INTRODUCTION TO LUXLux stands for the promise of beauty and glamour as one of India's most trusted personal Carebrands. Since its launch in India in the year 1929, Lux has offered a range of soaps in different colors and world class fragrances. Lux is a beauty soap of film stars.Lux soaps first slaunchedin1916aslaundrysoaptargeted specifically delicate.LeverBrothers encouraged women to home launder their clothes without fear of satins and silks being turned yellow by harsh leys that were often used in soaps at the time. The flake-type soap allowed the manufacturer some leeway from lye because it did not need to be shaped into traditional cake-shaped loaves as other soaps were. The result was a gentler soap that dissolved more readily and was advertised as suitable for home laundry use. Lux toilet soap was introduced in 1925 as bathroom soap. The name 'Lux' was chosen as aplay on the word "luxury." Lux has been marketed in several forms, including bar and flake and liquid (hand wash, shower gel and cream bath soap). Lux in step with the changing trends and evolving beauty needs of the consumers, offers an exciting range of soaps and Body Washes with unique elements to make bathing time more pleasurable.Onecanchoosearangeofskincarebenefitslikefirming,fairnessandmoisturizing.Fromthe1930srightthrough to the 1970s, Lux soap colors and packaging were altered several times to reflect fashion trends. In 1958 five colors made up the range: pink, white, blue, green and yellow. People enjoyed matching their soap with their bathroom colors. In the early 1990s, Lux responded to the growing trend away from traditional soap bars by launching its own range of shower gels, liquid soaps and moisturizing bars. Lux beauty facial wash, Lux beauty bath and Lux beauty shower were launched in 1992.In 2004, the entire Lux range was re-launched in the UK to include five shower gels, threebath products and two new soap bars. In 2005 they launch of three exciting new variants with dreams names such asWine&Roses bathcream, Glowing Touch and Sparkling Morning shower gels.HISTORY

LuxsoapwasfirstlaunchedintheUKin1899asaflakedversionofSunlightsoap.Subsequently it was launched in the US in 1916, and marketed as laundry soap targeted specifically at 'delicates'. Lever Brothers encouraged women to home launder their clothes without fear of satins and silks being turned yellow byharsh lyes that were often used in soaps at the time. The flake-type soap allowed the manufacturer some leeway from lye because it did not need to be shaped into traditional cake-shaped loaves as other soaps were. The result was a gentler soap that dissolved more readily and was advertised as suitable for home laundry use Lux is currently a product of Unilever. The name "Lux" was chosen as the Latin word for "light" and because it was suggestive of "luxury." Lux soap was introduced asbathroom soap in the US in 1925 and in the UK in 1928 as a brand extension of Lux soap flakes. Subsequently Lux soap has been marketed in several forms, including hand wash, shower gel and cream bath soap. Lux soap was launched in India in 1929. The very first advertisement in 1929 featured LeelaChitnis as its brand ambassador. It was branded in India as "the beauty soap of film stars'. As of June 2009 Lux is sold in over 100 countries . Today, the focus is back on beauty which has been the roots of the product. The fruit versions of the soap Strawberry and cream, Peach and cream are quite popular. New variants Purple lotus and cream, and Aqua Sparkle had been launched at reality shows on televisions which are a new development in the basket of marketing strategies of the soap.COMPANY OVERVIEW Hindustan Unilever Limited at aglance

(HUL) is India's largest fast company, touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in home &personal care products and food & beverages. They endow the company with a scale ofcombined volumes of about 4 million tones and sales of over PRs. 13,000 crore. HUL is also one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognized as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India. HUL was formed in 1933 as Lever Brothers India Limited and came into being in 1956 as Hindustan Lever Limited through a merger ofLever Brothers, Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co.Ltd And United Traders Ltd.It is head quartered in Mumbai, India and has employee strength of over 15,000 employees and contributes for indirect employment of over 52,000 people. The company was renamed in June 2007 to Hindustan Unilever Limited.In 2007, Hindustan Unilever was rated as the most respected company in India for the past 25years by Business one of Indias leading business magazines.The rating was based on a compilation of the magazines annual survey of Indias Most Reputed Companies overthe past 25 years. HUL is themarket leader in Indian consumer products with presencein over20 consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos amongst others with over700 million Indian consumers using its products. It has over 35 brands. Sixteen of HULsbrands featured in the ACNielsen Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2008). According to Brand Equity, HUL has the largest number of brands in the Most Trusted Brands List. Its a company that has consistently had the largest number ofbrands in the Top 50 and in the Top 10 (with 4 brands).Hindustan Unilever's distribution covers over 1million retails outlets across India directly and its products are available in over 6.3 million outlets in India, i.e., nearly 80% of the retail outlets in India. It has 39 factories in the country. Two out of three Indians use the companysproducts and HUL products have the largest consumer reach being available in over 80 percent of consumer homes acrossIndia.TheAnglo-DutchcompanyUnileverowns a majority stake (52%) in Hindustan UnileverLimited. HUL was one of the eight Indian companies to be featured on the Forbes list ofWorlds Most Reputed companies in 2007.

