Business Environment Analysis of Unilever: PESTLE and SWOT Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's business environment, examining both macro and micro factors that influence its operations. The macro environment is assessed using the PESTLE framework, considering political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The micro environment is evaluated through a SWOT analysis, identifying Unilever's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report delves into how these factors impact decision-making within the company, emphasizing the importance of understanding market dynamics and competitive landscapes. The findings highlight Unilever's position in the consumer goods industry, the challenges it faces from global competition, and its strategies for adapting to changing market conditions. The conclusion summarizes the key insights and emphasizes the strategic significance of the business environment analysis for Unilever's continued success. The report also includes a detailed list of references to support the analysis.

Business and Business
Environment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Macro environmental factors.......................................................................................................3
Micro environment analysis........................................................................................................5
Critical reflection of findings and its influence on decision-making..........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business environment has been considered to be the collection of the internal and the
external factors that are able to influence the employees, customer needs and the expectations,
supply and demand. Unilever is the British Multinational consumer goods company which is
headquartered in London. In this project the macro and micro factors which influences the
impact on the organization.
MAIN BODY
Macro environmental factors
The macro environmental factors of Unilever can be explained with the help of the PESTLE
analysis,
Political:
Unilever has a huge product portfolio with the company that mainly works in the
different division that are related to the beauty& personal care, food & refreshments and home
care products. Majority of the revenue of this company is generated by the fast moving consumer
goods. It is considered that the company needs to be abide with the rules and regulations that are
set by the food and drug administration. This company faces many consequences due to the
regulation that are implemented by the other countries due to their political disputes with UK.
Other than this the being a MNC it has to follow the guide lines of all the governments at which
this business works (Mayes and et.al., 2018). This is also the signal that the business is able to
good signal for the corporate as it becomes easier for the company to make corporate reforms
without any resistance from their competitors.
Economic:
The company like Unilever can has to deal with the economy of the world. The more the
booming the economy is the higher it is able to generate the income. It has been found that the
due to the rise in some of the developing countries is the reason due to which the business has to
face some risks that is attached to it (Franco and et.al., 2017). The employment of the

organization also depends on the ways in which the business is affected to the decisions that are
made by the company’s prospects in a nation. Due to having large number of unemployed people
this company finds it had for being able to increase its price as then the population would not be
able to afford the products. However, this will mean that the cost for employment will decrease
for this company.
Technological:
These are considered to be the technological factors that pace the innovation in the
organization. It is also the technology which is able to sustain the market through staying ahead
of the other organizations. The constant improvement if the operations is also considered to be
the key factor towards the process of efficiency towards the decrease of the costs (Thio and et.al.,
2021). The majority of the sufficiency numbers of resources needs to put into the R&D for
development for the new products. Improvement of the technology helps the business to improve
its process. However, it has been found that the overall expenses and efforts of the organization
increases. Business practices towards the ways in which they are able to develop the new
features are considered to be very important for innovation and can generalise the important
features.
Legal:
The legal factors are the ones that are related to the ways in which the Unilever works as
they are able to take more care for the ways in which the law and regulations work. The
protection of the patents of the organization is very important for being able to analyse the
growth that is essential in an organization. This has been found that the company is able to find
new selling points which can create issues due to the changes in the legal formalities. It’s a
general tendency of the business to try and avoid these issues for which it requires a strong legal
department that is vigilant and capable of taking proper actions. Customers are considered to be
well informed fore they are taking legalities and process the trust in the customer’s mind for the
gains of the company and its loyalty.
Environmental:
This company has been very successful in the protection of environment that its
operating. This is due to the sustainability that it has been able to implement its operations which
allow it to live up to its word. The sustainability goals of the company are influences by the way
in which it has been able to enhance its business and image of its operations (Bismark and et.al.,

2018). The dedication of the company is also very important towards the achieving 100% plastic
free packaging that allows the business to be able to gain more sustainability. This provides the
business with increase brand image and also a strong level of CSR. For this business these
practice effects in increase of their overall costs which impacts their prices that is the negative
side the environmental factors.
Micro environment analysis
The micro environment of Unilever can be measured with the help of SWOT analysis that
explains the internal factors for this company.
Strengths:
This company is one of the largest organization of its kind and it operates in 190
countries across the globe. It has footprint that is combined with the top of the mind for recalling
towards the consumers worldwide. This organization is also known for its diverse products.
Unilever has a very unique research and development which is always innovating (Jafari and
Othman Soleiman, 2020). This organization has great advantages over the other business which
is responsible for the flexible pricing and exercising of the distribution channels. The
combination of the local execution and the ways in which it pursues global strategies is
considered to be very effective for the heart and minds of the consumers. The external factors
affect the organization’s strengths which is also the reason due to which it has been able to
achieve the goals that are essential for the achievement of organizational success.
Weaknesses:
The biggest weakness that this company has is that it operates in the a very highly
competitive market. Due to which it has to face global giants like P&G and Nestle in addition to
all the local companies that are influencing the challenges. The dominance of the this company is
the factor that allows it to be successful in the world. Other than this other weakness that this
company has to face is the replacements of the products which have substitutes. This is common
as the company has product of regular usage due to which they are easily substituted by the local
brands. The external factors are also responsible for the affecting this organization for its
weaknesses specially the social factors that impact the customer decision making towards
products price hence they prefer their substitutes.
Opportunities:

Due to the globalisation of the organization the proliferation of the global media and the
consumers in the emerging markets are considered to be the factor that is essential for the means
of Unilever to have a tremendous opportunity that is waiting for it to tap into the large and
diversified consumer base (Mostafa, Youssef and Abdelrahman, 2020). The application of the
organization has been considered to be the key factor that is able to generate the consumer base
for the product to be able to mimic the consumer preference of the material west. The emergence
of the health conscious society is also the external factor that has brought the opportunity of
growth in the organization. This helps the business to seize the opportunity for the marketing this
segment as the existing launch of the product. This company is also able to keep good social and
environment responsibility due to which it has been able to develop the ethical image in the eyes
of the customers.
Threats:
Due to the ongoing economic crisis the business has been said to have dented the
profitability for the many companies to be able to achieve the results through the income of the
global consumers (SWOT Analysis of Unilever, 2021) Buying less and the insisting on more
value for the money is also said to be the able to achieve the faces that have the threat of
diminishing the revenues and increasing the costs. The increasing competition for this
organization is a threat for this business which affects the local products and the alternatives for
the brands proliferation of the especially in the emerging market and is also said to have certain
threats towards the smaller and more number local upstarts that can provide more value against
lessor money. The entry of the Asian MNC is considered to be the factor that is able to help the
company raise its stake towards its global dominance in the FMCG market segment.
Critical reflection of findings and its influence on decision-making
I have been able to find from this finding that Unilever has been in the business of consumer
fulfilment for many decades and has been able to develop the confidence towards the tide of over
the presence of the gloomy conditions in the FMCG segment. The development of the ways in
which I have been able to conclude these findings is through a cautionary note that the threat of
the substitutes from the countries in Asia is an issue for this company. I understood that the
environment factor has been the key towards the influence of how the business has been able to
generate the growth of the organization through expansion in the global market. The
development which is considered to be the reason the company has been successful over the

years. I have been able to study that the analysation of the work of this organization is the direct
resemblance to the ways in which they provide strategical advantages.
The external factors of the organization have been considered to be ones that responsible for
being able to achieve the success and gain opportunities that contribute towards the success of
the organization. I have been able to analyse that the understanding of the better and more
effective market has allowed Unilever to be able to achieve the success that has been essential
for the gaining the success. Understanding of the organization which is considered to be the
reason through which the business practices are achieved.
CONCLUSION
From this project it can be concluded that the growth of the business is directly related to the
ways in which the business provides the success that is essential for the strategies that are
important for the success. In this project the external factors of the organization have been
explained with the help of the Pestle analysis. In this project the internal factors of the
organization have been explained through the SWOT analysis.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bismark, O., and et.al.,, 2018. Utilizing Mckinsey 7s model, SWOT analysis, PESTLE and
Balance Scorecard to foster efficient implementation of organizational strategy.
Evidence from the community hospital group-Ghana Limited. International Journal of
Research in Business, Economics and Management. 2(3). pp.94-113.
Franco, A., and et.al., 2017. Toward refined environmental scenarios for ecological risk
assessment of down‐the‐drain chemicals in freshwater environments. Integrated
environmental assessment and management. 13(2). pp.233-248.
Jafari, H. and Othman Soleiman, K., 2020. Assessment of effective environmental factors in oil
and gas industry policies using PESTLE & SWOT analysis (case study: Kurdistan,
Iraq). Environmental Sciences. 18(3). pp.134-151.
Mayes, A. E., and et.al., 2018. Environmental and lifestyle factors associated with perceived
facial age in Chinese women. PLoS One. 5(12). p.e15270.
MOSTAFA, A. A., YOUSSEF, K. and Abdelrahman, M., 2020. Analysis of Photovoltaics in
Egypt using SWOT and PESTLE. International Journal of Applied Energy Systems.
2(1). pp.11-14.
Thio, M. D .F., and et.al., 2021. Empowerment of Semi Formal and Informal Sector in Realizing
A Cheap and Environmentally Friendly Alternative Energy of PLTSa Sumur Batu
Business Process. Journal of Management and Energy Business. 1(1).
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