1.

0 Introduction
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. It is the worlds third-largest consumer goods company measured by 2011 revenues (after Procter & Gamble and Nestle) and the worlds largest maker of ice cream. Unilever products are sold in about 180 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and Western Europe.

1.1 History of the company: Lever Brothers was founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever. Lever established soap factories around the world. In 1917, he began to diversify into foods, acquiring fish, ice cream and canned foods businesses. In the Thirties, Unilever introduced improved technology to the business. The business grew and new ventures were launched in Latin America. The entrepreneurial spirit of the founders and their caring approach to their employees and their communities remain at the heart of Unilevers business today. Unilever was formed in 1930 when the Dutch margarine company Margarine Unie merged with British soap maker Lever Brothers. Companies were competing for the same raw materials, both were involved in large-scale marketing of household products and both used similar distribution channels. Between them, they had operations in over 40 countries. Margarine Unie grew through mergers with other margarine companies in the 1920s. Basic Information Public limited company Consumer goods 1930 Unilever house, London, United Kingdom Rotterdam, the Netherlands Area served Worldwide Chairman Michael Treschow Net Income 4.598 billion (2010) Employees 163,000 (2010) In a history that now crosses three centuries, Unilevers success has been influenced by the major events of the day economic boom, depression, world wars, changing consumer lifestyles and advances in technology. And throughout theyve created products that help people get more out of life-cutting the time spent on household chores, improving nutrition, enabling people to enjoy food and take care of their homes, their clothes and themselves. 9

Type Industry Founded Headquarters

Through this timeline youll see how UBL brand portfolio has evolved. At the beginning of the 21st century, path to growth strategy focused us on global high-potential brands and vitality mission is taking us into a new phase of development. More than ever, how brands are helping people feel good, look good and get more out of life a sentiment close to Lord Leverhulmes heart over a hundred years ago. 1.2 Mission and Vision: Unilevers mission is to add Vitality to life. They meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Unilevers vision is to make cleanliness a commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, in order that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use the products. 2.0 Interesting facts about the companys finances: Unilevers products are sold in over 189 countries and used by 2 billion consumers every day. Their impressive presence in emerging markets, together with a brand portfolio that is becoming progressively stronger, tells that they have the right footprint for growth. Asia, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe are now their largest region and the fastest growing. Unilever is also experiencing good growth in Latin America. The following table and graph are depicting information about the increasing trend of Unilevers revenue for the last 3 years. Year End Date Total revenue 2009 57,135.70 2010 59,379.40 2011 60,320.90

Note: All amounts in Millions of US Dollars

The following graph is demonstrating the growth rate in terms of value every year around the globe.

Figure: Line Graph- market value growth of Unilever Source: Unilever official website

From the above graph we can conclude that Western Europe and North America remained soft, with markets flat at best. Unilever do not anticipate significant improvements in the near future. Emerging markets were in a much healthier state, particularly in the early part of 2010. Although the latter part of the year saw a modest slowdown the momentum remains strong and it is expected that this will continue through 2012. 3.0 Global Ranking: Unilever is the worlds third-largest consumer goods company measured by 2011 revenues (after Procter & Gamble and Nestle) and the worlds largest maker of ice cream. Unilever trails slightly behind P&G in most product segments; its similar focus on branding, product development and quality advertising has helped it hold its position. Unilevers biggest challenges are in improving efficiencies to reduce costs especially in its use of people and its 9

time to market. Unilevers costs and number of employees is much higher than P&Gs. As P&G takes a proactive roll in e-business and innovation. Although Unilever seems to have expanded globally with some success, it seems to be lacking an overall global strategy. Here we have listed some of the achievements of Unilever Unilever retains platinum plus status in business in the communitys 10th corporate responsibility Index, published in March 2012. Unilever was named Joint leader in the Food products and Soft drinks sector in the Forest Footprint Disclosures 2011 Annual Review. Retained SAM Sector Leader and SAM Gold Class Sustainability distinctions from Sustainable Asset Management in 2012. Unilever named Company of the year 2010 by the UKs Business in the Community (BITC). Rankings where listed
25 Top companies for leaders By Fortune Magazine BrandFinance Dutch Top 50 By Brand Finance Dutch Reputation Award By Reputation Institute Marketing's top 100 Advertisers By Nielsen Media Research Responsible Supply Chain Management Benchmark By VBDO Sustainable Image Index By MindWorld, MT, SSI, Synergie The Dutch Top 100 Corporate Brands By Brand Competence The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 By Gartner The Reputations of the Most Visible Companies By Harris Interactive The World's Top 50 Most Attractive Employers By Universum Top 100 Brand Corporations Worldwide By European Brand Institute - Vienna Top 100 Dutch Advertisers

Year
2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011

Position
19 14 7 3 4 27 2 15 22 25 22 1

By Nielsen Top 100 Trends to Brands By Trendslator & NIBAA Institute Top 20 Global Meaningful Brands Index By Havas Media Top 50 Europe's Brand Corporations By European Brand Institute - Vienna UK's top 10 most Meaningful Brands By Havas Media

2011 2011 2011 2011

21 9 5 3

4.0 SWOT Analysis: Unilever is one of the worlds leading fast moving consumer goods companies. The following SWOT analysis of Unilever captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the company and describes the opportunities and threats of Unilever. Strength Well-established Brand name network Financial Stability Opportunity E-commerce Investment in developing countries First MNC in Asia Product for the youth Weakness Confusion in their product company name Threat The local companies Price wars Low brand recognition for company

