Introduction

The Unilever Pakistan Limited (UPL), formerly Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited was established in Pakistan in 1948. The town of Rahim Yar Khan was the site chosen for setting up a vegetable oil factory. Unilever Pakistan is the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company in Pakistan, as well as one of the largest multinationals operating in the country. Now operating six factories at different locations around the country. The Unilever's head office was shifted to Karachi from the Rahim Yar Khan site in the mid 1960s.some of the brands are,

1.Consumer knowledge

Advertising helps inform people about the benefits of their products and innovations. It is also a way for us to engage with consumers on issues that matter to them.

They have four clearly defined principles that guide their communications with consumers:

They are committed to building trust through responsible practices and through transparent communication – both directly to consumers and indirectly through other key stakeholders and thought-leaders.

It is their responsibility to ensure that their products are safe and that they provide clear information on their use and any risks that are associated with their use.

They fully support a consumer's right to know what is in their products and will be transparent in terms of ingredients, nutrition values and the health and beauty properties of their products.

They will use a combination of channels, which includes product labels, websites, careline phone numbers and/or consumer leaflets to communicate openly with their consumers.

2. Long term outlook

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan

In an uncertain and volatile world, it cannot achieve their vision to double their size without also reducing their environmental footprint and increasing their positive social impact. Launched in 2010, the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan is their blueprint for sustainable growth.

The Plan is helping to drive profitable growth fortheir brands, save costs and fuel innovation.

Underpinning these goals are nine commitments supported by targets spanning their social, environmental and economic performance.

Health & Hygiene

By 2020, Unilever will help more than a billion people improve their health and hygiene.

Health & Hygiene

Improving nutrition

It will continually work to improve the taste and nutritional quality of all their products.

Improving nutrition

Greenhouse gases

Halve the greenhouse gas impact of their products across the lifecycle by 2020.

3.Product innovation

From long-established names like Lifebuoy, Sunlight and Pond’s to new innovations such as the Pureit affordable water purifier, their range of brands is as diverse as their worldwide consumer base.

Unilever has more than 400 brands, 14 of which generate sales in excess of €1 billion a year.

Many of these brands have long-standing, strong social missions, including Lifebuoy’s drive to promote hygiene through handwashing with soap, and Dove’s campaign for real beauty.

Unilever is a world leader in research and development (R&D).

● €891 million invested in R&D in 2009

● At least 250 new patent applications filed each year

● A portfolio of more than 20,000 patents and patent applications

Competitive advantage through an integrated R&D programme.

● More than 6,000 R&D professionals

● 6 strategic R&D laboratories delivering groundbreaking technologies

● 31 major development centres developing and implementing product innovations

● 92 locations around the globe with R&D teams implementing innovations in countries and factories

Dove Body Wash

Uses proprietary NutriumMoisture technology, earning its scientifically-proven claim to provide ‘effective natural ntheirishment’.

Focused efforts that swiftly bring bigger innovations to market.

New Dove Hair Therapy System

Dove Hair Therapy science breakthrough. The first range scientifically proven to repair the internal structure of the hair fibre. With patented Fiber Active Technology.

A full range of superior damage care solutions allowing women to experience the full beauty potential of their hair

New formulation with state of the art patented technology. New fragrance.

New breakthrough post-wash formats.

4 .Quality strategy

Unilever opens global Centre of Excellence for Drinks

This technology centre will focus on developing new products for all Unilever's branded beverages such as Lipton, PG tips, Becel/Flora, Brooke Bond, Knorr Vie, Adez and Slim-Fast. The centre employs 90 product developers and technology specialists from 15 countries and brings together all Unilever's beverages experts in one place, enhancing an already world-class capability through direct interaction.

Restaurant quality for convenient foods at home

On 22 September 2008 they opened their latest global Centre of Excellence in Cisterna, Italy, by cutting a giant pasta ribbon. The centre will focus on composite food products such as meals, salads, snacks and bakery goods.

5. Line extension strategy

This leveraging strategy consists of offering additional items in the same product class or category as the core brand. Extensions may include new flavors, forms, colors, and package sizes. The primary danger is overextending the line and weakening the brand equity. Many new products are line extensions.

Line extensions are attractive options for many companies. They help expand the market opportunity for the product line by offering more variety. The extensions are useful in countering competitors’ efforts. Some extensions may enctheirage cannibalization. However, relying on line extensions as the primary basis for innovation may be risky.

6 Brand extension strategy

This form of leveraging benefits from buyers’ familiarity with an existing brand name in a product class to launch a new product line in another product class. The new line may or may not be closely related to the brand from which it is being extended. Examples of related extensions include shampoo and conditioner,. Critics of brand extensions indicate that these initiatives often do not succeed and may damage the core brand. There are several potential risks associated with brand extensions: (1) diluting existing brand associations; (2) creating undesirable attribute associations; (3) failure of the new brand to deliver on its promise; (4) an unexpected incident (e.g., product recall); and (5) cannibalization of the brand franchise.

Regardless of the possible dangers of brand extension, it continues to be very popular. Two considerations are important. There should be a logical tie between the core brand and the extension. It may be a different product type, while having some relationship to the core brand. The extension also needs to be carefully evaluated as to any negative impact on the brand equity of the core brand.

The Dove Mission

The Dove brand's mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening the definition of beauty and inspiring them to take great care of themselves.

