Marketing and Unilever

(Case Study) analytic thinking of pouffe Vietnam EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Unilever is a fully transnational corporation with operating companies and meansies scattering just around the cosmos, and manufacture provenders, beverages, cleansing agents and personal c atomic deem 18 reapings. Unilever owns to a greater extent than 400 checks al unmatched its 13 billion-dollar cross offs legislate somely into ii categories Food and Beverage, and Home and Personal Cargon. Unilever started its operation in Vietnam in 1995.Since then, Unilever Vietnam (UVN) has achieved a watertight and quick yield, and extinguishd to go bad the grocery originplace authorizeer in s considerably-nigh each replace-sector it has entered in spite of facing lashings of harsh argument, especi wholly in either(prenominal)y in a country where investment is angstromle, emergent not yet domestic competitors tho as rise attracting coarse irrelevant ones much(prenominal) as Nestle or PepsiCo. This paper, based on junior-grade research, is composed with the aim of presenting an e precisewhereview of Unilevers activities in Vietnam through the breeding of its under demeanor commercialise, merchandising environment, nodes, competitors, and severaliseicularly brand and prep ar analysis.We would mainly use up teething ring-the stuff s a good deal ivth dimensionser into management. In brief, around(prenominal) of its strength argon secured financial background and intelligent pricing and uplifted adaptability. It in addition has weaknesses much(prenominal) as prob sufficient misperception. And purge though UVN has to face harsh competition and separate threats that pose a hazard, it in any case back end take proceedss of opport unit of measurementies standardised the domestic f argon food grocery storeplace place having evolved often. From the analysis, we direct several suggestions for the partnerships packaging strategies such as charge going with public campaigns.COMPANY analysis Mission Statement Unilever is a multinational melody that owns more than than of the worlds consumer point of intersection brands in f atomic number 18s, beverage, devil clean agents and personal c be proceedss. Since the commencement of Unilevers operation in Vietnam in 1995, Unilever Vietnam has achievementfully provoken to become a conduct- steady moving consumer goods conjunction in the topical anaesthetic market. Guided by the mission To add vitality to smell, the fellowship has diligently fulfilled its commitment to raising the quality of behavior for battalion anywhere through the rovision of its branded results and go. Ein truth ware short letter is originated and substantial perfectly in tune with the overall mission. Knorr, for instance, the leader in Vietnams granule market with total circumstances of more than than 70%, in the beginning founded on the belief that Good aliment matters s ince it adds untold plea confident(predicate) to our lives. Or relief, which has been ranked the human activity 1 fabric conditioner in Vietnam with more than 55% of market share since 1999, lets pot Do the little extra thing for the one you savor.Or Lifebuoy, a market leader in e rattling Asiatic market where it is change, has do its goal clear is to provide cheap and accessible hygiene and health solutions for every person. Be places shape on its produceion to provide the go forthstrip for pile, Unilever Vietnam is in any case actively involved in companionable activities to financial aid raise the living standards and improving the salubrious-being for Viet denominationse nation. It has contri plainlyed more than VND 200 billion to the society through a child care range of projects such as P/S protects Vietnamese Smiles broadcast, For B recompense Eyes of Children, and Pride of Ha Long. participation Objectives In accordance with the mission statement, the gild pay offs up its incarnate objectives guiding the present and future tense development of the fraternity over the nigh 12 months as follows further share and invoke volume profitably crosswise categories and countries. Offer a broad portfolio of brands that appeal to consumers with different postulate and bud hold ups. Leverage technology to bring forth bigger, pause innovation platforms that testament be rolled out sudden to multiple markets. Enhance and broaden relationship with guests.Brand analysis 1, Brand s immature carrying into body process Brand is the most burning(prenominal) component to hold victory for a troupe, so its necessary for marketers to realize the brands authentic performance in the market and from that develop hold marketing strategies for improvement by victimization mathematical growth manners-cycle (PLC) stages, a profitable framework for describing how carrefours and markets work. in that location are five main stag es namely result organic evolution, Introduction, exploitation, Maturity and Decline.Product development and Introduction refer to the period of launching goods and services while Decline is when the caller-out stops expanding and spending on the product and develop an different(a) impudentlyly one instead. In the case of pacifier, it ignore be said that they are in the period of rapid market acceptance and gross gross taxation result (the step-up stage). Caring for your dress is essential as it allows you wager good and feel good. Understanding this, in 1999 securities exertion Leader of Unilever Viet Nam launched Comfort with the aim of make customers feel cared for everyday by bringing oftness and longlasting cleanness to their c bandhes . Immediately, Comfort has long been winning the love and loyalty of consumers with more than 55% market share and become the number one fabric conditioner in Vietnam. These are the evidences to realize the fact that Unileve r Viet Nam has been developing very good marketing strategies for their brand-Comfort. 2, Current marketing system for the brand Unilever Company has been implementing the international marketing strategies in Viet Nam market pursuance marketing Mix 4Ps framework. , Place Comfort has been distri justed over the country, with over 100,000 places, which makes a pleasant access for customers and any suppliers. Nowadays, when the transportation becomes more advanced with different kinds of vehicles, it is easier for Unilever Viet Nam to assign the product to customers in different areas and regions. 2, Product In terms of quality, Comfort not hardly delivers exceptional softness to clothes, and it overly offers a variety of well-loved fragrancys. Some of which are Lily, Huong Ban Mai, rose scent and so on Fragrance Angels are the icons for Comforts durable fragrances.With the desire to meet the changing take aims of consumers, Comfort keeps innovating and introducing brac ing products to the market. Not only offering softness and long-lasting freshness, only when Comfort in like manner introduces extra benefits of the products. Comfort White, the only fabrics conditioner endorsed by the Dermatology Institute of Vietnam that is safe for sensitive strip, is the top hat choice to protect the skin and make clothes very soft, which is very suitable for babys clothes. Active Confident with tea tree oil extract protects the clothes from malodor and keeps customers feeling fresh and active the integral day long.The latest innovation on the February 2006 is Comfort Thom Lau Huong Ban Mai ( unfor grownup Concentrate) with fragrance capsules which protect the odourise and only releases it during wearing. These innovations a urinate reinforce the long-lasting benefit of Comfort Blue in the fabric conditioner market. 3, Promotion The main promotion dodging governing body of Comfort is Above the Line. Above-the-Line is the promotion activities for product on TV, magazines to announce, diverge and re drumhead customers intimately their products, especially at the beginning of each or new product launched .Some promotion programs are made most often on TV to make customers to be aware of the product like Comfort wedding, Comfort big day, Comfort spring breeze Since run into 2005, a grotesque and creative idea for advert and activation has been introduced fragrance angel. With the fragrance angel, the fragrance is symbolized by an imaginary character which visualizes very well how the fragrance of Comfort works on fabric. The image varies according to its drive to illustrate the function and component of Comfort Angel with tea flip shield, Angel that hugs the fabric, Angel with schoolbag, Angel with the fan, Angel with sunglasses.The fragrance angel is the unique accountability-hand(a)ty of the Comfort brand in Vietnam. It has been loved and adored by many people, especially children. In November 2005 promotion, thousands of f ragrance angel dolls grant been presumptuousness as unique and lovable souvenirs to consumers of Comfort. In additions, Unilever also held many programs at markets and superiormarkets like Kham pha 14 ngay thom lau Campaign on 15/03/2006 Thu thach 1 local area ne 2rk xa cua Comfort on 14/04/2008 with the aspire of seting the brand name as well as the product quality.Unilever Vietnam is also well acknowledge for its active shares to well-disposed and community programs crossship butt jointal Vietnam, which has helped to improve life for millions of people in Vietnam. In April 2005, Unilever Vietnam was watched by the President of the State the punt Rank Labor Medal for its excellent business performance and contribution to the socio-economic development of Vietnam, being one of the premier multinational companies awarded with such honor by the State and Government of Vietnam.Due to these direct, on clock meter and appropriate promotion campaigns, the brand nameComfort h as been bulkyly acknowledge in Vietnamese market, not only bringing benefits for Unilever Vietnam but creating a good brand image fro Comfort on consumers as well. 4, Price Recognizing that 80% of Vietnamese consumers live in the countryside with low income, Unilever Viet Nam has been developing the monetary value outline, reducing the producing equals, charging appropriate outlay on consumers. The conjunction has based on the small rural enterprises to find the local materials instead of importing. This helps the participation reduce the producing costs and pay fewerer tariffs.Furthermore, the fraternity also distributes the producing places at three main factories, in the north, the middle and the sulphur of Viet Nam to trim down transportation expenses and land cost. Unilever also follows the finance support policy, helping rural enterprises advance their equipments, transfer technology, hold the training programs, etcetera With all actions the order has been doing, U nilever Viet Nam has demonstrated its talent of trouble in whole the needs and wants of customers and raising the market share of Comfort in a competitive environment like Vietnamese market in current days.COMPETITOR ANALYSIS Competition is inevitable for every business in every market. Its apparent that the confederation must cope with legion(predicate) effectual and relent little competitors such as Bestfoods Coca-Cola Colgate-Palmolive Kraft Foods, Inc. LOreal PepsiCo. Nestle S. A. Procter venture and the numerate continues to go on. Unilever has managed to become a leading company in almost every sub-sector it has entered despite harsh competition in Vietnam, a thriving market that not only raising domestic rivalries but also big and wellknow foreign ones.though it has dominated with lots of products in different kinds, this analysis would take a case of Comfort in especial(a). In detergents application, Comfort has become the pride of Unilever, maintaining its 1st position in Vietnam with more than 55% of market share since 1999. However, as soon as Comfort made its appearance cognise in the market, it has also begun its struggle against an different(prenominal)wise competitors. The strongest one of all is pubescent, the product of Proctor Gamble stem. Downy was launched mightily field by and by Comfort was introduced to the market.It rear end be said that the number of campaigns and commercials ads poured into the two products from two sides find been as effective and attracted tending. That might partly excuse the market share between of the two has been in a intimately match. Firstly, the two products are produced by two both well-known companies, which give the sack somewhat assure their explore in customers view. then, the quality could also secure consumers with their position as worldwide brands plus the diversification of the product lines gives customers numerous choices to choose.Also, advertisements of Downy and Comfort defy been skillfully customized to attract attention and constitute certain value to consumers. From the introduction stage up to now, customers have been opened to a handful of advertisements of both companies. When Comfort launches Comfort with lastingfragrance, Downy at present offers this kind as well. Comfort creates a beautiful image of a little angel protecting the fragrance of clothes to illustrate its Comfort FragranceAngel. Downy competes with Downy Incense Flowers, creating a demonstration through a flower field everlastingly presented in clothes.Comfort introduces Comfort 1- measure Downy also has Downy 1-time Comfort comes up with Comfort anti-mosquitoes, Downy provides Downy anti-bacteria. twain of them make campaigns to market for their product. About the price, Downys price is high than Comforts one in general. In pack-shape, price for a pack of Downy is 2000VND, whilst a pack of Comfort costs 1500VND. In recent months, the battle has become fierce wh en Unilever has launched a promotion apply two eye-catching characters Andy and Lili and seem to gain attraction from consumers. From this commercial, Unilever gain the higher(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) revenue.While Unilever invest so much on this commercial, PG is static quite silent. Whether PG is be afterning a state-of-the-art Downy ever with outstanding functions and best-ever components or nurturing a win-a counseling dodge? Time leave behind give the answer and the rivalry between the two promises to be a prolonging harsh and unforgiving one. However, at this superman, it appears that Comfort is gaining the upper hand over Downy. The positioning of Comfort in Vietnam and its biggest competitor, Downy, can be illustrated through the following map Quality ilever Project plan INTRODUCTION There are many kinds of business everywhere where thither are many issues related to to the growth of the company and Different strategies result enable different companies to derive those goals. Unilever is a company started in 1930 formed of Dutch Margarine Company and British based lever br early(a)s. Unilever holds a wide range of products which accept food, personal care, beverages, canned foods, ice choices and many more which are worlds best consumer brands.The case field of operation describes a lot of information regarding Unilevers business strategies, discern elements of Unilevers style to growth, how they rejuvenated and stayructured the companies bleak moving performance to wide range of brands across the world. BRIEF CASE film Unilever was created in 1930 as an way out of nuclear fusion with dual chairpersons and headquarters one in Netherlands and other in Unites Kingdom. This is of one the behemoth and best competitors in the labor which holds wide range of products. The two chairpersons have launched a dodge in early 2000 to recover the companys performance which was said to be wantluster.With the new strategies the company showed a significant prevail up and has gone through many plenitudeings over the next days, this made the company to open 20 new skills worldwide and development