Unilever is a leading multinational fast-moving consumer goods company with a diverse range of products across personal care, foods, home care, and refreshments, and is headquartered in London. The company operates through two legally distinct entities—Unilever N.V. and Unilever PLC—and employs a differentiation strategy to maintain a competitive edge in a highly competitive market. Despite its success, recommendations suggest adopting a low-cost or focused differentiation strategy to address the high price of its products and enhance customer retention.

1. Running head: COMPANY ANALYSIS 1
COMPANY ANALYSIS 8
Company Analysis
BUS 692 Strategies in Human Resource Management
October 30, 2017
Company Analysis
Introduction
Unilever is one of the world’s leading fast-moving
consumer goods organizations. The company provides products
across different lines, including personal care, foods, home
care, as well as refreshment categories. Headquartered in
London, United Kingdom, Unilever is a multinational
corporation that has expanded its operations in different parts of
the world, including regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe,
Middle East and Africa (Unilever Plc, 2017). In 2016, Unilever
recorded an operating margin of 14.8 percent compared to an
operating margin of 14.1 percent in 2015. The firm operates as a
dual listed organization that has two major components:
Unilever N.V and Unilever PLC. Unilever N.V is a public
limited firm that is registered in Netherlands, while Unilever
PLC is a public limited company that is registered in England
and Wales. These two corporations function as a single
operating business. However, they have retained their separate
legal identities and stock exchange listings (Unilever Plc,
2017). The two parent organizations, alongside their Group

2. companies, function as a single entity (Unilever). Further,
Unilever is among the world’s premier fast-moving consumer
goods organizations with a host of widely-known brands in
foods, home care, refreshments, as well as personal are
categories. Today, the company functions through four major
product categories, namely: personal care, foods, home care, as
well as refreshments.
Nature of the Organization
Industry
Unilever operates in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.
Almost everyone in both developed and developing countries
uses fast-moving products daily. These purchases are often
made in small-scale. The sector is large and includes key
players such as Unilever, General Mills, Coca-Cola, as well as
Dole Foods (FRPT, 2017). Therefore, Unilever operates in a
market that is characterized by stiff competition as rivals
compete for a small and already-exhausted market segment.
The industry often accounts for more than half of all consumers
spending. However, these spending tend to be low-involvement
purchases. The fast-moving consumer goods industry is
expected to witness a growth (FRPT, 2017). After a low
slowdown for the past here years, the industry is expected to
grow more than 15 percent for the next three years, especially if
players in the market emphasize on improving brand
penetration.
Products/ Services
Unilever is one of the largest fast moving and consumer goods
organizations. The organization provides a wide range of
products, which include personal care, food, home care, and
refreshments (Unilever Plc, 2017). Personal care products
category includes skin care products, hair care products,
deodorants, and oral care products. Examples of food products
include soups, bouillons, sauces, snacks, mayonnaise, salad
dressings, margarines, as well as spreads. Further, home care
product categories include powders, liquids and capsules, soap
bars, and cleaning products (Unilever Plc, 2017). Finally,

3. refreshment products include ice cream, tea-based beverages,
water purifiers, and food and drinks.
Brief History
Unilever started as an Anglo-Dutch soap-to-soap conglomerate
that was established in 1929 through a merger between British
soap maker Lever Brothers and a Dutch margarine making
organization known as Margarine Unie (Unilever Plc, 2017).
While it is listed on stock exchanges as two separate firms,
Unilever has a common board of governors. The $129 billion
organization later expanded its operations beyond the national
frontiers to include US, Europe, Asia, and Africa. After
becoming a multinational corporation, Unilever established
more than 400 brands with almost a dozen of them developing
sales of more than a billion dollars. Unilever expanded over the
last nine decades by acquiring operational brands. In 1919, the
Lever Brothers bought the Crossfield of Warrington. Unilever
later bought Frosted Foods brand Bachelor Foods in 1943.
Towards the end of 1950s, Unilever shifted its focus to a
personal care firm and launched successful brands such as
Signal, Dove, and Sunsilk. Today, the company registers annual
sales of approximately $64 billion.
Position in Relation to Competition
From a competitive perspective, Unilever tops the list as
the leading fast-moving consumer goods organization in the
United States and other parts of the world. The company leads
in terms of sales and market share. The key players in the
industry include Nestle, Coca-Cola, Kraft, PepsioCo, and Cargil
(FRPT, 2017). From this list, Unilever enjoys the highest
competitive position with a market share of 8 percent. This is
closely followed by Con Agra with a market share of 6 percent.
Other organizations include Nestle, Coca-Cola, Kraft, as well as
Diageo. In addition, Unilever is the fifth leading deodorant
brand in the world. The company also enjoys an operating profit
of EUR 7.801 million (FRPT, 2017). It also has the third widest
plethora of brands ranging from food and beverage to home and
personal care. Thirteen of these brands produce yearly sales of

