unilever strategic marketing final project

[STRATEGIC MARKETING]UNILEVER PROJECT REPORT

A PROJECT OF STRATEGIC MARKETING ON

“UNILEVER PAKISTAN INC.”

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PRESENTED TO:

SIR ABDUL QAYYUM QURESHI

PRESENTED BY:

Mr Muhammad Tayyab 111405

Mr Bilal Ahmad 103145

Mr Farooq Haider 103119

Mr Muhammd Irfan 103125

Mr Shahid Aziz 111125

Contents2


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.........................................................................................5

PREFACE..............................................................................................................5

Introduction:.......................................................................................................7

History.................................................................................................................8

Merger With Brooke Bond...............................................................................9

Acquisition........................................................................................................9

Product Mix......................................................................................................9

Surf Excel..........................................................................................................10

Fair & Lovely Skin Cream and Lotion..........................................................11

Blue Band.........................................................................................................11

Pearl Dust.........................................................................................................12

Taaza.................................................................................................................12

Vision Of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited.....................................................13

Mission...........................................................................................................13

Organization Philosophy....................................................................................14

People............................................................................................................14

Customers......................................................................................................14

Suppliers.........................................................................................................14

Integrity..........................................................................................................14

Environment responsibility............................................................................14

Profit...............................................................................................................15

Organization Key Value..................................................................................15

Critical Success Factor....................................................................................15

Concern For Different Stakeholders...............................................................15

Form And Sources Of Competitive Advantages..............................................15

Objectives of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited...............................................16

These main targets and objectives are:..........................................................17

Strategic Management At Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited..............................18

Corporate Level Strategy................................................................................183


Business Level Strategy..................................................................................19

Operational Level Strategy.............................................................................20

Organizational Structure and Management:.....................................................20

Five Porter forces, which determines an organization’s structure:...................22

Threat of New Entrants..................................................................................23

Threat Of Substitutes.....................................................................................23

Buyer Power...................................................................................................23

Supplier Power...............................................................................................23

Competitive Rivalry........................................................................................23

Market Segmentation........................................................................................24

Target Market....................................................................................................24

Product Positioning:..........................................................................................24

Marketing Tools.................................................................................................24

Product...........................................................................................................24

Price...............................................................................................................25

Place...............................................................................................................25

Promotion......................................................................................................26

Manufacturing Globally.....................................................................................26

Major Selling Products and their market share.................................................27

Global Competition...........................................................................................27

Sales Revenue & Value of Stocks.......................................................................28

Value of Stocks:..............................................................................................28

SWOT ANALYSIS................................................................................................28

STRENGTH......................................................................................................29

WEAKNESSES..................................................................................................29

OPPORTUNITIES.............................................................................................29

THREATS.........................................................................................................30

Conclusion and Recommendation.....................................................................30

Reference.......................................................................................................304


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to pay our praises and humblest thanks to AL-MIGHTY

ALLAH, the most Merciful and Beneficiate of all, who bestowed us with the

ability to complete this project. It gives us immense pleasure and honor to

extend our thanks to our kind & cooperative. Sir Abdul Qayyum Qureshi from

Faculty of Institute of Management Sciences, Lahore for his valuable advices

and suggestions throughout our semester, in order to perform well & up to

mark..

Finally, we pay regards of gratitude to our parents, as they and their prayers for

Our success are always been a pillar of strength for us in our life.

PREFACEQuality without creativity is meaningless. As changes grow ever more

unpredictable creativity is rapidly becoming recognized a core management

skill.

Today’s business environment demands that manager’s posses a wide range of

knowledge skills and competencies, as well as sound understanding of

management process and function. Managers need to be able to make best use

of their time, talent and of other people to work with and through others to

achieve corporate objectives. They also need to demonstrate their ability not

merely to solve problems, but to transform them and design ways through them.

This report concerns needs and changing needs and their satisfaction level,

which are the important function in every organization.

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Introduction:Unilever is one of the world’s largest and leading multinational companies; Unilever

commenced their business activities on a larger scale by setting up their first factory in

Netherlands, in the year of 1890. Operating in Pakistan for over the last four decades the

company is trying to significantly contribute towards the augmentation of the standard of

living by bringing world class high quality products at the door step of their customers. The

usage of Unilever products by over 90% of the people in Pakistan stands a testimony to their

successful operation. . Their array of products show that they produce household care, fabric

cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, oral care, hair care, personal grooming, and tea based

beverage products under worldwide famous brand names Wheel, LUX, Lifebuoy, Fair &

Lovely, Pond's, Close Up, Sunsilk, Lipton, Lipton Taaza, Pepsodent, All Clear, Vim, Surf

Excel, and Rexona.

History

Lever Brothers Pakistan

Limited is a multinational

organization. Unilever PLC

London is its parent

company. Unilever is a

European based company

with headquarters in London,

and their shares are quoted at

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the stock exchange of several European countries. They deal in all kinds of products from

animal foodstuff to foods and detergents plus other personal and consumer products. Unilever

has its subsidiaries in over 80 countries of the world, to which it spreads its vast knowledge

and resources.

William Lever (its originator) commences business in England as a grocer. He established

Lever Brothers in 1827 in England Sunlight was the first product of Lever Brothers, which

makes the beginning of the marketing of branded products at the same time Margarine Uni

was established in Nether Land by Simon Van Berg and Anton Jurgens. These two

companies in term of:

Buying raw material

Selling finished goods

Consequently both the companies loosing out money in term of profit. These problems led to

think of the mergers in 1930. These two companies merged together and renamed the

business as Unilever PLC / the word UNI is taken from margarine Uni and Lever is taken

from Lever Brothers. Its head quarter was established in England and Rotter Dam.

Unilever has 500 operating companies in 80 countries. It has 0.3 million employees and

turnover of sales in 23000 million pounds. The global business proportion is 60% in Europe

20% in North America and 20% in rest of the world. An identified board of directors control

the activities of subsidiary companies throughout the world. Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

started its operations in 1948. A merger of Sadiq Vegetable Oils and Allied Industries existed

in Rahim Yar Khan was taken place with Lever Brothers and HVM company based at

Karachi. As a result of merger Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited was incorporated as an

independent Unilever operating company in 1955. The company is quoted on the Karachi,

Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges. Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited has around 1900

employees in Pakistan.

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited played a dynamic role in boosting consumer products

market. It stand at a unique position due to its honesty and integrity. Lever Brothers Pakistan

Limited’s main divisions of business are:

Merger With Brooke Bond

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Brooke Bond Pakistan Limited was incorporated in 1948. Company’s 40% shares are held by

Unilever, 21% by financial institutions, 24% by individuals, and 10% by insurance

companies. The company is quoted on Karachi and Lahore Stock Exchange market. The

company is manually engaged in the blending, packaging and marketing of tea. It also has a

small business in the sale of packing apices. And has three manufacturing locations situated

in Karachi and Khanewal. It also have three regional sales offices. The head office of the

company is located in Karachi.

After the amalgamation of Lever and Brooke Bond, Unilever will have a majority

shareholding in the combined company and it will provide a comparable level of technical,

management and financial resources. The proposed merger will benefit the consumer in term

of price and quality.

Acquisition

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited acquire the shares of Pakistan Industrial Promoters Limited,

Mehran International Limited and Ambrosia International Limited, which is known as Polka

Group of Ice Cream Companies.

Product Mix

At present Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited is engaged in marketing of diversified varieties

and classes of products and playing a dynamic role in boosting consumer product market. It

stand at a unique position due to its honesty and integrity. Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

has both product length and depth i.e. it has by length a largest of product lines available and

under each product line there are lots of variants like different weights, 100mg, 500mg,

1000mg, sache pack, family pack or in case of ice creams different brands have lots of flavor

available which determines its product depth. So different no of product lines are called

product length and no of products in each product line are called depth of product line. Lever

Brothers Pakistan Limited’s main product groups are listed below:

Home And Personal Care

Personal Wash (PW)

Toilet Soaps

Lifebuoy (Carbolic Soap)

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Lifebuoy Plus

Lifebuoy Gold

Lux (in 4 varieties)

Rexona (in 2 varieties)

Liril

Hamman

Fair & Lovely Soap

Fabrics And Home Care

Fabric Wash

Surf Excel

Power Surf

Sunlight Washing Powder

Soap Wheel

Home Care

Vim Dish Washer / Scourers

Vim NSD Bard (in 2 varieties)

Vim Powder Poly Bag

Personal Product

Hair Care

Sunsilk Shampoo (in 7 varieties)

Harmony Soap

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Lifebuoy Shampoo

Skin Care

Fair & Lovely Skin Cream and Lotion

Dental Care

Close-up Tooth Paste

Pepsodent

Oil And Dairy Based Foods

Banaspati

Dalda

Cooking Oil

Dalda Cooking Oil(Soya Bean)

Dalda Sunflower Oil

Planta

Margarine

Blue Band

Industrial Fats

A whole range of product for bakery and oils for the industry.

Beverages

Leaf Teas

Yellow Label

Yellow Label – Danedar

Richbru

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Top Star

Taaza Leaf

Supreme

Brooke Bond

Dust Teas

Pearl Dust

Ruby Dust

Laojee

Mixture Tea

Taaza

Ice Cream

Cornetto (in 3 varieties)

Feast (in2 varieties)

Feast Stickless

Top Ten

Star Cup (in 4 varieties)

Sundae ( 2 variant)

Chocu Bar

Minimill

Sola

Jet Spot

Ice Lolly

Wall’s Kulfi12


Panda

Pop Corn

g Three

Vision Of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

The vision of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited is driven by is the commitment to excel and

we are here to sell aspiration not brand. So, the core vision is integrating and that is to excel

in every field whatever Lever Brothers do to provide customer delight and value. The Lever

Brothers have been able to follow the track set by their vision and to achieve the standards set

by their customers.

Mission

“We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help

people feel good, look good and get more out of life”.

"Lever brothers will be the foremost consumer product company in Pakistan with care, skin,

ice cream and spread. Already positioned in tea, hair, dental and household care, substantially

profitable position in cooking oils and fats our strengths come from our people and from

combining the best of our international as well as Pakistan origin. Our commitment is to

continuously care for the need of our customers, consumers, employees, suppliers, share

holders and the community in which we live."

As one of Unilever's leading brands, it has always been Wall's mission to add vitality to your

life - while being responsible about good nutrition

Organization Philosophy

People

Peoples are key to strengths of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited. The development of their

potential is core to Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited business.

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So they provide extensive attention to developing human resources.

Customers

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited is the customers focus organization. They do delight

customers with their products and service. Their brands always deliver the high quality as

they premise. Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited pays extra attention to the complaints of

consumers. e.g. if the consumer complaints that detergent harmed any cloth or skin they send

the sample for lab test a team analyzes that customer complaint is right or not and then they

send the detailed response to customer along with gift of their products. With a questionnaire

for suggestion for further improvement on the top of which is written “WE CARE ABOUT

YOU”.

Suppliers

Suppliers are considered the partners of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited and Lever Brothers

Pakistan Limited maintain mutually beneficial relationship with them.

Integrity

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited never compromise on integrity management adhere to high

standards in all they do.

Environment responsibility

Management adhere to all national and Unilever standards to ensure health, safety and

protection of the environment in which they live and work.

Profit

It is considered to be the ultimate measure of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited’s performance

and it is required to maintain and grow their business.