the gross revenue of the company. Thus the companys business was re coordinated, renovated and amend through its acquisitions. Then their came companies likes nestle which effecting the growth of Unilever. Unilever then started efforts to attract and motivate young, bright and innovative managers from away its company. line 1 SWOT A planning technique which is used for summarizing the make out issues and evaluates the Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) in any business is called an SWOT analysis. Analysis is the brief study of any case how they are going to be obtained, who are amenable for cavictimization it and solving it by planning which involves internal and immaterial factors of a business or an composition internal factors are classified as strengths(S) or weaknesses (W) an d external factors are classified as Opportunities (O) or Threats (T).Strengths are those characteristics of a person or a company that are utilitarian to achieve the goals. Weaknesses are the characteristics of a person or a company that is destructive to achieve the objective. Opportunities and threats are the external factors that are helpful in achieving and damaging the business performance respectively. ? let word1 Illustrative diagram of SWOT Analysis http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/SWOT_analysis The figure1 show the illustrative diagram of SWOT analysis.The internal factors accommodate personal, finance, manufacturing capabilities, etc and the external factors may include scientific changes which may causal agent changes in products and cognitive swear outes that is inventing a new product or do the product wear out which include quality of the product and the consumer desire, market influences delinquent to unemployment rates effect the company and price factors is one of the weighty thing to keep in mind , market place is one more thing which is very Copernican that is the company or a business should be located in a convenient environment to the consumers to attract and the product should be substance abuser friendly.Another primal factor is that its external appearance the packing and the name of the products should be eye catchy. At last he customer relations should be friendly and consumer satisfaction is very necessary. Other than these thither are some more factors which may be changing due to economic and social factors and competitive positions which may create new opportunities or threats. SWOT analysis is useful in decision qualification when most wanted these include nonprofit placements, individuals. It is the only method for classification and has its own weaknesses.A SWOT which produces no strategies is of no use whereas which generates important strategies is useful. Unilever had a very tough competition during that time when it was bringing close the changes it was in all likelihood at this stage that these companies had locomote forward with there discordant strategies. Skills, assets, finance, facilities are the resources which are used in any business to compete in the industry. In the alike(p) way Unilever used their own resources to grow as giant company. They have utilize SWOT analysis and implemented new business strategies and rejuvenated their company from want lust to significant progress in gross gross gross revenue.It has rivetd on marketing and advertize its business and gained attachd pricing with supermarket vendors. Unilever was lagging in gross revenue when compared with nestle, Procter Gamble, Kelloggs etc its path of growth scheme which met considerable uncertainty which made Unilever to secure a series of actions by jumpting the companies write to reach merged goals and introduced 20 new acquisitions worldwide and restructured the company into two divisions on e includes all food products and other household and personal care.Then started other two new businesses across the world. The external market factors such as technological changes, social factors, and other companies growth made a very big jounce on the consumer preferences and Unilever had to break off its revenue growth. Later it continued to obtain more products across the world and these products gave managers to make their own decision devising to set priorities by introducing new initiatives. Unilever has even motivated and attracted young talented managers from outside the company to join their company.According to Unilevers SWOT analysis the strengths of the company are cognised as it is a spherical company with strong brand profile with worlds best brands and maintains strong relation with its retailers. But coming to its weaknesses it has insufficient management of brands and doesnt not connect with customers. And inability to maximize acquisitions has minify spendi ng for R D. Thought it has got many opportunities by introducing many products by changing customer preferences and increase in production of quality goods.There are threats equally which suffice decrease in revenues with high market competition, increase the number brands and rallying rates. There are many growth expectations, risks, profit margins in food and house hold industry which is composed of many sectors and sub sectors by challenging the change of customers preferences with challenging rival firms to gain market shares. Then with competitive achievement by creating entrancing products through acquisitions and with energy of ontogeny gross gross gross revenue of the brands which existed and improve margins.For all this the many secern to success was advertising the products. By improving the profits of the company not only include shifting sales of the products but also boosting efficiency and unit costs. There were three factors which worried in 2000, the conso lidation pressures in food industry which bothered were subdueder growth rates in food industries, rapid consolidation among grocery markets that is between branded manufactures and head-to-head manufactures for good self space in the grocery stores.In the joined States for several stratums the food industry was miserable and was expected to continue for few more twelvemonths due to more women working and decreasing house hold sizes, hit parents and singles. But the food industry in Europe, Asia, Africa and other less highly-developed countries were attractive. Thought the competition between branded and nonpublic manufactures was a neer ending issue, private manufactures change their quality of products by ripening market shares.Then there came many giant super markets and gave an opportunity for private brands with attractive prices below branded products and even provided checkout scanners to help the customers know price difference which tempt them to BRIEF SWOT ANALYSI S OF UNILEVERS CASE STUDY STRENGHTS WEAKNESSESS Global company. Reduced spending for R D. Best Brands. Inability to maximize acquisitions. Strong relation with retailers. Insufficient management of brands. Dual Leadership. OPPURTUNITIES THREATS Increasing in need of quality products. Decrease in revenues. Changing customer preferences.Strong competition. append in brands. shift to the private brands. Due to the heavy competition among them manufactures had to cut down the costs of the products, number of versions of the products and weed out weak brands and concentrate on those brands which were normal among the customers and those could develop into global brands. Introducing dual headquarters by dividing the food industry which consisted of 6 categories and household industry which consisted of 8 categories there were many benefits such as improving food and household industry by focusing more on them regionally and globally.Accelerating decision making and boffo integration of R D though there were some critics that Unilever has been paying more for some of its acquisitions such as acquire Amora Maille. Unilever as of then in 2003 had been seen as a exploitation transcription which credibly had all the necessary requirements to make it a force to recon with, during the manner to Growth dodging many aspects of the company had come out some of them include the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.Strengths, probably the biggest strength that the company had at that time was the correct selection of the brands and the products it had in store unilever had through with(p) many researches and had to make many decisions to get the right combinations products that where to be sold it also had the right ideas to increase the sales and all the leading brands to help its cause.Unilever was very good at that time even if the financial aspect was taken into consideration it could experiment with discordant aspects of its store cause had the fina ncial backup which was required at that time to help it implement sundry(a) ideas and deal with the market pressures, for any company to improve its sales marketing incessantly plays a very important role this was probably there biggest strength as the marketing strategy applied by them managed to grab peoples attention as they flabby to be connected to and much more simplistic and realistic.Unilever did manage all its clients very well considering that during a phase when they where cutting on the brands it would have been a risk to out anything at that time but it was very well managed by the company. Mainly the fact that unilever was now flavor to make the higher range or the brands which where more noteworthy as there union brands which made it much easier for them to advertise considering that it is much easier to promote a very well known and a trusted brand rather than a normal or new brand to increase the sales.Weaknesses, though unilever had a very good policy and all the right objectives to make a difference in the industry it couldnt happen basically due to the lack of proper organization, it was actually much like a bureaucratic organization where things where divided between too many people and it had become effortful to get the ideas moving due to the lack of proper organization, it probably all started with the fact that the company had to deal with too many brands in the first place it would obviously have the impact when the Path to Growth strategy came up cause of the then 1600 brands only 400 brands where retained and rest all where either call ind or replaced, that shows that due the lack of proper organization and too many brands being part of it didnt help it in making the changes it wanted to in a get around and quickest way.The organization was probably one field in which the company was lacking because it was mat up that at the top of the company as there were too many people making decisions and these decisions had to be pu t forward and this delayed the process of improvement for the company. Opportunities, during this phase of development and renewing it content and upgrading of the stock it rancid out to be very fruitful as it provided many working opportunities for people it was at that time that many people where offset to get full time work, during this phase a lot of acquisition also took place with the major brands which expirationed in some alterations in plans to that which were planned. SlimFast which is a private company is another acquisition of Unilever after implementing path to growth strategy in 2000 the company bargained an agreement to purchase slimfast diet foods.It had strong sales and network and has a special space in every super market and drugstores these products were made from natural ingredients and added vitamins and minerals to provide good nutritional profile. It also maintained a very good relationship with Food and medicine Administration (FDA) and other agencies. U nilever has concentrated more on this Slimfast since the company was growing fast and attracted the customers to buy more of it for healthier and long living life . Management of Unilever utilized the opportunity to globalize the product in other countries like Europe, Australia due to increase in the percent of obese. According to the world health organization percent of the obese was change magnitude gradually. UNILEVERS TOP COMPETITORS ? Figure Competitors Performance Comparison http//finance. aol. om/company/unilever-plc-amer/ul/nys/top-competitors Ben Jerrys acquisitions which produces one of the finest ice creams anywhere in dry pint cartons and wholesale at groceries. Their sales slogan was Vermont finest All native Ice cream. They never use any artificial flavors thought the cost is little more it is worth the price. According to the time magazine Vermont makes the best ice cream in the world with 29 flavors in pint cartons and 45 flavors in bulk cartons. There products were distributed throughout the world. On invite Ben & jerry operated three manufacturing plants where Vermont plant produces super premier ice cream and frozen yogurts where as spring field produces ice cream, lot dilate ice creams in bulk, pint cartons and half(prenominal) gallons.Dreyers and Haagen-Dazs were the two major competitors of Ben jerry and other competitors were Colombo frozen yogurts, Kemps ice cream and star bucks. Ben Jerry produces a wide range of ice creams products like sticks, bars, frozen yogurt pops etc. Though Haagen- Dazs was the global market leader followed by Ben jerry it had an insignificant market share in get together States where as Haagen- Dazs was more significantly sold in foreign markets. Both Ben jerry and Haagen-Dazs produced ice creams with cookies and candies in it. Bestfoods was a global company across the world almost in 60 countries which was busy in manufacturing and marketing the food products. Bestfoods profits are almost from outside of the United States that is almost 60 percent of its profits.It is one of the best managed food companies among United States who has much number of employees working with in their company in which half of them were at non US locations. The company increased payments for 14 successive years has its revenues grow by7. 8 percent annual rate and suddenly slow downed during the period of 1997 and 1999. Then the company introduced a strategy with four effect elements. Globalization of the companys aggregate consumers Products which are new in the market are need to be globalized that is the products which are less hot among the consumers, are needed to be advertised and market those products to increase its sales and profits of those products. few such products are knorr product line, salad dressing and food service operations.The advertising of such kind of products was done very well in separate to get those products globally recognized and be accepted among many big bra nds and soon they became household names. Improvement in cost forcefulness With changing customer preference the quality of the products must be improved and and then there should also be improvement in cost effectuality as the quality improves cost increases. Cost effectiveness is nobody but it is a way by which you show to a customer that a certain is product is worth using or is better than other product or the money u spend on it is worth it. Cost effectiveness in simple would be defined as showing the worth of the product. Looking for new market opportunitiesExtending the product sales all over the world via new product introductions and extending sales of the products which are existed in the market. It is very important for any company to be always alert and look for opportunities to extend the business to a large racing shell and see it in a bigger picture based on the opportunities it gets. Using free cash to make new acquisition With expanding the products and brands c ompany has created 60 acquisitions in the global market. afterwards struggling a lot in June 2000 best foods agreed to be acquired by Unilever. Best foods were the largest acquisition undertaken by Unilever by as far as concerned and which makes a largest combination of food companies in 12 years.Management of Unilever believed that combining and assimilating bestfoods would result in pre tax cost saving, better efficiencies in business process, synergism in diffusion marketing, reformation of general and administrative functions and improved economies of scale. By creating robust business in United States market, change magnitude strengths of Unilever and best foods in Europe, mental synthesis of best foods in Latin America to speed up the growth of Unilever brands, by distributing strengths in Asia- pacific to grow and sped up Bestfoods brands and increasing the sales of Unilever products by food service channel of Bestfoods. The work gardening was so casual to make the atmo sphere fun and lively with communion between the management and employees.The company respected the employees suggestions and respected them even compensable the employees a discernmentable salary Finally Unilever has proclaimed sale of Bestfoods business Company to Canadian food and super market group known as George Weston for $ 1. 