
The marketing strategy helps in finding out the customers and how to reach to the customers by
using some tools and fulfilling their needs and requirements. The organizations uses the concept
of marketing strategy for connecting with the customers and provide a way for selling and
advertising the products and services to the customers. A marketing strategy is defined as a
strategic planning for achieving the goals and meeting the objectives of the organization by
understanding the needs and requirements of the customers and creating a unique and justifiable
competitive edge. The companies will able to track the marketing activities by the help of
marketing strategy. Marketing strategy helps in defining many factors of the company like target
audience, value proposition , product mix , brand messaging , promotional initiatives and
content mareking.by creating a good marketing strategy in the organization the company is able
to provide a direction to the business and supports in having a synchronization with the
customers, developing right products for the customers and determining how the company is
communicating the information about the products and services to the customer base. The
Unilever has a very good marketing that helps the company in growing the business in a more
effective manner (Morgan, and et.al, 2019). Marketing strategy helps the organization in
providing a competitive advantage, the company is able to make products and services with best
revenue making prospective, marketing strategy helps in finding the areas affected by the
company’s growth and hence supports in making a strategic plan for fulfilling the needs and
requirements of the customers.
Unilever is considered to be the top five most valuable companies in India and have
made itself as one of the most loving brands by the customers across the world. The reason
behind the success of Unilever Company is its relationship with the middle class standards and
old fashioned spirit (Reza, 2020). The marketing Strategy of the Unilever Company is “A brand
with purpose” which means the company used to participate the international strategies with the
local community for influencing and attracting the customers. The Unilever Company also focus
in communicating with the customer for the promotion of the products like in the Surf Excel the
tagline used is “dirt is good “and represented this in multiple ways. The Unilever Company have
been using the sustainable living plan from last ten years and this becomes a game changer for
the company. Unilever focus on gender equality and in 2020 the company offer job to 50%
female staff employees which was earlier 38%.the company is considered to be a customer
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centric business strategy by diversifying its products in multiple ways and also taking initiatives
in the research and development in the products development(Rutz, and Watson, 2019). The
company is creating a successful marketing strategies by setting definable goals of the business,
by identifying and researching the target market like knowing the market size, trends,
competitors and customer behavior, by focusing on the 7P’s which are product, place,
promotion, price, people, packaging and process, by developing the plans of the product, by
identifying the benefits, by crafting the messaging and positioning and the last one is by defining
the marketing mix. The company can create a very good and efficient marketing strategy by
following the above steps and can make the company more productive and growing.
On the other hand there are some recommendations which have to be followed by the
Unilever Company for improving the marketing strategies. The technology is changing the
marketing faster than before and in this competitive environment every company is fully
dependent on the technology factor as by the help of technology it becomes very convenient for
the companies to promote their products and therefore increasing the sales (Mothersbaugh, and
et.al, 2020). There are some technological recommendations that can be adopt by the company
for improving the marketing strategies.
 The company can use the concept of digital marketing for promoting and advertising
their products like search engine optimization, video marketing, promoting products on
social media, email marketing and many more. The company can use Artificial
intelligence for provide end to end solutions to the customers. The digital marketing done
by the members include some incentives for posting the products advertisements on
social media.
 The company can also invest in the Block chain process for tracking the functional and
operational efficiency of the products. This helps in managing the inventories, supply
chain and also build a trust in the company. There are many benefits of using block chain
like compliance management , reduces the need for an internal man , cross boundary
transaction can be easily controlled and offers an end to end responsibility(Nozari, and
et.al, 2021).
 Artificial intelligence is allowing the companies to remove the gaps between the
company and the customers and provides the facility of giving an end to end solution.
For instance the company can provide some chat bots for interacting with the customers
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and customers can ask their queries over there and this increases the efficiency and
productivity of the company as well.
 The Unilever Company can provide some online apps for ordering their products and
also the retails can take contact less orders from the app and help them in seeing the
fulfilment of the orders by the help of logistics tie-up and instinctive edges.
 Digitizing the stores and building automatic storerooms for the products for revealing the
sizes and making the processes agile. All the process can be done by intellectual data and
analytics by confirming smooth and improved operations.
 The Unilever Company can use many platforms for interacting with the customers like
Indian start-up Gland minds is a platform used for connecting with the customers and
this acts like a two way communication channel between the company and the
customers. This platforms is allowing the companies for leveraging the product
knowledge and generating standards for the consumers (Fu, Yang, and Han, 2021). This
platforms helps the customers in connecting with the customers and provide creation
maintenance and engagement.
 The technology factor will help the organization in capitalizing on the data and
information of the company for helping the customers in making the best decision for
purchase, the company can use analytics for intent and predict and by this they can have
a dynamic experience of the customer in real time, the Unilever company can also use
predictive intelligence for segmenting the customers according to their needs and
requirements and this will depend on certain factors like customer having high average
order value , higher lifetime value of the customers and the last one is higher probability
of purchasing therefore smart segmentation will help the organization in using the budget
of the marketing in a more effective manner and the company can further focus on the
key segments.
 The advancement of the technology factor in the company can take full advantage of the
embedded artificial intelligence and machine learning and this will add the missing
human touch in every factor of the marketing and by this the company will also have
more efficient integration and use big data more significantly.by the help of the the
company become more customer centric.
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