Comprehensive Strategic Analysis Report: Unilever PLC

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Unilever PLC, a leading multinational consumer goods company. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and its importance, followed by an overview of Unilever's product lines and marketing strategies. The report then delves into a detailed SWOT analysis, examining Unilever's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Further analysis includes the application of the Ansoff matrix, PESTLE analysis, stakeholder analysis, and Porter's five forces model to assess the company's external environment and competitive position. The report also explores Unilever's corporate strategies and strategic sustainability initiatives, providing insights into its long-term goals and approach to environmental and social responsibility. The analysis highlights the company's global footprint, diverse product portfolio, and competitive advantages while also acknowledging its challenges and potential areas for improvement, concluding with an overview of the key findings and recommendations for future strategic direction.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Product line:............................................................................................................................1
Marketing strategies:..............................................................................................................2
SWOT analysis of the Unilever PLC.....................................................................................4
Ansoff matrix of Unilever......................................................................................................7
PESTLE analysis of the Unilever...........................................................................................7
Stakeholder analysis of the company...................................................................................10
Porters five stage model of the company.............................................................................15
Corporate strategies of the Unilever.....................................................................................16
Uniliver strategic sustainability............................................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Organisation's top-level management plans strategies to develop the changes in the daily
operations. Strategies includes formulation and implementation of fruitful techniques that will be
beneficial in gaining the organisational goals. Decisions must be made with the mutual
consideration of all the professional bodies who are included in daily operations of business.
They decide and develop the plans and policies which is helpful for achieving the business
objectives. Unilever is the world's largest MNC, it has wide product range includes grocery
articles, food beverages, cosmetics and house hold products. This organisation has to adopt
strategies to manage all categories of product line and satisfy its consumers at every aspect.
Product line:
Management of manufacturing products by the organisation is quite essential as to
maintain the consumer relationship. The quality, size, features, prices are to be planned by the
organisations and it will be satisfied the consumers. There should be use of fair marketing
policies which will create the identity of the product in market and the buyers will easily
recognise the products (Sarwar and Hosseinian-Far, 2017). Unilever deals in various product
chains it includes food and beverages, house hold products used in cleaning and the personal care
products includes the cosmetics and baby care products. This organisation is serving throughout
the world and has created loyalty in the consumers’ minds. It has costumers of more than 200
countries and is successfully dealing with the consumers and satisfied their needs, wants and
demands.
Unilever deals in consumer goods, it has owned more than 400 brands of world and
prioritised in dealing with these 13 brands includes Axe/Lynx, Dove, Omo, Becel/Flora,
heartbrand ice creams, Hellmann's, Knorr, Liptopn, Lux, Mangum, Rama, Rexona, Sunsilk and
Surf etc. with the sales of more than a billion euros. Organisation generates more revenue with its
cosmetic product line which has the best costumer support. The quality of its products motivates
buyers to be the client of the organisation and it is beneficial in generating better goodwill and
brand loyalty of consumers (Sarwar and Hosseinian-Far, 2017). The company need to develop
the strategies as to improve its sales in the market by advertising the products and by launching
the innovative products. In food articles, the organisation is dealing in oils and fats.
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Marketing strategies:
Identification of a product need the promotional strategies like advertisement, surveys on
the different locations or on numbers of individuals. Unilever has adopted various techniques or
strategies to develop the identity of products in market. Advertisement of products is the
psychological and emotional motivation to the consumers, with the help of this organisation
develops relationships with the consumers (Atighechian and Jahangiri, 2016). Organisation
develops positive relations with the woman consumers and helping them in rising the self-
esteem and potential through one of its cosmetic product line Dove. This is an emotional or
psychological method of promoting products, Dove is starting of the beauty campaign with the
women of all shape, colour. Organisation need to have the various marketing mix strategies these
can be as follows:
Product: Products includes the size, shape, quality and durability. Organisation need to
focus on the quality or durability of the products. Packaging of the products should be
economical and environment friendly and which protects the product from the weather and
breakage. Proper packaging must be done as the product will be reached to the end consumer in
proper condition without any damage (Atighechian and Jahangiri, 2016). Products of perishable
nature are to be delivered quickly to the consumers and there must be adequate manufacturing of
such products.
