Unilever has ambitious plans for sustainable growth while reducing its environmental footprint. It aims to double its business size using 3 tools: cost efficiency, marketing-driven innovation, and profitable volume growth. Most of Unilever's sales come from regional markets, so it is trying to deepen its roots in those markets. Unilever has many strengths including a strong brand portfolio, global brand recognition, and excellent management, but also faces weaknesses such as slow emerging market growth and a lack of presence in premium markets. It sees opportunities in growing consumer interest in health and aging populations, but also threats like intense competition and a complex organizational structure.

1. Marketing Analysis of Unilever
Submitted to:
Dr. Usman Yousaf
Hailey College of Banking & Finance
BBA – Program
Submitted by:
Group Members:
Name ID
ABID HUSSAIN M14BBA036
WAQAS AHSAN M14BBA041
MUHAMMAD RIZWAN M14BBA042
Date: 14 February 2017

2. Acknowledgement
At first we must show our gratitude to the almighty Allah for giving us enough
courage and strength to prepare the report in due time. Then we would like to extend
our sincere thanks and deepest gratitude to our honorable faculty ‘Dr. Usman Yousaf’
for providing us a wonderful opportunity to work in this term paper. Without his
excellent guidance and invaluable support throughout the semester and for the
preparation of the term paper it would not have been possible to complete the term
paper. The topic of the term paper was also wisely chosen by the honorable faculty so
that we get the firsthand experience of real life application of different marketing
models and analysis in one of the leading global fast moving consumer goods
company ‘Unilever’ We would also like to thank all the people who gave their
valuable opinion on the products, marketing campaign, advertisement etc. of
Unilever which helped us to reach the conclusion of the term paper including users
and prospective users of the company.

3. Executive Summary
Unilever has ambitious plans for sustainable growth and an intense sense of social
purpose of adding vitality to life of the consumers with 3 tools- cost leverage with
efficiency, innovation in marketing and profitable volume growth. A major portion
of the sales of Unilever comes from the regional markets and Unilever is trying to
create a deeper root in those markets and double size its business. It strengths are
the strong brand portfolio in different segments, strong supply chain to low lead time
and cost, global brand recognition, excellent management and human resources. Its
major weaknesses are: less direct connection with consumers, slow sales growth in
emerging market, falling revenue and absence in the premium markets. From the
study some findings about major threats of Unilever are: strong completion from
local & MNCs, Complex organizational structure & tougher business climate. Having
these weaknesses and threats it also has some major opportunities to hold and
expand its business with the help of its strength these opportunities are: increasing
need for healthy products, developing markets are expected to grow & increase
demand for aging people product.
Unilever has almost 400 brands in many countries and regions of the world. All the
brands have different market segmentation based on their features and value
propositions. It takes into account all quality measures taken at all levels and
involving all company employees to ensure TQM. Unilever is a worldwide well-
known brand by everybody. All the brands of Unilever have separate branding
strategy but each has Unilever logo, design, ideology and message. In its logo it has
25 icons of representing each importance of Unilever’s all 400 brands. Marketing
budgeting and investment was highest in 2012In 2014 the investment was 12.07
billion USD and the turnover was 14.8%.As most of the Unilever target consumers
are from upper middle to low income status the price range of most products stays
under low to mid-price range.
For Unilever to become more successful are: focus e-commerce for Omni-channel
efficiency, increase focus on digital marketing and social media, should focus to
create separate brands to enter into the premium personal care products Eco friendly
product packaging, diversify its business to other segments.

4. Table of Content
Content Page No
1.0 Definition of Marketing Management
1.1 Definition of Marketing Management (Theory 2000 – 2011) 1
1.2 Definition of Marketing Management (Theory 2012 – 2016 ±) 1
1.3 Marketing Management in Unilever 1
2.0 Vision-Mission-Business Plan-Corporate Strategy
2.1 Vision 1
2.2 Mission 2
2.3 Business Plan 2
2.4 Corporate Strategy 3
3.0 SWOT Analysis 4
4.0 PESTEL Analysis 5
5.0 Michael Porter’s Five Forces 6
6.0 Marketing Strategy 7
7.0 Marketing Concept 7-8
8.0 Market Segmentation 8
9.0 Marketing Mix (4+3 =7P) and the Customer 9-10
10.0 Value Chain Model 11
11.0 Total Quality Management 11-13
12.0 Brand & Branding 13
13.0 Box Analysis of brand Elements 14
14.0 Brand Dynamic Pyramid 15
15.0 The Five M’s of Advertisement 15-16
16.0 Mass Communications
16.1 Marketing Mediums 16-17
16.2 Events, Experiences and Sponsors 17
16.3 Public relation/ Government Lobbying 17-18

5. 16.4 Corporate Social Responsibility 18-19
17.0 Marketing Budget & Expenditure 19
18.0 Pricing Strategy of Unilever 19-20
19.0 Break-even analysis of Unilever 20-21
20.0 Recommendation
20.1 More focus on digital marketing and Social media 22
20.2 Ecommerce website for Omni-channel efficiency 22-23
20.3 Premium personal care products 23
20.4 Marketing change of Knorr to increase growth in South Asia 23-24
20.5 Eco friendly Product Packaging 24-25
21.0 Conclusion 25
22.0 Reference 26
Table of Diagrams
Content Page No
Diagram 1.1: Business Plan of Unilever 2
Diagram 1.2: Corporate Strategy of Unilever 3
Diagram 6.1: 3 Key Peelers of Marketing of Unilever 7
Diagram: 8.1: Market Segmentation of Unilever 8
Diagram 16.1: Marketing Medium of Unilever 17
Diagram 16.2: PR Agencies of Unilever 18
Diagram 17.1: Brand and Marketing Investment of Unilever 19
Diagram 19.1: Break-Even Point 21
Diagram 20.1: Top Social networks used by businesses 22

6. Page | 1
1.0 Definition of Marketing Management
1.1 Definition of Marketing Management (Theory 2000 – 2011)
Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting,
keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating
superior customer value.
1.2 Definition of Marketing Management (Theory 2012 – 2016 ±)
Marketing management depends on the size of the business and the industry in
which the business operates. Effective marketing management will use a company's
resources to increase its customer base, improve customer opinions of the company's
products and services and increase the company's perceived value.
1.3 Marketing Management in Unilever
The scope of marketing management in Unilever is huge. Marketing management is
very critical to understanding, creating and building demand.The marketers are
responsible to identify where consumers are and where they are going so Unilever
can involve with them where they are witnessing and engaging with different brands.
At this moment Unilever’s yearly sales is excess of €1 billion with 400 brands globally
covering foods, home and personal care having long-standing social missions. With
major growth in developing and emerging markets, increasing consumer interest in
sustainability and the dawn of the digital revolution, the challenge for marketing
management is toidentify trends, pattern in consumer behavior, and opportunities to
innovationto reach the consumers in real time and remain the brands stand out.
2.0 Vision-Mission-Business Plan-Corporate Strategy
2.1 Vision
Unilever is a unique company, with a proud history and a bright future. They have
ambitious plans for sustainable growth and an intense sense of social purpose.
According to Unilever there vision is to-
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“Double the size of the business, while reducing environmental footprint and
increasing positive social impact and determination to build a sustainable business
for the long term.”
2.2 Mission
The aim of Unilever is to add vitality to life of the consumers. The heritage of
Unilever - good governance, product quality and long experience of working with
communities help them to achieve it. According to Unilever-
“Our vitality mission will focus our brands on meeting consumer needs arising from
the biggest issues around the world today – ageing populations, urbanization,
changing diets and lifestyles.”
2.3 Business Plan
The business plan of Unilever is to ensure sustainable living for everyone through its
brands, people and operations. Unilever has 3 tools for attaining sustainable living.
