Marketing plan for Unilever Company

Report (Assessment)
Purpose of the plan

The purpose of this marketing plan will be to evaluate the existing retail market
strategy for Unilever Company and compare it to the rivals’ strategies. The
marketing plan will also be designed after investigating the current trends and
developments existing in the retail sector.

Situational Analysis
Target market (of current products)

The company products prices are easily affordable to all classes of customers
since the company uses a value pricing strategy across all the regions where its
branches are found. In terms of the products offered, the company boasts of a
multi-brand system where the brand names are known by their positive
reputation of being high quality products and thus easier to reach a higher market
pool than the rivals(Jones 2002).

Distribution network

The company has a well established distribution network in the more than a 100
countries where the company has invested in. This is very helpful since it helps
the customers in accessing company products.

Competition

The completion Unilever company is facing shall be analyzed in the porters 5

keys of competition (Porter 1988)

The Threat from New Entrants: (Low)

The products offered by Unilever such as the food and personal care require high
capital investment to penetrate the market in relation to the established
distribution channels which enables to compete effectively. With the company
having branches in more than 100 countries and its ability to design its products
according to the customers’ needs, reduces any notable threat from new market
entrants.

Threat of Substitutes (High)

With the emphasis on health eating being at its prime, consumers have been
turning to other alternatives such as low carbohydrate and calorie diets as a
result making the substitutes threat very high.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Low)

This has been low due to the fact that Unilever has a very big and well known
business unit, which cannot be forced to change (or influenced in any way in their
decision making) by other suppliers.

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Bargaining Powers of Suppliers (High)

The customers, especially those who live in the European Union region, keep on
demanding new products and improved features and also diversity in the product
prices offered. As a result, the company has been forced to develop new
products such as the slimming products.

Competition (High)

The company faces high competition from companies such as the Novartis,
Nestle and DANONE (Neff 2010). As a result, this has forced the company to
restructure its program which was aimed at cutting the old portfolio of 1600
brands down to the major 400 core brands.
The above rivals are producing similar products to what Unilever and hence the
high competition.

Financial conditions

The company enjoys vast investments almost in every corner of the world as a
result currently the financial conditions for Unilever can be described as stable

External forces
Political

The company operates literally everywhere in the world both in the developed
and the less developed economies where political situations are stable and
chances of market interference by governments of the countries are very minimal
thus they cannot control how Unilever markets its products.

To reduce chances of political interference, the company uses its experience and
goodwill to make contacts in many countries bargaining with the governments so
as to modify the regulations and as a result, Unilever has gained political ground
using its tactical strategy and experience helping in creation of favourable
business environment and increasing their market share in the long run.

Economic

With the European countries under the umbrella of the European Union using
one currency (the Euro), the whole of the European market has been
transformed to a single market as a result this has led to an increased market for
the company products. The single currency has also played a big role in
stabilizing the inflation rates within the region and as a result Unilever Company
enjoys stable prices throughout the region.

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Technological
The firm’s intention is not only to maximize wealth but also anticipates the
aspirations of its consumers in order for them to respond creatively and
competitively. As other firms automate their systems Unilever has not been left
behind and of late the company has been putting much effort on research and
development and also launching of modified products so as to satisfy all the
stakeholders (Idea Connection ND).

This works well with ensuring the customers are aware of what content the
products they buy from Unilever have thus creating reassurance that if the
qualities of the good are overlooked, they can always contact the company
offices and raise their issues.

Summary of situational analysis (SWOT Table)

Strengths

Leads in most of the food products it offers in the market products such as soups, tea, and cream

Leads in producing and supplying frozen food products in Europe.

Leads in producing and selling multiple brands.

Possesses the art of producing customer made products that suit their customers completely.

Observation and adherence to customers’ needs and desires.

The company enjoys good diversity of nationalities as the company has invested almost
everywhere in the world.

The large range of the products ensures that the customers remain flocking all year out.

The company’s liquid tablets for laundry purposes as well as fabric softeners prevent lime scale
when used in stem irons and this has been a major strong point.

Increasing market share in the Latin America region, Africa and the Middle East regions.
 Weaknesses Slump demand from the American region.
Company products: the frozen foods, prestige perfume and other household care have been
underperforming way below the set targets.

The lagging divisions have been affecting the sales growth for the Unilever 400 leading brands.

Declining market share for the slim products as people become more health sensitive.

