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Market strategy plan for Unilever Pakistan

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Marketing
Wordcount: 3633 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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Operation management is a department which oversee, design and re-design all the business operation in the organization that is related to the production of goods and services. This department has the responsibility to monitor that operations of the organization are efficient in terms of using it as needed and effective in terms of satisfying the customers.

Here the example of a Multinational company is given; this is how an organization grows gradually and systematically and reaches to the top.

BACKGROUND

Unilever Ltd Pakistan is one of the largest producers of FMCG products, working as a subsidiary of the Unilever giant multinational. It was first launched in Pakistan in 1948 and started its operations in the town of Rahim Yar Khan. It has now expanded to six different locations around the country. Its head office has been shifted to Karachi since the mid 60’s. Its workforce possesses a large number of highly qualified personnel.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The new product entitled “ALL OUT” tissues has been launched by Unilever, Pakistan. This product is specially designed for males/ females above the age of 14.We will market our product to A, B, and C SEC (Socio-economic classes) living in urban areas of the country by selecting appropriate marketing channels and promotional strategies. Our product will have first-movers advantage as there is no close substitute of our product, which in turn would allow us to use the price skimming strategy targeted at the innovators and early adaptors. The chief potential competitor of Unilever ‘around the house’ product category is mainly P&G, producing Aerial, Colgate-Palmolive and products such as Brite detergents.

Pakistani youngsters in general, women in particular are very considerate about their dressing these days as they want to see their dresses in a perfect condition at all times. Our product has been launched keeping in view the changing preferences of our target audiences which demand personal care products with accessibility and portability as its key features in addition to its core purpose of removing stains and providing cleanliness.

The most attractive market segment that generates more profit is of 20 to 35 years old females, who act as major decision making units (DMU’s) in regards to making purchases for their whole family. These women call for better personal care and these desires trickle down towards their children and family. Secondly, this product also acts as a nail polish remover. Our marketing strategy would initially focus on such women by demonstrating the benefits of our product both in terms of cleaning accessibility on the move as well as a quick nail polish removing solution which would certainly shorten the duration of preparation for ablution and prayer. Company’s advertising strategy would focus on these features and target both the rational as well as the emotional appeal.

We would further develop need for our product through various B2B channels. We realize the need of our product arises in social places where clothes may get dirty and there is no quick way to clean them. These social places mainly include restaurants, schools, offices and universities. We would, in this way, promote our product through our B2B partners.

The company is expecting their sales to be 15% of our target market for the first year; gradually increasing that by 5% percent each year consequently capturing at least 35% of our target market in the first 5 years of product launch.

Mission

Unilever’s mission is to add vitality to life. They say: “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.”

Company’s value: They initiated a company wide project “living our values” using focus groups to identify values that were shared by the employees all over for development on both company and personal level. Their core values include:

Impeccable integrity: They are honest, transparent and ethical in their dealings at all times.

Demonstrating a passion for winning: They deliver what they promise.

Wowing their consumers & customers: They win the hearts and minds of their consumers and customers.

Bringing out the best in all of their employees: They are empowered leaders who are inspired by new challenges and have a bias for action.

Living an enterprise culture: Company provides a comfortable culture

MAIN BODY

Uniliver enjoys equity of 70.4% and has the opportunity of being the largest FMCG multinational. Its multiple brands play an integral part in improving and promoting hygiene, health and nutrition along with helping low income consumers to view life positively.

PRODUCT MIX: Set of all product lines and items that a particular seller offers to sell. Unilever’s product mix consists of the following product lines:

Cooking and eating

Beauty and style

Around the house

Unilever food solutions

PRODUCT LINES: Product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner are sold to the similar customer groups are marketed through the same type of outlines. Unilever has five different product lines which are as follows:

Cooking and Eating:

Blue band Margarine, A1 Karak Chai, Brook Bond Supreme, Lipton, Pearl Dust, Flora, Walls Ice Cream.

Beauty and Style:

Clear, close up, Lifebuoy Shampoo, lifebuoy & Lux Soap, Pond’s Fair & Lovely Cream, Sunsilk and Rexona.

