Unilever Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)
Marketing Strategy of Unilever analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Unilever marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Unilever Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:
Quick Glance:
Unilever Product Strategy:
The product strategy and mix in Unilever marketing strategy can be explained as follows:
Unilever has 4 major categories Food, Refreshment, Personal care, Home care and Water Purifier. The products in Unilever marketing mix has over 400 brands, which shows the tremendous strength of the brand in the FMCG sector. Unilever concentrates on 13 brands which have sales of more than 1 billion euro a year. These are Dove, Axe, Rexona, Hellmann’s, Rama, Lipton, Lux, Sunsilk, Surf , Magnum, Knorr, Heartbrand, and Omo.
Foods
A €13 billion category accounting for one fourth of unilevers’s turnover. Knorr, Hellmann’s and Rama are the € 1 billion brands in this category.
Home care
Home Care had a turnover of €10 billion and accounted for one fifth of Unilever’s turnover. Omo and Surf are the € 1 billion brands in this category.
Refreshment
Turnover of €10 Billion and accounts for significant share of Group turnover.
Magnum and Heartbrand (Wall’s) and Lipton tea, are €1 billion brands. Unilever focused on innovation and on delivering a great brand experience. Innovations included Magnum Pink & Black and the Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Core range.
Personal care
This is Unilever’s largest category with turnover of €20 billion accounting for majority of Group turnover. Dove, Lux, Axe, Rexona and Sunsilk are the are €1 billion brands. New products such as Dry Spray Zendium, Dove Advanced Hair Series, TRESemmé Perfectly (Un)done collection were launched.
Image: flickr-photos/withoutsound/
Unilever Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in Unilever marketing strategy:
Unilever's pricing strategy is penetration (high quality, low price). To study the price in the marketing mix of Unilever, it is necessary to understand the immense competition in the FMCG market worldwide. Unilever also follows competitive pricing and does intense research of the market.
Prices are changed according to market conditions. Unilever has a very wide range of products which cater to all cost segments ranging from low price to high price. Unilever has created a prestige division which sells premium personal care products and Talenti for premium ice cream.
With such high range of products, pricing becomes very crucial for a brand like Unilever.
Read more about Unilever
Unilever Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the Unilever marketing mix:
Unilever operates in more than 190 countries. The distribution strategy in the marketing mix of Unilever is explained on the basis of the thousand of distributors it has along with millions of retailers worldwide. The company takes advantage of global manufacturing and distribution to bring down costs. Unilever has a huge distribution network that includes retail as well as direct outlets. Warehouses are set at strategic locations from where C&F agents transport the goods to stockists and finally to retailers. Direct outlets of Unilever are T2 and Ben & Jerry’s Scoop shops.
In India the distribution network of Unilever comprises of 45 carrying & forwarding agents, 4,000 stockist and total coverage of 6.3 million retail outlets with direct coverage of one million retail outlets.
Unilever Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Unilever marketing strategy is as follows:
Unilever is one of the largest spender on marketing with a marketing spend of about €8 billion a year. As the use of digital media and e-commerce has rapidly increased Unilever is using digital marketing integrated with ecommerce to drive sales. Digital campaigns include All Things Hair, an online video channel by Unilever. The Dove Self-Esteem Project is another marketing campaign. Unilever also uses celebrities such as film stars, sportsmen etc. to promote their brands worldwide. Other promotion channels are print media, hoardings, discounts and free samples. Hoardings and OOH media has also helped boost the Unilever brand across the globe. This completes the entire Unilever marketing mix.
About Unilever:
Unilever is one of the biggest FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) company in the world. It is a British-Dutch company co headquartered in Rotterdam and London.
Unilever has more than 400 brands and operates in more than 190 countries with a turnover of €50+ billion. Unilever company has a special focus on sustainability.
This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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