Organization Key Value

It defines that what do they want. They people of organization to be good at or how do they

want them to behave and this very clearly stated in mission statement as always stay

responsive to change, go for innovation, employee commitment to organizational objectives

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and mission and creating value for customers. So, if we check the mission statement through

this aspect then we can easily state that they have clearly stated what should be the

organizational key values and how to reinforce them.

Critical Success Factor

The central issue of this factor is that what do they have to be good at to succeed in this

market or industry. The mission statement outlines this as “adopting a broad view of our

market, by seeking the new opportunities in the core categories and by staying closer to all

consumers than competitors and understanding their evolving needs and focusing on constant

delivery of superior value for our brands through innovation”.

So far them critical success factor is consumer connectivity and commitment to excel and to

provide superior value to customers and products of superior quality and value.

Concern For Different Stakeholders

Mission statement describes that what are the obligations to different stakeholders i.e.

stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers and community at large. Lever Brothers

Pakistan Limited’s mission statement contains concerns about all stakeholders. First be

foremost consumers and then other stakeholders and describes it as: “Through its

commitment to high level of core and safety for its employees, its consumers and

environment. Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited will be exemplary and will participate in the

dissemination of such practices in Pakistan”.

Form And Sources Of Competitive Advantages

Mission statement of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited completely describes the form and

sources of competitive advantage as:

“Competitive advantage will be developed by driving down relentlessly on relative cost

positions and outpacing competitor’s in operational efficiency improvements and through

building strong network of distributors and by developing a strategically focused organization

and by motivating its personnel to use its full potential of creativity and commitment and by

maintaining the higher standards of operational control”.

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They are going for unique combination of cost reduction and superior value to customers so

they entirely provide the form and source of competitive advantage that what they wanted to

achieve and how they will achieve it.

Objectives of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

1. Their 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.

2. Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited has an objective to have a responsive supply chain

and technological based processes.

3. 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 wan 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.

4. 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.

5. To have a partnership with their suppliers to enable them to provide high quality

low cost material.

6. Have entered and will be aggressively developing new markets.

7. Be exciting to their customers with stream of innovative products.

8. To be no in all their existing markets.

These main targets and objectives are:

1. Profits

2. Consumerism

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3. Welfare of consumer

The first objective of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited is to earn maximum profit but keeping

in view the customer demands as well company deals in those products which are profitable.

If there are any indication that any item is not good from profit point of view, it will try to

find out the reasons. Will soon what steps should be taken to overcome these reasons.

Company will introduce different marketing strategies if there are problems in marketing.

Here I would like to code two very famous examples, 1st of Sunlight soap and Sunlight

washing powder of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited.

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited initially developed a sense of consumer to use washing

powder other than washing soap, consumer switched s a result towards Sunlight washing

powder, i.e. popular segment of washing powder and than the market share for Sunlight soap

declined with passage of time, now the consumer who realized the convenience of washing

powder started using it, but at the same time, as a result marketing strategy of Lever Brothers

Pakistan Limited awareness of people, people switched to surf and wheel i.e. premium

segment detergents. Finally due to the decrease in the market shares and sales volume of

Sunlight soap and was light powder Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited management finally

decided to stop the production of this very product i.e. it is now obsolete.

Second example is related to the change of brand name of Surf to Surf Excel. The reason

behind was introduction of competitor’s brands like Arial by P&G which had brightness

features, which caused the people to switch from Surf to Arial, Lever Brothers Pakistan

Limited realized the fact due to disturbance in sale volume of Surf and introduced new brand

name “Surf Excel” with extra brightness power.

Company also takes into consideration the welfare of the consumer. It takes into mind the

taste and habits of the customer. They pay much attention on the customers’ complaints. It

also works for the welfare and interest of Pakistan, as it is an environment friendly

organization.

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Strategic Management At Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

Now we will proceed with strategies being pursued by the Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited at

different organizational level. First we will discuss the corporate level strategy.

