Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Introduction To Uniliver
No matter who you are, or where in the world you are, the
chances are that our products are a familiar part of your daily
routine. Every day, around the world, people reach for Unilever
products.
Unilever today:
Our brands are trusted everywhere and, by listening to the people
who buy them, we've grown into one of the world's most
successful consumer goods companies. In fact, 150 million times
a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product.
Look in your kitchen, or on the bathroom shelf, and you're bound
to see one of our well-known brands. We create market and
distribute the products that people choose to feed their families
and keep themselves and their homes clean and fresh.
People's lives are changing fast. As the way we all live and work
evolves, our needs and tastes change too. At Unilever we aim to
help people in their daily lives. So we keep developing new
products, improving tried and tested brands and promoting
better, more efficient ways of working.
We have a portfolio of brands that are popular across the globe as well as regional products and local varieties of famous-name
goods. This diversity comes from two of our key strengths:
1. Strong roots in local markets and first-hand knowledge of the
local culture.
2. World-class business expertise applied internationally to serve
consumers everywhere.
Focusing on performance and productivity, we encourage our
people to develop new ideas and put fresh approaches into
For a midway restaurant between Delhi and Jaipur, one expects clean wash rooms.
Supplemental features add value to the core benefit in the form of TV, different
kind of foods, free drinking water, bar, shopping arcade, lawns, fountains, etc.
For a tyre, supplemental products mean installation, delivery, training, financing,
replacement, etc. The third element is experiential benefit when you go to a
garage, the sitting arrangement for customers, some attendant offering
water/tea/coffee, TV, days newspapers, timely servicing, etc.
Products can be consumer products and business products. Consumer goods can be
classified as fast moving (soap, shampoo, etc.) and durables (washing machine,
TV, microwave, etc.); and Convenience products (relatively inexpensive,
frequently bought, with limited efforts, and not much fussy about brand salt,
bread, etc.), Shopping products (bought after investing some time and effort
furniture, washing machine, fridge, TV, camera, shoes etc), Speciality products
(bought after spending considerable time and effort Mont Blanc pen, expensive
mens suit, jewellery, first new car, an apartment, etc.), and unsought goods
(consumers are unaware of, or aware but do not want to buy now, and solving
sudden problems video telephone, Encyclopedias Britannica, and nearest
mechanic when car gets punctured).
Business products may be classified into installations (large machines); accessory
equipment (calculators); raw materials (corn flour for soup powder making);
component parts (mouse for a personal computer); process material (cardamom for
sweets), Maintenance, Repairs, and operating items (detergents for cleaning factory
floors); and Business services (Speed Post).
A single product is known as a product item. Closely related product items are
referred as product line. Cinthol soap is a product item of the Soaps product line of
Godrej Consumer Products Limited, as the product line (Group of closely related
products) includes Godrej No. 1, Fair & Glow, Vigil and Evita.
A product mix is a total of all groups of products. To illustrate, all the Soaps,
Personal Care, Toiletries, Shaving Creams, Talcum Powder, Liquid detergents, and
Baby Care products constitute Godrejs product mix.
The number of product lines refers to width of product mix; and number of product
items offered in each product line is called as depth of product mix.
Like a human being, a product also has a finite life cycle. Though, some products
like Coca Cola continue for a long time through improvements. Every product has
four major stages: Introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
Marketers have to make many decisions about products, including Brand names,
trademarks, and trade names. These names may be associated with founders (Tata
Salt), Sports (Polo shirts), animals (Crocodile tee shirts), invented names (Dalda
ground nut oil), abbreviated names (ICICI Bank, 3M, HDFC Bank), Gods (Natraj
pencils, Shri Krishna Dhoop and Agarbatti), Forts and Palaces (Lai Quila Rice, Lai
Mahal Rice), numbers (555 soap), number and words (7UP), geography
(Woodland shoes, Fuji Camera), objective (Boost nutritional food drink granules)
and fruits (Fruit of The Loom inner wear and casual wear). When a brand is
registered with trademark authority, the owner gets exclusive authority to use.
Trade names refer to company names instead of product names. Brands may be
manufacturers brands like Tata Motors, ACC cement, Reliance, et al. Private
brands or labels refer to brand names owned by wholesalers or stores or dealers.
Manufacturers brands have to compete with private labels. Some brand names
have become so popular that they have become generic names, like Dalda (HLL),
Nylon (Dupont), Vim (HUL), etc. Companies may have individual branding (each
product getting different name HULs Lux, Dove, Pears, Rin, Surf, Wheel, and so
on), family or umbrella branding (Godrej locks, hair oil, Godrej Fridge).
Next decision relates to packaging. Packaging protects and maintains the
functional form of the product, provides convenience to consumers, and promotes
the image of the company and the product. Dabur India uses reusable packages.
Colours on the packages influence consumer emotions. Take the case of Nesle
Coffees red and brown colour.
People prefer colours Blue (for soothing), gray (strength), orange for low cost,
red (excitement), Purple (dignity), yellow (joy) and black (strong and masterful).
