Executive Summary
Unilever is one company that has established its operations in various countries and has an ambitious plan for growing its business sustainably with a sense of social purpose and providing efficiency and innovation in its growth strategies. With having operations in various countries, the company gets the advantage of various regional markets and has deeply rooted its business in various cities. The company’s strength is its strong brand portfolio and global recognition that is supported with strong management skills and a strong supply chain that helps the business maintain its operations in various countries. Unilever has more than 400 brands in various countries and regions with different segmentation strategies and separate branding strategies for each of the brands under the Unilever representation. Each of the brands under the company has its marketing strategy and an allotted budget to promote itself in various regions and cities around the nation. The target market of the company consists of the upper-middle to lower-middle-class where the brand can cater to most of the consumers in a nation. Their marketing and branding strategies have helped the company become what it is today by adding value to society and the profitability of the company by becoming one of the most known personal care brands. The company has also been able to expand its operations and diversify its product range in various segments targeting different market segments and consumer bases in the society. This paper will analyse the marketing strategy and the environmental analysis in the UK and in India which has helped the company build their market differently in different countries where the UK is the developed country and India is one of the developing nations.
1. Introduction
Unilever is a multinational corporation that deals with consumer goods and has products that include ice creams, well-being products, tea coffee, water purifying agents, toothpaste, beauty products, and personal care products with having more than 400 brands under one umbrella. The company is considered to be the largest manufacturer of soap in the world and has its products and operations in about 190 countries (“All brands”, 2021). The company is mainly focusing on three different segments that include food and supplements, home care products, and beauty and personal care products with their main operations in London. With sustainable approaches and rigorous marketing strategies, the company has been able to establish its brand as one of the world’s largest consumer goods product companies by doing the right kind of branding and using the right promotional strategies for doing their business (“Our approach | Unilever”, 2021). This assignment will focus on doing the international marketing analysis of Unilever presenting two different countries that the company is currently operating in and have their market base. This assignment will provide the contrast between the local market place which is the UK and compare it with the market segment of India where the company also has a well-established market segment for its product soap.
2. Macro Analysis
The company has its operation in various countries where the most known brand of the company is Dove in the household range which is well known globally. The strategy of the company is to double the size of the business and increase its market share by decreasing the environmental footprint and having an impact on society. Various factors have contributed to the success of Dove in India as well as in the UK where the company has been able to succeed in both markets by providing the consumers what they want. Happen only because of the environmental strategies and analysis of the environment in both countries that have contributed to the success of the company. This will show the analysis of the environment in both India and the UK showing the success factors behind the growth of the company.
2.1 Environmental analysis of India
The company has been considered as one of the very touched and luxurious brands that are known for its superior and gentle skin properties (Montoro Rios et al., 2006). In India, the company has been able to succeed due to its remarkable strategies used to attract consumers and analyze the environment of India. The company initially price the product at Rs.30 per bar whereas among us coffee in India would cost around 50 bucks which showed that the company was positioning itself as the expensive brand which required a lot of rebranding strategies. Considering the environment of India, the company had positioned its self as the long-lasting soap brand where the other brands would not last for more than a month but Dove soaps last more than a month due to its high quality and using the value for money approach. This worked well in favor of the company and has positioned itself as the largest premium brand in the Hindustan Unilever portfolio contributing to the maximum sale of the company in the body wash and hair conditioning category.
2.2 Environmental analysis of UK
On the other hand, the environment of the UK is completely different as compared to India’s as the country is known for its luxury lifestyle for which the company required a different branding style to keep up with the environmental factors of the UK. The company has analyzed that the consumer of the UK more much more concerned about the brand that they are associating themselves with and having a positive brand image is extremely important as compared to India where are the price factor and value for money approach is extremely required than showing a positive image. For this reason, the company has used several progressive commitments in their beauty and personal care brands such as Dove where the company is focusing on providing positive beauty images and driving a transformation in their products that is also beneficial for the environment. The company has become more conscious about its responsibility towards the environment by delivering a superior product experience and reducing its footprints in the environment (releases & Dove moves to 100% recycled plastic bottles, 2021). This is added to the success of the company as the people of the UK have started to associate themselves with the brand because the company has become more conscious of its responsibility to the environment and becoming more sustainable in the long run (Montoro Rios et al., 2006).
