Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 1

Introduction:

In this competitive business world, marketing is an essential part of any company. The
main two ideas of marketing are to attract the market and do the activities to retain them.

In order to do the jobs of marketing a proper marketing plan is very important. Without
having a complete plan the job of marketing will left with many excuses and even it
could create a disturbing consequence for the company. So, to have an appropriate
marketing plan for every product of the company is very necessary.

There are many companies in Bangladesh serving to people. All the leading companies
have a strong marketing department where the marketing strategies and marketing mix
are made.

Unilever is the leading company in Bangladesh, which is serving the people of

Bangladesh over four decades. Unilever has many brands to serve with. Those are –
Wheel, Lux, Lifebuoy, Fair & Lovely, Ponds, Close-Up, Taaza, Sunsilk, Pepsodent,
Clear, Vim, SurfExel, Dove, Vaseline, Lakme & Axe.

In addition to those brands, we have created the marketing plan a new product for
Unilever which we named as ‘WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening System’.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 2

Company Profile:

2.1 Unilever Bangladesh Ltd.:

In the 1890s, William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros, wrote down his ideas for
Sunlight Soap – his revolutionary new product that helped popularize cleanliness and
hygiene in Victorian England. Mainly from this time first idea to establish Unilever
formed.

Over the the last four decades, Unilever Bangladesh has been constantly bringing new
and world-class products for the Bangladeshi people to remove the daily drudgery of
life. Over 90% of the country’s households use one or more of products.

According to constitution, in Bangladesh Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. have 60.75% share

and government of Bangladesh have 39.25% share.

2.2 Product and Service Analysis:

Unilever Bangladesh Ltd offers a wide variety of consumer goods to the people of
Bangladesh. Its operations are categorized into three categories-

- Food

- Home care

- Personal care

Under these three operations Unilever manufactures various categories of products and
for each of those categories they have successfully established many brands. The product
mix of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is as following-
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Household Fabric Skin Skin Care Oral Hair Tea Based

Care Cleansing Cleansing and Care Beverage
Care
Personal
Grooming

Vim Wheel Lux Fair & Pepsodent Dove Taaza

Lovely
Lifebuoy CloseUp Sunsilk
Pond’s
Surf Excel Dove Clear
Rexona
Vaseline
Vaseline
Lakme
Axe

Unilever Bangladesh Ltd produces pure consumer goods. Some its brands are produced
locally in Bangladesh and some are imported from other regional factory of Unilever, like
Thailand, China, and UK etc. In Bangladesh the company has a Soap Manufacturing
factory and a Personal Products Factory located in Chittagong. Besides these, there is a
tea packaging operation in Chittagong and three manufacturing units in Dhaka, which are
owned and run by third parties exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh.

2.2 Capital Investment:

The capital expenditures of Unilever have generally been moderate. This allows Unilever
to use its cash resources for other business investment purposes.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
2.3 Logo and Slogan:

Figure: Logo of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd.

Our slogan is; “Feel good, look good and get more out of life”

2.4 Mission:

Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition,
hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more
out of life.

2.5 Vision:

The four pillars of our vision set out the long term direction for the company – where we
want to go and how we are going to get there:

• We work to create a better future every day.

• We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and
services that are good for them and good for others.

• We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big
difference for the world.

• We will develop new ways of doing business that will allow us to double the size
of our company while reducing our environmental impact.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
2.6 Objective:

Objective means the ‘goals’ that the business must achieve in order to meet its wider
business objectives.

Unilever’s objectives are-

• Growth in market share

• Clearer product differentiation

• Long term brand value to customers

• Decrease customer acquisition costs 8% per year

• Creating and launching new products / services – ‘Innovation’

2.7 Current Marketing Situation:

2.7.1 SWOT Analysis

The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the
company and describes the opportunities and threats facing Unilever Bangladesh Ltd.

Strengths:

• In depth industry experience and insight

• Largest amount of share in the market

• Having a good number of established brands

• An excellent distribution network

• Competitive advantages
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
Weaknesses:

• Reliance on outside raw materials

• So many substitutes available in the market

• Lack of control in the market. If any disruption arises between company and
distributor then the whole market suffers.