The Price (the 2nd P):
Price is an important element in marketing mix, because it directly relates to
revenue generation. Price is the one, which creates sales revenue all other parts
of marketing mix are costs. Pricing has to be done whenever a new product is
launched, its variant is launched, a product is launched in new geographies, to
counter inflationary trends, or company bids for industrial customers.
Pricing decisions are influenced by many factors organisational and marketing
objectives, pricing objectives survival, market share, profit maximisation,
maximising market skimming, or product-quality leadership), costs (most of the
airlines increase the fares due to increase in Gasoline pricing), other marketing mix
variables (the product improvement and cost of promotion ) expectations of
channel members (commission demanded by petrol pump owners is also a factor in
oil pricing), customer interpretation and response (psychological pricing by Bata
Rs, 99.95; at times lower price leads to the perception that product quality is
lower), competition (Price of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola are often highly
competitive), ethics, Price sensitivities (See Boxl6) and (A Public Distribution
Dealer cannot charge prices lower or higher to what prices are fixed by the
government). A company must set the price in relation to value delivered and
perceived by consumers.
There are numerous pricing strategies:
A. Product Line Pricing:
1. Premium pricing (Charging a high price, with good quality product/service
like Mark & Spencer products)
2. Captive product pricing (Products that complement others, like cheaper tooth
paste and costly tooth brush, cheaper printer costly cartridge)
3. Bait Pricing (Low price of one item to attract customers to store for selling a
higher priced item in the line, like Reality developers)
4. Price Lining (Different prices for different combinations Tata Sky gives
different channels packages at different prices)
5. Volume Pricing (Rationale of Product range, like ice cream cup Rs. 15, family
Pack Rs. 50, and giant size Rs. 75)
B. New Product Pricing:
1. Penetration pricing (Low price to gain market share and then increase price, like
Tata Telecom)
2. Price skimming (High initial price, in future price will come down to parity, like
films on release)
C. Psychological Pricing:
1. Reference Pricing (Pricing at moderate level a product kept next to a more
expensive product, so that customer can differentiate between moderate and better
products)
2. Group or Bundle Pricing (Package to contain two or more products and the
package is priced, like tour to Europe Price includes air fare, transfers, sightseeing, hotel, and food)
3. Multiple Unit Pricing (in Big Bazaar socks with three pairs are per unit
cheaper than buying one pair)
4. Everyday Low Prices (Instead of declaring frequent short-term price reductions,
marketers keep the prices otherwise low, like Wal-Mart-Always Low Prices.
Always.)
5. Odd Pricing (Bata keeping price at Rs. 995.99 for womens saddles)
6. Prestige Pricing (Keeping higher price because customers believe that a higher
priced product is of better quality).
D. Promotional Pricing:
1. Price Leaders (Keeping low prices of some products in the hope of sale of other
regularly priced items, like lower sugar price and regular pricing for tea leaves,
milk and cardamom)
2. Special Event Pricing (Most of the big stores announce lower prices on the eve
of Diwali, Id, Gurpurab, 25th December, 15th August)
3. Comparison Discounting (Company writing earlier higher prices along with
current lower prices for comparison by the customers)
The Place (The 3rd P):
Place is concerned with making available the products at a place where (s) he
demands. Thus, it is concerned with the store where the goods shall be displayed
and sold, the channels of distribution and logistics management through which
goods will flow from marketer to consumers.
Chain or path or route in the channels may be marketer to consumer (through
factory outlet or internet or company owned stores, or mail order business or door
to door sales, or multilevel marketing as done by Amway), or marketer to retailer
to consumer, or marketer to wholesaler (also referred to as distributors) to retailer
to consumer, or agent to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. The organisations
between the marketer and the consumers are known as intermediaries. Each one of
them has an important role to play.
10
11
With centralized reservation systems, etc. the process of transfer the products or
services is shifted from Producer to Customer or end user.), single or multiple
channels, length of channel, types of intermediaries, number of intermediaries at
each level, and selection of particular intermediaries. Many marketers seem to
assume that once their product has been sold into the channel, into the beginning of
the distribution chain, their job is finished.
Yet that distribution chain is merely assuming a part of the marketers
responsibility; and, if they have any aspirations to be market-oriented, their job
should really be extended to manage all the processes involved in that chain, until
the product or service arrives with the end-user. All these decisions have to be
made by individual marketer.
Selection of a channel which is flexible, effective, and consistent with the declared
marketing policies and programmes of the firm is very important. While selecting a
distribution channel, an entrepreneur should make a trade-off analysis of the costs,
sales volume, and profits expected from alternative channels of distribution and
take into account the factors (i) Product Consideration (Unit value, perish ability,
consumer versus Industrial Products, width and depth of product mix, and Existing
product versus new product) ; Market
Consideration (industrial market doesnt need middlemen, number of prospective
customers, geographic spread, and order size of customers), and Other
Considerations (Age of marketer, availability of finance, Cost of each channel, and
demand for the product). The nature and the type of the middlemen required by the
firm and its availability also affect the choice of the distribution channel.