3. Industry analysis
3.1 Competitor analysis in India
Dove has a lot of competition in India is the biggest competitors are Olay, Nivea, Loreal, and Neutrogena where all of these companies have the same range of products and or a direct competitor to the company. One of the major competitors of Dove is lux which is a very famous beauty brand and is known for its toiletries and soaps and its bath and body products which have penetrated almost 87% of the Indian market as they provide a cheaper range of products as compared to Dove. This company also positions itself as value for money when it comes to their products and attracts a lot of Indian customers due to the price range that they offer and having a large market share. The company faces a lot of competition with Lux, Pears, and Sunsilk as these brands have been known even before Dove launched their products in India. The success behind these companies is also because of the large market that they have captured in India where almost all the companies provide a lot of competition to Dove directly penetrating the large consumer base of India (Cawthray & Murphy, 2021). Sunsilk is a product of Unilever group which is an added benefit as this brand provides direct competition to Dove but only adds to the profitability and revenue stream of the Unilever group (“All brands”, 2021).
3.2 Competitor analysis in the UK
The competition in the UK regarding beauty and skincare products is quite high as the consumers love to indulge in brands that are sustainable and have high-quality ingredients. Few of the competitors of the company are Olay, Clinique, Neutrogena as these companies provide high-quality products and only use ingredients that are good for the consumers for both their beauty and personal care benefits (Cawthray & Murphy, 2021). Consumers in the UK have started to love a bar of soap as an effort to reduce plastic usage which is also environmentally extremely helpful in reducing the usage of plastic and help the company be more sustainable and responsible towards the environment by avoiding products that are harmful to the environment. In an effort of being more sustainable, the company provides direct competition to a few of the brands popular in the UK and adds to their competitive advantage providing extreme competition to the other brands like Neutrogena and Olay.
4. Marketing Strategy Analysis
When it comes to using marketing strategies and branding the product in the right way, Dove has never been in disappointment as its marketing campaigns have been extremely attractive and use the most emotionally appealing campaigns that have sometimes also gone wrong. With consistent efforts and innovation in branding, the company has been able to position itself as a brand that is conscious of equality in the beauty industry and uses its campaigns as a social movement to appeal to the masses by adding emotions to its campaigns.
4.1 Brand Reputation in India
The brand reputation in India has been exceptionally tremendous India as the company has positioned itself as the largest premium brand in the Hindustan Unilever group. The company has been successful in positioning itself and using the correct marketing strategies by capturing 19% of the market in the initial years by not tempering the core values right from the get-go. There are serious studies that have shown that the company has been able to attract a consumer base through its consistent advertising and has been a crucial factor in the success of the company in building a loyal consumer base. The fact that the company uses real experiences to market its product has made the brand what it is today in the Indian market and the gentle effect of the product on the skin helps the consumer be loyal to the brand (Skene, 2021). The claim to dove to provide value for money products has worked well in its favour making the company a topmost brand in India penetrating almost 20% of the Indian market with a loyal consumer base. The testimonials taken by the random woman on their haircare and skincare has helped get a huge response for the company and its products as it involved real-time consumers and not the advertisements using models which do not appeal to mass consumers.
4.2 Brand Reputation in the UK
Consumers in the UK are more aware and like to use the brand that is more conscious towards their responsibility and engages with the consumers. Unlike the Indian market, the penetration of the brand in the UK is quite less which consists of 18% market which leaves a lot of scopes for the company to penetrate the UK market and position itself in a way that adds to the profitability of the company. Dove is preferred more in India than in the UK as there are a lot of brands that are available in the UK market which provides premium quality of services to their consumers and the consumers of the UK does not only consider the price factor but also consider the way the product is made. The UK market focus is more on luxury whereas the Indian market focuses on the mass with the company profits by providing their products to the mass then building credibility in the luxury market. Despite all of this the brand reputation in the UK is also quite high and is preferred by most of the citizens but is not a preferred choice when it comes to the competitor brands (Nancholas, 2021). The consumer base is not as loyal as the consumers in India as there are a lot of options available to the consumers in the UK and the competition rate is quite high because of the huge level of penetration of the various bands in the market.