76billion though Unilever declared to divest Bestfoods Baking Company and Unilever other products and bakery products does not exit any more at Unilever. Bestfoods has 19plans across the United States with a strong management team and was entirely US based. It was one of the best distributing for delivering the baked products which are really baked fresh and sent directly to the retail stores. With its dedication and hard work Bestfoods sales has increased its profit margins by 8 percent. Later again Unilever announced to snitch 19 Bestfood brands across North America to ACH food companies which is a supplementary of Associated British Food.By suc cessfully combining the operations of bestfoods with Unilever by the year end of 2003 the two companies had been merged in 63countries across the world line of work 2 Path to Growth Path to growth strategy was initiated in 2000 and was restructured for several years for better and significant results. The chance upon elements of this Unilevers path to growth strategy were cutting down its brands from 1600 brands to 400core brands to achieve top line sales and increase profits by advertising the brands which are more popular and leading brands across the world and concentrating on R D. Another important key element was divesting underperforming brands and theirs companies and introducing more innovated things to enhance the internal development of the organization and making new acquisitions.Unilevers years of slow performance and its lack of corporate strategy in the competition industry with low number of brands and fair performance in growing markets with a little global fron t man made to create a path to growth strategy which was a 5 year growth plan which made them to concentrate on more brands and product innovations for internal and external growth of the company. And made the company to grow with acquisitions. According to FitzGerald and Bergmans path to growth strategy they predicted to manufacture prongy material body wages per share growth and superior positions. Focusing on the key brands by advertising and marketing made business grow higher and build brand value and increased brands prices.The case study shows Unilever as a global company according to SOWT analysis after introducing the path to growth strategy the company had really increased its sales and with introducing more number of acquisitions and cutting down the cost of revenues. As the acquisitions like Slimfast, Ben jerry and best foods were rapidly growing their market across the world mental synthesis a very strong profile and providing customers attractive products and offer s. Slim fast has 20%anual growth rate with strong sales and distribution all over the world and also maintained good customer relation. Where Ben jerry was worlds giant ice cream products and yogurt maker with strong brand equity. Bestfoods was USs 10 largest food products company with a strong global position.The two key elements of the Unilevers new business strategy was to cut down on the number of brands that were being sold or being marketed by the company, at that time Unilever was operating with as many as 1600 brands and much more products due to this the cut down on the number of products and brands was considered, the 1600 brands that where part of the company were cut down to as many as 400 core brands, the core brands mostly included all the famous and popular brands which are for the most part very popular among people, this idea came up as to make sure that the products where sold and by doing this it would not be much of a fuss for the marketi8ng of these products as most of these brands where already day to day and very famous brands which people would generally prefer buying, which would mean that it would take much less an effort to connect to the people and more over the marketing was also done in such a way that people where able to connect to it very easily, the other key element of the unilevers strategy was to remove all the underperforming companies or brands and introduce some other new brands or companies in rove to enhance the internal development of the organization and make new acquisitions which would enhance the sales of the company and make it more openhearted for the people this strategy was designed to increase the sales of the company and get rid of the companies which where not much in pray . Weaknesses according to SWOT analysis showed the company has dual leadership, insufficient management of brands and reduced R D after all this slow performance and small global presence the management has introduced path to growt h strategy, which increased the company sales with cutting down it costs and introducing more acquisitions resulted in globalizing the company. As a result there were few expectations to achieve a double digit growth and securing a better position in global market for food and household products by increasing the quality of the product to gain pricing power and attract more customers.But according to the strategy plan the targets which were set was really high that is top line sales growth of 5-6 percent annually, increasing profits, and plan to complete by the end of 2004. If we look and analyze the path to growth strategy we can tell whether the strategy is working or not, we can say that it is working by its success rates and increase in profits and increase in brands and acquisitions that is the consumer preferences have changed due to which the products quality has changed and prices have changed the leading brands sales have increased from 75 percent to 93 percent. Food and pe rsonal care industry have increased its profits consistently.Operating assets have also improved by 9 percent. Acquisitions like slim fast, Ben jerry and best foods have gradually improved its growth and established its acquisitions all over the world. But the other side it is completely not yes, Unilever was gaining profits significantly after introducing new strategies but it was losing too yes it reported a net passage of $318M as the competitions was increasing and new brands were coming in to the market and rivals were introducing new strategies to compete Unilever. In the year 2004 sales grew only by . 4 percent leading brands by . 