They are- cost leverage and efficiency, innovation and marketing investment and
profitable volume growth. Unilever wants to focus on R&D and innovation to create
new and improved products backed by marketing to create even stronger brands
which will drive the volume growth of sales. Following is the business plan of
Unilever.
Diagram 1.1: Business Plan of Unilever

8. Page | 3
2.4Corporate Strategy
A major portion of the sales of Unilever comes from the regional markets and
Unilever is trying to create a deeper root in those markets. Through its well-
established distribution network in both the traditional and modern retail outlets
and with a good ability to adapt successful global brand concepts to suit local
markets, Unilever is in a good position to be able to capitalize on the growth forecast
in these regions. The goal of Unilever is to double the size of its business with
personal and home care, food and refreshment sector by better sales through strong
brand preference so that it can achieve its sustainable living plan.
Diagram 1.2: Corporate Strategy of Unilever
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3.0 SWOT Analysis
The Overall evolution of a company’s Strengths, Weakness, opportunities, Threats is
called SWOT analysis. It is the way of monitoring the external and internal
marketing environment.
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1. Recognised global brand by all the
consumers
2. Strong brand portfolio in different
segments
3. Strong supply chainto low lead time and
cost
4. Economies of scale decreasing cost
5. Huge investment in R&D
6. Excellent management and human
Resource
1. Less direct connection with
customers
2. Difficulty in managing almost 400
brands
3. Absence in the premium markets
4. Slow sales growth in emerging
market
5. Fall in revenues
Opportunities Threats
1. Increasing need for healthy products
creating demand
2. Developing markets are expected togrow
3. Personal Care segment may become more
customized
4. Product for aging population may see
increase in demand
1. Strong competition from local and
MNCs
2. Competition in getting store space
increasing
3. Tougher Business Climate
4. Complex Organisational Structure
5. Niche brands gaining favour
6. Industry consolidation
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4.0 PESTEL Analysis
A PESTEL analysis is a framework or tool used by marketers to analyze and monitor
the macro-environmental (external marketing environment) factors that have an
impact on an organization.
Political Economics
1. Comply with any restrictions imposed on
usage of user content
2. Disclose in Unilever application through a
privacy policy
3. New Tax or tariff imposed by local
governments
4. Political instability effect business
1. Economic downturn or slowdown
decreasing sales
2. Inflation increasing COGS
3. Exchange rate fluctuation causes risk
of low profitability
4. Higher rate of interest for future debt
Social Technological
1. Population growth increases demand
2. Improving health and well-being
3. low literacy of consumers in emerging
markets affects marketing campaigns
4. Change of perception of beauty and
nutrition
1. Technological advancement increasing
sales
2. Change in technology making current
technology obsolete
3. Upgrade to new technology requiring
money
4. Better cost efficiency
Environmental Legal
1. Production of Unilever may cause
environmental damage
2. Climate change may have inverse impact
on tea production
3. Polluted water may increase demand for
Pureit
4. Failure to attain sustainable goals
1. Not allowing the exclusive of certain
warranties, limitation of liability for
incidental damage.
2. Tothe maximum extent permitted by
applicable law
3. Tougherbusinessrules
4. Trade Union causing inefficiency
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5.0 Michael Porter’s Five Forces
Porter five forces analysis is a framework that attempts to analyze the level of
competition within an industry and business strategy development.
