In Focus : Unilever

Marketing Management PSDA -2021

Presented By
● Zeenia Sen
● Amit Kishore
● Harshit Gupta
● Shubhi Gupta
● Siddharth Bhattacharya
● Vishant Jindal
● Manish Dwivedi
● Dhannistha Khullar
● Sakshi Manchanda
● Vinay Nayak
Introduction
● Marketing for Millenials
● The New Marketing Realities, Difference between Marketing & Selling
● The Holistic Marketing concepts
● Relationship Marketing
● Societal Marketing
● Integrated Marketing
● Ethical Marketing
● Delivering & Communicating Value to the customer
● Marketing Mix
● Marketing Plan
In Focus : Unilever

Through the ensuing presentation, we intend to dissect into the Marketing strategies of Unilever, a
Fortune 31 company.

Objective :

Try to understand the fundamentals of Marketing by drawing relevant analysis from the
Marketing Strategies of a reputed organisation.
Marketing for Millennials

Marketing, one of the core operational aspects of a business comes with a strong dynamic nature.
Marketing is strongly based on Consumers, which, with its ever shifting sensibilities and attributes
make it extremely imperative for businesses to constantly reassess and keep themselves inline with
the need of the hour.

Unilever, a britain based consumers good company with its business spread across continents is a
standing testimony to adapting to changing trends and consumer appetite. It is termed as a
Marketing Institute in itself.

Unilever has constantly tried to challenge pre-set norms and bring in change through their monitoring
by taking constant feedback.
Marketing for Millennials

Unilever takes a clear stand on keeping their strategies flexible, to ensure that they are not
constrained to a box. They have an organisation wide policy that closely monitors changing
sensibilities and attributes of the customer.

Social Media, now plays an extremely critical role in terms of getting into the thought process and key
talking points for the Millennials. What are their aspirations? Or Issues that spark a conversation
amongst them.

Bringing in Purpose Driven Marketing; Purpose drives individual, it sets up a value system that forms
the core of an operation.
Marketing for Millennials

Unilever’s contextul and innovative communication preferences are a validation to the

aforementioned observation. For example: Dove’s #StoptheBeautyTest campaign comes as a part of
HUL’s self-proclaimed overarching effort to evolve the definition of beauty across its portfolio of
brands.

Unilever says Brands with purpose is a passionate Unilever marketing credo. Many of our brands have
a strong purpose which resonates with millennial consumers and builds brand love among new
generations.
New 1. New information technology

Marketing The digital revolution has created an Information Age that

promises to lead to more accurate levels of production, more
Realities targeted communications, and more relevant pricing.

At Unilever :

1.Real time Information

2. Reimagining HUL programme

a. Livewire that enables business heads to take real-time

decisions by slicing, dicing and analysing multiple,
disparate data points
b. Shikhar app where a retailer can place an order even
when a salesman is not able to visit him or her.
New 2. Globalization

Marketing Technological advances in transportation, shipping, and

communication have made it easier for companies to market
Realities in, and consumers to buy from, almost any country in the
world. International travel has continued to grow as more
people work and play in other countries.

At Unilever

Entering and competing in foreign markets foreign cosmetics

and toiletries follow a global strategy called think global and
act global.
New 3. Higher Competition

Marketing Intense competition among domestic & foreign brands raises

Marketing Cost and shrinks profit margin.
Realities
At Unilever

When the products are exported the transportation & logistics

cost is increased which increases the Total Cost of the product
due to which the company needs to lower down their profit
margin.
New 4. Consumer buying power

Marketing due to disintermediation via the Internet, consumers have

substantially increased their buying power.
Realities
At Unilever

They make their products vastly available and for all the
segments of the market which automatically increases the
market size of the company. Ultimately increasing the buying
power of the customers.
Holistic Marketing

Holistic marketing is essentially a marketing strategy that considers the whole of a business and all
the different marketing channels as a system.

The key essence of this strategy lies in various Business Units/Departments under a business come
together to work towards a specific mission, to provide ace customer experience and build the overall
brand image.
Holistic Marketing
At Unilever
The Asian chapter of Unilever has championed a number of holistic marketing initiatives that has
been replicated in other parts of the world. The rural marketing initiatives in particular has led to
tripled or quadrupled sales figures. We have listed down a few for our discussion :

● Pool women to power sales

● Undertake grassroot distribution
● Offer services for rural customers
● Create new channels for advertising
● Design products (and set prices) for rural consumers
● Train managers to adopt a rural mindset
Relationship Marketing

Relationship Marketing includes activities undertaken by the firm to establish and maintain the
profitability and the long-term relationship with the customers.

Relationship Marketing majorly relies on customer retention and satisfaction, which further results in
a long term relationship and recurring sales.

Relationship Marketing is driven largely on long term credibility and trust, activities undertaken here
go a long way in defining the trajectory of the organisation.
Relationship Marketing
At Unilever
Unilever is one of the leading consumer goods brands in the world and rightly so. They go above and
beyond for their customers but more so for their internal stakeholders. They undertake many Critical
Activities under Relationship Marketing. However, we have listed down a few for our discussion :

● Customer Relationship Management; A key aspect in maintaining a continued association and

interaction with their customer base.

● Innovative services for Customer Attraction and Retention.