• Lack of informational reliability, since the market is too large

Opportunities:

• Participation within a growing industry

• Utilization of changing lifestyle of people for increasing demand

• Scope of expanding the market vertically and horizontally

• Application of new tactics and surprise packages

• Niche marketing

Threats:

• Threats of the market challengers

• A negative effect on people’s spending because of the current financial crisis

• Existence of political unrest though out the country

The moto of Unilever is to hold its strengths the longest time possible. It is also working
constantly with a view to using its opportunities at best. In spite of being the market
leader Unilever Bangladesh has some weaknesses and threats. Its research department is
working hard to make strategies to overcome those weaknesses and threats.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

2.7.2 Industry Analysis:

Unilever Bangladesh Ltd produces pure consumer goods. Some its brands are produced
locally in Bangladesh and some are imported from other regional factory of Unilever, like
Thailand, China, and UK etc. In Bangladesh the company has a Soap Manufacturing
factory and a Personal Products Factory located in Chittagong. Besides these, there is a
tea packaging operation in Chittagong and three manufacturing units in Dhaka, which are
owned and run by third parties exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh.

2.7.3 Competitive Analysis:

In the market of consumer goods Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is considered as the market
leader. As a market leader there is always a risk to be attacked by the market challengers.
She, Unilever’s strategy is to defend their market share by being premium in service,
having full-line strategy, extensive and efficient dealership system and good financing.

In Bangladesh the major two challengers for Unilever is ‘Square Toiletries Ltd’ and
‘Proctor & Gamble Ltd’.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 3

Product profile:

3.1 White Light - Tooth Whitening System:

A product can be defined as anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
actuation, use or consumption that might satisfy want or need.

In this marketing plan our concerning product is tooth whitening system. WhiteLight is a
revolutionary new system that incorporates light technology to whiten our tooth fast.
Light treatment is the latest whitening technique used by dentists. The unique, patent
pending WhiteLight is designed to be used at home and is extremely easy to use. The
advanced light combined with the specially formulated gel, rapidly removes surface
stains and penetrates deep to remove embedded stains. Works great on stains caused by
coffee, tea, smoking, red wine, fruit juice, cola, aging and more.

“WhiteLight” tooth whitening system will basically be a shopping product that people
will buy less frequently at higher price and fewer purchase locations.

3.2 Features:

• Whitens in just 10 minutes!

• Simple to use.
• Easy to maintain.

3.3 Packaging:
Packaging involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product.
Traditionally the function of packaging is to hold and protect the product. But in recent
days it is recognized that packaging perform many sales task from attracting attention to
describing the product and to make it to sale.
For our new product we will do regular packaging, in this package we will keep the
WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening System independently. It will be packaged individually.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
Each package contents:

• 1 x White Light Tooth Whitening System

• 2 x tooth whitening gel
• 1 x tooth silicone set
• 2 x Lithium CR2025 Batteries
• 1 x "Secrets To A Beautiful Smile"-manual

Note: There are two different color gels but both are the same.

Packaging of ‘WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening System’ will be done in such a way so that
we can draw the attention of people. The packaging will be done in such a way so it will
be differentiated from other type of products and can deliver the message very clearly. It
will identify the brand and also convey some descriptive and persuasive information
about the product.

Initially we will do packaging in the upper mentioned manners, but depending on the
positive response in future we will plan to do packaging in other way, like-
 We will try to offer the parts like formulated gel or whitener machine etc.
individually.

Figure: A sample of WhiteLight

 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

3.4 Level of product:

Five levels of WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening System will be-
• Core Benefit of the Product: It is a teeth whitener that will help to keep the tooth
white.
• Basic product: Basic product will be- the “WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening
System” it’s self and its logo.
• Expected Product: Expected product will be - its solution to white the tooth
gently and attractive packaging, reasonable price etc.
• Augmented Product: This whitener does white the tooth by using formulated
gel, which cannot do any other product in Bangladesh.
• Potential product: If we will cut the price after having positive response, we give
extra amount etc.

Figure: Level of product

 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

3.5 BCG Growth Matrix Analysis:

As it’s a new product for Unilever, other products are popular and already achieve stars.
Therefore comparatively we are hoping in the starting time we can gain Question marks
for “WhiteLight”. Though people are now more conscious about teeth; white teeth and
bright smile is part ones personality. So we are assuming people are more comfortable to
spend money on whitening teeth. When we will enter the growing market initially we
will be able to grab small amount of market share so we should apply Build Strategy by
injecting cash to increase market share and to make this product stars.

Relative Market Share

Market Growth Rate

Stars Question Marks

Cash Cows Dogs

Figure: Boston Consulting Group Approach

3.6 Segmentation process:

In our marketing plan as we are producing same product to all consume, which refers to
mass marketing means no segmentation by demographic, geographic, behavioral etc.