SUPPIER’S POWER
1. Price increase by
suppliers
2. Creating false scarcity
3. Complexity in supply
chain
4. Increase in lead time
THREAT OF NEW
ENTRANTS
Rivalry
THREAT OF
SUBSTITUTES
1. Substitute product by
new entrants
2. Cost advantage by new
entrants
3. Higher competition
4. Unilever losing core
adventure
5. Lower switching cost
1. Increasing of switching
possibility
2. Price competition results
in decreasing price
3. Decreasing sales
4. Competition in mind
positioning
BUYER POWER DEGREE OF RIVALRY
1. Consumers preferring
better quality products
2. Customer more
knowledgeable now
3. Customer preferring
new buying method
4. Brand loyalty needs
more time to develop
1. Low exit barriers
2. More industry growth
3. Different product
offerings
4. Competition for store
space
5. Difficulty in creating
unique brand
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6.0 Marketing Strategy
With 7000 marketers, brand partners around the world, collaborating on strategy
development is a mammoth undertaking for Unilever, not to mention executing
considering it’s the world’s second largest advertiser, with two billion people in 180
markets. Unilever follows 3 key peelers for its marketing strategy. They are-
Diagram 6.1: 3 Key Peelers of Marketing of Unilever
People First:“Putting people first,” is the first pillar. “Putting people at the heart of
everything Unilever does. Unilever doesn’t talk about shoppers or consumers; they
talk about real people with real lives, needs and dreams.
Indispensable brands:The goal of Unilever is to build brands that people cannot
live without. Brands of Unilever are with a clear purpose, with a clear point of view.
Magical experiences: Unlocking the emotion, sharing in those magical brand
experiences across the whole path to purchase, across the whole consumer journey is
the process by which Unilever builds brands.
7.0 Marketing Concept
Unilever is an organization built around a strong culture and employer brand. With
so many different products and so many different brands touching so many different
markets, it would be easy for each one to have their own distinct culture and
marketing, with little overlap in-between. And yet, that isn’t the case, as every brand
in Unilever is constructed around one key tenet: purpose. The marketing of Unilever

13. Page | 8
is highly purpose driven rather than target driven. And the HR of Unilever plays a big
part of it. Unilever has a really simple philosophy: when you bring people and brands
together under the banner of purpose, ordinary people can achieve some
extraordinary things. That means making jobs less about the what and the how –
what the person will be doing, how much money they’ll make – and instead about the
why, as in why they are doing what they do each do.
8.0 Market Segmentation
Unilever has almost 400 brands in many countries and regions of the world. All the
brands have different market segmentation based on their features and value
propositions. The market segmentation can be done by 4 areas-
1. Geographic
2. Demographic
3. Psychographic
4. Behavioral
Diagram: 8.1: Market Segmentation of Unilever
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9.0 Marketing Mix (4+3 =7P) and the Customer
Unilever has almost 400 brands in many countries and regions of the world. Some of
the Biggest brands are dove, Lux, Knorr, Surf excel, Rexona, Lipton etc.All the
brands have different market segmentation based on their features and value
propositions. The price varies depending on the type of products. Unilever uses
almost all the promotional tools available to marketers. The products of Unilever are
found over 150 countries. All the brands of Unilever have separate branding strategy
but each has Unilever logo, design, ideology and message. In its logo it has 25 icons
of representing each importance of Unilever’s all 400 brands. Unilever has over
170000 employees all over the world with large network of retailers and distributors.
Most Unilever products come in plastic pack or bottles. They can be purchased in
retail store, shopping mall, online etc.
7P of Unilever

15. Page | 10
The clients or customers of Unilever can be divided into various categories in terms
of ages, income, what they want from Unilever. The customers of Unilever are of
different ages.The personal and home care segment has age group of 14-45, income
of medium to high. The food segment’s age group starts from 5 and preference for
tasty and healthy foods. The cost of the products of Unilever includes production,
packaging, marketing, distribution etc. cost which are also included into the pricing
of the products. Unilever uses various communication mediums and also explore and
considers new mediums though which communication with customers can be made.
The customers of unilever purchases products from retail stores, super shop, online
shops etc. and Unilever actively participate to get better store location than
competitors.
4C of Unilever
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10.0 Value Chain Model
Value Chain is the process or activities by which a company adds value to an article,
including production, marketing, and the provision of after-sales service.
11.0 Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach that seeks to improve
quality and performance so that the company can achieve long term success by
meeting or exceeding customer expectations. This can be achieved by improving
processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work by all the members
of the organization. Total Quality Management in the Unilever seems at the overall
quality measures used by a company including managing quality design and
development, quality control and maintenance, quality improvement, and quality
Facilities &Services
M
A
R
G
I
N
Talent Resourcing &Development
Regulatory &Compliance
Support
Activity
Business Intelligence
IT Integration
Revenue Assurance &Fraud Mgt.
CorporateFinance &Accounting Reporting
Communications &CorporateResponsibilities
Integrated Planning&Strategy
Regional Business Management
Business
Partnering
& MO
Buy ing
Central
Operations
Warehouse&
Distribution
Enterprise
Project
Manageme
nt
Operations
Channel
Dev elopme
nt
Brand &
Market
Communi
cations
Customer
Experience
M
A
R
G
I
N
Primary Activity
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assurance. It takes into account all quality measures taken at all levels and involving
all company employees.
Unilever uses the three words together as a phrase Total Quality Management has
the following meanings-
Total - involving the whole company,
Quality - with all its complexities has to be defined
Management - the structure of managing the process by following some
steps like Planning, Organizing, Controlling, Leading, Staffing.
In Unilever TQM requires a new process thinking mindset. They realize that
everything they do is part of a process. Their focus shifts from managing outcomes to
managing and improving processes; from what to do to how to do the processes
better. Quality performance expands to include how well each part of the process
works and the relationship of each part to the process. Also, process improvement
focuses on continuously achieving the greatest potential benefit for their customers.
Followings are the main factors which influences and ensures Total Quality
Management in Unilever.
1. Executive Management:Their Top management acts as the main driver for
TQM and creates an environment that ensures its success.
2. Training:Employees of Unilever receive regular training on the methods and
concepts of quality.
3. Customer Focus:Their improvements in quality that increase customer
satisfaction.
4. Decision Making:Their quality decisions are made based on measurements.
5. Methodology and Tools:They use appropriate methodology and tools
ensure that non-conformances are identified, measured and responded to
consistently.
6. Continuous Improving: Unilever continuously works towards improving

18. Page | 13
manufacturing and quality procedures.
7. Company Culture:The culture of the Unilever aim at developing employees
ability to work together to improve quality.
8. Employee Involvement:Employees of Unilever are encouraged to be pro-
active in identifying and addressing quality related problems.
12.0 Brand & Branding
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended
to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of
sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
Unilever is a worldwide well-known brand by everybody. This
is because Unilever maintains a strict rules and use of its logo
and other symbols, patterns etc. All the brands of Unilever
has separate branding strategy but each has Unilever logo,
design, ideology and message.
Logo:Unilever is committed to making sustainable living
commonplace and their logo is a visual expression of that commitment. Each icon
has a rich meaning at its core, and represents some aspect of our effort to make
sustainable living commonplace. The big blue ‘U’ of our logo stands for Unilever. It
has 25 icons, each of which represents something important to Unilever. From a lock
of hair symbolizing our shampoo brands to a spoon, an ice cream, a jar, a tea leaf, a
hand and much more, the little icons all have a meaning.
Brands of Unilever
Unilever has around 400 brands operating in different parts of the world. All the
brands can be divided into four categories. They are-
Category Major Brands
Personal Care
Lux, Dove, Lifebuoy, Axe, Fair & Lovely, Rexona, Sunsilk,
Aviance etc.
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Home Care Surf Excel, Comfort, Vim, Cif, Drive, Puro, Persil etc.
Food & Drinks Flora, Bule Band, Becel, Lipton, Magnum Knorr, Pure It etc.
13.0 Box Analysis of brand Elements
1. Memorable
(Unilever)
2. Meaningful
(Unilever)
3. Likable
(Unilever)
4. Transferable
5. Adaptable 6. Protectable
1. Memorable:How easily do consumers recall and recognize the brand element,
and when—at both purchase and consumption? Unilever is very well known and
recognized by everybody. Short names such as Dove, Lux, and Rexona are
memorable brand elements.
2.Meaningful:Is the brand element credible? Does it suggest the corresponding
category and a product ingredient or the type of person who might use the brand?
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Brands like Fair & Lovely, Pure it perfectly describes what the brand offers to the
customers. Thus they are meaningful.
3. Likability: How aesthetically appealing is the brand element? Unilever spends a
lot to make its brands likable and as the customers can feel the attachment of the
brand proposal and their needs they are very likable.
14.0 Brand Dynamic Pyramid
Bonding:Bonding happens when a company is doing business at least for 20 years
and well received by the customers. Now there are many products of Unilever which
are new. But as a Brand Unilever itself has been around for such a long time and
constantly stay as a market leader so it is in the bonding section.
15.0 The Five M’s of Advertisement
The following Five M of advertising is for a new product launch proposal of Unilever
in Bangladesh which is of an ice cream brand “Ben & Jerry”.The ice-cream industry
of Bangladesh is already 2ooo million BDT a year.
Which is also expected to grow in future with a good
rate?“Ben & Jerry” is a famous ice-cream brand of
Unilever which has a long success and loyal customer base. Its tagline is “Ice-cream
makes you happy” and its point of differentiation is real ingredients like fruits in the
ice-cream. The target is gain 20% market share by 1 year and 50% market share by
3rd year. It will approximately take 80 million BDT marketing cost including 40
million BDT for TVC and print media, 30 million for event sponsoring and 10 million
for other costs. The effectiveness of advertisement can be measured by various
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methods like Digital Ad Ratings, Consumer Neuroscience ,Radio Airplay and Online
Streaming etc. by Neilsen.
16.0 Mass Communications
16.1 Marketing Mediums
Marketing and promotion of Unilever takes place on a variety of mediums,
intermediaries or platforms. The traditional mediums include print, radio,
television, POSM, retailers, distributors etc. while the online mediums include
ecommerce, social media, search engine marketing etc. The focus of Unilever is
shifting from traditional medias to new phenomenon like social medias. As more and
more people are getting involved with social medias it provides a great opportunity to
engage people with the brands. The main focus of Unilever is to create a Omni-
channel marketing for the company where customer can engage with the company
from wherever they want to purchase from anywhere.
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Diagram 16.1: Marketing Medium of Unilever
16.2 Events, Experiences and Sponsors
Unilever is involved with sponsoring a lot of events including sports, artistic
performances, community and social awareness raising programs. Many events are
created by Unilever as well. Generally different brands of Unilever are associated
with sponsoring particular events. Many times Unilever jointly promote an event
with other companies too. All the sponsorship of Unilever must match with its
sustainable development plan and core values.
16.3 Public relation/ Government Lobbying
The public relation of Unilever is managed by various Public relation agencies.
GolinHarris, a large public relations firm operating for more than 50 years, has taken
over the PR functions of Unilever’s most brands across the world. It is responsible for
Lipton worldwide; Clear and Lux in China; Lux, Cornetto and Magnum in Singapore.
Halpern are the retained Global PR Agency for Dove Men+CareDeo all key markets,
including South America, Europe, Asia, North America and ASIA. M-Booth and
associates, Fenton etc. handle different brands of Unilever in USA.
Diagram 16.2: PR Agencies of Unilever
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Unilever Actively hires lobbyist too to lobby on various issues on agriculture,
chemical industry, consumer product safety and taxes. In the UK its main lobbing
groups are Confederation of British Industry (CBI), British Chamber of Commerce
(BCC) etc. In Europe its other lobbying groups are European Roundtable of
Industrialists, European Association for Bioindustries etc. Transatlantic Business
Dialogue arguably is one of the most far-reaching and influential international
corporate-state alliances of Unilever. Other than that Unilever also has alliance with
Bilderberg Group, International Chamber of Commerce etc.
16.4 Corporate Social Responsibility
Unilever is involved in various CSR activities to address various global challenges by
taking local approaches which they call a “Multi Local Multinational Approach.” The
CSR activities of Unilever is closely attached to their sustainable development as they
continue to work on sustainable agriculture, fisheries, water stewardship, and
reducing carbon footprint. Unilever Lifebuoy Campaign Reduces Diarrhoea from
36% to 5% in many villages of 14 countries. In 1996, Unilever joined with WWF to
find a solution to the global fish crisis. Unilever South Africa actively works to protect
lakes in Africa. Thus Unilever is always helping society which as a result boosts it
positive brand image.
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17.0 Marketing Budget & Expenditure
Unilever is one of the top five expenders on advertisements in the world. The
advertisement expenditure of Unilever is mostly dominated by the TV ad segment.
Then comes the print media expenditure. In 2012 the global advertising expenditure
of Unilever was increased by almost 20%. But at the same time Unilever focused on
reducing cost but reaching more consumers with the use of social medias, economy
of scale, more effective use of media etc. In 2015 the core operating margin rose by
0.4 percentage points despite maintaining brand and marketing investment at 14.8%
of turnover, as overheads were reduced by 0.6 percentage points.
Diagram 17.1: Brand and Marketing Investment of Unilever
18.0 Pricing Strategy of Unilever
Most of the products of Unilever fall under low to mid-price range. One of the main
strategies of Unilever is to attract buyers by offering low price products like Fair &
Lovely in the emerging markets. In entering the emerging-country market Unilever
prepare to compete on the basis of low prices. Unilever pursued this strategy because
consumers in emerging markets are often highly focused on price, which can give
low-cost local competitors the edge unless a company can find ways to attract buyers
with bargain prices as well as better products. But recently for well stablished brands
Unilever is increasing price by offering new values in the products especially for their
personal care brands.
19.0 Break-even analysis of Unilever
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The break-even level or break-even point (BEP) represents the sales amount—in
either unit or revenue terms—that is required to cover total costs. Total profit at the
break-even point is zero. Break-even is only possible if a firm’s prices are higher than
its variable costs per unit. The main purpose of break-even analysis is to determine
the minimum output that must be exceeded in order to make profit. For Unilever,
data of three years- 2012, 2013 and 2014 will be considered. Break-even point will be
calculated in terms of units.
Assumption,
Price per unit in 2014= $6.25
Variable cost per unit in 2014= $3.13
Fixed cost = $3000 million
So, Break even Volume in 2014 = fixed cost/ (price-variable cost)
= $3000 million/($6.25-$3.13)
= 3347 million units
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Total Fixed cost 30000 30000 30000 30000 30000
Total Variable cost 10017 12123 14340 12270 10460
Total cost 20034 24246 28680 24540 20920
Variable per unit 2.50 2.63 2.75 3.00 3.13
Price per unit 5.00 5.25 5.50 6.00 6.25
Break Even Sales Unit 4007 4618 5215 4090 3347
***Values are in million
Diagram 19.1: Break-Even Point

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It can be seen that to reach break-even point Unilever had to reach 3347 million
units to sell which equals to the $20920 million in sales revenue. As Unilever
reached over 5000 million USD in revenue in 2014 it got passed its breakeven point
in 2014 and stood in the revenue zone.
20.0 Recommendation
Followings are the recommendation on different issues where Unilever can either
improve or takes new initiatives to grow further.
20.1 More focus on digital marketing and Social media
With the change of technology it is important that Unilever adapt with different new
digital medias for their marketing approach. The CMO of Unilever Keith Weed
himself admitted that lesser people are following the traditional medias now a days
and it is getting for difficult to reach customers through traditional medias. It is very
important that Unilever focuses more and more on new digital medias like mobile,
social networks, blog etc. What Unilever needs to do is to engage people in various
activities with separatebrands of Unilever through social networks. Unilever should
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create different events which will encourage people to participate in them. The
themes of the events must match with the core brand values of a particular brand.
Unilever did great promotion of World hand wash day in social media and gained
positive feedback. In Bihar, a region in India with the lowest access to media and yet
has high mobile phone penetration. It created a radio station that gave people 15
minutes of free entertainment along with ads for Unilever brands when they missed
call a number. The service proved popular with more than 8 million unique visitors
in six months and the ads were heard more than 50 million times. Unilever should
have country wise verified pages for all its brands and operate them separately.
Diagram 20.1: Top Social networks used by businesses
20.2 Ecommerce website for Omni-channel efficiency
To foster the Omni-channel marketing and distribution strategy for Unilever should
open country specific ecommerce sites for its brands. In the ecommerce site
customers will be able to order any item and they will have the option to choose a
place where they want to purchase the product. In that case Unilever will be able to
manage their distribution channel more efficiently. This will be more effective for
higher end products as higher end products are not always available to any local
stores where other Unilever products may be found. This ecommerce ordering
process will be able to drive sales growth for these products and reduce holding time.

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20.3 Premium personal care products
There is a vacuum for premium personal care products of Unilever. Many countries
including emerging markets are facing increasing demand for premium personal care
products for specific needs. Unilever should create separate brands to enter into the
personal care products. They should market it separately and make it available in
high end stores only. The packaging should also reflect the quality of the products are
being sold.
20.4 Marketing change of Knorr to increase growth
in South Asia
The food section is very important for Unilever to grow. And
South Asia is a big market for Knorr including India,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan etc. But the sales of Knorr in
this region are not as expected for Unilever. In the same
region Nestle has achieved great success with their brand
“Maggi”. On the first few months Knorr had a good sales but that was due to Maggi’s
supply chain problems. Once Maggi solved their problems, Knorr’s sales begin to
decline. Most people found Knorr soups’ taste to be bland and tasteless especially
people of Bangladesh likes spicy or Thai flavors more and Knorr is European savory
biased which did not suit the sub-continent people’s taste. Also there was lack of
awareness for the idea of real chicken and vegetable which did not get set in
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consumer minds that strongly. Eventually they have introduced the Thai flavor but it
was quite late and Maggi has already returned. Even with their advertisement in
Bangladesh Knorr was not successful much. Knorr tried to attract the mother section
by focusing on real ingredients and children section by make funny advertisement.
But following things Knorr can do to increase sales.
 Knorr should hire Bangladeshi well known nutrition expert or cooking expert
to act in the ad which would be more accepted by the mothers in Bangladesh.
 Knorr has associated itself with “Kung Fu Panda” and promotes “Kung Fu
panda” cartoon in TV. Knorr can introduce special kung Fu Panda designed
noodles packets and offer stickers with small packets or small toys with the
family size packets of Knorr. This will attract the children a lot.
 Knorr should introduce new foods like “Knorr Momo” or “Knorr Spaghetti” in
the countries where these are absent from competitor brands.
20.5 Eco friendly Product Packaging
One important goal of Unilever sustainable living goal is to reduce the carbon foot
print and doing more ecofriendly business. To achieve the goal or foster the idea
Unilever can introduce ecofriendly product packaging for their products which will
not be indestructible like plastic and harmful for the environment. It will also create
positive image of Unilever among general public.
Eco Friendly Packaging
21.0 Conclusion
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Unilever is one of the greatest brands which is occupying and stands gallant position
through the whole world. Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL) is very well-known to
us like the common people but there are some pros and cons those we come to know
through this analysis. From the overall study over the renowned Unilever we’ve got
an idea about its strengths, weakness as ion a word SWOT and the PESTEL. They
maintain a value chain which has a unique role behind the successful. They also
maintain successful campaign. Based on the analysis done above we can reach the
decision that Activation campaigns do have an impact on the purchase behavior of
the consumers. These campaigns not only create help to create awareness amongst
the specified target group but also helps to pass on a newly or modified positioning
statement. To maintain a more successful brand value there must be an excellent
coordination and integration between the brand managers in the marketing team.
Actually all the member of this family maintains a friendly relationship in a friendly
environment.

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22.0 Reference
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