Around the house:

Surf Excel, Comfort, Rin Washing Powder.

Unilever food solutions:

Knorr noodles, knorr tomato kechup, chili garlic sauce, chocolate and strawberry topping, chicken powder, demy glace sauce, barbecue sauce.

PRICING STRATEGIES:

Market Skimming Strategy: Through this strategy Unilever tends to generate maximum revenue from the innovators and early adopters. This strategy, as we all know, is only effective if Unilever is launching a new product which has no potential competitors, in short we mean to say “INNOVATIVE PRODUCT”. For Example:

Flora

Pond’s Age miracle cream

Market penetration strategy:

Through this strategy Unilever tries to grab the market share through low pricing. This usually is the case when Unilever is trying to market those products which are the basic necessities of life.

For Example:

Pearl Dust

Lifebuoy Soap and shampoo

SEGMENTATION: Unilever uses LSM (Living Standard measures) and SEC (Socio-economic Class) to segment the market for its products.

POSITIONING: Unilever does not follow any specific positioning strategy as in most of the cases they position their products on culture and beliefs like SURF EXCEL which is positioned as “DIRT IS GOOD” where as RIN washing powder which is positioned as providing “karak dar safaidi”, is a perfect example of positioning in product features.

TARGETING:

Unilever’s target market is basically based on families who come in upper middle and higher classes. Most of its products have a premium price. They target that segment of the market which is willing to pay more for quality and seek value for their money. But they also offer some lower end fighting brands for lower income people that are able to achieve almost similar kind of benefit as those consumers who buy their higher end products.

LINE EXTENSION:

Line extension is basically a strategy that involves producing variants of similar product in a similar category. These are actually variants of the original product and Unilever has employed this strategy in various products. For example:

Cornetto Ice-Cream, is offered in a lot of different flavors like chocolate, caramel, strawberry, and vanilla.

Lipton is offered in packs as well as tea bags.

Lifebuoy soap comes in the form of liquid hand washing bottles as well as in the form of soaps which are offered in regular, neem, and antiseptic variants.

Sunsilk is offered in a wide range catering separately for dry, normal and oily hair.

Surf excel is offered in different package sizes like 500, 250, and 50 kg packs besides Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 sachets.

Knorr noodles are offered in different flavors of chat pata, and chicken.

Sauces have a wide variety to offer including soy, barbeque, and demi glace sauces.

BRAND EXTENTION:

It means jumping into an entire different category with a same brand name. This approach is somewhat risky but yet Unilever has used it with some of its products.

For example: Unilever has launched ready to make recipe mixes with the same brand name of Knorr. It has even its ketchups and chili garlic sauces under the brand name of Knorr.

MULTIBRANDING:

Sometimes the company in order to bring in variety in a market or to gain market share offers a new product in the same category but with a different brand name. Unilever has embarked upon this strategy in several categories of products for example:

Unilever produces four different brands of tea including lipton, supreme, A1 karak chai, and pearl dust.

It produces three brands of shampoos lifebuoy, sunsilk, and clear.

It produces two different brands of margarine flora and blue band.

NEW BRANDS:

Unilever has produced entire new products also in a completely new category and with a new name. For example:

Comfort fabric softener.

Close up toothpaste.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS:

Unilever has a B2C distribution channel which includes the company itself, the wholesalers, retailers, and the customers. It basically uses a pull strategy for promotion of its brands, focuses more on communication and is the only consumer goods company that gives the lowest markups to retailers. They use their specific company owned distributors.

UNILEVER SBU’S:

In Pakistan Unilever is operating through its two affiliated companies which are:

Unilever Pakistan Ltd

Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd

SWOT ANALYSIS:

STRENGTH:

‘All Out’ is a totally unique product that provides on the spot cleaning.

No competitor in the market is offering such a product. A vast first mover’s advantage can be gained.

High quality product achieved through state of the art processing unit that utilizes DIQUEST SNA an efficient dispersant.

The product is offered by Unilever that possesses incomparable international experience translating into huge Brand Equity.

Comparative Affordability, Accessibility, Portability and Disposability in a cleaning product. Unheard of in Pakistan’s consumer markets.

Dry cleaning on the move.

WEAKNESS:

A completely dirty shirt cannot be immediately washed but can only act upon stains.

It might take long for people to adapt and become used to it, mainly in lower income groups that may ponder over either buying ‘Surf’ or ‘All Out’.

OPPORTUNITY:

Pakistan’s total urban population is 32.8% which is growing at a constant rate of between 0.75-1 % annually.

Price is affordable.

Currently there are no direct competitors.

Because of growing socialization trends, the demand for this product is expected to rise.

THREATS:

Entrance of competitors

Rising Inflation

Political Instability.

OBJECTIVES AND ISSUES:

To provide a new formula for cleaning stains in a different way. We need to create consumer awareness in a highly persuasive way.

Capture 15% of the target market in 1st year so as to position ourselves as market leaders.

To achieve an increasing growth rate of 5% per annum after the 1st year of product launch.

4. To gain a target revenue of 1.2 billion in 1st year.

MARKETING STRATEGY:

“ALL OUT” Stain Remover’s target market is A,B and C classes in SEC. Women and men from the age of 14 and beyond, who are very social, participate in every walk of life, and who want to seek high quality product for moderate prices.

The total percentage of urban population is 32.8% and the population of masses above the age of 14 is 60%. Therefore our target market is 60% of 32.8%, which means that our target audience would be roughly less than 20% of the whole population of Pakistan. Population of Pakistan is 173 million according to the 2011 census. So basically our target audience in absolute numbers is approximately 34.5 million.

Other Segments Considered:

Lower class is suppose to be targeted as it makes the masses of the country. But since this item is condidere as a luxury item it won’t appeal to them. Their economic standards give them the option to afford normal second tier washing detergents in small quantities only.

We did not targeted males / females below the age of 14 because of the fact that, at this age they are least bothered about stains on their clothes and secondly they are depending on a fixed pocket money, which won’t allow them to spend on this luxury, as this product will hold little significance to them

BRAND POSITIONING:

As we all are aware of the fact that the best positioning is the one which is based on culture, beliefs and benefits of a product. Therefore we would position our product on this line “Tough on Stains, Light on Clothes” and “Daag Pay Jaandar, Kaproon Pay Shandaar”. As we hardly have any competitor in the market, therefore our primary focus would be to develop product awareness in essence to its features in addition to its association with Unilever; a pioneer in FMCG products in Pakistani consumer markets. Huge brand equity of Unilever combined with ‘All Out’ product features with regards to clean-ability, accessibility, disposability, and portability, these rational appeals would be

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There would be a gap of at least 3 months from product launch associated with our primary positioning and then moving onto emotional targeting of consumer base. These efforts would enhance our products equity and help us capture a relatively huge market share that would be faithful to our brand after consideration to both rational and emotional advantages of our product.

PRODUCT POSITIONING:

‘All Out’ Stain Remover would serve as your companion whenever you are away from home, as they would help you to keep your clothes clean at all times when you are on a move. Its attractive features are mentioned below:

Disposable

Portable

Easy to use

Highly effective on stains

Removes stains within 4 seconds that too without damaging your cloth.

MARKETING RESEARCH:

To launch ‘All Out’ as a great success, we took the following necessary measures:

After carrying out a market survey we found out that there existed a need of a disposable product as many individuals shared with us there experiences where they had dropped something over their clothes in a formal gathering and had to face the guests there with those stained clothes on.

We will be targeting the people living in the urban areas as the concept of being perfectly dressed at all times is common amongst them. As we have usually witnessed many ladies spending quite a lot of time in washrooms at social gatherings to keep themselves and their clothes in perfect order, usually after they have had food.

We provided people with questionnaires and interviewed individuals. They replied positively about a constant ‘need’ for such a product.