Corporate Level Strategy

At corporate Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited is pursuing the strategy of vertical

diversification i.e. driving away from the previously adopted strategy of vertical integration

i.e. now they don’t want to perform more than one step of the processes involved in

converting raw materials into a product delivered and ready for consumption. Lever Brothers

Pakistan Limited’s operations are so complexed and involves 200 brands in Pakistan so now

they wanted to reduce the operational complexity and going for strategic alliances with their

suppliers, instead of producing themselves and going into complex operations now they want

their suppliers to produce for them.

The outsourcing the production so that they don’t have to invest heavily in the production and

to reduce the capacity problems, they now going for the third party contracting to produce

themselves and now they want them to be restricted to marketing and distribution of

products.

Diversification strategy is being pursued by the Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited but they

mainly go for related diversification as against unrelated diversification for conglomerates,

they are diversified into number of businesses as mentioned earlier but they are all related to

consumer products. Through vertical diversification they will be able to eliminate the

operational complexity and costs of buying and selling i.e. the transactional costs. Now they

mainly wanted to step away from operations and want to focus more on customers.

As means of diversification which are being utilized by the Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

as all the time, been acquisition, neither joint ventures i.e. strategic alliances nor the internal

development. Here we can take the example of the acquisition of Brooke Bond and Polka for

example which have Brother acquired through a hostile takeover. And to step away from

operational complexities now they go for subcontracting with the suppliers and want them to

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produce for Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited as in case of oil and ghee and soap and with the

passage of time will also be implemented in other categories as well.

Business Level Strategy

At business level Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited is adopting a very unique and interesting

set of strategies. First and foremost strategy they want to follow is the cost leadership. They

wanted to control cost as much as possible and want to reduce cost by every mean.

First cost efficiency is achieved through outsourcing operations and stop producing

themselves and go for cost efficient subcontracting.

Second they want to achieve cost efficiency through responsive and cost efficient supply

chain, want to be in touch with suppliers all the time and for that they have connected

themselves with the suppliers and to their suppliers as well to minimize cost related to

forecasting now they want better forecasting through computer networks so to get the real

time information about the inventory, stock, demand and supply. They are now reducing the

inventory as well as average carrying the inventory of only 3 days and getting closer to the

concept of just in time except for those products for which they have to brought in raw

materials from far flung areas like tea and moreover routings of logistics as well like air

routing or ship routing to curtail the costs other than cost efficiency, they have adopted the

strategy of consumer connectivity i.e. want to stay closer to consumers rather to operations

and want to focus all alternations to consumers through more research and customer profiles

and demographics and wants to explore new customers and usage of products.

To get customer connectivity they do the market research to check the trends of their

customers. The do pre-launch, post-launch research, e.g. their did before and after lunching

while antidandruff Sunsilk. The response was quite encouraging. Hence basically customer

and market research and customer feedback, free samples distribution before and after

launching new product / brand/ variant is aiming their basic strategy to implement and

achieve the customer connectivity and to fulfill their customer demand.

Here Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited has used the strategy of product development i.e. by

modifying and improving their Sunsilk it into Sunsilk antidandruff (white), they have

increased their sales. They are applying “Market and Development Strategy” as well in which

by introducing present product (Sunsilk) into a new demographic area i.e. dandruff conscious

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market segment with the launch of only new variant i.e. Sunsilk antidandruff white. They

have added conditioner in it as initially the conditioner was missing in all shampoos of

Sunsilk. While it is available in competing brands of P&G.

Other than these two strategies another very important strategy is being followed by tge

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited i.e. focusing on core brands or want to have a very focused

on brand portfolio in which they wanted to get rid of the slow moving brands like in Surf

you will get number of further variants like Surf Ultra, Surf Micro, Power Surf etc. and in

Sunsilk number of variants, Black, Green, Pink, etc. to name a few and how they have

curtailed all these slow moving brands like focusing attention to Surf Excel only and in case

of Sunsilk Black and White (antidandruff) and discarding slow moving items like Sunsilk

Pink and Green etc.