Products of Hindustan Unilever Ltd:Personal wash:-Lux. Lifebuoy, Liril ,Hamam, Breeze, Moti , Dove, Pears and RexonaLaundry:-Surf Excel, sun light, Rin ,Wheel&AlableechDishwasher:-VimDisinfectants:-Domex, CifFoods:-Kissan(Jam,Ketchup,Squashes), Annapurna(Aata and salt), Knorr Soups, ModernBreadIce-cream:-Quality Wall'sBeverages:-Tea:-Brooke Bond, Lipton, TajMahalCoffee:-Brooke Bond BruBeauty ProductsFair & Lovely, Lakme, Ponds, VaselineHair-Care:-Sunsilk Naturals, Clinic Plus , DoveOral-Care:-Pepsodent and Close-upDeo sprayAxe and RexonaWater Purifier:PureitAyurvedic Personal & health care:-AyushPROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES

Sale Promotion

Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists of a collection ofincentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase ofparticular products or services by consumers or the trade. Whereas advertising offers a reason to buy, sales promotion offers anincentive to buy.Prominent Sales Promotion Schemes Used by LUX.

Lux presented 30 gm gold each to the first three winners of the Lux Gold Star offer from Delhi. According to the promotional offer that Lux unveiled in October 2000, a consumerfinding a 22-carat gold coin inhis or her soap bar got anopportunity to win an additional 30gm gold. The first 10 callers every week got a 30 gm gold each. The offer could be availed only on 100 gm and 150 gm packs of Lux soap.Lux Star Bano, AishKaro contest: All oneneeded to do was buy a special promotionalpack of Lux soap. The pack comes with a special scratch card. The 50 lucky winners and theirspouses were flown down to Mumbai tolive a day like AishwaryaRai would. Theycould alsobe given gift vouchers worth Rs 50,000 from Shoppers' Stop along with an exclusively designed Neeta Lulla sari and abeauty makeover by Michelle Tung, Aishwarya's preferred designer and stylist. The pice de rsistance was adinner date with AishwaryaRai herself.Lux celebrated 75years of stardom with the Her Star Lucky Star activity. All wrappers of Lux had astar printed inside them. If the consumer found written inside the star, any number from1 to 5, shewould get an equivalentdiscount (in rupees) on herpurchase from hershopkeeper. If theconsumer found 75 years written inside the star, she will get a years supply of Lux free.Online Contests:

Play the supercharged version of the hit puzzlegame, Bejeweled. Create rows of 3or more identical stones and you could wina trip for two to a five-star Resort in Goa.

Promotion:

Hindustan Unilever undertakes huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped the beauty soap industry of India. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the worlds most stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with LUX advertisements. They do not onlypromote LUX in India for the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan fortheir advertising campaign. Hindustan Unilever Ltd spends a huge amount of money forpromoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Till nowpromotionalactivitiesof LUXhas always been successful whichhas made ita household common name and helped it reach almost one billion take a sale value in the year 2004.Point of Purchases:TheLUXisnotgivenanotableplacementontheshelvesofdifferentretailshops&departmental stores for its sales promotion. Usually the company goes for wide display in the stores where it potential for its product. Different eye-catching decorations are made inside the store and in the showcase for outside display. These arrangements are made with the assistance of the sales people of thecompany.Advertisements:

The message that the product reflects in its advertisements is the one that is usually narratedby the corporate itselfSelection of Media:

There are number of Sources availablefor passing the product message. These areas follows;1. Television2. Outdoor (Billboards)3. Magazines4. Newspapers5. Brochures6. InternetImpact on Sales:

The company believes that ads do have adequate impact on sales. In order to meet the companypolicy of maintaining and strengthening the corporate image, the ads are shown on television. There is a long-term strategy in the books of Unilever to disturb the loose Soap market. They usually show documentary from time to time regarding the flaws in loose Soap quality. It is usually shown without any discrimination, i.e., without mentioning any Soap name or company name in the documentary.Analyzing the Market for LUX:

In India, soaps are available in five million retail stores, out of which, 3.75 million retail stores are in the rural areas. Therefore, availability of these products is not an issue. 70% of India'spopulation resides in the rural areas; hencearound 50% of the soaps aresold in the rural markets.Conclusion

The beauty soap industry of India consists of afew producers in the industry. The Demand for this product is very much vulnerable in terms of pricing.Hindustan Unilever isproviding LUX at a price which is affordable to most of the people in the country. Beauty soap is an uprising product in India as a greater portion of the population, both male and female, are now getting more beauty conscious. As a multinational company Hindustan Unilever with heavypromotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. With six different fragrances, three different sizes, international standard and high quality design, as a product, LUX has been highly successful overtheyears.Its distributionprocessishighly efficient.Its promotionalactivities, like the beauty contest has been a milestone in attracting a huge number of customers. Overall with its marketing activities LUX has been a successful brand.MISSION STATEMENT:

Mission Is To Add Vitality to LifeAdding Vitality to life:150 million times a day, in 150 countries, people use our products at key moments of their day. In the future, our brands will do even more to add vitality to life. 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.

FIG: 01 Scale and geographic reach:Our deep roots in local cultures and markets around the world give us our strong relationship with consumers and are the foundation for future growth. We will bring our wealth of knowledge and international expertise to the service of local consumers - a truly multi-local multinational - extract from Unilevers corporate purpose.Goals and ObjectivesTheir main objective is to have a double-digit growth and resultant cash flows will be utilized in improving the product quality and contents to enhance the value to customer and final users. Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited has an objective to have a responsive supply chain and technological based processes. They want to have consumer connectivity, i.e. they want to know what they eat, drink, how they spend their lives, what are their preferences. So in this way they want to be very close to customer, to know their real insight and desires so they can develop new strategy for product design and can implement their strategy in better manner i.e. avoidance of hit and trial approach and hitting the right target with right strategy at right time in right and accurate manner. They want to be cost efficient i.e. they want to reduce in their cost of production, cost of transportation, distribution and packaging cost and finally reducing all the human cost to offer a competitive price to customer maintain the high standards of quality. 1. To have a partnership with their suppliers to enable them to provide high quality low cost material. 2. Have entered and will be aggressively developing new mark.3. Be exciting to their customers with stream of innovative products.4. To be no in all their existing markets.

Attainment of Objectives:Lever Brothers India Limiteds strategy to attain the objectives is: Maximum coverage of outlets Desirable sales volume Display and merchandizing of products Developing quality and want satisfying product.Since every company is formed to accomplish certain objectives. There is no company, which had no goals. So Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited also has targets before it.These main targets and objectives are: Profits Consumerism Welfare of consumerVISION STATEMENT:We meet every day Needs for Nutrition, Hygiene and Personal Care With Brands That Help People Feel Good, Look Good and Get More Out Of Life.MARKET FOUR PC S OF LUX:Product:LUX is an internationally renowned beauty soap brand of Unilever. Though manufactured in Hindustan for the local market by Unilever Hindustan Ltd, as an international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. Formula given by Research and Development departments in foreign countries, LUX is produced in Hindustan from imported raw materials like sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to flavors, coming from Unilever plants situated abroad. LUX is offered in Hindustan in six different flavors which are: LUX Energizing Honey, LUX Golden Glow, LUX Nature Pure, LUX Orchid Touch, LUX Almond Delight and LUX Aqua Sparkle. Taking into account the convenience of its customers, the company manufactures all flavors of LUX in three different sizes, 40gm, 80gm and 120gm. Price:Though Unilever Hindustan gives its LUX customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a vulnerable demand in Hindustan. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor compares Luxs price with its major competitor. Company carries out research on competitors price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessity of changing price. The brand loyalty test is an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU).Place:Unilever Hindustan Ltd. has a huge distribution channel for LUX all over the country as its sales reach more than 10 million pieces a year. The company has six huge warehouses, one in each division of Hindustan, where the product goes after they are manufactured at Kalurghat factory shows the location of its six warehouses in Hindustan. The company does not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product. However, it has outsourced its distribution process to various third party distributors, exclusively dedicated to Unilever Hindustan Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over Hindustan to a huge number of retailers. Even though LUX targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over Hindustan because of a recent increase in demand of its product to all segments of the population. Promotion:

Unilever Hindustan undertakes huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped the beauty soap industry of Hindustan. It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional activities for LUX 1Its certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Channel i Superstar and LUX Channel i Annual Cinema Awards has made the product a part of the glamour world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the worlds most stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements. They do not only promote LUX in Hindustan for the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan for their advertising campaign. Unilever Hindustan Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover it also undertakes small promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests. Till now promotional activities of LUX has always been successful which has made it a household common name and helped it reach almost one billion taka sale value in the year 2004.INTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF LUXThe internal assessment consists of different points which should be discussed upon the different information we had which is as follows:a. Cultural productb. Managementc. Marketingd. Financee. Operations/productionf. Research and developmentg. Management information system.Cultural product: Purchasing of Lux soap affect from movie star becausepeople think thatif it is good enough for a film star, it is good for me. Purchasing of Lux soap affect from income of people. Ruralpeople will not purchase Lux generally due to its high price. Generally use in Asia like Indiaand Hindustan.MANAGEMENT:

It is a structured method of formally and objectively evaluating employees performance with respect to their objectives. It addresses the issue of an employees development by providing them with structured and in-depth analysis of strengths and areas of improvement. It provides with input for annual increments, training and development. For an organization the aim should not be just to have the best people, but also to retain them and get best out of them. Employee Performance management includes planning work and setting expectations, developing the capacity to perform, continuously monitoring performance and evaluating it.Most organizations focus on an annual evaluation process for employees and call that Performance Management. However, annual evaluations are often subjective and can lack specific measurements and supportive data to help the employee truly improve their behaviour.Simply putting, a Performance Management System is essential to the success of any organization because it influences the effort expended by employees, which in turn, drives bottom-line business results. Furthermore, the Performance Management System helps an Organization identifies, recruit, motivate, and retain key employees.MARKETING:One of the longest running campaigns the world over, Lux, an international venture of Levers Brothers, featured Hollywood stars in most parts of the world. Lux entered India in 1929 and while its early advertisements would feature Hollywood actresses, they would eventually be replaced almost completely by local stars.

FIG: 02The very fact that right from Devika Rani onwards every film star from Indian film industry has been starring in the advertisement has perhaps made it a must-do thing. Every aspiring starlet has been making it her career goal to appear in the Lux ad. In that sense it has become a kind of a benchmark for success and a way of announcing her arrival in the industry.Devika Rani may have been one of the foremost stars of early talkies cinema but in 1941 the distinction of being the first Lux model went to her contemporary, LeelaChitnis.

FIG: 03Lux can be seen as one of the earliest forms of celebrity endorsements. The vast majority of actresses who appeared in the Lux advertisements were drawn from the Bombay film industry. As a product, however, that reached the entire country, regional advertising was critical to the success of Lux. Thus well-known stars of Bengali, Tamil, and Telegu cinema also regularly found place in Lux advertisements inFilm fare.