3.7 Target market selection process:

The target markets for our new product “WhiteLight” Tooth whitening system will be-
- Simply those people who have tooth.
- Mainly the urban area people, we will focus on the big cities of our country.
- People who want safe tooth whitener in an easy way.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
- People who are not interested go to dentist for tooth whitening but feel
comfortable spending money on tooth whitener.

Though our product is totally new in Bangladesh not so much people are aware about the
product therefore primarily we are focusing urban area people of some big cities; so
single segment concentration is our selective pattern of target market selection for this
product.

Figure: Single segment concentration

3.8 Product Life Cycle Stage:

As we are making a marketing plan for WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening System, which is a
new product and not available in the market so it’s still in product development stage,
however we expect that when it will enter the market it will in introduction stage where
sales will low but a increasing rate, and our target is to go in maturity stage for higher
sale and higher profit.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Figure: Product life cycle stage

3.9 Product Development:
Initially now we are offering very basic facilities through our product but after several
years we are planning to develop our product in following sectors-
• Different flavored formulated gel
• Rechargeable whitening machine though its now powered by battery

3.10 Consumer Buying Behavior:

In this situation consumer buying behavior can be Habitual Buying Behavior because in
our country this product are not available from other brands therefore when they will
decide to buy this product they will have low involvement.

3.11 Steps in the Consumer Buying Behavior:

WhiteLight is really appropriate to those people who are very look conscious. Because of
their consciousness may be they will recognize their needs. By our marketing they can be
aware about the product and search more information from dentists and also by surfing
internet. If they are interested about our product consumer can buy the product from
some of our outlets. And we are hoping this product will satisfy their needs.

3.12 SWOT Analysis of the product:

Strenghts Weaknesses
 Strong Brand Image  High Prices
 eServices and technology  Fewer purchase location
 Faster tooth whitener
 Easy to carry
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Opportunities Threats
 Differnt color gel  Competitors can produce
 Different flavore gel  Serving at lower price
 Price of raw materials can go up

Chapter 4
Pricing Strategy:
4.1 Price setting:
Price is the amounts of money customers have to pay to obtain the product. Generally in
setting price companies follow the following steps:

Select the price objective

Determine demand

Estimate costs

Analyze competitor price mix

Select pricing method

Select final price

As WhiteLight is a new product in our country so we will follow the followings:

 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
 Our price objective will be – Maximize current profit and increase sell.
 It will be inelastic demand. Because people who are look conscious will use
this product and actually price will not be an important matter to them. But
also as most of our country people are price sensitive so we will try to keep
lower and reasonable price.
 Total costs will depend on the price of the ingredients, cost of producing the
product, costs of packaging, costs of promotion activities and the company’s
fixed costs.
 In Bangladesh no other company is selling this kind of tooth whitener, so we
have no local competitors.
 After estimating costs we will add mark up value to get minimum profit.
 Then we will set the final price. For the premium package we will add less
mark-up, as the gel and whitening machine will be packaged together.

4.2 Pricing Method:

As we mentioned that we will add mark-up value to determine the price by using mark-
up method so our aim will be to keep the price in between Tk.1500 to Tk2000. But the
exact amount will be set based on the upper mentioned factors.

4.3 Pricing Strategy:

Considering “WhiteLight” as a new product in our country and this is already popular in
other countries we will use “Market Skimming” pricing strategy. We hope that buyer
willing to pay our settled price.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 5

Distribution or Location Strategy:

5.1 Distribution Process:

Unilever is doing this job quite efficiently for its existing products. For ‘WhiteLight -
Tooth Whitening System’, at first we will launch it in two big cities- Dhaka City and
Chittagong City. Depending on the positive response in future gradually we will extend
the market of this product in other divisions.

The distribution process of WhiteLight - Tooth Whitening System will be same as the
company’s other products, which is as following-

Consumers The final consumers

Retailers The retail stores

Own distributors
Wholesalers

Unilever itself
Manufacturer

Manufacturer:
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
We will produce this new product by our own and we will also make the formulated gel,
whitening machine of the dental floss by our own.

Wholesaler:
Unilever has its own distributors who will buy the wholesale amount and sell these to the
retailers.

Retailers:
Retailers will buy the products from distributors and sell these to the final consumers.

Consumers:
People can get it in superstores, big pharmacies etc. We will place this product mainly in
urban areas of Dhaka City and Chittagong City of Bangladesh with Unilever’s
exceptionally good channel of distribution.