4. one billion Euros.
Organizational Chart
Duties and Responsibilities
CEO
· Overall leader of the company.
· Overall decision-maker of the organization
· Implements the overall organizational change, both long-term
and short-term.
· Collaborates with board to communicate to the public on
behalf of the company
MD, Finance
· Directs research and development programs
· Is concerned with financial issues such as evaluation of sales,
revenue, and profits
· Disburses salaries to workers
Foods, Home, and Personal Care
· Heads the three major units of the firm: Home, foods, and
personal care
· Oversees the production and distribution of products related to
home, personal care, and foods
· Leads the three units in developing innovative ideas to meet
consumer needs
· Involved in the expansion of company operations and markets
Business Strategy of the Selected Company
The main business strategy that Unilever uses is
differentiation strategy. A differentiation strategy provides
products that are distinct and different from competitors’.
Organizations that pursue a differentiation strategy seek to gain
a competitive edge over rivals through distinctiveness
(Schermerhorn Jr, 2011). They seek to develop products and
services that are clearly different from those of their
competitors or through successful advertising, and are perceived

5. to be as clearly different. The primary objective of utilizing
differentiation strategy is to establish a strong base of
consumers who are loyal to the company’s products and lose
interest in commodities that belong to competitors
(Schermerhorn Jr, 2011). In order to ensure that this strategy
works, Unilever has allocated a lot of resources towards
initiatives such as research and development, marketing, as well
as advertizing.
Unilever employs broad differentiation as its generic
strategy. The main emphasis of differentiation is focus on the
features that make the organization’s products stand out against
rivals. For instance, Unilever generates personal care products
such as Dove Cream Bars to meet the needs of customers for
soaps that are not harsh or drying. Despite its relatively high
selling prices, these products are competitive since they stand
out from most of soaps that emphasize more on cleaning than
being moisturized. Therefore, the company works to attract
consumers to specially designed commodities. This approach is
in line with the organization’s vision, which is to support global
sustainability and to increase vitality in customers’ lives,
respectively. The company’s strategic goal based on the
differentiation generic competitive strategy is to grow Unilever
through an intensive effort in product development. This goal
focuses on producing products that stand out from the
competition and attract new and already-existing clients.
Specific Area of the Business that need to be Addressed-
Recommendations
While Unilever has utilized differentiation strategy to
ensure that it stands out from its competitors and maintain a
competitive edge over its rivals, its products are expensive in
terms of price (Baroto, Abdullah & Wan, 2012). This makes it
harder for some of its loyal clients to remain locked into the
company’s services. This strategy works by seeking to operate
at a low cost to ensure that the products are sold at low prices.
The low-cost strategy can enable the company to continue
searching for innovations that can increase its operating

6. efficiencies. Apart from cost leadership, the company can
employ the focus strategy that concentrates on serving a distinct
market segment than any other firm. For instance, since the firm
operates in different types of markets with different nature of
customers, focused differentiation strategy can be used (Baroto,
Abdullah & Wan, 2012). Focused differentiation strategy
provides a unique product to a special market segment. This can
help it have a competitive edge over competing firms.
References
Baroto, M. B., Abdullah, M. M. B., & Wan, H. L. (2012).
Hybrid strategy: a new strategy for
competitive advantage. International Journal of Business and
Management, 7(20), 120.
FRPT. (2017). FMCG firms start putting infra in place for GST.
FRPT-FMCG Snapshot, 9-11.
Schermerhorn Jr, J. R. (2011). Management for productivity.
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Unilever, Plc. (2017). Unilever Plc: company profile.
Marketline, 1-40.
Chief Executive Officer
MD, Foods, Home and Personal Care
MD, Asia and Africa
MD, Finance, R&D