Global reach and vast distribution Brands have swallowed up the parent

Strength:
Well-established Brand name Unilever being one of the well-established brands all over the world has a number of attributes, which result in its strengths. Unilever didnt start out as a market leader and did not have an advantage of it being the market leader in the category of the consumer goods. Starting off just as P&G did in its beginning; Unilevers founding companies produced products made of oils and fats, which were principally soap and margarine. The concept in the early age of production and selling was to produce standardized products and to mass market them. This worked really well in the early 20 th Century and took the 9

market at large. At that time most of the companies were doing this strategy and were profiting for producing a product, which was standardized. then throughout the years the company evolved and started to expand its product lines, and started to penetrate in different markets of the world, which lead to its high brand awareness and recognition in different countries. Hence, now, in the current time, Unilever is considered to be a strong and a very well established brand. The name of the brand has made it possible that whenever the company thinks of introducing a product in any country, the fact that it is already so very well established, makes the company credible. The customers who dont want to associate themselves with any introduction of a new and changing brand would then be inclined in buying a product of this company. Thus the name, that the company has established for itself is helping it a lot. Global reach and vast distribution network Unilever has been expanding globally since a very long time. When it started its company, which in 1890 became Lever Brothers Ltd, it then started to export its products in different parts of the world. During the 1960s Unilever started its aggressing type of marketing in different parts of the UK as a part for acquiring different small companies and brands in different countries. Acquisitions and mergers, whether they were done in a peaceful manner or simple hostile take-overs like that of Brook Bond, it has established global products in different parts of the world, which have local roots. As the acquisitions that Unilever did were of local companies, hence these companies had a know-how of the local market also these companies were very well known by the customers, this helped a great deal in the expanding of products as well as bringing credibility to the company. An example of this is that they tailored their products to be affordable for the general consumers of India and China, who were mostly living in rural areas and were lowincome earners. They did this not by offering a super family size packaging but a smaller or sachet size packaging only marketed to these countries and demographics. As a small or medium business you would have more control over whether you can change the way you offer your products simply due to less red tape and top level management to go through thus making it easier to enter global markets. When said that Unilever had acquired and had merged with a number of local companies, it means that a vast distribution network is also being acquired by Unilever. 9

 Financial Stability A lot of stability of Unilever today owes to its capturing of markets in the early 20 th century. And a steady flow of consistent growth has been observed in the years that have followed. Leading brands of Unilever have increased sales to a great extent. The growth and quality has consistently been increasing. Brands like Dove, Axe, Lux, Rexona, Sunsilk have boost up the performance and financial stability of the company.

Weakness:
Confusion in their product A major confusion occurs in the brands of Unilever is that they are producing brands like Lipton and Brook bond as well as Sunsilk and Dove. Lipton and Brook bond are the producers of tea against each other. These brands even though are marketing in a separate kind of market; still there is confusion amongst the consumers that the brands of Lipton and Brookbond are competitors of each other. Also that buying a Lipton brand makes them believe that they have a better image as compared to those who are buying a BrookBond product. Brands have swallowed up the parent company name It is seen that brands like Lipton, Sunsilk, Surf Excel and walls etc have swallowed up the parent company name. in the scenario the consumers know about the product lines and less about the main company. Lipton and Surf Excel have become such big names that Unilever the name itself is having some problem with the subsidiary brands. This seems to be somewhat of a problem from Unilevers point of view.

Opportunity:
E-commerce As world entered the 21st century, everyone became extremely dependent upon the information age. With the changing trends of use of high-tech systems for everything, ti 9

can be great opportunity for Unilever to establish itself online. It can make efficient internet marketing campaigns or even launch online delivery service for their products. Investment in developing countries Unilever has the biggest market in the developed countries like USA and UK. Since world is becoming smaller everyday due to the trend of globalization, the small developed countries are also becoming aware of the global brands and products and if the companies like Unilever try to invest in such countries, they will gain a lot profit from them. They might not be the huge markets but still, they can be a great source of profit for them. First MNC in Asia If we look at the Asian market, it is considered to have very traditional thinking. They are always reluctant to try out new stuff and stick to old and traditional things. This gives a great advantage to Unilever since it was the very first multinational company to enter this market. Even at this point, people are well aware of its name; they trust its products and are always avoid new companies who enter the market. This advantage of Unilever is a great threat for its competitors. Product for the youth Most of the Unilevers products are targeted upon families and middle aged people. They should focus upon the youth segment as well. They should introduce products that specifically focus on the youth, that way the company will gain popularity in that segment as well which can provide a lot of profit opportunities for the company. Products like P&Gs Pringles, which as taken over the world for its top class taste, should be one of the focus of Unilever too. Making and focusing on products like this would yield more profits and enhance their customer base.

Threat:
The local companies The biggest threats for Unilever in every region are the small local companies who are emerging into the market with the introduction of similar product like as of Unilevers. 9

 Price wars Due to the unstable economy of many countries and very less difference between Unilevers and its competitors products, the main thing to compete upon is the price. Unilever is unable to keep its stable pricing due to the immense competition and high level of price war. Low brand recognition for company Unilevers biggest advantage is sometimes considered as the biggest threat to it. For example, it has a huge product line and category. From health care to food products, from shampoos to beverages, it is diversified in every category of products. Due to this fact, there is a very little recognition to the companys brand name itself. People are more familiar to Lipton or Close up instead of Unilever itself. Nobody calls them Unilevers Lipton or Unilevers Close up. Due to so much diversity, the company has lost its own identity. The moto of Unilever is to hold its strengths the longest time possible. It is also working constantly with a view to using its opportunities at best. In spite of being the market leader Unilever has some weaknesses and threats. Its research department is working hard to make strategies to overcome those weaknesses and threats. 5.0 Interesting Sectors:

6.0 Recent Business Ventures: