MARKETING MANAGEMENT

PRODUCT MIX

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL)

Name 1 – Roll No 1
Name 2 - Roll No 2
Introduction
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company with
a heritage of over 75 years in India. With over 35 brands spanning 20 distinct categories such as
soaps, detergents, shampoos, skin care, toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, tea, coffee,
packaged foods, ice cream, and water purifiers, the Company is a part of the everyday life of
millions of consumers across India. Its portfolio includes leading household brands such as Lux,
Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond’s, Vaseline, Lakmé, Dove, Clinic Plus,
Sunsilk, Pepsodent, Closeup, Axe, Brooke Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Kwality Wall’s and Pureit.

Today, HUL is one of India’s largest exporters of branded Fast Moving Consumer Goods. It has
been recognized by the Government of India as a “Golden Super Star Trading House.”

Over time HUL has developed into a viable & competitive sourcing base for Unilever worldwide
in Home and Personal Care & Foods & Beverages category of products. HUL Exports offers high
level of service with flexibility and responsiveness thorough out the supply chain. It has a
dedicated organization structure to support this endeavor and this has helped in growth of
these businesses in particular. Intrinsic cost competitiveness in the end to end Supply chain
with appropriate technology and competitive capital investment operations while delivering
best in class quality enables HUL to position itself as a key sourcing hub for Unilever and also
become a preferred partner for Global customers in categories we operate.

HUL’s key focus in the exports business is on two broad categories. It is a sourcing base for
Unilever brands in Home & Personal Care (HPC) and Food and Beverages (F&B) for supplies to
other Unilever companies. It also focuses on becoming a preferred supplier to both non-
Unilever and Unilever clients in three categories in which India, as a country, has competitive
advantage – Branded Rice, Marine Products and Castor and its Derivatives. HUL enjoys
international recognition within Unilever and outside for its quality, reliability and speed of
customer service.
The above statistics are taken from official website of HUL.
Product Mix of HUL
The product mix is taken from the website of the company. The total product mix is shown in
the following figures.

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The above information has been taken from the official website of HUL and modified for the
assignment purpose.
Product Mix of HUL can be explained with the help of the above information.

Width: The width of the product mix refers to how many different product lines the company
carries. The product lines are broadly classified into three main categories. They are

1. Home and Personal Care

2. Food
3. Water

But all together there thirteen (13) product lines for HUL (HUL has other businesses as well).

Length: The length of a product mix refers to the total number of items in the mix. From the
above figures, the length of the HUL product mix is 38. We can also talk about average length of
a line. This is obtained by dividing the length (38) by the number of line (here 13) which is less
than 3 in this case.

Depth: The depth of a product mix refers to how many variants are offered of each product in
the line. For example, if Brooke bond in the tea line of food brand has 4 variants – Brooke Bond
3 Roses, Brooke Bond Red Label, Brooke Bond Taaza and Brooke Bond Taj Mahal. And if each
comes in 3 sizes - 100gm, 200gm, & 500gm packets then the depth will be 12 (4 variants X 3
sizes).

Consistency: The consistency of the product mix refers to how closely the various product lines
are related in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other ways.
HUL’s product lines are consistent as they are all consumer goods that go through the same
distribution channels. The lines are inconsistent when the end function of each items are taken
into consideration (some are hair care products skin products, food products, laundry products
etc).