PRODUCT’S VARIETY:

‘All Out’ stain remover would be available in three different quantities that are in 5 pieces and 10 pieces paper bags. In addition, there would be a tissue box sized family pack of 50 pieces. The product is offered with natural ingredients to suit every type of cloth in floral and fruity fragrances; and non fragrant for those who don’t prefer any fragrance to interfere with the fragrance of their scent.

QUALITY:

Quality has always been Unilever’s trade mark. It’s the quality of our products which has helped Unilever in transforming into market leaders and ‘All Out’ would certainly be on the same framework, providing exquisite quality to its consumers.

FEATURES:

“ALL OUT” has a variety of features. The main feature removing stains from clothes. Our secondary feature includes removing nail polish also and that too on the move.

BRAND NAME:

‘ALL OUT’ is our brand name. The reason we have chosen this name is that it depicts the complete essence of our product. ‘ALL OUT’ clearly states that out product would be tough on stains by completely eradicating them from the fabrics. Furthermore, it is easy to say and can easily be transformed into a generic name for a disposable cleaning product just like Surf’s achievement in the detergent category.

PACKAGING:

‘ALL OUT’ will be packaged in high quality paper bags, so as they are easy to carry. We would have a well designed packaging because these days packaging is playing a vital role in promoting the product. Our Family Pack would be packaged in a sleek looking box, suggesting a premium product.

LABELING:

The paper bags will be having a label of “ALL OUT – Stain Remover” on it. The price of the product as well as its manufacturing and expiry dates would also be printed. All the ingredients would be mentioned and a social message of ‘keep your city clean’ would also be imprinted. Furthermore, its’ essential features would also be mentioned in bullet form.

PRICE: Our pricing strategy is based on price skimming strategy but it would be easily affordable for families belonging to A, B and C classes of SEC.

TARGET COSTING: We have followed target costing approach, which enabled us to set a price which, if charged in the market, would be acceptable to the target audience.

CONCLUSION:

The Company believed in trust, truth and outstanding teamwork. Their main aim was to satisfy its customers with the statements and assurance being made by the company.

The product “ALL OUT” tissues which has been decided to be launched is quiet promising in the future as the research and the strategies which are supposed to be applied are quiet effective and efficient. Secondly being the only producer of the unique product, the company could maintain the monopoly of the product

The Company has chosen the Price Skimming Strategy. Price is also considered an indicator of the quality of the product and the prices would certainly give the similar indications without having the adverse effect of driving it into luxurious product category.

All the brands of Unilever, combined generate a Net Profit Margin percentage of approx. 6 % only whereas ‘All Out’ would reap 16% of Net Profit Margin in relation to Sales approximately. This clearly highlights the fact that Price Skimming strategy has been utilized.

Initially the product would be used by Innovators and Early Adaptors but there would certainly be a trickledown effect and this would lead to Early Majority to purchase our product as well. The innovators are basically thinkers, achievers and experienced individuals, belonging to primary motivation groups of Ideals, Achievement and Self Expression respectively. Majority of the people aspire such people and after their early adoption of our product. Their usage would have a resonating effect on the Survivors; people belonging to survivors, strivers and makers of the primary motivation group; and they would also start to use our product.

First of all, the company needs to identify their target audience so that they can blend their marketing communication mixes effectively and appropriately. As in this case the target audiences are males / females above the age of 14, which mean we need to develop a mature message to deliver through our communication media channels so that the message sounds realistic and pragmatic and brings about rational appeal to our target market.

Communication Mix Strategies used by the Company include Advertisement tools such as TV advertisements, Billboards, Streamers and the system to deliver the same set of message effectively. Second is the Sales Promotions technique during Ramadan, Eid, and Valentine’s Day with some amazing Promotional offers, which in turn would create customer value for the company. After considering the above mentioned strategies the last part which the company needs to perform is of Effective Public Relation with the customers. Unilever uses the policy of public relations as a productive tool to promote their products. In the future it has been divided by the management to hold some public events, family shows and would also try and arrange a concert regarding their brand ambassador “Hadiqa Kiyani”. The Company would therefore call upon numerous respected media personals and people from the industry to inform the masses about the benefits of their product and create brand awareness.

 

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