Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch Multinational company that was founded in 1930 as a result of a merger between Margarine Unie that is located in Netherlands and Lever Brother of the UK. Margarine Unie was initially associated with the production of margarine while Lever brothers were involved in producing soap. The company’s status is dually listed but it is listed as Unilever NV and Unilever plc in Rotterdam and London respectively. Initially, the two firms are merged through the signing of several agreements by having an equal capital distribution and common directors. This essay seeks to analyze the launch of OMO product into the Australian supermarkets under Unilever’s established brands.
Unilever was formed through the merger of two companies, thus making it a British-Dutch multinational firm. The company deals with several product ranges which consist of beverages, personal care products, foods, as well as cleaning agents. Unilever NV is ranked as the world’s fifth largest consumer goods firm according to the 2016 revenue statistics (Anderson and Xie, 2014, pp.264). Additionally, Unilever dominates the top ten ice cream brands purchased online. Michael Treschow is Unilever N.V.’s current non-executive chairman while the Group Chief Executive is Paul Polman. The organization owns over 400 brands with the most-selling brands being Aviance, Ben & Jerry, Lipton, Dove, OMO/Surf, Sunsilk, Heartbrand, and Wish-Bone among others. Unilever N.V. experienced a drop in its sales and profits in the first half of 2018. Sales fell by 5% to 26.4 billion euros compared to 27.7 billion euros in the same period in 2017. As a result, the net profits also dropped by 2.4% to 3.2 billion euros compared to 3.3 billion euros within the same period in 2017. There has been an adjustment for splits and dividends for Unilever’s historical share prices since 1985. These include open, high, low, close (OHLC) data and percentage changes for its multiple data ranges (Sandvik and Storli, 2013, pp.115). The company’s current closing price as of 4th of September, 2018 stands at 56.54.
Segmenting the market refers to dividing a single market into many smaller segments. It is essential to divide the market into smaller segments to help address the smaller groups’ needs and assist in manufacturing different products depending on the groups’ consuming habits. The selected market segment for OMO is done on the basis of age, region, gender, and lifestyle (Anesbury, et al., 2016, pp.267). The laundry market in Australia amounts to $1.508 million this year and is projected to grow annually by 3.0%. The laundry segment is the largest segment with a market volume of $710m. Among Unilever’s top rivals is Radiant which is manufactured by Cussons and has a market share of 6.34%, Cold Power Laundry Detergent that I manufactured by Colgate and has a market share of 11.14%, as well as Surf Laundry Detergent that is manufactured by Lever Rexona and has a market share of 11.03%.
The purpose of introducing OMO is to fill the gap that exists in the current Australian laundry detergent market. It seeks to leave the sports-oriented Australians feeling confident and smelling fresh (Dolnicar, et al., 2014, pp.300). As a result, the confidence enhances freedom from the embarrassment that is provided by a normal laundry detergent. Australia is considered to be among the world’s most achieving sporting country per capita. Thus, there is a large, sweaty, smelly, and athletic population and OMO is specifically designed for the sports-oriented customers (Ansah and Poku, 2013, pp.141). Also, other detergents that are offered in the market are a bit expensive and thus most of the poor families cannot afford to purchase them. This indicates that there exists a demand for a detergent that is both affordable to the poor and which is effective in removing stubborn stains. As such, the idea for introducing OMO into Australia is driven by the fact that the country is sport-oriented and the current gap for affordable detergent.
Segmenting the market helps in choosing a target market that a company seeks to serve, either demographically, geographically, or even psychographically (Helm and Gritsch, 2014, pp.419). In this case, Unilever seeks to target females that are aged between 25-34 years, not married, who live in capital cities, and are working professionals. Additionally, the company seeks to reach out to the low-income families as OMO is an affordable product. Psychographically, OMO’s target clients fall under the Roy Morgan value segment where customers want to have it all and they want to make purchases that indicate their success (Bayus, 2013, pp.235). This group concentrates a lot on their body image and they maintain a balanced died aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle. The group also likes to be among the first to try new products since they have a “keeping up with the jones” mentality. Unilever has selected Australia as the place to introduce the new product OMO, particularly in the cities as well as trying to reach the customers living in the villages by packaging the product in different quantities.
These are methods that are used by an organization to position a new product in the society. The primary factors in the marketing mix are known as the 4Ps and they are the product, price, promotion as well as place (Dawes and Thiel, 2014, pp.374). First, product refers to the good or service being offered to meet customers’ needs, and Unilever product OMO detergent is being offered to the Australian market. OMO has been structured in high quality to make sure that stubborn stains are removed (Liu, et al., 2014, pp.463). The product will also be packaged in different quantities to ensure that it meets the quantity requirements of every client. Price refers to the amount that consumers of a product are willing to pay for the product. The price of OMO is both affordable to the poor and it is still effective in removing stubborn stains. The product mainly targets the poor families as well as the low-income earners. Promotion helps in creating product’s awareness to the public (Leonidou, Katsikeas and Morgan, 2013, pp.164). Television commercials, promo, billboards, sales point marketing, and adverts will be used to promote OMO. Last, place refers to the ability to have the OMO in places that are accessed. OMO product will be distributed through supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths.
Conclusion
Australia presents a great opportunity for Unilever to launch OMO product due to existence in the gap for affordable detergents as well as the country’s sporting nature. Unilever may seek its fortune by delivering prosperity to the low-income earners as well as the wealthy individuals. It is of essential that an organization focuses on the low-income customer segments as value-demanding clients. By introducing OMO into Australia, Unilever will earn a lot of profits since the product is of good quality thus creating the value for money. The market segment to be taken into consideration if the product is to achieve a high market share are females aged between 25-34 years old as well as the low-income earners.
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