So, to avoid cannibalization effect now instead of number of brands to flood in the market

only few better and improved brands, cash generating and more focused towards customers.

Operational Level Strategy

At operational level, Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited has always adopted the strategy of

TQM only never went for CPR i.e. they have not come up with a new brand in last few years.

Only the improvements or new variants in existing brands or using the same old brand name

to introduce a new product like Lifebuoy Shampoo or Fair & Lovely Soap. So it can easily be

said that they believe more in adopting changes rather generative ones or go for single loop

learning only because according to them its very very expensive to introduce a new brand

name.

Organizational Structure and Management:

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited restructure the organization after the merger with Brooke

Bond Pakistan Limited. The chairman is the executive officer of Lever Brothers Pakistan

Limited. He leads the seven members management committee, which is the top of decision

making. The management is responsible for corporate strategy of Lever Brothers Pakistan

Limited and for initiating policies and overall planning as well as their general management

duties. Management committee members are each responsible for specific function.

Reporting to the management committee members are departmental heads who are

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responsible for advising the management committee for planning and implementation of

policies for ensuring that targets are reached. The committee includes:

Mr. Lain Strachan Sangster (Chairman & Chief Executive)

Mr. Mashkoor Alam (Vice Chairman)

Mr. Mujib-ur-Rehman (Technical & Logistics Director)

Mr. Perwaiz Hassan Khan (Director Personnel)

Mr. J. A. Lee (Director Sales)

Mr. A. D. Bandaranayake (Director Commercial)

Mr. N. I. Khockhar (Business Unit manager ODF)

Mr. Clive David Welland (Director Food Business)

Board Of Directors

The board of directors control the whole operation of the organization it includes the

following personalities:

Mr. Lain Strachan Sangster

Mr. Syed Babar Ali

Mr. Fateh Ali W. Vellani

Mr. Mujib-ur-Rehman

Mr. Perwaiz Hassan Khan

Mr. J. A. Lee

Mr. Clive David Welland

Mr. Dr. A. D. Bandaranayake

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Mr. S. N. Patel

Mr. M. Asadullah Sheikh

Mr. Abdul GhaniBachani

Mr. Azim Azmat Osman

As we can notice that the management of the company is composed of a mix of international

and Pakistanis business professionalists. The management of the company includes Syed

Babar Ali as director, who is also involved in many other organizations i.e. Packages and

other industries. It includes in its board meetings one member from each province i.e. Punjab,

Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistan. The top management of the company is fully professional

specially marketing department which is headed by Mr. Jeff Lee who have world wide

experience in this field.

Hierarchy

Branch structure

All over Pakistan 6 branches of Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited are working. Its head office

is located in Karachi at Avari Towers. The chairman and management committee as well as

the most of the department heads have their offices there.

Five Porter forces, which determines an organization’s structure:

1. Threat of new entrants

2. Threat of substitutes

3. Buyer power

4. Supplier power

5. Competitive rivalry.

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Threat of New Entrants

This potential threat always exist in every organization. But an organization like Lever

Brothers Pakistan Limited this threat is very minimum because you need a giant to compete

with another giant like Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited and in a relatively small market like

Pakistan, they are enjoying the highest market shares in most of their product categories like

ghee, oil, soaps, spread, fabric care, etc. so, they face no threat of any new entrant.

Threat Of Substitutes

Same as in the case of new entrant no as such threat they are facing.

Buyer Power

To determine buyer power one condition is always necessary i.e. the buyers are few so they

exert power over an organization. But this condition is not present in case of Lever Brothers

Pakistan Limited, they have very diversified product categories and within each category they

have brands targeted at almost each and every segment of the market so they don’t face the

buyers power as such but still “customer is king” and they do have to pay a lot of attention to

buyers being a consumer product company.

Supplier Power

Suppliers don’t exert any power over Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited rather Lever Brothers

Pakistan Limited provides buyer’s power in this case, no body would like to loose a buyer

like Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited so, they don’t face any significant supplier power.

