Unilever was established in 1930 by the merger of British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. Unilever has more than 179,000 employess in and around 100 countries worldwide and have 317 manufacturing sites in the world. In 2007, Unilever's turnover was a whopping €40 billion.
Unilever is the global market leader in all the food categories in which it operates: Savory and Dressings, Spreads, Weight Management, Tea, and Ice Cream. Unilever is also a leading brand in Skincare and Deodorants, and it has maintained a very strong position in other Home and Personal Care categories. We can classify Unilever's brand in two categories which are foods and personal and home care.
In the 80s, Unilever was one of the world's biggest companies, but took the decision to focus its portfolio, and soon rationalized its businesses to concentrate on core products and brands. In 1999, Unilever had a portfolio of more or less 1600 brands. But the company notes that a very few number of brands earned all its profits.
Unilever launched a strategy of Path to Growth, a five-year strategic plan. In 2004 Unilever further sharpened its focus on the needs of 21st century consumers with its Vitality mission. According to Unilever “More than ever, our brands are helping people feel good, look good and get more out of life”.
This paper deals with the analysis of Unilever's marketing policy integrating both an empirical and theoretical approach. External Analysis examines opportunities and threats that exist in the environment which is competition from other brands such as Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Kraft Foods, Mars Incorporated, and Reckitt Benckiser.
The Internal Analysis of strengths and weaknesses mainly focus on internal factors that give Unilever certain advantages and disadvantages in meeting the needs of its target market.
[...] The 4 Ps of Unilever's Marketing Mix Product Strengths: The brand with the big red heart logo is behind many much-loved ice cream classics right from indulgent treats like Magnum and Cornetto, to the refreshing fruit tastes of Solero and family favourites like Viennetta. Identifying the consumers' needs helps in better marketing of the Unilever. The research combined the results of different age groups in terms of six “need-state segments”. This graph illustrates how ice cream brands and other related products intersect with consumer need states, the needs that each product is able to satisfy. [...]
[...] The global ice cream market was valued at 53.2 bn in and 33% for for the out-of-home and in-home respectively. European ice cream market in 2000 The European ice cream market is clearly dominated by the out-of-home market that represents 66% of the global market. It consists of ice cream that is bought for immediate consumption and mainly eaten outdoors. But the problem with this sector is that it tends to be more seasonal and more dependent on the weather. [...]
[...] Unilever has four major direct competitors in the European ice cream market, with smaller and more traditional producers accounting for the remaining percentage of the sales. Nestle is the world's largest food group and Unilever's main direct competitor in the ice cream market. Nestle's main ice cream brands are positioned around the idea of “freshness” which is supported by company's visual identity that suggests the movement of water. Nestle has also entered a joint venture with Haagen-Dazs to manufacture and market the luxury brand in the out-of-home sector. [...]
[...] Applying the BCG matrix to Unilever's product portfolio in the ice- cream market, we can see that Ben Jerry's is in question mark (high growth, low market share). Question Marks have the worst cash characteristics of all segments, because they have high cash demands and generate low returns, because of their low market share. However, Ben & Jerry's are trying hard to become a star in the out-of-home market There are not many Dogs in the portfolio of ice cream market of Unilever (low growth, low market share) Unilever are focusing on minimizing the number of Dogs. [...]
[...] Option Adopt an endorsed strategy Out-of-home sector: Option Create a dedicated brand Option Choose one brand to this sector For the sector, Unilever has chosen the endorsed strategy where firm chooses put its logo on all products in part of the market. In the out- of-home, it chose to use only the brand and Jerry's”, without any sign of the belonging of this brand to Unilever. There are and Jerry's” shops, whereas the other brands of Unilever (like Miko, Viennetta) are sold in supermarket, or other shop which sells other product, and are not specialized in ice cream or Unilever products. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