FIG: 04

A Lux appearance would be predicated not just on a lead appearance but on glamorous and iconic performances of different kinds. All the leading "vamps" of the Bombay film industry appeared in the advertisement as well.In this sense the campaign highlighted and awarded female performance of all kinds. Diverse stars jostled for attention in the world of Lux, featuring known and bankable actresses but also those who appeared in fleeting iconic roles or remained on the margins of success.

FIG: 05TheLux campaign was a product of complex negotiations between advertisers and the industry, between stars, their publicists or agents, secretaries and producers. Its success was predicated on the fact that it was mutually beneficial to all these players.Stars actively solicited the Lux campaign. At a time when film journalism was not as prolific as it became later, Lux was probably one of the best ways for the stars to get publicity outside of big urban cities and towns. Levers advertised throughout the year and its adverts traveled all over the country, printed not just in magazines but on soap wrappers, boxes, in posters and on billboards. Like autographed postcards, Lux with its signed endorsements could be seen as a form of circulating star portraiture but with a much wider reach.

FIG: 06Moreover the stars looked their best in these pictures as their portraits were taken by skilled photographers. Worked on by equally skilled artists, in later years they involved stylists and makeup artistes to create the glamorous star persona of Lux. Lux campaign was the company acknowledging that the actress had become a star and the star saying thank you.

FIG: 07This prolific campaign was possible because stars did not get paid for an appearance in the initial years. For the film producers, the campaign worked as free publicity for their new productions. By the late fifties the advertisements would feature information about the name, production credits and costume of the current film that the actress endorsed. By the 1970s Lux seemed to have lost its exclusive edge with competition from various other brands. Photographic advertising would eventually turn other kinds of faces into celebrities, but Lux toilet sap continued to remain faithful to its cinematic subjects.The cultural life of the soap would however be constantly updated. Finding a space outside the pages of magazines to a presence in cinema trailers and television, Lux had become a key brand sponsoring beauty and fashion contests by the 1990s. One thing has not changed however: The Lux campaign continues to be predicated on the aura of the female star and its one-time attempt to change this using Shahrukh Khan in a bathtub of petals was not very successful.FINANCE:The Groups financial strategy provides the financial flexibility to meet strategic and day-to-day needs. Our current long-term credit rating is A+/A1 and our current short-term credit rating is A1/P1. We aim to maintain a competitive balance sheet which we consider to be the equivalent of a credit rating of A+/A1. We believe this provides us with: appropriate access to equity and debt markets; sufficient flexibility for acquisitions; sufficient resilience against economic and financial uncertainty ensuring ample liquidity; and Optimal weighted average cost of capital, given the above constraints.Unilever aims to concentrate cash in the parent and central finance companies in order to ensure maximum flexibility in meeting changing business needs. Operating subsidiaries are financed through the mixture of retained earnings, third-party borrowings and loans from parent and central finance companies. Unilever maintains access to global debt markets through an infrastructure of short-term debt programmed (principally US domestic and euro commercial paper programmed) and long-term debt programmed (principally a US Shelf Registration programmer and a European markets Debt Issuance Programmed). Debt in the international markets is, in general, issued in the name of NV, PLC, Unilever Finance International BV or Unilever Capital Corporation. NV, PLC and Unilever United States Inc. will normally guarantee such debt where they are not the issuer.

Approximately 1.3 billion (or 59%) of the Unilever Groups cash and cash equivalents balances are held in foreign subsidiaries. We generally repatriate distributable reserves from our subsidiaries on a regular basis. In the majority of countries we are able to repatriate funds to Unilever N.V. and Unilever PLC through dividends free of tax. In a few countries we face cross-border foreign exchange controls and/or other legal restrictions that prevent balances being available in any means for general use by the parent companies or subsidiaries. In each of the last three years the amount of cash held in these countries was less than 250 million.

We closely monitored all our exposures and counter-party limits.Unilever has committed credit facilities in place for general corporate purposes. The undrawn bilateral committed credit facilities in place on 31 December 2013 were US $6,400 million. Further details are given in note 16A in thefinancial statements.On 11 February 2013 we redeemed a US $450 million four-year bond which was issued in 2009 at 3.125%. On 21 May 2013 we redeemed a 750 million five-year bond which was issued in 2008 at 4.875%. On 5 August 2013 we issued a seven-year 750 million bond at 1.75%. On 6 September 2013 we issued US $750 million 2.20% fixed rate notes due March 2019.

PRODUCTION:

Unilever is increasingly seeking their experience of handling a diverse and complex market like India to crack other markets, and it is assigning them roles that are more important in its present scheme of things.Managers of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) are on the move, literally and figuratively. There's a spike in the number of HUL managers who have moved out of India to join its parent's operations elsewhere: 40 in 2008, 140 in 2009 and 195 in 2010 (till April).