9 percent so this proves that Unilever was lagging behind competitors in terms of innovation and advertising.Unilevers lack of advertising and marketing failed to improve sales. The company was small and not globalized. In this case Unilever attracted the new young talented manages to join their company with innovated ideas to increase its company profits by new methods of advertising and marketing. To justify Unilever strategies it maintained dual headquarters and dual chairpersons which reduced effective thinking and slow downed the decision making. Unilever is divided into Unilever Plc and Unilever NV. This made Unilever to focus on the needs of the customers and increase its sales profits in various industries like food, personal case, and household industries all over the world.As customers demand the products which are of the best quality and branded but at the same time convenient, cheap and attractive. The market for household products have been decreased its profits as the numbers of single parents have been increased and the rate of females working out have been increased and the demand for the healthy and high quality food has been increased. The consumers preference of the products such as its look, quality of the product and nutritional values has been increased by providing a strong competition against its gian t competitors and private manufactures. This allows Unilever to focus on the need of its customers by increasing its sales.In 2003 Unilever executing its path to growth strategy by increasing its operating margins to over 15percent, but the sales of the leading brands growth as slowdown and raised questions among the investors and retailers that whether company brands could deliver some 5-6 percent of growth in revenues in the next coming years. TASK 3 Unilevers current business Strategies Ever since the Path to Growth strategy ended in 2005 there has been a 15% increase in the sales and development in the overall progress of Unilever. After the Path to Growth came to an end a new process was developed by Unilever called as the Brand Imprint which helped the marketing teams in understanding how the business could face risks as well as opportunities from the social, economic and environmental issues.In this process each brand was scrutinized by a team expression into various aspects of it such as the direct as well the indirect impacts of the product, it also checked how the brand would go ahead in the future looking at the products possibilities of growth both from a customer and a stakeholders point of view. The outcome of the Brand Imprint is that the process has helped in making important decisions for the company keeping the future in perspective it also developed in addressing social missions, social and environmental issues. The Brand Imprint provided a perfect experience to find some systematic and measurable ways to explore different brands and improve the brands by addressing social issues, helping people the product well and reducing the environmental issues. When the S. W. O. T analysis was done on the Path toGrowth strategy many different aspects of the strategy where scrutinized using the SWOT analysis in which it dealt with many aspects such as the strength, weakness, opportunities and the threats that are being faced. After the analysis it came out that it had been very useful to acquire the various aspects attached to it. Unilever for years had been a slow developing company, though the company had the right infrastructure and the capital but it couldnt utilize it mightily that was basically the reason why the path to growth and various other strategies where starting to come up to help the company to increase the sales of the products and improve the business. Path to growth played a major part in the development of the company.The Path to Growth strategy did prove to be quite a useful thing considering the fact that during this period almost all of the unsuccessful brands where removed or replaced and the brands which where trusted and kept managed to increase the sales by 75% to 93%. Unilevers growth was considerably slow during this phase because the company was at that stage making very forceful changes and for these changes to come up and make a difference was something unexpected but the companys growth was obv ious in certain fields thanks to the new strategies that had come in to improve the sales of the company so as to improve the business of the company. It was due to the fact that the company probably took way too much time u started and implement its plans that it caused the success to be not as higher as expected.Many business analysts and commentators felt that most of the strategies of the path to growth where working fine but there was always a speculation that what ever progress was talking place was hap too slow considering the competition the market was in with at that time, it was also felt that as the basic functionality of the business was spread among way too many people made the management way to complex and it would have been better off if it was simpler. It did work out fine when it came to the advertising of the product and acquiring it known to the people as it was more public point and it used the sources to the full extent to connect to the people.It did experien ce a drastic growth during that period as the analysis had proved that the company had the highest growth percentage as compared to any other company during that period it did bring in high profits to the company but looking at the whole picture it did prove to be a huge loss for the company considering the fact that they faced a countable loss in the revenue margin and that proved to be the difference, though it did have the right amount of sales and customers due to the slowness of there analysis to appearance out and remove or replace the stuff did make a difference to analysis in the larger picture. But the company did grow during that time which might as well have effected the revenue cause many new store where started and large number of employees where starting to be employed on a full time basis. It did do quite well on the international market as well.By looking at the way the company had grown during this stage is quite extraordinary many business analysts and commentato rs had felt that they probably had the right scheme of action because during that time they where handling 1600 brands and which was way too much and among those were quit few brands which hardly made any diff to the company so then the whole idea of brands cut based on the market outlook and sales reports was looked into to classify as to which of the products or brands where fast exchange and which had the scope to sell more. It was that idea to cut down on the number of brands and start promoting only few brands which where much easier to be marketed and which where more likable by the people by which it would increase the sales and also make the marketing of these products easier cause when you are promoting bigger brands which are often very well known to public would mean that u don have to spend much on the marketing. Did the company experience growth during this period?Yes, would be the right thing to say voiding the minor things which might effect the outcome but it did se e the light of success though slowly and there process and ideas where starting to get implemented in a better way and in a more successful way to deal with the growth of the company, the process of cutting down on the under selling companies was probably the decision that started to turn the tide for the company as it was when the losings where starting to be covered and it was more like a store where the fast selling stuff was found. Unilevers Path to Growth had probably the right ideas to take the company to the highest position with its aims and objectives on the right part but probably it was at the implementation of the whole strategy that could have probably caused the difference in this strategy from just a successful strategy to a very successful state The strategy had the right plans to study the whole products and the brands which where being sold and come up with whole list of brands that where actually more likely to be sold uickly and a great deal and those which wher e not that much preferred, it does take in a lot of effort to recognize what is selling and what people like the most as you have to be cautious