150 million times a day, someone

somewhere chooses a Unilever

product

Annie Kao
Suzanne Haffenden

Who are Unilever

Overview

Origins of Unilever

Simon Clift

Operational style

Strategic style

Marketing lessons
learnt

Examples of strategic
style

Future prospects

Competitive environment

Current strategies

The origins of Unilever

Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational corporation that
owns consumer products in;
Food and Beverages
Cleaning agents
Personal care
Created in 1930 from a merger between the British soap
maker Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie
As palm oil was a major raw material for both soaps and
margarines

Operational Style

Unileverlisation
Mergers and acquisitions grew through
repeated mergers of companies who usually
retained their names and brands. This
encourage strong belief and initiative to decentralise control
Conglomerate

Strategic Style

Research and Innovation

Localisation

Diversification into a broad category

Multiple segment specialisation - developing

products to target every segment. Serving
multiple markets whilst differentiating products
in a way that meets needs of each segment
Developing in emerging markets

Brand Expansion

The Beauty Soap of Film Stars

Icon Brand

Unilever Brands

Unilever Brands

Localisation

Building businesses organically

The world's biggest ice cream company

Ben & Jerry's

Research and Innovation

Different needs for different hair
types

Concentrating on emerging markets

Understanding different consumer needs
Offering products at different price points

Developing and Emerging Market

Opportunity

Bottom of the Pyramid

Multi-trillion dollar opportunity

Billions of people out of poverty in the next

10 years

Developing and Emerging Market

Opportunity

Competitive environment

Key Competitors

Proctor and Gamble

Nestle

Colegate-palmolive

Kraft

Supermarket private lables

The management of the smaller brands slowed down its

growth.
Whilst their competitors concentrated on global
development and economies of scale.

Current Strategies

Downsizing brand portfolio stream line the

business portfolio to reflect vitality concept

1,500 400 master brands

Also, acquisition of high profile food brands

Unilevers Growth Matrix

Simon Clift

First chief marketing officer for Unilever

Unilever was effectively a holding company a conglomerate.

That led to a very complex brand portfolio, with thousands of
formulations, positionings, and ways of developing
advertising.

(Marketing Week)

Centralised marketing culture

Concentrates on building the brands

New Unilever brand identity

Simon Clift

Dove and Lynx

Marketing Lessons learnt

1. Be forward thinking and with constant
innovation looking beyond organisations
walls.
2. Defend its territory through growth and
diversification
3. Bigger is not always better.
companies need to contract and recognise its
weaknesses.

Future Prospects

How will Vitality be brought amongst all their

brands?
How will they overcome two contradicting
values?

Thank you for listening.

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