Faced with stagnancy in the US and Western Europe, Unilever, the world's third-largest food and consumer-goods Company, is looking at Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe (AAC) as its prime growth driver. In 2009, these markets accounted for 50% of Unilever's revenues of $39 billion.Unilever is looking to further increase this share, which is where its HUL managerial exports come in. The majority of HUL managers who have moved out of India in recent times have gone to Asia (Hindustan, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand , Vietnam), East Europe (Poland and Russia) and Africa (South Africa); some have gone to the regional headquarters in Singapore, or to West Europe.Says Leena Nair, executive director-HR of HUL: "Talent from HUL has always been valued for the diversity of experience that it brings from having worked in a big and complex market like India. This has only increased in the recent years with developing and emerging markets being among the highest growth markets for Unilever."The well-rounded external orientation of Indian managers, as compared to their peers from most other geographies, is being seen favorably at Unilever. In India, brand managers of, say, Lux soap deal with a consumer who changes from city to town to village, from state to state; further, they deal with a competition that is multinational, homegrown and local.Similarly, a factory manager, say, in Rohtak has to deal with multiple stakeholders such as local communities, the political system and the bureaucracy. This sharpens their exposure to complex situations early on.Unilever is looking to export some of these learnings to other markets, some of which demonstrate similar complexity as India. "Managers from other countries are also moving," says a senior HUL manager. "But more than any other geography, Indian managers are being sought by the parent for the biggest challenges."Among the more high-profile moves, DhavalBuch, previously executive director for supply chain in HUL, has become senior VP at Unilever Global. Sanjay Dube, formerly executive director-sales and customer development in HUL, is now chairman, Unilever, Poland and the Baltics.Unlike earlier, when such movement happened out of HUL at relatively senior levels only, it is now happening at every level. Says Ms Nair: "Presently, HUL managers outside India include a crosssection across all levels senior, middle and junior management." Unlike earlier , when it primarily happened to give international exposure to the executive, it is now happening with Unilever's business interests in the foreign country in mind.The change in mindset is partly the result of the 'one Unilever' plan initiated by its previous CEO Patrick Cescau. The plan, aimed at achieving greater cohesion among the multinational's geographies, calls for greater sharing of ideas and resources. So, for instance, Project Shakti one of HUL's Indian initiatives, which involves the company selling goods though village women is being transplanted in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Hindustan, and is also being considered for Latin American and African markets.Similarly, current Unilever CEO Paul Polman is encouraging other markets to replicate HUL's strategy of having an array of brands at various price points for example, in detergents , HUL offers Wheel, Rin, Surf and Surf Ultra. This lets consumers trade down or up, depending on their reading of the economy. In an interview to ET earlier this year, MrPolman said: "We are trying to do the same in other markets."Although London and Rotterdam remain Unilever's two main offices, Singapore is emerging as the third power centre, in what is a sign of AAC's growing importance. Unilever has about 800 employees in its Singapore office, including key regional decision-makers in functions like marketing, supply chain, finance and customer development. A new office is being constructed in Singapore to house all these teams.A large presence in Singapore has offered many Indian managers the opportunity to move into regional roles based out of Singapore. Several senior functional heads and their teams are located in Singapore, as also the category teams and brand-development teams. For example, in home and personal products, about one-third of Unilever's brand-development team draws up the global outline of a brand plan, which countries then localize are now in the developing world.Unilever posts job openings on its intranet, and managers in other geographies are free to apply. Even as HUL sees more of its Indian managers move to other geographies, the company doesn't see a transition issue. Says a senior HUL manager: "Replacements are decided eight quarters in advance for every role so that any change does not impact business continuity.RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT:Bangalore is the research and development centre for a number of our brands including Lux, Lifebuoy, Ponds, Fair & Lovely, Vim, Radiant, Omo, Brooke Bond, Lipton, Walls and Knorr. A number of breakthrough innovations, such as the Fair & Lovely cream and Pureit water purification system, were also driven from this laboratory.

FIG: 08MAIN ACTIVITIESIn skin care, we work on advanced formulations for lotions and creams that deliver photo-protection along with exceptional sensory experiences. Our programmed in tea looks at aroma, taste and nutrition benefits through understanding the bio-chemistry of the tea plant and tea processing to improve blends.Our research on naturals develops products with proven efficacy for the body and mind. In cleaning, for laundry and household care, we focus on areas such as minimizing water usage while not compromising on cleanliness. And an important aspect of our health and hygiene programmed is to translate hygiene benefits across our products for personal and home care and ensure that clean, safe drinking water can be provided to the masses.

PEOPLEAround 300 employees work at the site including 75 scientists (bio-scientists, chemical engineers, material scientists, physicists and chemists), 150 research associates and 50 support staff specializing in Microbiology, Human and Plant Biology, Materials Chemistry and Process Science. While we have internal expertise in many areas, we also collaborate extensively with leading international experts, research groups and academic institutions.

HISTORYUnilever set up its first India R&D facility in Mumbai in 1958 to carry out research on soaps, infant foods and perfumes. In 1997, the research efforts moved to Bangalore. Over the years, the team has been responsible for delivering innovations such as bar soaps, fortified salt and instant tea.

A MODEL OF SUSTAINABILITYThe research campus was built to complement and enhance its surroundings, retaining as much green cover across the site as possible and working in harmony with the rare local flora and fauna. There are also ongoing programmers to reduce its carbon footprint through energy saving measures and to improve water sustainability through recycling.