Delivery and supply of the products need to be very prompt and this should be safely
reached to the end consumers. Unilever has developed the guaranteed products and has satisfied
the consumer's needs. Cosmetic products have earned more trust in market. This product line is
successfully serving the society from very long years and maintain the trust toward the quality of
these products. There can be variations in the choices, trend, fashion preferences in the
consumers. So, the proper survey should be conducted as to analyse the actual need of the
consumers. The organisation should provide products as per the preferences of the consumers on
the adequate time duration.
Price: Products should contain the reliable prices and it can be easily acquired by the
consumers. Making a commodity affordable to its consumers, organisations do compromise with
the quality of products. Prices and the quality of the product must be balanced as it can be
affordable by the consumers or it cannot lower down the quality.. Unilever serves products to
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society with the affordable prices and in adequate quality (Singh, 2016). Consumer need not to be
compromise with the quality or quantity of the product.
Professionals of various departments should plan the specific strategies, tactics on fixing
the prices of the product. Pricing strategies includes discounts, term payments, commerce made
through credit or debit cards and various methods of mercantilism. Prices implied on the products
which is the source of generating income or revenue to the organisation and it also contains the
consumer perceived value.
Place: Assortment of places where the product is going to be successfully reached in
consumer's hands. Marketing department of the organisation should make adequate decisions
about the locations. The location of various distribution channels is to be convenient to
consumers. The location of stores, warehouse, retail or wholesale stores are to be located at the
places which should be near to the residential areas and should be convenient to consumers to
reach and get the products. Unilever has acquired more than 200 countries’ market and has the
large numbers of buyers and this is essential for them to adopt techniques or ideas to maintain the
consumer relationships (Singh, 2016). The strategies should be made as the intensive, selective
and exclusive distributional channels, franchising, market coverage, transportation and ware
housing of the product. Placing the store at the geographical area which should not have any
societal issues. The variations in culture can influence the selling of product. The distributors or
the suppliers to the organisation should be very quick in providing the orders to the consumers or
the retail stores. The promptness in providing the product within the time limit generates the
good image in the consumer's mind.
Promotion: Communication with the consumers as to build the relationship and
marketing the product. Organisation need to focus on the various new trends of promoting a
commodity (Kolios and Ioannou, 2016). There must be use strategies like promotional mix which
includes advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing etc. Unilever should survey the different
locations and collect the informations about the actual need of buyers, climates variations and
environment of the particular locations should be considered. The methods of advertisements like
marketing the product on the print media, television, social media, pop ups during accessing any
website, graffiti, hoardings, mouth publicity and many ways at which the organisation can reach
to the consumer.
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Advertisement of the product should contain the proper details and information about the
product and how it will satisfy the consumer needs. Surveys can be done through various
methods by asking each individual as interview where the person can express his thoughts and
ideas to the professional team of the organisation. Questionnaire to be asked to the various
respondents so the data can be collected and analysed or the actual wants of the consumers can be
satisfied, this will help in knowing the preferences of the consumers.(Barba and Anthony, 2016).
Free samples to be given to consumers, this will help in making consumer's trust toward the
products and they will show their interest in buying the product. Selection of geographical area
and take persona interview of each individual to know their opinion on the products. It helps in
generating the feedbacks from the consumers.
SWOT analysis of the Unilever PLC
The organisation operates in the 190 countries in the globe and have traditional paragon
of the quality and excellence in the Fast-moving consuming goods. They have the track record of
the increasing the customer value in the world as well as they have competitive advantage from
the global footprint. Even when the economy at the downfall stage, they have managed to grow
in the respectable pace. They cannot afford to ignore the emerging threats from the wide range of
local, regional and global players, to manage them, they have made SWOT analysis which
clearly indicate that how they grab their opportunities and cope up with the threats. The SWOT
analysis of the organisation is as follows:
Strengths
 The organisation operates around 190 countries in the globe and they have worldwide
footprint which is combined with the top of the mind brand which is recall among the
consumer worldwide (Sarwar and Hosseinian-Far, 2017).
 They have intense, broad and deep portfolio of they products as well as they have
diversified items range which create them unique in the market
 They have good market position by which they can tap into the changing customer taste
and preferences in the world.
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 They have the best research and development representative which help them to manage
their market innovativeness as well as cutting edge goods and services in their product
line with the customers preferences (Atighechian and Jahangiri, 2016).