Threats from other rivals such as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury (Emmo & Dave 2007)

Opportunities With consumers changing tastes, the company can change their market segments to a more
health-conscious group especially women who can afford to buy the products.

Opportunities for market development in the developing countries.

They are also high penetrating opportunities in the Latin America region.

Adoption of new technologies will aid in easier financial and customer management(IBM 2006

Threats Stiff competition from other rivals in the industry especially the DANONE, Marks and Spencer
and also from Sainsbury.

Consumer loss of confidence and trust in Unilever products. Many prefer reduced fats and
exercises (Unilever 2011).

The retailers (subsidiaries) don’t stock enough products (Clarke 2011)

Segmentation, targeting, positioning

Segmentation refers to the process of dividing a heterogeneous market and

breaking it into smaller homogenous segments where members of a certain
group correspond to certain needs. Targeting on the other hand is the identifiable
group at which a company such as Unilever directs its efforts towards satisfying
the clients (Wedel & Kamakura 2000).
Strategies have thus been developed for each target market by combining the
four elements of marketing to make a successful market mix. The company has
been targeting households for home care products as well as health sensitive
individuals.

Positioning is usually determined in order for the customers to know where the
product stands in relation to other rival products. Unilever has positioned
themselves as foods and personal care producers with the company positioning
itself as a high quality and pocket friendly products producing company.

Marketing Strategy
Corporate objectives

 To regain and control the market leadership for the next decade.
 Regain the stockholder as well as consumer confidence.
 To make the management more internationalized.

Marketing Objectives

 To create sustainable profitable growth and value for shareholders by

increasing the profits by 5%
 To boost the sales and the margins through a growth strategy by 7.5%
 To increase spending on advertising the 300 out of 400 core products by
allocating marketing budget of 5000 million pounds
 To increase the market share and maintain leadership in the company’s
core product by ensuring and creating customer loyalty and producing
products which meet specific customers in the market.

Financial Objectives

 Increase Unilever marketing funding by 50% over the next two financial
years.
 Increase Unilever capital funding by 5% in next year’s budget and at least
5% each year after that.

Societal Objectives

 To improve the society perception of our products

 To provide more healthy products in order to maintain our loyal customers
  To sponsors games and other sporting events in order to closer to our
customers and know they feel about our products.

Programs

The company products touch the lives of many people throughout the world. In
nutrition themes, Unilever has of late been recognized on helping their shoppers
make a strong choice by enhancing the dietary quality of their products, through
intensifying the consumer choice and offering vivid information to their
customers.

The efforts have been witnessed in the past such as the introduction of the
Nutrition Enhancement Program introduced in 2005 which has enhanced the
company achieve the internationally accepted guidelines for nutrition content
such as fats, salts and sugar content.

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With the Food and Agriculture Organization predicting increased populations of
undernourished people, the company has in response introduced products which
check into malnutrition problems for example the Rama/Blue Band which
contains vitamins A and D and the Annapurna salt which is iodized reducing
goitre related problems.

Target market

Marketing touches every aspect of an entrepreneur’s business operation. It is

usually a series of activities designed to identify what the customers really want
or are looking for in your good or service. The company will target both the
middle and the lower classes by offering the products at low prices (Kleiner &
Adams 2003).

Product

Product is a bundle of benefits being delivered to meet the needs of our

customers (Tronstad 1995). Product policies are concerned with what Unilever
should do in their new product and brand development. Branding is part of the
actual product and is usually an important issue when considering the product
strategy.

Branding is usually used to give company products unique identities and helps
the marketer to differentiate their product from those of competitors (Rosenzweig
2000). Unilever will use this branding strategy because its name is already
established worldwide. The launch costs of new products will be low and the
brand loyal customers are likely to try the branded new products.

Promotion

Promotion entails all the tools we shall use in order to communicate with our
customers. They include advertising, sales promotions, direct marketing and
public relations among others. In all these, there exist two promotion strategies:
the pull or the push strategy (Nitschke ND).

Unilever will use the pull strategy whereby the company will promote its products
to the final customers by encouraging them to buy. As a result, the consumers
will be encouraged to demand the products from their intermediaries.

Distribution

Place simply refers to the means through which our product will reach the
consumer (Kotler 2000). It involves the distribution activities which are necessary
in getting a product to a customer. With the established distribution centres,
Unilever will seek to introduce smaller branches within the countries where the
company has introduced subsidiaries as well as introducing new market
openings in new areas.