5. Promotional Strategy Analysis
The promotional strategies used by Dove are exceptionally incredible where all the promotional campaigns focus on the emotional aspect of the society and focus more on providing equality in the community. There have been several promotional campaigns that have been opted by the brand to attract the feminists by promoting real beauty to sell their beauty products. It has been noted that a lot of consumers are hooked to the brand due to their advertising strategies and the more power to create something new against the cultural norm helps the brand to stand out globally. The company focuses on breaking the beauty myth through the use of the products and selling their products to make women more beautiful and empowered than promoting fake beauty (“Unilever says no to ‘normal’ with new positive beauty vision”, 2021). Unlike other brands the company does not use supermodels to endorse the brand and for their shoots. The company uses real-time women for their advertisements to provide authenticity in their advertising strategies. The company is not only moving towards being sustainable by using less plastic in their production of the products and their packaging but also becoming more responsible towards society by empowering the women in the society. The level of campaigns that promotes woman’s image and break all the beauty myths has helped the brand tremendously (Skene, 2021). This not only helps in building a positive image of the brand but also helps their target consumers to associate with the brand that not only adds to the profitability of the company but also makes the company more responsible towards the society and environment.
6. Conclusion
Being one of the great brands in the consumer goods industry, the company has been able to capture a good market base in both India and UK with the help of its branding strategies and marketing strategies. Their marketing and promotional strategies have helped the company to capture a large market share in India by penetrating almost 20% of the market. Even though the brand has been able to capture a large consumer base in India, the company still has a lot of chances to penetrate the UK market with rigorous marketing strategies. Through various analysis of the environmental factors and industry analysis, the company has been able to understand the consumer mindset and preferences of the consumer. Dove has become more socially responsible by using the right kind of marketing strategies and their advertising approach has been on point building a reputation for itself globally. through their sustainable approach, the company has also become more responsible towards the environment
7. References
All brands. Unilever global company website. (2021). Retrieved 27 October 2021, from https://www.unilever.com/brands/.
Cawthray, B., & Murphy, P. (2021). Examining the enduring success of Dove and Nivea. Kantar.com. Retrieved 27 October 2021, from https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/brands/examining-the-enduring-success-of-dove-and-nivea.
Montoro Rios, F., Luque Martínez, T., Fuentes Moreno, F., & Cañadas Soriano, P. (2006). Improving attitudes toward brands with environmental associations: an experimental approach. Journal Of Consumer Marketing, 23(1), 26-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760610641136
Nancholas, T. (2021). Bars of soap gaining popularity in uk. Kantar.com. Retrieved 27 October 2021, from https://www.kantar.com/uki/inspiration/consumer/bars-of-soap-gaining-popularity-in-uk.
Our approach | Unilever. Unilever.com. (2021). Retrieved 27 October 2021, from https://www.unilever.com/our-company/our-approach/.
releases, P., & Dove moves to 100% recycled plastic bottles, a. (2021). Dove moves to 100% recycled plastic bottles, and plastic-free packs for its beauty bar. Unilever global company website. Retrieved 27 October 2021, from https://www.unilever.com/news/press-releases/2019/dove-moves-to-100-recycled-plastic-bottles-and-plastic-free-packs-for-its-beauty-bar.html.
Skene, K. (2021). A PR Case Study: Dove Real Beauty Campaign | News Generation, Inc.. News Generation, Inc. Retrieved 27 October 2021, from http://newsgeneration.com/2014/04/11/pr-case-study-dove-real-beauty/.
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Micu, A.C. (2010). Telling the brand story: Including news articles in online promotional strategies. Management & Marketing, 5(2), 67-84.
Unilever says no to ‘normal’ with new positive beauty vision. Unilever global company website. (2021). Retrieved 27 October 2021, from https://www.unilever.com/news/press-releases/2021/unilever-says-no-to-normal-with-new-positive-beauty-vision.html?navids=tcm:244-50586-4,tcm:244-59861-4.
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