Submitted by: Submitted by joecepp
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Words: 300
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 12/13/2010 05:13 AM
Unilever a leading global manufacturer of packaged consumer goods and operates in the food, home, and personal care section.
11 of its brands had global annual revenues of over $1 billion: Knorr, Lipton, Surf, Omo, Sunsilk, Dove, Lux, Blue Band, Hellmann’s, Becel, and the Heartbrand logo, a visual identifier on ice cream products
Other brands: Pond’s, Suave, Vaseline, Axe, Snuggle, Bertolli, Ragu, Ben and Jerry’s, and Slim Fast
Annual revenues of $50 billion
Competitors: Nestle ($69 billion), Procter and Gamble ($68 billion) and Kraft ($34 billion)
How did Unilever’s business model and strategies change over time?
February 2000: launched 5 year strategic initiative called “Path to Growth”
Brands:
Used to focused on a localization strategy and global decentralization: described itself as combining local roots with global scale
Cut down its portfolio of 1600 brands down to 400:
Reduce resources
Concentrating on 400 brands will give us the opportunity to focus resources where they can be most effective, reduce overheads and streamline the Corporate Center
Dove, Lux, Lipton, Magnum, Calvin Klein fragrances, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Bird’s Eye, Persil, and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
Chose some to turn into Masterbrands
Classified into 3 brands: international brands, international brands positioning and local jewels
Brands were managed in a decentralized fashion: direction was set by brand managers in each geographic region where the brand was marketed
Brought strength through diversity but also control issues.
Brand portfolio was grown in a laissez-faire manner: e.g. Unilever was the world’s largest producer of ice-cream but lacked a uniform identity
Wall’s brand in the U.K. and most parts of Asia, Algida brand in Italy, Langnese in Germany, Kibon in Brazil, Ola in the Netherlands, and Ben and Jerry’s and Breyers in the U.S.