Dove Color Rescue Shampoo, Dove Hair Fall Rescue Conditioner, Dove Hair Fall Rescue Mask

Dove Hair Fall Rescue Serum, Dove Hair Fall Rescue Shampoo, Dove Intense Repair Conditioner

7. Multibrand strategy

The team behind every product in every category of their business is set a clear target for improvement: they want all their brands to be superior to the competition. At present, their global ‘Product Benchmarking Programme’ shows that 96% of their products in scope are considered equal to, or better than, their key competitors’. And where they have made advances in product performance, they are increasingly able to tell consumers how they will benefit.

8 . Heavy advertising and media buying house

Unilever is one of the largest media buyers in the world, and invested around €6 billion (US$8 billion) in advertising and promotion in 2010.

They are committed to responsible marketing and advertising. As a leading global consumer goods company, they promote the benefits of their products using many different channels of brand communication.

Marketing and advertising can be a powerful force for behaviour change. They help inform people about the benefits of our products and innovations. It is also a way for us to engage with consumers on issues that matter to them. For example:

Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty challenges current stereotypes about beauty. Omo/Persil's 'Dirt is good' campaign promotes getting dirty as a natural and

positive part of growing up for children – all part of their learning and development.

With less saturated fat than butter, Flora/Becel helps people look after themselves by offering healthy, nutritious, and great tasting products that can be enjoyed at any meal time.

Comfort One Rinse’s campaign explains to consumers that they only need one bucket of water for rinsing their clothes rather than three, helping them to save water.

Campaign for Real Beauty

At Dove they want to free themselves and coming generation from beauty stereotypes. This message is at the heart of their Campaign for Real Beauty and it's why globally they continue to create thought-provoking ads, confidence-building programs and messages that embrace all definitions of beauty.

Lifebuoy unveils “Germ Protection League” formed to ‘Help A Child Reach 5’

26 September 2014, KARACHI: Lifebuoy Pakistan has launched a partnership with renowned members of civil society and leading members of media and cinema to raise awareness on the importance of handwashing with soap.

9. Aggressive sales force

  Company has more than 400 brands all around the world. Most of the brands known as multinational brands but some of them operate in some countries and company calls it local brands. More than 13 international brands have contribution in sales more than 1 billion Euros. And Unilever top 25 brands account for more than 70% of sales unilever contact center representatives support over 90 brands used by millions of people in the U.S and Canada, every day. Their brands are trusted everywhere and by, listeninig to the people who buy them. This is all because of their aggressive sales force.

10 Affective sales promotion

Market development is a key driver of their growth and built around the following approach:• reaching up (enctheiraging moreaffluent consumers to use their premium brands);• reaching down (offering value products for consumers on lower incomes in emerging and developed markets); and• reaching wide (being first and fast to take their brands into what they call ‘white spaces’, namely new geographies likeCentral Africa and Myanmar, emerging consumer segments like malegrooming, and new channels likee-commerce).

11. Competitive toughness

Strengths

Company operating in nearly 190 countries Company operates its operations nearly 190 countries in the world. And they also

have 270 manufacturing sites worldwide Strong portfolio of brands and diversified product range Company has more than 400 brands all around the world. Most of the brands

known as multinational brands but some of them operate in some countries and company calls it local brands.

More than 13 international brands have contribution in sales more than 1 billion Euros. And Unilever top 25 brands account for more than 70% of sales

Unilever operates more than 270 manufacturing sites around the globe. That is how they can achieve economy of scale easily. It gives competitive advantage to company.

Weakness

Internal attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective. Unilever has the following weaknesses out of which the strong competitors like P&G, Nestle and

Strong competitorsUnilever has strong competition worldwide by multinational. E.g. P&G, Rackitt Benckiser, Nestle, etc these are also the companies that operate worldwide, have big market shares, huge product line and millions of customers.

Substitute productsAs Unilever operates in more than 100 countries and there are lots of substitute products available in the local market. Because of product quality and extensive R&D company charge higher prices for its products but the local products are much cheaper.

Opportunity

External conditions those are helpful to achieving the objective.Health conscious products demand Now a day's people like to eat healthy food which contains fewer calories and use those products which will not harm their environment. This gives a good opportunity to Unilever to add more and more products in its product line. Changing life stylesNow people are more aware about innovations because of the media. Company can use changing life style and increase the demand of the products.

Emerging new marketsNow a day's new markets are emerging company can expand their business to cover these markets. Like Russia, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Increase production volumes

Unilever can concentrate to increase production volumes and they can try to increase their availability in the market. By increasing production volumes and availability it is possible to achieve high demands of products.

Move operations to undeveloped countriesCompany needs to focus to move their production operations in undeveloped countries. Than they can find cheap labor and save money on operations and they can build a supply chain towards expensive markets. Then their profitability will be high.ThreatsExternal conditions which could do damage to the business's performance.

Economic downturn

Biggest threat now days are recession. Most of the companies shut their operations or make redundancies people losing their purchasing power. It has affect all over the world in this situation coming times will be very crucial for company.

Environmental effectsPeoples are very conscious about the environment. They don't like to buy products which can be harmful for the environment. Company needs to focus on how to become environment friendly. It needs to focus on its environmental friendly products.

Global competitionThe chances of Global competition are growing. New companies are coming with innovation. If Unilever wants to stay in market they need to focus on innovation to kill competition around the globe.

New local productsNew local products are introducing in the market. As the sizes of local companies are small they have fewer expenses and when they provide cheap product they can grab the market share of Unilever easily.

legal effectsIf the government introduces any sort of law for tax or it introduce new limits for production because the product is harmful for human use or natural environment. It will be very hard to sell out the product in the market