Introduction:
Unilever
Unilever is a British- Dutch multinational company producing: foods, beverages household care products and personal care products. Unilever is the world’s third fast-moving consumer goods company behind the famous Procter & Gamble and Nestle. The company was formed in 1930 by joint venture of the two companies Lever Brothers and Margarine Union. This proved to be the most logical merge of the two companies since both their products used palm oil. Coming together the company could import the palm oil in bulk thus reducing their cost. Unilever has head-quarters in London, England and Rotterdam, Netherlands.
History
Unilever began with British soap-maker Company named Lever Brothers. Their revolutionary action in business was by introducing the Sunlight Soap in 1890s. That idea was from William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Brothers. One of the reasons of this success was the strategy from William that not only prioritizes on selling the products but also focus on manufacturing them. On the other side, in 1872 Jurgen’s and Van den Bergh created a company that produces margarine. Since there were many competitors in the margarine industry in Dutch, in 1920s, Jurgen and Van de Berth decided to strengthen their company by joining another margarine manufacturer in Bohemia. In 1927, there were three companies including Jurgen and Van de Berth Company which formed Margarine Unie located in Holland.
On 1st January 1930 Unilever company is established with an agreement between Lever brothers, soap manufacturer, and Margarine Unie, margarine manufacturer even though, an international merge was an unusual move at that time. Both of the two companies have the same vision that by doing this merge with strong global ne...
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...child labor. In May 2003, Unilever announced that they would solve the child labor problem in India. Unilever told Hindustan Lever Limited to start rejecting the use of child labor.
Company Logo
In 2004 the company changed its logo to one which contains 25 different signs showing the diversity of Unilever with a blue color.
Products
When Unilever acquired the different companies it also expanded its production consequently. The company produces foods, beverages, household care products, and personal care products. The products are categorized into four strategic business units, namely:
• Savory, dressings and spreads o Lipton, o Knorr, o Blue Band,
• Ice cream o Ben and Jerry,
• Personal care o Ponds, o Vaseline, o Rexona, o Lux, o Dove, o Lifebuoy, o Pepsodent, o Sunsilk and o Axe/Lynx
• Home care o Surf, o Sun, o Radiant, o Domestos o Skip
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holding Inc., commonly known just as Ben & Jerry’s, produces ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in Burlington, Vermont in 1978, the company is a subunit of the Unilever mega-company. Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield created the company after completing an ice cream making course at Pennsylvania State University’s Creamery. In May of 1978, with a small investment totaling a little over ten grand, the two business partners opened an ice cream store in Virginia. Two years later, the two took their talents and started packing their ice cream into pints. In 1981, the company became a franchise, opening their second store in Shelburne, Virginia. Today, Ben and Jerry’s locations have expanded across the globe.
In 1927, United Biscuit Company of America was formed. By 1944, there were 16 bakeries in the network from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City and their cookies and crackers were marketed under a variety of brand names for the next 22 years.
Selfridges & Co. had one of its most important moments on the celebration of its 16th birthday, when a television set was presented for the first time. In addition, the company ended up later leading the way of selling it. In 1929, Selfridges was the largest retail group in Europe, being c...
We have carried out a study on the F.M.C.G Company Heinz. Heinz is the most global U.S based food company, with a world-class portfolio of powerful brands holding number 1 and number 2 market positions in more than 50 worldwide markets. There are many other famous brand names in the company¡¦s portfolio besides Heinz itself, StarKist, Ore-Ida, Plasmon, and Watties. In fact, Heinz owns more than 200 brands around the world and makes over 5,700 varieties.
The above-mentioned customization of products leaves United Cereal with a good opportunity of gaining market share. Customized products are highly adaptive to traditional habits of citizens, and thus create a strong penetration into the individual market.
As a massive provider of consumer goods in India, Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), is attempting to penetrate the rural markets where there is a massive opportunity for growth. HLL’s current operating sectors are becoming increasingly competitive and crowded. Their best opportunities now lie in developing new markets and rising to the top of that market. They are attempting to do this with a program for developing entrepreneurs, named Shaktis. Met with initial success the program now needs to grow without increasing costs.