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM:The world is considerably very small because of globalization. The virtual closeness of the countries has made the trade and commerce an international event. Global businesses make every community more closely around the world. The discussion in this report shall involve the strategic role and analyze the information requirements of an organization operating in a competitive global environment, decision making at each of the managerial levels, the critical relationship between the Business strategies, Information System (IS) strategy and the Information Technology (IT) strategy in an organization and the latent ethical issues of information systems. In this case, the situation surrounding Unilever will be taken into consideration. The following annotations and propositions discussed in this discussion are supported by claims on journals, books and Unilever website.The modern technology is really helping those businesses where is using a Management Information System in the various level of managerial approach. The chosen company is Unilever to describe in this report how Unilever is benefitting using Management Information System in various level of the company.Recommended Information SystemsThe following cross-functional system concepts and how they can provide significant business value to Unilever will be discussed in this document:The operational level is for taking day to day decision. Transaction Processing System can help to take operation level decision like supermarket, Biometric device etc.The knowledge level of decision is takes for research, design and procurement. Knowledge Work System can help to take knowledge level decision.The tactical or managerial control level decision takes for 1 to 3 years, it is for resource allocation. Management Information System or Decision Support System can help to take the managerial level decision.The strategic level decision takes for 3 to 10 years, it is for long term. Executive Information System can help to take the strategic level decision.Strategic LevelComplex Mathematical Model: Unilever can use a Complex Mathematical Model for monitoring operations, costs, revenues, market shares, share prices etc. Unilever is categorized as fast moving consumer goods, quick acquisition, processing of market information. The information of market is usually collect from research companies, historical data and individual analysis.Enterprise Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Solution: In order to gain a clear view of business performance across Unilevers companies in around the world.Unilever Information Program: When transformation is taking place in the organization, information systems are inevitably involved. Currently Unilever is reshaping operational responsibilities for greater clarity between what is better done by the local company, at regional level or global organizations. The Unilever Information Program (UIP) is to develop an infrastructure to support the Path to Growth strategy, with the key priority of finding a quick data integration solution to allow user access to any number of data sources for in-depth analysis.Management LevelSupply Management Information System: Unilever can integrated a supply management information system which will helps local, regional and global supply managers make appropriate sourcing of decisions, allowing them to collate and analyze informations more quickly and easily. The system enables managers to negotiate with suppliers in a transparent and efficient way where benefiting both parties.Knowledge LevelProcurement System: The procurement is inevitability for future supply chain optimization the supply market, particularly in Europe is still suffering from under-development. The Procurement System can help total supply chain operation rather than just transactional activity. The Procurement System provides a catalyst for positive improvement in supply management profiles.Supply-Chain Management Systems: The using of a variety information system and several other supply chain management technologies, Unilever can enhance the usability of the supply chain.Research & Development System: Used for formula developmentOperational LevelSpecifications System: Specification System will help in packaging, formula, raw material, finished products and process specification.Manufacturing Planning System: Manufacturing Planning System can help in production orders, purchase orders, standard costs, inventory, financial transactions, and production reporting.Planning System: Planning system can help in Demand Planning (DP), Demand Requirement Planning (DRP), Constrained Product Planning (CPP), and Finite Scheduling.Order and Cash System: Order and Cash system can help in order entry management, terms of sale, deduction tracking, stock allocation and invoicing.Finished Goods Management System: Finished good management system can be used for shipping, warehouse, transportation, production and traceability.Ethical issues related in using Information System at UnileverA new technology introduces some new ethical dilemmas. Computer technology is used for gathering, storing, manipulating data and spread the processed data which is information. Information system uses local and global networks, databases, programs for processing information. Information is a key to prosperity and it is a source of power also. This is very important to think about ethical considerations, how information will be used in an information system because there is social and political issues involved. There are severe social problems exist today because government and business organizations have failed to uphold the highest ethics standard in Management Information System use. These problems exist in such forms as invasion of privacy and software piracy. The most widely publicized classification of human rights in the computer area is Richard O. Masons PAPA. The letters in PAPA stand for Privacy, Accuracy, Property and Accessibility. (McLeod and Schell, 2001)Privacy: The right of privacy is threatened by two forces. One is increasing ability is of the computer to be used for surveillance and other one is the increasing value of information in decision making. Decision maker sometime invade someones privacy to get the information. Unilever need to do market research in need to know what type of products customers really need or what they use. There is a ethical issue concerned because of Data Protection Act, UK 1998.Accuracy: The Management Information System is given credit for making possible a level of accuracy and which is not unachievable in manual system. Most of the time errors cost much greater.Property: There is some intellectual property like computer programs. The software or the systems Unilever using are they copyrighted, agreed to use from the vendors.Access: There are some information is available to the general public in the form of printed documents or microform of images stored in libraries which includes news stories, results of scientific experiments, government statistics and so on. Access right is required to access some other databases to get information. A right to access is a Modern-day ethical issue. EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF LUX

The Lux has conducted Marketing Research System for their external assessment through this they gathered external information and also find out or try to control the external impact at certain limit that it harms the organization.SWOT Analysis:SWOT analysis is done to know what the strength and weaknesses of the brand are and what are the opportunities and threats that company has to face from the environment.Strength: Brand image Number of verities Excellent marketing department Assisted by a highly regarded Marketing research unit Financial backing Large scale force Effective and attractive packaging The brand has innovative sale promotions tactics Unilever is a big multinational company. Lux has a very wide range of products to offer. Strong market research (Door to door sampling once in a year Rural and Urban areas Many variants (Almond oil, Orchid extracts, Milk cream, Fruit extracts, Saffron sandalwood oil and Honey)

Dynamically continuous innovations New variants and innovative promotions (22 carat gold coin promotion Chance Hai)