that u don get any of the products that is more frequently sold off the shelf. By early 2005 there was a need for a new business strategy and a new strategy which was more active and a top down approach to managing a companys brand profile was introduced for Unilever to support this growth strategy. But the growth to strategy at the starting point was precise, tough compared to the companys profile. On the whole Unilever did manage to grow very well in the market during this period and it was for its strategies and policies and the work put into it that the whole thing was done successfully. TASK 4academic theories The word diversification federal agency a strategy for a company for its market growth. To look forward to increase its profits by increasing the sales of the products. There are four main strategic options show how each stra tegy might change companies competitive capabilities they are commercialise sharpness, product development, market development and diversification. ? http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Diversification_(marketing_strategy) Basically the four main strategic alternate(a)s deal with the markets and the products which are based on the present position of demand and supply of the market and the position of the products. grocery store sharpness, it is nothing but the way by which a products sales can be determined, consider there is a particular product which is generally used by everyone and is almost the same for everyone then in that case the brainstorm of that particular product will be deeper as its demand is much higher than other products, it can simply be told that the deeper the penetration the greater the product sales, by using the market penetration technique we can determine as to which product is currently more sort after and which one has the highest demand by doing this it will effect the business cause the demand for that product will be much higher. By using the market penetration we can come up with new marketing techniques as to increase sales of a product which is not much in demand or gain more profit on products which are in higher demand, for example lets consider a product which has not been off the shelf due to competition from other products in this case if we do the market penetration we would know the reasons as to why the product has not been sold. ground on this if the reason for that is if the product is expensive then we can look into the market penetration and decide to cut down the price so as to match that of its competitors.There are many growth expectations, risks, profit margins in food and house hold industry which is composed of many sectors and sub sectors by challenging the change of customers preferences with challenging rival firms to gain market shares. Then with competitive achievement by creating attractive products th rough acquisitions and with capability of growing sales of the brands which existed and improve margins. For all this the many key to success was advertising the products. By improving the profits of the company not only included shifting sales of the products but also boosting efficiency and unit costs. Market position can also help you determine as to which products need to be stocked up the most and how these are to be managed and depending on the demand we can decide as to what can be done to increase the publicity or marketing of that particular product.Product development, it is nothing but the way at which any particular product has improved its sales or how a product has worked out is called as the product development, the product development is generally used to determine as to which product id leading at the moment so as to utilize more of it to increase the sales , in the product development if any particular product is higher in demand due to its development it can be he lpful in increasing the sales of that product but where as simultaneously if there is any product which is least popular we can make efforts using this to know as to what would be the reason behind the product not being to the sales expectations. Market development, the market development strategy is nothing but a way by which we can develop our business and increase the sale of the products, it is the process of getting new customers, new products and new business to the company by making new promotions so as to increase the sales of the products and to increase new customers, market development in simple terms can be called as the process by which we wish to develop the business by getting in new customers and getting some new products to our already vivacious customers is the market development.The market development strategy generally deals with the non-customers who dont often come in to shop, with this market development we manage to attract the people to now come into the st ore and improve our business. Diversification, it is nothing but the paste of the investments among the company in order to increase the business, diversification is a means of way by which the market penetration can be improved, in the diversification looking at the market conditions the company invests in various fields so as to make the product develop by which the product will get more penetration, if the product gets more penetration that means it will increase the business to the company.On the whole diversification is a corporate technology by using which they generally tend to salute the customers to make the decision and increase the market penetration. All the four strategies have there own importance in improving the business the market penetration is the basic thing which helps the company in building up a product which would become a money spinner for companies, the market penetration process helps in finding the right product that is in demand and the right ways by w hich a normal product can be increased is called market penetration. Similarly, product development is a way by which we can determine as to what is the actual position of a particular product in the market and so as to what needs to be done for the development of that product is called as the product development.Market development is similar to product development in which we check as to what needs to be done so as to improve the sales and customers in the company. While diversification is probably the main source that holds all of these together, by using the diversification a product can be made to increase its market penetration, diversification involves the spreading of investments among the various other aspects in business so as to improve and let other products grow so as to improve the market penetration. Diversification is something which holds all the four alternative strategies together and diversification is more like an influencing factor on these for the products to b e judged in the market and vice versa.Unilever in order to improve the sales has few strategies which are influenced by the strategic alternatives, in the unilevers method to increase the growth the number of brands that where being promoted or sold had to be cut down from 1600 to just 400 core brands which could be done with the help of the market penetration, by using the market penetration and looking at the market penetration of the various brands in the company it would help out in which brands had the highest penetration in the market and which had the least penetration in the market, so that the brands with the least penetration where removed from the company. Market penetration makes the whole task of choosing the brands which had to stay and the brands which where to be removed by having a look at the brands penetration.Similarly in the aspect of divesting the underperforming companies the strategic alternative comes into play where the product development is taken into con sideration, in this a if a particular product or brand is not having a high market penetration then it is said that it is looked after to see the product development of the product so as to check if the product would help in the internal development of the company. The overall picture was of business strengths and weaknesses too much wastage of money and many better opportunities to align resources behind building the brand profile for the future. However the food products were also globalized with slower growing market. Unilevers expectations were to achieve double digit growth and secure a better position in the global market by building a brand value with increase in sales by diversifying that is creating more number of acquisitions across the world and making the products which are local in a market globally according to the change of customer preference.And making the company with dual chairperson and dual headquarters this made Unilever a more successful in the competitive ind ustry while it is easy to manage the company and make decisions very quickly and effectively. Changing customer preferences that is according to the four business strategies product development need to be modified or a new product need to invented it is better to change and improve the quality of a product which is already existing rather than inventing a new product. As the number of women working out has increased gradually and single parents have increased and heir became a decrease in household products and rapid consolidation among retailers has made food industry miserable.Whether the theory is back up by practice Yes the theory of these strategic alternatives is very much accepted and supported by practice, all the four strategic alternatives that ate used for the companys capabilities are generally accepted and supported by practice, it is very well known that the four strategic alternatives are market penetration, product development, market development and diversification . These are the four strategic alternatives which are generally supported by practice because when implementing the actual strategies of unilever these alternative strategies do come into being used and help in the successful implementation of those ideas.The, market penetration, product development, market development and diversification are the generally used ways of judging a product and its current performance and in requirements in the market, these help in judging and making various promotions to these products. Probably among all the four strategic alternatives the market penetration is the one which is more frequently come across as it basically deals with finding the products which currently have the highest sales and vice versa it is very well known that for any product deeper the penetration higher the demand for the product so this strategy is almost applied regularly. References http//en. wikipedia. rg/wiki/Unilever http//www. planware. org/strategicplan. htm http//fina nce. aol. com/company/unilever-plc-amer/ul/nys/top-competitors http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/SWOT_analysis http//extension. psu. edu/NWRegion/comm/marketfactors. htm Crafting and Executing schema By Jr. Thompson, Arthur A, A. J. Strickland, III, A. J. Strickland III, John E Gamble http//books. google. com/books? id=D35W13gPIpAC&pg=PP1&dq=Crafting+and+Executing+Strategy&ei=oddsSpuSK5iwMteE-IAC&client=firefox-a Read morehttp//www. ukdissertations. com/dissertations/business/unilever-project-plan. phpixzz2D1oixmZC Comfort Downy Price A positioning mapSWOT ANALYSIS In recent years, the competition among phthisis markets between Vietnam and foreign countries became so fierce, especially products originating from multi-national companies which are currently present and dominant Vietnam market. Unilever Vietnam is one of the giants on the market of products and services, it has provided a large number of essential goods for daily consumption of Vietnam such as toothpaste, P / S, shampoo Sunsilk, Omo washing powder, etc. every year. This is not only a threat to domestic producers but also an example for them to learn about(predicate) business marketing experience of a large multinational company with world-class like it. It can be said that Unilever has a thoughtful and creative marketing strategy which makes it well-known to attract the most customers for the companys products.The company takes the advantage of their inherent strengths as well as promoting the opportunities from the market to bring huge revenue every year for the company. SWOT analysis below will show all about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats Unilever gets. 1. Strengths Unilever Vietnam has the support from global Unilever hence it has strong financial background. The visit of Mr. Paul Polman, CEO of Global Unilever, on tenth April 2009, again confirmed the potential of the Vietnamese market which is growing very fast, as well as the important role of Vietn am in the group of new markets and developing countries of the Unilever Group. An effective policy of attracting potentials The strategy of the company is that Development through people. Through their career days for students who are about to graduate of the prestigious universities, then the company will train them to become Administrators who set the light for the companys human resources. In addition, the company also sets up salary, benefits, and courses in Vietnam and abroad for provide to enhance their qualification. The situation of research and technological development of Unilever Vietnam has always been focused and invested adequately. In particular, R & D works very effectively in the exploitation of traditional products such as shampoo Gleditsia, salt toothpaste.Besides, R&D shows its effectiveness in the modern products such as Comfort or Omo advanced technology inherited from the global Unilever is applied quickly and is remarkably effective. Unilever makes c ustomers impress many times with much new technology. Recently, we see new Comfort, with a slogan just move to be pure fragrant with Andy and Lili. And how about Omo? The whirlwind-power Omo is the newest kind. The price is relatively acceptable, while the quality is as high as imported goods. The target customers of Unilever are ranged from children to adults, from low class to high class. Hence, the price is quite suitable for everyone. The staff with high level and knowledge focus only on the mission of the company, especially the company pays much attention to the relationship with the public. Unilever sets up itself a criterion which is all the employees are the best. Therefore, the staff has high ability to adapt with quick changes in the production line. 2. Weaknesses The key positions in the company are held by foreigners. The CEO of Unilever Vietnam is Ralph Kugler. This may lead to the differences in the perception between CEO and Vietnamese employees which is the causes of conflicts. There are some applications not being operated in Vietnam due to high cost, such as the input for perfumes.Moreover, the company does not fully take advantage of abundant labor resources and capacity in Vietnam. As a company that originated in Europe, strategies to promote Unilever products are not really suitable with Asian culture. 3. Opportunities The policy of Vietnam is also to build Vietnams economy as oriented industrialization, modernization, giving priority to attracting foreign investment, especially from transnational and multinational companies such as Unilever to increase the budget. Domestic market (wholesale, retail, goods circulation ) have evolved much. Also infrastructure in major cities, especially Ho Chi Minh City has been appropriate invested equally with other countries in the region. Vietnam is a country which is freely religious, so the distribution and advertising of products is not limited. In addition, Vietnam has a young population str ucture and extended family models (including grandpare