Pricing

Price is usually the amount our customers will be willing to pay in order to access
our product this value comes along (Ellickson & Misra 2006). In today’s market
place, Unilever will continue using the high quality low price strategy to ensure
that the company retains its market share.

Financial plan
(Determining) The marketing budget

Projected costs, revenues and sales forecasts

item Cost in US Dollars

Material costs 2500000

labor costs 6500000

overhead costs 5200000

Advertising costs 350000

promotions 500000

Networking 100000

15150000

Anticipated profits

After implementing the business plan, we expect that the company will make
profits of 10 billion dollars in the first quarter though the operating costs are
expected to increase and the economy to remain sluggish.

Implementation Process
Measures for measuring performance

Using the balance score method, Unilever will be able to control four
perspectives of marketing: from the financial perspective, if the company is to
meet the objectives, it will be required to monitor and measure all the profits
margin sales and other goals through management of the objectives.

Thus, the company will be required to measure the profitability of its products
according to the region. The desired increase in shareholders’ value will be easily
measured through dividends.

From the customer perspective, the critical success factors will be measured by
making sure they observe the consumer satisfaction index and also by analyzing
the problems presented by the consumers. The internal perspective to be
measured is the efficiency: this will be done by controlling marketing aspects
such as sales force efficiency as well as advertising efficiency.

Finally, the last perspective which Unilever can check how the implementation is
going on is though the strategic control; this will require the company taking the
initiative to critically review the overall marketing and corporate objectives (Martin
ND).

Implementation procedure

If the analysis of our market mixes strategies show that implementation of such
measures will aid to the growth of the company, we shall then implement our
marketing plan into two phases:

Phase one will involve implementing our marketing plan in the European region
where the market is stable compared to the other places in Africa, Latin America
and Middle East regions.

After implementing it fully, if any modifications are required we shall then modify
the marketing plan before we can implement it in the other regions. All
implementation activities will be planned and scheduled by using a Gantt chart as
this will help in monitoring and controlling what has been done and what will have
remained (Bunin 2008)
Market penetration

To penetrate the new markets, Unilever will use the low pricing high quality
strategy in order to attract the low class and middle classes in all the regions that
the company has established its subsidiaries. To increase the volume of sales
the company must ensure that the goods remain of high quality to ensure the
customers continue deriving maximum utility.

Market development
Service program development

The company also gives back to the society through its employees. They have
introduced the (Lamplighter) program which permits its employees to gauge and
track the important aspects of their health (such as blood pressure). In return a
healthy workforce for Unilever translates into more friendly and consumer
engaged employees.

Diversification

The company has a wide range of frozen foods, tea, laundry soaps and ice
creams among other products. It is also dedicated at providing its customers with
the best information about food and nutrition in order to help them make sound
decisions when purchasing the company products.

About holding promotions, the company has been advertising fully in the internet
due to the huge market pool it holds with much interest given on high quality and
value. Another market aspect which Unilever has been able to use is the
distribution system in which the company distributes its products through their
intermediaries throughout the world in every location where their branches are
located (Clarke 2011).

Reference List
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London, Cengage Learning.

Clarke, F. 2011. Unilever, Nestlé’s Rio Ice Cream Wars. Web.

Ellickson, P. B., & Misra, S., 2006. Supermarket Pricing Strategies. Web.

Emmo, M., and Dave, D. 2007. Looking Good, Feeling Good and Getting More
Out of Life. Web.

Idea Connection. Not Dated. Unilever uses Collaboration to Develop Clean

Water Solution. Web.

Jones, G. 2002. Unilever—a Case Study. Web.

Kleiner, E., Abrams, R. 2003. The Successful Business Plan: Secrets &
Strategies. 4th Edition. London, The Planning Shop.

Kotler, P. 2000. Marketing Management. New York, Prentice Hall International,

Millennium edition.

IBM. 2006. Unilever Europe Improves Retail Execution And Trade Promotions
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Martin, J. R. Not Dated. Kaplan, R. S. and D. P. Norton. 1992. The Balanced

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Performance: With A New Introduction. New York, Simon and Schuster
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Unilever. 2011. Millions Of people all over the world have lost weight wit
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Methodological Foundations. 2nd Edition. New York, Springer Publishers.