Strong brand promotion but relatively lower prices Winning combination. Lux soap brand is sold in over 100 countries.Weakness: Mainly positioned as beauty soap targeted towards women, lack unisex. Some variation like the sunscreen, international variant did not do well in the market. Not much popular in rural areas. Loss of market share to some of its own product as Rexona. Tall structure. Huge cost and expenses. Emphasizing only few products while ignoring others which could give them potential market share e.g beverages section. The wear rate of the soap is very high it gets mushy and soggy quickly. Some of its advertisements have been quite controversial. Opportunities: Soap industry is growing by 10% in India

Liquid body wash is currently in growth stage Lux should come out with more variants in this segment Large market share Strong hold over the market. High rate of population growth. People are becoming more conscious. Innovation in unilever may create opportunity to more penetrate in the market. Unilever Hindustan has opportunity to develop new markets by identifying the needs of customer. Products diversification would also help the brand greatly. Explore new markets. Threats: High internal competition (Pears Beauty segment) New entrants in this segment Maturity stage threat of slipping down to decline stage if constant reinvention is not carried out. Possible increase of market share of pears etc. Rising inflation. Reduces personal disposable of consumer. There may be imitation of products in India which may damage the goodwill of unilever Hindustan limited. Purchase the products of foreign companies Local companies.PEST ANALYSIS:Political & Legal Factors:As far as the Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited concerns according to them that political instability have do affect but not particularly Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited same as it affects any other organization around and specially they are in consumer products business which never make them out of business. In case of legal factors, any trade policy or import duties are not affecting particularly Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited. In Hindustan right now following liberalization policy under SAP by IMF made which they have to waive off all restrictions and moreover due to huge investment by Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited no government can afford to create hurdles in the way of an organization like Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited. And they dont have to go for only lobbying or what so ever as not action of Hindustan government has affected them adversely as such. Economic Factors:Economic factors affect Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited in the same way as it affect any other organization like current economic situation in Hindustan and inflation has reduced consumers disposable income too, which in turn has reduced the purchasing power of consumer but affect is same for every organization and according to them Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited have edge that they have targeted all possible segments through their vast product category i.e. the width and length too. So one way or other they find way to cover it up.In other economic factors like interest rates and inflation has affected the borrowing ability of organization but Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited stayed unaffected as a company having business in billions and when in need of financing no single bank can fulfill the need, they have to make a consortium to finance Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited and with very good credit standing and very low risk definitely they get the lowest or justified interest rate as well. Socio-Cultural Factors:In socio-cultural factors, factors like lifestyle changes and level of education affects an organization. In case of change in lifestyle, the world has converted into global town now and people have readily access to every sort of information and they are becoming more quality conscious. Now more concerned towards environmental issues now and demand more social responsibility on the part of organizations now. To cope up with all these factors now Lever Brothers Hindustan Limited which always maintained the quality standards needs to work towards other social factors like social responsibility and environmental concerns like P&G did in its Arial campaign and image of a society responsible organization. Technological Factors: In technological factors comes R&D first and foremost that how much an organization spending in terms of product improvement or development of new products or improvement in production process or in the raw material etc. and what is the trend in the industry as Hindustan is not that big and not very much innovation seeking as the other developed countries. Yet they keep on finding new ways of doing things and new things as well they continuously launched variants in brands etc. and moreover in the market like Hindustan in product categories of consumer products rates of obsolescence is not very high rather very slow so no great pressure to launch new products.PROPOSED STRATEGIES:Mainly four strategies I would use in the further analysis which are as follows: Concentric Diversification. Horizontal Diversification. Product Development. Forward Integration.CHOOSE STRATEGIES AND ANALYSIS:After done with whole process of internal and external assessment. Now we will move towards the selection of strategies which we studied in detail in our course upon which we now made matrixes for it as we studied that it can be measured.There are mainly three stages involved in it which are as follows:

The Input stage. The Matching stage. The Decision stage.THE INPUT STAGE:In this stage we analyzed the influences of the factors that how much they can bare the influences. It also has three stages which are as follows: The Internal factor evaluation matrix (IFE). The External factor evaluation matrix (EFE). Competitive profile matrix (CPM).THE INTERNAL FACTOR EVALUATION MATRIX (IFE):IFE Matrix provides strategy formulation tool summarizes and evaluates the major strengths and weakness in the functional areas of a business and it also provides a basis for identifying and evaluates relationship among those areas.THE EXTERNAL FACTOR EVALUATION MATRIX (EFE):An EFE Matrix allows strategies to summarizes and evaluate economic, social, cultural, demographics, environmental, political, government, legal, technological, and competitive information.COMPETITIVE PROFILE MATRIX (CPM):The CPM identifies a firms major competitor and its particular strengths and weakness in relation to a sample firms strategic position.THE MATCHING STAGE:In matching stage we had four matrixes which are as follows and this stage would be done when you are completed with the input stage. SWOT Matrix SPACE Matrix BCG Matrix G.E MatrixSWOT MATRIX:Proposed Strategies1. Concentric Diversification2. Horizontal Diversification3. Product Development4. Forward IntegrationStrength-S1. Brand Image2. Number of Products3. Excellent marketing dept. & marketing research unit 4. Financial Backing5. Experience Top ManagementWeaknesses-W1. Tall Organization Structure2. High Operating Expenses3. High Cost of Production4. Increasing Number of Small Competitors5. Unbranded Products6. Gets mushy and soggy quickly

Opportunities-O1. Hygiene Consciousness2. Increasing Population3. Innovation (R&D)4. Product Diversification5. Explore New MarketSO Strategies Introduce product for gents and kids.(S1,S3,S4,O3,O4)WO StrategiesIntroduce lux ShampooAnd lux face wash(W4,W5,O2,O3,O5)

Threat-T1. Rising inflation, decrease in purchasing power2. High taxation3. Distribution and retailer ship can create problems any time4. Possible negative publicity5. Competitors SoapST StrategiesThey must have their own distribution channel(S4,T3)WT StrategiesThey should improve the quality of their soap(W6,T5)

FIG: 09 Strategies in Action: Related Diversification. Horizontal Diversification. Forward Integration. Product Development.

SPACE MATRIX:The Strategic Position and Action Evaluation (SPACE) Matrix is another implementing stage 2 matching tool.Ranking: FS & IS (+1 worst TO+ 6 best) , ES & CA (-1 best TO -6 worst).

Internal Strategic Position External Strategic Position

Financial strength (FS)Environmental Stability (ES)

ROI (35% ) +2 Leverage (1414537) +2Cash flow ( 137005) +4 Earnings per share (116.14) +4Total 12 Average 3Technological changes -1.5Rate of inflation -2.0Competitive pressure -3.5Barrier to entry into market -3.0Total -10Average -2.5

Competitive Advantage(CA)Industry Strengths(IS)

Market share -4 Product Quality -3 Customer Loyalty -3 Technology know-how -2 Total 12 Average -3Growth potential +3Profit Potential +4Resource utilization +4Financial stability +4 Total 15Average +3.75

TABLE: 01

X-axis: -3+ 3.75 = +0.75 Y-axis: 3+ (-2.5) = +0.5

FIG: 101. Product Development2. Concentric Diversification3. Horizontal Diversification4. Forward Integration

PROPOSED STRATEGIES FOR SPACE MATRIX:1. Product Development2. Concentric Diversification3. Horizontal Diversification4. Forward Integration

BCG MATRIX (BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP):The Boston consulting group a leading management consulting firm develops and popularized the growth share matrix as shown in figure FIG: 11BCG Matrix

LUX

FIG: 12 Proposed Strategies for BCG: As the growth is declining in the existing market so the company can go for Concentric diversification and make soap for gents and kids as well through which they can increase their growth and can generate more revenues, The company can also go for Horizontal Diversification i.e. they can produce shampoo in order to earn more amount.

G.E MATRIX (GENERAL ELECTRIC):In this model we have three conditions on the bases of which we decided that what position you are standing. The conditions are as follows: Green Zone Yellow Zone Red Zone Green ZoneConsists of the three cells in the upper left corner. If your enterprise falls in this zone you are in a favorable position with relatively attractive growth opportunities. This indicates a "green light" toinvest in this product/service.Yellow ZoneConsists of the three diagonal cells from the lower left to the upper right. A position inthe yellow zone is viewed as having medium attractiveness. Management must therefore exercise caution when making additional investments in this product/service. The suggested strategy is toseek to maintain share rather than growing or reducing share.Red Zone

Consists of the three cells in the lower right corner. A position in the red zone is notattractive. The suggested strategy is that management should begin tomake plans to exit the industry.

GENERAL ELECTRIC MODLE

BUSINESS UNIT STRENGTHRATE LUX

Sale6 5

margin profit55

primary demand64

brand image54

quality44

product innovation54

market share65

TOTAL 3731

MARKET ATTRACTIVNESS

competition44

historical profit margin 44

environmental situation42

economic situation55

customer specification35

size of market44

profit margin54

impact of technology65

environmental impact 46

market share 45

management profile44

R&D54

quality of service54

branding & promotion65

TOTAL6361

TABLE: 02

Business unit strength of LUX= 94%Market Attractiveness of LUX=92%So after the calculation of SBU & Market Attractiveness of LUX we concluded that according to the GE model LUX lies in the Green zone of GE model. GE MATRIX FOR LUX:Industry Attractiveness Business Unit Strength

Strong Average Weak

High Grow Grow Hold

Medium Grow Hold Harvest

Low Hold Harvest Harvest

FIG: 13THE DECISION STAGE:QSPM:QSPM (Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix).The QSPM is a tool that allows strategists to evaluate alternative strategies objectively, based on previously identified external and critical success factors. Like other strategy-formulation analytical tools, the QSPM requires good intuitive judgment.QSPM Matrix for LUX:

Strategic Alternatives

Key Factors:WeightFix Product DevCon. DivForward Integ.Horizontal Div

EXTERNAL FACTORS

1Develop the product quality54313

2Should have Own distribution channels54354

3An increase in products for kids53422

4The local companies54334

5Rising inflation, this reduces disposable income of consumers53333

6Gents are also brand and skin conscious53313

7Rural area market to expand 54313

INTERNAL FACTOR

1Consumer loyalty54444

2Market share is 64%54224

3Strong financial position54344

4Good promotion strategies54313

5Only focus female, should introduce products for gents and kids54211

6Gets mushy and soggy quickly55221

6550382940

FIG:14Plan APlan B

Decision on the basis of QSPM:From the analysis we conclude that the company should choose Product development as Plan A and if any problem lies in implementation, they can go for Horizontal Diversification Plan B.

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