 They have the competitive advantage over their competitor such as Proctor and Gamble
because they focus on the flexible prices and best enterprise for the distribution channel
that help to reach at the comer and nook of the world.
 They are the market leader in the fast-moving consumer goods, as they use the selective
target strategy which help them to emerge as the market leader in the globe.
 Their products are innovative as they are offering innovative fast-moving consumer
goods, their workers continuously focus on the developing innovation in the
manufacturing process and products (Singh, 2016).
 They have extensive and integrated distribution system which includes direct, indirect,
streamline coverage and Project SKAKTI AMMA.
 They have more than 67% of market share and have 80 years of experience in the fast-
moving consumer goods.
 They have effective price penetration strategy which help them to attract large market
share.
Weakness
 Their market share is decreasing year by year because they have very strong competitors
such as Ghadi, Nirma etc. which is eating up their market share.
 They sometimes feel confusing position as they have very large product line and brands
and they have to keep their products price low so they get confused to fix the price of
every products (Kolios and Ioannou, 2016).
 They have large substitutes products which can be replaced by the other competitor
products specially Asia and Africa where the customer uses natural and traditional
alternatives to the goods of Unilever.
Opportunities
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 They have great opportunity to expand their market in the global and more in the rural
areas by its project Shakti Amma.
 They can adopt new technology such as automates manufacturing, product innovation,
front loading washing machine etc. which help them to reduce their manufacturing cost
and able o produce more at the low cost (Barba and Anthony, 2016).
 They have opportunity to diversify its business other than consumer goods which help
them to reduce the market risk and enhance business resilience.
 Nowadays the consumer is health conscious so their product innovativeness helps them to
attract those customers.
 They can enhance corporate social responsibilities which help them to attract
environmentally conscious customers.
 They can focus on the market development by which they can able to increase their
revenue by selling current and new products such as they can produce Lipton Tea as the
health drink for the individual who are diet conscious (Aithal, 2016).
Threats
 Their price of the commodity is the biggest threat from the company as they are
increasing price of their products by which the sales will decrease and consumer will
switch to other products.
 The company have diversified customer segment as they have lots of brands which serve
different benefits so it is very hard for the customer to be loyal for one company so it will
result in switching of brand where the customer finds large benefits with the low prices.
 Technology is the other aspect for threat, as different companies are adopting highly
innovate technology so the company also need to impliment new techniques and if they
will not do so, it will serve as great threat to them. (Sarwar and Hosseinian-Far, 2017).
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Ansoff matrix of Unilever.
It is important tool which define as strategic planning tool which provide helps s to
execute the senior, manager and marketers. The strategic direction of the Ansoff development
describe in the following ways-
Market penetration- This term is define as selling existing product to the existing markets. They
work as bringing the improvements in the quality, productivity and marketing techniques.
Market development- selling the existing products to the new market helps to bringing new
areas of the market.
Product development- to develop new product in the existing market. By investing in the
modification and extension.
Diversification- it is internal analysis. The main aim is develop the new products for the new
market.
PESTLE analysis of the Unilever
Political factors
There are three main political factors that affect the company at the large scale which
serve as both opportunities and threat for the company. The factors include political stability of
the different countries, political problem in EU and increasing free trade relationship. Political
stability of the countries serves as the opportunities for them to grow in the different market.
Political problem in EU will be considered as the threat for the organisation. The company need
to follow the Food and Drug Administration policies in UK and if they will not follow these
policies they would have to face several legal issues and criminal and civil risk. The organisation
is also complied with the regional and local laws in the globe which is set by the different
countries (Atighechian and Jahangiri, 2016).
Economic factors
There are several economic factors which can affect the organisation in terms of
profitability and productivity that are wage rate increment in the several countries, increasing
growth rate in the developing economies and economic stability of the developed countries. If the
wage rate of customers increases, it will serve as opportunity for the organisation as the
consumer will have more buying power and income level, they will able buy more products. It
will help the organisation to increase their sales and profitability. As well as it can be threat for
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the firm as they have to pay more wages to the workers which increase the cost of venture. In
developing countries, different organisations are adopting new and innovative technology to
produce quality goods so that they can meet up the growing needs of the consumer (Singh, 2016).
Unilever will also implement new technology to satisfy the consumer needs and it helps the
company to grow with the growing countries. Developed countries will reduce the risk of the
company as they will have steady growth in that countries because the consumer will demand
quality goods and they have high income to afford premium products of the company.
Social factors
The organisation has some social factors which affect the company’s production and
marketing strategies. The elements include rise in health-conscious consumers, increase in
environmentalist behaviours and dismantling the gender divide. Nowadays consumer are
preferring those products that help them to be health conscious. They want to consume those
goods which will not harm their body in any case, so the company have opportunity to produce
those goods such as Lipton Tea which help them to capture large market share. The organisation
can put their effort on producing environmental free products by which they can attract those
consumers who want to protect their ecosystem (Kolios and Ioannou, 2016). The company is
producing those products which have focus on the well being and personal care of the consumer.
The firm express their strong trust to help the individual look and feel good. Their product Dove,
the company does marketing based on the women’s skin which communicate that after using this
product women will find soft skin.
Technological factors
There are several technological factors that may affect the organisation operation and
activities and help the company to gain competitive advantage on the basis of technology
advancement. These may includes rising business automation, increasing research and
development investment and reducing cost of transportation based on the technological
efficiency. There is rising automation of the business is an opportunity for the company which
enhance the operational efficiency of the firm. Such as the company adopt the new business
processing equipment which help the venture to enhance their inventory monitoring to support
the distribution efficiency and supply chain. However, this factor can be threat for the company
as it enhance the competitiveness of the other competitors which may also includes small scale
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industries and local markets (Sarwar and Hosseinian-Far, 2017). Increasing research and
development investment is also threat for the company because it enhances the competitive
advantage of the other firms in the fast moving consumer goods industry. Diminishing cost of the
transportation due to enhancing technology efficiency will create opportunity for the company
because it reduced the operating cost of them and they will ale to contribute toward more growth.
This factor may also cause threat for the company because it increases the competitiveness of the
other organisations.
Environmental factors:
There are several factors that may cause the activities and operations of the company
which may create several opportunities for the company, that are increasing interest in the
business environmentalism, enhancing complexity of the environmental events, increasing
business efforts on the sustainability. All these factors are the opportunities for the organisation.
Increasing interest in the business environmentalism to improve the environmental programs
which help them to attract those customers who are concerned about the environment. The
company can able to increase its sustainability events to strengthen is competency against their
competitors in the fast moving consumer goods sector (Atighechian and Jahangiri, 2016).
Nowadays the firm is focusing on the corporate social responsibilities strategies so that they can
able to implement these environmental protection events throughout the business. Such as they
are adopting such innovative technology which reduce the waste of their company in order to
reduce the impact of waste on the environment. These innovativenesses serve as opportunity for
the company to satisfy the increasing complex environmental programs. Such external
components is an opportunity for the organization to amend its competitive advantage through
corporate social responsibility.
Legal factors
There are several factors that can affect the organisation to make and follow different
roles, regulation and policies, these may includes enhancing complexity in the environmental
regulations, more international patents laws and consumer right laws. The company have
opportunity to increase their corporate image by matching their objectives and operations with
the corporate social responsibility and environmental regulations (Singh, 2016). There are
changes in the patent laws which reduce the complexity in the patent laws and related issues.
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There are stronger consumer rights which create opportunity for the organisation and they can
improve its customer service quality with the products quality standard. These efforts help the
organisation to attract large customer and retain them for the longer time.
The strategies of the organisation is Building brand equity, Profit with growth and
Innovation and marketing investment. PESTLE analysis state that the company is good in
technology and have effective techniques which help them to produce quality goods. If they serve
quality goods to their customer then the client will be loyal for them which helps them to gain
brand loyalty and gradually they will grow with the customet and earn high revenue.
Stakeholder analysis of the company
There are different stakeholders of the organisation where the company need to consider
their interest and then creates the policies, strategies and operations. This strategy should
supports the organization's corporate citizenship thoughts, especially in order to satisfying the
demand and interests of customers as stakeholders. Different stakeholders of the organisation is
as follows:
 Customers: The organisation have given the highest priority to the customers and
develop strategies in order to satisfy the interest of their customers. These stakeholders
interest are focused on the basis of product price and quality as well as the environmental
impact of the consumer goods.
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