Secondly, how Ecover is changing its competitive strategy. Thirdly, consumer behaviour towards detergents. Finally, an outline for a new marketing strategy for Ecover to enter the supermarket. 2. What is the difference between Background Ecover was founded in 1979 by Frans Bogaerts.
The transnational corporation Nestle Company founded in 1886 based in Vevey, Switzerland, sells its products in 189 countries and has manufacturing plants in 89 countries around the world, boasting an unmatched geographic presence. The company started off as an alternative to breastmilk and initially looked into other countries for an increase in global opportunities. It founded its first out of country offices in London in 1868, and due to the small size and inability of Switzerland to compensate growth manufacturing plants were built in both Britain and the United states in the late nineteenth century. A large portion of Nestlé’s globalization came in the 1900s which was when it first moved into the chocolate business after
Relationships have been in place with two main groups in Singapore long before Proctor and Gamble ever decided to build a plant. The Economic Development Board and A*Star’s Institute for Materials Research and Engineering are the two main groups they have been involved with. Since Proctor and Gamble built these relationships before building a plant in Singapore they have thus established a strategic alliance with Singapore. The Economic Development Board and A*Star’s Institute for Materials Research and Engineering have come together with Proctor and Gamble to share resources and complete a project. Proctor and Gamble benefit from setting up a strategic alliance with A*Star by getting the privilege of looking at IMRE’s innovative research (Moneycontrol.com, 2008). In return for this preferential treatment, P&G shares its new innovations with A*Star’s IMRE (Moneycontrol.com, 2008).
P&G became the innovator in many large brands, this started with Ivory Soap. P&G boasted that this was the purest soap as well as the soap floated which was a concern of many people in this time. P&G put in a great deal of effort to market the soap in local papers, radio and other forms of media, this was a first effort by any brand to market with “Mass Media”. (P&G, 2014) P&G innovated the way the other brands began to market as well. P&G saw the opportunity to build a relationship between the consumers and product. As the 1900’s rolled around P&G grew into international markets it purchased another soap brand called Fairy Soap, out of England, which also marketed the soap, could float.
The case looks at prescriptive strategy as applied to multi-product group of companies. Unilever is based in over a hundred countries where multiple products are being made in each. However, the market is mature which means that growth is stagnant and innovation is almost non-existent. In order to improve on growth and sales, the strategies that are needed look at how to come up with new products that have high profit margins and penetrate new markets. The prescriptive approach was used to come with a strategy to improve growth and profit. In order to improve on innovation, both the prescriptive and emergent strategies can be used since both support innovation. From the case study, not much profit was made when the ‘Path to Growth’ strategy was first implemented (2001-2004). The strategy was initially based on cost cutting. There was a need to also build volumes through existing portfolio of branded products through innovation and marketing. By focusing on increasing sales in developing countries where growth prospects were high and increasing investment in personal care products where profit margins were higher, it was possible to improve the profit portfolio.
Unilever’s Dove is part of the consumer goods company’s many brands which have historically lacked global identity amongst its many products. The lack of global identity resulted in issues such as diverse marketing standards, varied product development, and lack of brand recognition by consumers worldwide. Unilever’s solution to this problem was to group similar product lines under a few recognizable umbrella corporations. This initiative gave birth to the one of the most controversial marketing strategies in the history of business.
Unilever is a multinational company which ranks third globally in fast moving consumer goods. They have an excellent value chain which is one of the factors that has resulted in them to be among top consumer goods company globally. Their merger and acquisitions have led them to expand their company in different sectors of the consumer goods. They have 400 brands and sell their products across 190 countries. They have to work on some areas of the value chain to work even better than how they are working now. Also, there are many opportunities that will help Unilever to overcome their shortcomings and make them a successful Consumer goods
Unilever is one of the largest packaged consumer goods companies specializing in hundreds of different brands. Unilever is based in Holland and the UK and is jointly owned by Unilever N.V and Unilever PLC. Both companies have the same board of directors but operate as a single entity and list there stock separately. In 2000, Unilever restructured their board of directors by electing new faces to the board and seeing other key members retire, like Jan Peelen and Robert Philips.