Competitive Rivalry

Competition is intense but not cut throat competition and all of them avoid frontal assault or

direct attack. So, situation of healthy competition exist. Competitive rivalry would be

discussed more in detail in the section “competitor analysis”.

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Market SegmentationUnilever Pakistan Ltd. segments their market according to geographical areas. The population of the country is segmented into three parts which are urban, sub urban and rural area consumers.

• Urban Richz

• Urban and Sub Urban Middle Class

• Rural Poor

Target MarketA research carried out by Unilever Pakistan reveals that urban rich people are more likely to

buy imported and expensive products. Moreover rural poor people tend to buy cheap products

even without evaluating its quality. However urban and sub urban upper middle and middle

class people tend to buy affordable and quality products.

Product Positioning:

Unilever Pakistan Ltd obtained a good position in the buyers’ mind through better product

attributes, price and quality, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do.

The company offers improved quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with

high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyers’ mind as the best

quality detergent.

Marketing Tools

Product

Though manufactured in Pakistan for the local market by Unilever Pakistan Ltd, as an

international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. Formula given by

Research and Development departments in foreign countries

SURF EXCEL

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Advance

Tropical

Small & mighty

Automatic

Blue detergent

Quick wash

Price

Though Unilever Pakistan gives its Surf Excel customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it

cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the detergent industry.

Detergent is a product with a vulnerable demand in Pakistan. 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. Company carries out research on competitors’ price

and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessaity of chaging price. The brand loyalty test is

an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU).

2kg 1kg 500g 100g 60g 25g

Rs405 Rs210 Rs115 Rs20 Rs10 Rs05

Place

Unilever Pakistan Ltd. has a huge distribution channel for Surf Excel all over the country as

its sales reach more than 10 million bags/pieces a year. The company has six huge

warehouses, one in each division of Pakistan.

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 Pakistan Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over

Pakistan to a huge number of retailers. Even though Surf Excel targets the urban and sub

urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over

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Pakistan because of a recent increase in demand of its product to all segments of the

population.

Promotion

Unilever Pakistan undertakes huge promotional activities to promote Surf Excel which has

topped the detergent industry of Pakistan. It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds

from Sales (NPC) of Surf Excel for promotional activities for Surf Excel.

Unilever Pakistan Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting Surf Excel 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 different Contests. Till now promotional activities of Surf Excel 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.

Surf Excel has been widely advertised in Pakistan ever since the brand was introduced. Surf

Excel remains the leading detergent brand in Pakistan, representing the clean and stylish class

of Pakistan. Things started with a TV show called Lux Style Ki Duniya where Surf Excel is

also promoted but at a low rate.

Manufacturing GloballyUnilever now owns more than 400 brands, many of them local that can only be found in

certain countries. Unilever markets its products to 150 countries. Unilever has a portfolio of

brands that are popular across the globe - as well as regional products and local varieties of

famous-name goods. This diversity comes from two of their key strengths:

Strong roots in local markets and first-hand knowledge of the local culture.

World-class business expertise applied internationally to serve consumers

everywhere.

The brands fall almost entirely into three categories:

Food & Beverages,

Home

Personal Care

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Major Selling Products and their market shareOne of the largest consumer goods firms in the world, Unilever produces numerous brand

name foods, personal care items, and home care products.

About 54 percent of revenues are generated in the foods sector, which includes such brands

as Knorr soup mixes, bouillons, and seasonings; Amora, Calvé, Hellmann's, and Wish-Bone

dressings; Bertolli olive oil and other Italian foodstuffs; Rama, Blue Band, and Country

Crock margarines; Becel and Flora heart-healthy foods; Heartbrand, Ben & Jerry's, and

Breyers ice cream; Lipton tea; and Slim-Fast weight-management products.

Approximately 28 percent of sales come from the personal care area. Brands include the Lux

female beauty line, Dove and Lifebuoy soap, Pond's skin care products, Rexona deodorants,

Suave and Sunsilk hair care items, Signal and Close Up oral care products, and the Axe male

grooming line, as well as such miscellaneous brands as Q-Tips and Vaseline

Unilever's third major sector is that of home care products, which is responsible for about 18

percent of turnover; brands include Omo, Skip, Wisk, Surf, and All laundry detergents,

Comfort and Snuggle fabric conditioners and softeners, Sunlight dish detergents, and Cif and

Domestos household cleaners. Unilever maintains more than 300 production facilities around

the world and has operations in more than 100 countries. About 34 percent of revenues

originate in Western Europe, 22 percent in North America, 18 percent in the Asia-Pacific

region, 13 percent in Latin America, 9 percent in Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey, and 4

percent in central Europe/Russia.

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Global CompetitionTop Unilever Competitors:

Company Location

Proctor & Gamble Cincinnati,OH

Kraft Foods Northfield, IL

Nestle Vevey, Switzerland

Sales Revenue & Value of Stocks

Unilever’s mission is to add vitality to life. It is estimated that people around the world in 150

countries uses Unilever products 150 times a day. The 2006 sales revenue was 39.6 billion

pounds. Which came from the Americas 13.8 billion (36%), from Europe 15.0 (38%) billion

and from Asia/Africa 10.9 billion pounds (27%). Unilever has approximately 206,000

employees working all over the world.

By 2010, Unilever plans to improve its financial standard by:

Ungearearing free cash flow in the period 2005-2010 of €25-30 billion

improvement in Return on Invested Capital

Underlying sales growth of 3-5% p.a.

Operating margin of over 15% by 2010 after normal restructuring

Improving capital and tax efficiency

Value of Stocks:

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Unilever PLC ordinary shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and as American

Depositary Receipts in New York. Each ADR represents 1 underlying ordinary PLC share.

There are 1 714 727 700 NV ordinary shares in issue, each with a nominal value of €0.16.

There are 1 310 156 361 PLC ordinary shares in issue, each with a nominal value of 31/9

pence. The equalization agreement between NV and PLC is such that each NV ordinary share

has the same rights and benefits as each PLC ordinary share (Unilever NV ordinary shares

are listed on the stock exchanges in Amsterdam and as New York shares on the New York

Stock Exchange).

SWOT ANALYSISSWOT 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

Unilever is a big multinational company.

Sound and experienced management.

Excellent marketing department assisted by a highly regarded marketing research

unit.

R&D and financial support from parent company i.e. lever brothers.

Management of product is familiar with the psychographics and demographic of the

consumers.

Strong brand image and brand awareness.

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Market leader as it has a 43% share.

Large sales force.

Strong and healthy relationships with distributors and retailers.

WEAKNESSES

Low market share in N.W.F.P.

Loss of market share to some of its own products, i.e. Rexona against LUX.

OPPORTUNITIES

High rate of population growth.

Rising literacy.

Market opportunity to penetrate in the new segments and market by the style and

hygiene consciousness of the people.

THREATS

Possible increase of market share of P&G and Nestle

Rising inflation, which reduces personal disposable income of consumers?

Profit margin is exposed to rupee devaluation.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Unilever Pakistan take best part in social activities for welfare programme

They are market leader to give more value to their customers

Their strong positioning strategy to attract more customers in the FMCG market

In emerging market they have more customers then competitor.

They take training program about awareness of brand and also activities in urban and

rural areas to promote product.

They take spot sale in rural as promotion sales.

They have market opportunities to penetrate in the new segments and market by the

style and hygiene.

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Reference

www.unileverpakistan.comwww.unilever.comwww.slideshare.comwww.google.comwww.vickipedia.com/uniliverwww.financialanalysis.com/uniliver

Thank you!

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http://www.financialanalysis.com/uniliver

http://www.vickipedia.com/uniliver

http://www.google.com/

http://www.slideshare.com/

http://www.unilever.com/

http://www.unileverpakistan.com/