12
Where every kind of retail outlet is used. For example Coca Cola uses Grocery
Stores, Panwalas, and the restaurant owners to market its beverages, and hul uses
not only grocery stores but also chemists to market its soaps and shampoos. This
kind of distribution is suitable for convenience goods, like bread, butter, egg,
newspapers, namkins, potato chips, etc.
2. Selective distribution:
Only a few outlets in an area are to distribute a product. It is most suitable for
shopping products which include consumer durables.
3. Exclusive distribution:
Only one outlet in a bigger geographical area is used to sell the product. Exclusive
distribution is used for costly, fashionable items whose sale is limited. There is
only one Mark & Spencer outlet in whole of Delhi.
Major Types of Retail Stores:
The Major Types of Retail Stores found in India are listed below:
1. Mom and Pop Stores:
These are the stores run by the family. India has a large number of Mom & Pop
Stores. The stores seen by you in your colony or street, wherefrom you buy milk,
bread, grocery, stationary, medicines are mostly these kind of stores only.
2. Department Stores:
These are large retail firms, have wide product assortment (mix), and organised
into separate departments. Some of them also engage in online business. The
services are so varied that many a times the owner leases out space to others for
these services.
3. Discount Stores:
13
14
These are for members only and engaged in wholesaling only. To keep prices lower
than supermarkets and discount stores, they provide little range of sizes and styles
and services. They do not advertise, except through SMS and e- mail.
8. Chain Stores:
These stores provide similar services or products, and share a brand. They
inevitably also share some degree of central management, supply chains, training
programs, personnel, etc.
They tend to either be parts of a single company or franchises, in which individual
store owners license the use of the shared brand, training, and know-how.
McDonalds is the largest in the world in running chain stores. Bata is another
good example of chain stores.
9. Multi-level Retailing:
It is also called network marketing. It is a mix of direct selling and franchising.
Three notable companies in this kind of business are Amway India, Oriflame India
(beauty products), and Tupperware India (food grade plastic containers). Amway
has over 5, 50,000 active independent business owners.
10. Mail Order Retailing:
The mail order business is not new to India. Publishers and pharma companies
have been doing it for a long time. Recently Sky shopping, popularly known as the
Direct Response Television (DRTV) industry has also become very important form
of marketing through mail.
Logistics Management:
For smooth inflow of goods from manufacturer to ultimate consumers, there are
many backend operations which are performed by Logistics. It basically includes
Processing (receipt and transmission of sales order information), inventory
management (when to order and how much to order), materials handling (physical
15
16
17
18
19
Hindustan Lever offered a Sun silk sachet free with its detergent powder Rin,
Kwality Walls tied up with Cadbury to give free 5 Star with the purchase of
Kwality ice-cream,), (vi) Price-off (Rs. 4 on a Brooke Bond tea pack of 500
grams), (vii) Contests /quizzes /sweepstakes (Sage Publication on every Sunday
asks question, of whose answers are in that very newspaper and gives books in
prize), (viii) Trading stamps (issued by retailers to customers who buy goods from
there, Bangalore Central gives a stamp worth ? 600 on purchase of Rs. 5000, which
can be used after next purchase of Rs. 1,200), (ix) Fairs and Exhibitions (Trade
shows, fashion shows or parades, fairs and exhibitions , Lever Lame sponsored
Fashion Week for many years), (xi) Exchange scheme (exchange the old product
with new by paying less , like exchange of old Black & White Television for
Colour Television by paying rupees 8000 only), (x) Sale (Annual clearance sale of
jainsons). The list is not exhaustive.
Tools and programmes for dealers/distributors sales promotion includes (i) Free
display (of material at the point of purchase) (ii) Retail Demonstrations (arranged
by manufactures for preparing and distributing the products as a retail sample, like,
Nescafe Instant Coffee was served to consumers for trying the sample on the spot
of demonstration regarding the method of using the product), (iii) Trade deals
(offered to encourage retailers to give additional selling support to the product,
e.g., tooth paste sold with 30% to 40% margin) (iv) Buying allowance ( Sellers
give buying allowance of a certain amount of money for a product bought, say f 50
per carton), (v) Buy-back allowance ( offered to encourage repurchase of a product
immediately after an initial trade deal is over. A buy back is a resale opportunity),
(vi) Free goods (Seller gives free goods, e.g., one piece free with two, or two
pieces free with 10), (vii) Advertising and display allowance (to popularise the
product and brand name, like calendar, key ring, crockery, etc ), (viii) Contests (for
salesmen), (ix) Dealer loader (A gift for an order is a premium given to the retailer
for buying certain quantities of goods or for special display done by the retailer),
(x) Training for salesmen (to give them a better knowledge of a product and how to
use it).
20
Public Relations:
Public Relations is used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, and
the general public. Almost any organization that has a stake in how it is portrayed
in the public arena employs some level of public relations. There are a number of
public relations disciplines falling under the banner of corporate communications,
such as analyst relations, media relations, investor relations, internal
communications and labor relations. Most of them include the aspect of peer
review to get visibility.
21