Unilever Corporate Identity And Sustainable Business Strategies

Corporate Identity and Product Portfolio

Discuss about the Unilever Corporate Identity And Competitive Strategies.

The report discusses the Unilever corporate identity and how it will have used its competitive strategies to have an edge in the market. The report highlights the fact about the corporate identity of the company and its relation to the product and service portfolio. Also, the business units of Unilever have been discussed here. The analysis discusses about how the sub units of Unilever works, what are their profit centres and which unit is giving the highest revenue to the company. Structure of the Unilever is also taken into consideration. Discussion related to achieve the sustainability of the business is also there that how the Unilever achieved the sustainability in the business. What tools and strategies they are using for it. The facts related to social responsibility is also been discussed there (Martinsuo and Killen, 2014).

Corporate identity is the identity or image of the company which it has made in front of the public. It is a relation between the investors, public, and company. This relation should be maintained for the purpose of facilitating corporate business objectives. Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers. Unilever has three business units which include food, home, and personal care. Company’s sales are estimated to be in 190 countries and reached 2 billion consumers a day.  The company has 172000 employees and able to generate sakes more than 50 billion in last year. The company is aiming to cover the large market share in developing countries. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world including Dove, Persil, Ben & Jerry’s, Lipton, Magnum etc. (Frost, Jones, Loftus and Laan, 2005).

Corporate identity of the Unilever found to be good in the market because of its different product and service portfolios. Visual identity of the company gives the visibility and recognisability to the business. Another thing that the corporate identity focuses is shareholders and relationship between its units or division. Unilever has many division and departments which are working with coordination and cooperation in the company and making the brand reputation. Unilever is paying special attention to the corporate identity in a time of organizational change. Corporate identity needs to maintained and managed on the structural basis. It means maintaining the corporate identity is the responsibility of all employees in the departments and units. It will lead to future organizational development with harmony in its business.

Business Unit Structure

In Unilever Company, the organizational structure is divided into sub business units which include the personal care products, food products, and home care products. Each business unit is consisting of the marketing department, research and development department, Accounts and finance department, customer service department and administration department (Gassmann, Enkel, and Chesbrough, 2010). These units work to achieve the target and making the organization image at the top. The functioning of these departments is not interrelated and interdependent. The decision making in the organizational each department can be made without any delay. But in this type of structure, the requirement of material and resources are more than other types of structure. But Unilever is requiring the independence in its structure so that the working can be done without any delay in supply and decision making. Its business units can be operated freely without the wait for the top management to give the decision.

For Unilever, Company sustainability is important in the business. The company is considered sustainability as an integral part of the business to perform (Schaltegger,  Lüdeke-Freund, and Hansen, 2016). This means that sustainable growth is the only acceptable model of growth for the business. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan set out to decouple our strength and growth. The company is also trying to create the positive social impact on the society so to have a good image in the eyes of the public. The company is planning to help more than a people to improve their health and well-being. To achieve the sustainability in its business, Unilever is using 100% of the agricultural raw material and enhancing the livelihood of people across the value chain (Wirtz, Pistoia, Ullrich and Göttel, 2016). The company is giving the footprints of products to the environment at large. In the year 2014, the Unilever is ranked at number one in Dow Jones Sustainability sector. The company has increased the use of renewable resources in its energy around 28% in line with the USLP commitments (Dyllick and Muff, 2016).

The use of economies of scale in Unilever operations leads to lower the cost of the company individuals department. The business units in Unilever are producing the goods at large and the cost per unit of product is a decline as output increases (Prahalad, 2012).  Consumer preference is also a concern for the company. Consumer preference is also a concern to the company. Unilever is making such products and services which are satisfying the demands of the consumer. Products need and demands can be meeting out by introducing the innovation in the product. New technology introduced by the Unilever in its product influences the customer to buy the products. For this innovative thinking in its business, Unilever is requiring the skilled employees.  Most importantly the structure of Unilever is made up of clustered entities (Biemans, Griffin and Moenaert, 2016). The company is achieving the competitive advantage using the strategy of differentiation in its model. In this model, the company is offering the variety of products and services to the customer. It makes the customer not to shift to other brands. As Unilever is offering the variety of food, homes and personal care, these are the basic requirement of an individual so each and every customer get the product under one roof only. The company is covering a broad market area with these differentiated products.  Another strategy company is using in its business is cost Leadership. In cost leadership strategy, the area covered by the company is broad and the cost per unit of product it comes out to be less (Njanja, Maina, Kibet, and Njagi, 2013).

Sustainable Business Strategies

According to the annual reports of the Unilever, the company is focusing on winning with brand and innovation globally. As each and every individual needs a new and unique product which other companies are not able to provide them. The company is focusing on the continuous improvement to win more market share and hearts of the public. For the welfare of the environment and its resources, the company is working on reducing the greenhouse gases. Unilever’s financial performance and its business unit’s performance are showing the increasing trends in revenues and sales. The sale of the company is increasing more as compared to its competitors because of the responsibility did toward the society (Pless, Maak, and Waldman, 2012).

Turnover in business units of Unilever
Particulars	2016	2017
Home care	10585	11123
Personal Care	15791	16078
Foods	1078	1102
Refreshments	4434	4795
Others(inc. Exports, infant and Feminine Care)	1043	797
Total	32930	33895

(Annual report, 2017)

With the global economies are continuing to witness slow economic growth in the current year. There were sudden changes in the prices after the phase of deflation in the economy. After that, the market gradually recovers from it but market liquidity is adversely affected by this (Reinmoeller and Ansari, 2016). After a period there is a certain increase in the growth of FMCG products. Unilever Company also faced the same phase in the economy. But after a while regain its position in the market through its different business units. The company is dealing with three sub business units which include the home care products, personal care products, foods and others (Veerman, Sacks, Antonopoulos and Martin, 2016).

The company is spending on the trade and using the optimized media for the promotion of products and services. The company is maintaining the competitive prices and invested in developing the new segments to ensure a sustainable growth in the business. In these home care products, the pureit example can be taken. Pureit is the world’s largest selling water purifier made by the Unilever Company. Its mission is to provide the safe drinking water to 100 million till 2020. Another business unit, the Unilever is dealing in is Food products. From the above table of revenues, it is visible that the company is selling a good amount of products in the market. In the food business, Unilever is focussing on the culinary products such as Kissan; soups, Soupy noodles etc. Kissan is maintaining its leadership across the categories.  The customer prefers the Unilever brand for the food products as they are working according to the norms of regulatory bodies in the country (Salaran, 2010). This regulatory body takes care of consumer’s interest while fostering the innovation (Monteiro and Cannon, 2012).

Competitive Strategies

Unilever is showing the increasing trend in all the business units except the others which include the exports, infants and feminine care products (Maon, Lindgreen, and Swaen, 2009). In-home care product, Unilever includes the Vaseline, Sunlight soap etc. the last year the crude oil prices are on a hike so there is less production of petroleum products by the company. But after that period, the company is tried to regain its position in the market by matching up with the prices and economic situations.

References

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