Societal Marketing
Market and Society are extremely dependent on each other. The growth of society as a whole sees a
growth in the Market. Societal Marketing encompases activites undertaken to uplift the societies’
socio-economic, physical and mental well being.

Growing consumers are good for Business but increasing the income of a potentially larger consumer
base is better for business.
Societal Marketing
At Unilever :

Unilever is one of those select few organisations that has imbibed a deep sense of sustainability for
the society through the various efforts listed under their CSR mandates.

Current Progress Report on Sustainability: Unilever is on track in sustainable sourcing and livelihoods,
but unable to reduce the environmental impact. Company is currently focusing on seven major areas,
where sustainability is required. These areas are :

● Health and Hygiene

● Nutrition
● Water footprint
● Greenhouse gases
 In essence, Ethical Marketing is less of Marketing and more of
philosophy wherein an organisation strives to promote
Ethical honesty, fairness and responsibility in all advertising.

Marketing It is particularly useful in :

1. Developing trust amongst their consumers.

2. Increasing credibility of their products and by extension,
their brand.

Communication which is not misleading or manipulative and is

transparent in nature is Ethical Marketing.
 At Unilever:

Ethical Unilever anoites itself as a leader in Ethical Marketing and has attempted
on several counts to justify the title but have met with mixed results. We

Marketing have listed down a few instances for our reference:

1. Dove Campaign :
Dove ran an ad featuring models with realistic physical features to
promote and de-stigmatise unrealistic beauty standards. Indeed, a
great step in breaking stereotype, but, they simultaneously ran
other campaigns which featured models appealing to the same
stereotype.

2. PETA approved brands in fight for cruelty free cosmetics:

27 PETA approved brands of Unilever committed to the moment in
Europe to produce cosmetic products which wouldn't harm
animals.
Delivering and Communicating Value
What HUL depends on: What HUL focuses on: To create value for:
● Relationships
● Consumer Insights
● Purposeful people ● Consumers
● Innovation
● Employees
● Trusted suppliers ● Sourcing
● Manufacturing ● Society
● Committed partners
● Consumer use in 9 out of 10 ● Planet
Indian households  ● Partners
● Resources
● Sales ● Shareholders
● Input materials ● Marketing
● Financial resources ● Logistics
● Intangible assets
● Tangible assets
 Marketing Mix

Unilever, is one of the world’s foremost suppliers of food, home care, personal care, refreshment products.
The company that boasts of versatile portfolio was also cited as one of the most innovative companies in
India by Forbes.

Food & Beverage, Home Care and Personal Care form the majority of the Product Portfolio.We have further
mentioned a few brands under each of these categories.
1. Food & Beverage : Kwality Wall’s, Cornetto,Magnum, Lipton Taaza, 3 Roses, Red Label, and Taj Mahal
under the Brooke Bond brand.
2. Home Care Products: Surf Excel, Rin, Comfort, Wheel, and Sunlight.
3. Personal Care Products : Clear, Tresemme, Clinic Plus, and Sunsilk, Dove, Lux, and Pears.
 Marketing Mix

2. Price Strategy :

To maintain accurate balance in the market with its competitors, Unilever sets a competitive pricing policy.
This leads to an increase in price with the increase in the competitors’ price of similar goods while a
decrease in price leads to a decrease in the competitors’ price.

3. Place and Distribution Strategy :

Unilever has about 2500 redistribution stockists cover 6.3 million retail outlets in metropolitan India.

The distribution is equally divided to take 35 important Indian brands of Unilever to approximately 250 Million
people across the rural areas.
 Marketing Mix
4. Promotion Strategy:

Unilever in India, spends about 18% of its Marketing Budget on advertising, targeting audience primarily
through television. They are categorised one of the biggest Media Buyers in the country.

Unilever also engages with their audience through various promotional activities through Newspaper,
Internet, personal and direct selling, and many more.

On the rural front, their promotional presence is through their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts that are
mainly towards sustainability and green energy.

Shakti Campaign.
Project Bharat
Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna
 Unilever’s marketing strategy helps the company to position
Marketing itself as a Market Leader and achieve its business goals &
objectives.
Plan
Every product has a market and that market consists of
different segments of consumers that have varying needs and
wants.

Unilever takes these factors into account while producing and

promoting their range of products.
 Unilever’s Marketing Plan Focuses on :
Marketing
Plan ● Market Growth

● Leverage positive impact of growing Indian economy on

consumer spending

● Grow profitable foods and top-end business

● Commitment to sustainable development.

 Strategic Focus
Marketing
Plan Strategic Vision :

● Double the size of Business.

● Reduce Environmental footprint
● Increase positive social impact.

Strategic Choices :

● Food & Beverages

● Home care
● Personal Care
● Emerging Markets
References

● https://iide.co/case-studies/marketing-mix-of-hindustan-unilever/

● https://www.slideshare.net/shalvimahawal/hul-marketing-strategies

● https://www.livemint.com/Companies/4jdAdg9Ahs3iD6epds2bNN/Hindustan-Unilever-draws-u
p-fresh-strategy-for-its-laundry-b.html

● https://ethicalmarketingnews.com/tag/unilever

● https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/ethical-marketing/#section-1
● https://www.unilever.com/