5.2 Level of Distribution Channel:

As Unilever have their own distributors who are working as wholesaler, and they are sell
the product to the retailers from them consumer buy the product. Therefore, we can say
two level of distribution channel is followed by the Unilever.

5.3Distribution or marketing Channel systems:

Unilever are using conventional distribution channel as this company consisting of

independent producer and one or more independent wholesalers and retailers and also
they have no negotiation method to resolve the problem; if any problem arise. They are
doing their individual work by their own.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 6

Promotional Tools:

Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the products and persuade
consumers to buy it. So our targeted audiences are mainly the potential user of our
product. Though we specially targeted urban people, our main promotional concern will
go on them. We will do different types of promotional activities to introduce and create
awareness about our “WhiteLight” to the people.

6.1 Advertising:
TV advertising : For this product we will provide the information in such a way that will
include that, “Using whiting toothpaste is not always effective for everyone and visiting
to dentist for whiting is uncomfortable for some people and it takes a long time. But as
our “WhiteLight” Tooth whitener is very small and light product and easy to use for any
one at home, it will be able to whiten our teeth quickly and safely and as the gel is of
meant flavor, so it will also help us to have fresh breadth. So, we should use this Tooth
whitener.”
In these advertisements we will use either people or animation or both of them together.
It will be decided according to the costs.

WE will also publish attractive, colorful and informative advertisements in radio,

newspapers, internet, magazines and on billboards in regular basis.

We can do sponsoring and event organizing and campaign as our promotional

activity.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
Testimonial advertising: It refers to use influential or believable people in advertising.
In this case we will deal with dentists, as they are most believable to the people in case of
the matters of teeth. We will make a deal with them and they will suggest people to use
our Tooth whitener. We will also give free samples to the dentists, so that they can use it
to their patients and they will also suggest our “WhiteLight” Tooth whitener in the
prescriptions of their patients.

6.2 Sales promotion: We will give free samples in dental clinic, educational institutions
like dental college, hospital and also in super stores. The quality of those free samples
will be smaller than the original one.
Depending on the costs and future positive response we will plan to make more varieties
of advertisements and will give attractive sales promotion to grab and retain more
customers.

Communication Budget
Medium Cost in TK % of Total Cost

Television 5,233,000 22.90%

Newspaper 2,630,000 11.53%
Outdoor 4,870,000 21.32%
Radio 2,021,000 8.84%
Sponsoring & event organizing 5,830,000 25.52%
Additional Campaign Cost 2,260,000 9.89%
Grand Total 22,844,000 100%

6.3 Public Relation:

To extend market or to introduce the product to people marketers need to create public
relationship.
Unilever always tries to create events and stories, which automatically come to press
attention public gets to know about their product. For our new product “WhiteLight” we
will try to do the following activities:
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

 We will arrange press conferences and will try to have renowned dentists in
those programs, so that the information and messages seems trustworthy to the people.
 We will try to arrange seminars in schools, colleges, universities and medical
colleges about the usefulness and benefits of using WhiteLight. We think it will bring more
positive response because now a day young people are much
more concern about their look. In these seminars we will give free samples.

In future if possible we will also try to sponsor some events and show to attract more
customers and to capture strong places in the minds of the consumers.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 7

Action Program:

Unilever Bangladesh Ltd has a very well-structured organization. Every department of it

does its job very efficiently. The marketing plan which we have made will be
implemented and accomplished by different departments. First of all the plan will have to
be approved by the top level executives. Only after the approval it can start its function.

The strategies regarding the product, its promotional activities, price setting all will be
done by the marketing department.

The job of designing the product, manufacturing and packaging will be accomplished by
the production department.

Finance department will be responsible for budgeting and financing the product.

Like other brands of the company, a brand manager will be assigned for ‘WhiteLight -
Tooth Whitening System’ to administer overall activities of the product.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 8
8.1 Problem Identification:
Unilever is a establisher organization in our country so it have not that much problems.
However, WhiteLight is a new product in Bangladesh therefore it have some problems,
which are given below-
• Higher Price
• Lower purchase location
• Not aware about the product
• No segmentation

8.2 Recommendation and suggestion:

We have come up with some recommendation and suggestion that will help to develop
the product and make the product more competitive.
Our suggestions and recommendations are the following:

 Unilever should take initiative to reduce the price. Because without upper class
people this product’s price is unaffordable for other classes people.
 Unilever should increase their distribution in other cities as it only available in Dhaka
and Chittagong.
 Unilever should make people aware by increasing their advertising, sales promotion
and public relation.
 Unilever should segment their customer by producing different flavored gel like for
male- mint, vanilla and for female-chocolate, strawberry.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 9
Budgeting:
This section will offer a financial overview of “WhiteLight” Tooth whitener as it relates
to the marketing activities. The tooth whitener will address break-even analysis, sales
forecasts, expense forecasts, and how they link to the marketing strategy.

Break even analysis:

Here we have tried to analyze several price figures to determine the price that best suits
our product and the company.
Break-even volume = fixed cost/ (price-variable cost)
= 800000/ (1800-1200)
= 3000 units

Price Break-even Expected Total revenue Total cost Profit

volume sales units
Tk.1500 6000 20,000 30000000 24800000 5200000
Tk.1800 3000 18000 32400000 22400000 10000000
Tk.2000 2250 13000 26000000 16400000 9600000

Assumptions:
Fixed cost = Tk.800000
Variable cost = Tk.1200 per unit
Per unit cost = Tk.1350
From here we see that, if we set the price at tk.2000, the monthly break even volume is
only 2250 units. But at tk.1800 the break even volume is 3000 units which is a bit high
but we are having highest profit 10000000tk. So we have decided to go for tk.1800 per
unit where the company will be able to gain 37.5 percent profit per unit. The break even
analysis is shown in the figure:
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Sales forecast:
WhiteLight feels that the sales forecast is conservative. It will steadily increase sales as
the advertising budget allows. As this WhiteLight will be available in both
pharmaceutical stores and super markets, so in the following table we can see its sales
forecast:

Sales 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

pharmaceutical Tk520000 Tk.857800 Tk.1052000 Tk.756050 Tk.912500
stores
Super markets Tk.310000 Tk.502500 Tk.770000 Tk.592000 Tk.798520
Total sales Tk.830000 Tk.1360300 Tk.1822000 Tk.1348050 Tk.1711020

Direct cost of 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

sales
pharmaceutical Tk.410000 Tk.786500 Tk.887300 Tk.689200 Tk.850200
stores
Super markets Tk.260000 Tk.492200 Tk.716100 Tk.516050 Tk.706300
Total Cost of Tk.670000 Tk.1278700 Tk.1603400 Tk.1205250 Tk.1556500
sales
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
At the beginning, WhiteLight will have slow sales as it will be launched first time in the
market. In the next year hopefully this product will have increased sales. When the sale
of the product starts to decline, proper promotional activities will be undertaken to push
up the sales.

1200000

1000000

800000
Pharmaceutical Store
600000
Super Market
400000

200000

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Graph: Sales forecast of “WhiteLight” Tooth whitener

Marketing Expense Budget:

The expense forecast will be used as a tool to keep the department on target and provide
indicators when corrections and modifications are needed for the proper implementation
of the marketing task.

The marketing expense is high in the beginning of the product. As the product goes
towards its maturity level, the expense starts to settle down a bit. Then again after the
maturity stage the marketing expense needs to increase as promotional activities are
increased for larger sale.
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
Marketing expense budget 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Advertisements(newspaper 220000 186500 173200 158400 187900

& TV)
Campaign Cost 50000 35000 21200 10200 28700
Sponsoring & event 30000 50000 41200 32250 61200
organizing
Sales promotion 120000 90500 86520 53600 62510
Total sales & marketing 420000 362000 322120 254450 340310
expense
Percent of sales 50.6% 26.61% 17.67% 18.87% 21.86%

Sales vs. Expense:

2000000
1800000
1600000
1400000
1200000
1000000 Sales
800000 Expence
600000
400000
200000
0
2010Sales vs.2011
Graph: 2012
Expense of “WhiteLight” 2013
Tooth whitener 2014
 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight

Chapter 10

Contingency plan:

The job of monitoring performance comes after implementing the plan. It is important to
monitor whether the job is being performed as it is planned. If not then corrective
methods must be taken.

Difficulties and Risks:

• Problems generating a sufficient customer base.

• General public may not demand the product.

Worst Case Scenario:

• Determining that the business cannot support itself on an ongoing basis.

• Having to liquidate equipment to cover liabilities.

 Marketing Plan for WhiteLight
References:
• http://www.uxsight.com/product/4634/fast-whiten-white-light-tooth-tooth-
whitening-system.html

• http://www.provenmodels.com/16

• http://www.10mintoothwhitening.com/

• http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=product%20life%20cycle
%20stages&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi