You are on page 1of 38

INDEX 1. Introduction 2. Mission Of HUL 3. Strategy as a whole 4.

Marketing Strategy 2009-10 Brands and Innovation Market Place Continous Improvement 3. Marketing Strategy 2010-11 Brands and Innovation Market Place Continous Improvement 4. Marketing Strategy 2011-12 Brands and Innovation Market Place Continous Improvement 5. 6. Conclusion References 1-1 2-2 3-3 4-8

9-18

19-32

33-34 35-35

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED


Introduction

Hindustan Unilever is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company. They meet everyday needs of millions of Indians, right from the morning cup of tea to brushing at bedtime. Their brands touch the lives of more than 700 million Indians. TYPE Public Company TRADED AS BSE:500696 BSE sensex constituent INDUSTRY Consumer Goods FOUNDED 1932 HEADQUARTERS Mumbai,Maharashtra,India KEY PEOPLE Harish Manwani and Nitin Paranjpe PRODUCTS Foods,Beverages,cleaning agents and Personal Care Products REVENUE Rs.22116 crore NET INCOME Rs.2691 crore EMPLOYEES 16500 PARENT Unilever Plc (52%) WEBSITE http://www.hul.co.in/

CONCLUSION Strategy in the year 2009-10

33

Strategy in the year 2010-11 It has launched initiatives like go to market and Bushfire so that the company can ensure reaching its products to seven million outlets instead of selling the product in just 2,000 modern trade stores. Knorr is a perfect example of this. From just soup, it has not only moved to soupy noodles (soups and snacks), which is a runaway success, but is now positioned as a complete cooking aid (meal maker) for Indian housewives.

34

Strategy for the year 2011-12

MISSION
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 with the aim of doubling the size of our Company while reducing our environmental impact.

STRATEGY AS A WHOLE It is this relationship with our consumers that we would like to build upon and strengthen. We will continue to straddle the consumer price pyramid to meet the needs and aspirations of diverse consumers across India. Our stated strategy is to grow our business competitively, profitably and sustainably. The key pillars to achieving this are: Brands and innovation Market place Continuous improvement

MARKETING STRATEGY 2009-10


Stated strategy is to grow our business competitively, profitably and sustainably. The key pillars to achieving this are: Brands and innovation Market place Continuous improvement

BRANDS AND INNOVATION


Brands and innovation are at the heart of everything they do. Their believe that brands remain fresh, young and relevant if they are constantly innovating behind them. Innovation in terms of products, propositions, communication and even media deployment. As incomes and aspirations change, consumer habits, attitudes and behaviour change too. This constant change is something that are obsessed about. An obsession to ensure that their portfolio of brands is evolving continuously to exploit these changes. To do this successfully, consumer understanding is vital. They are constantly observing where and how consumers shop for and use our brands.

5 It is this undying curiosity that enables them to be clear about what brands need to do. They use this clarity to shape innovation programme by developing products and solutions that are relevant for consumers in India. They leverage Unilever's global technology expertise and the research and development capabilities in India to bring innovative products that meet the needs of consumers within India. Some of their major innovations this year have been: Pure it Compact-in-home water purifier an affordable safe drinking water solution for low-income consumers priced at Rs. 1,000, Knorr Soupy noodles providing wholesome nutrition to children's fun snacking moments, Brooke Bond Sehatmand tea offering combined benefits of health with immunity for lowincome rural consumers and the launch of Cif multi purpose cleaner . Equally, there have been several innovations on their existing big brands that delivered significant superior product and consumer experience. These included the relaunch of Lux, Wheel, Clinic Plus, Hamam, Liril and Pears.

MARKET PLACE
The biggest opportunity lies in growing the size of their market through innovations and activities that drive market development. Towards this end, They will further strengthen and broaden their relationship with customers working together on areas of mutual benefit such as consumer research, shopper behaviour and merchandising. Outstanding customer service and great in-store execution will be key to sustain winning relationships with customers and to grow markets. While General Trade will continue to be the primary channel for distribution addressing diverse consumers across both urban and rural markets, Modern Trade is an emerging channel for the future and winning in this channel is one of the key priorities for them. They invested ahead of time to build capabilities to serve their Modern Trade customers better while at the same time partnered with them to win with shoppers at the point of sale. Distribution has always been a competitive advantage for them. They are further building on this by significantly increasing their direct coverage while also improving the quality of coverage. They have deployed an end-to-end technology solution which helps reduce inventory cycles while enabling optimum service

7 levels. All their salesmen are equipped with hand-held devices which help to improve on-shelf availability of their products while also building assortment at individual store level. Similarly, their merchandisers have been equipped with hand-held devices to improve in-store display of their products so that products are top-of-mind whenever a shopper makes a purchase. This year , they rolled out a unique and innovative concept of 'Perfect Stores' as part of our endeavor to win with consumers at the point of sale. Project Shakti represents a unique and unmatched rural distribution model and offers us tremendous opportunities in accessing rural consumers. They intend to further leverage the Shakti network to significantly enhance our direct distribution coverage in rural markets. This will not only extend their presence in 'difficult-to-reach' stores in rural areas but also strengthen the Shakti network.

CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT
Delivering competitive, profitable and sustainable growth requires a philosophy of continuous improvement. This means being fast and flexible in the supply chain while keeping costs competitive. It also requires them to make

8 the most of their scale and aim for the best return on every rupee spent. Continuous improvement is key to developing a customer and consumer-led, agile value chain. In this value chain, they have tremendous opportunity for improving efficiencies by leveraging their scale. They are already doing so in our supply chain in the area of procurement and rapid deployment of appropriate technologies. This has enabled reduction in inventories, improved product freshness and time-to-shelf, which has resulted in significant reduction of working capital. They prioritise speed and flexibility in their supply chain to deliver growth. They are doing this through simple ideas. For example, in some of their detergent factories they are running 'twin track' on single production lines. This has helped them to nearly double their production thus enabling better customer service while improving operating efficiencies. Apart from this, today most of their production lines have developed the capability of quick changeovers to meet the market demand. Their effort is to continuously reduce business waste and eliminate losses in their supply chain using TPM as a key enabler . The savings generated are ploughed back into our products. They continue to drive their

9 supply chain to deliver top-quality products with world class service at a competitive cost. Return on marketing investments (ROMI) is another area where they drive continuous improvement. ROMI is about maximising the effectiveness of our advertising, promotional and trade investments. They have developed advanced marketing mix modelling techniques that allow them to assess all the marketing levers to drive growth and superior yields from marketing investment. For example, they have identified the media elasticity of each of their brand which helps them to optimise their advertising spends.

MARKETING STRATEGY 2010-11


BRANDS AND INNOVATION
Brands and innovations are the lifeblood of their business. Their success in the market rests on how they deploy these assets. Through their brands we keep pace with changes in consumer lifestyles and aspirations at all income levels. They rely on consumer insight and the use of breakthrough technology to deliver bigger and better innovations into the market faster, supported by the very best marketing.

10 Their aim is to give consumers an unbeatable product experience. They are investing in their formulations and constantly assessing their product performance in order to drive consumer preference in blind product tests. They are doing this both for their innovations and for their existing mixes. Some of their key product innovations in 2010-11 have been: Rin detergent powder that now comes with a patented technology that promises better whiteness, Dove Shampoo in superior packaging, Ponds Dreamflower talc in a new fragrance and Brooke Bond Sehatmand, which delivers vitamins in tea. This year they entered new product categories with the launch of Lakme Skin Lightening Compact, Cif surface cleaners, Sure anti-perspirant deodorant, Fair & Lovely anti-marks eraser pen, the Ponds Gold Radiance range in Home and Personal Care business. In the Foods business, they entered new categories through offerings such as Kissan Nutrismart in the malted food drinks space, Kissan Soya in the juice and Kissan Creamy Spread in the spread segment. They are also in the process of strengthening our presence in the services business through expansion of Lakm Beauty Salons and Swirls ice-cream parlours and have rolled out the BRU

11 world caf on a pilot basis. Great brands are also built by great communications. Connecting emotionally with customers and educating them has often proved to be a game changer. Surf Excel encourages mothers to let their children have fun naturally and spontaneously. Lifebuoy educates consumers in the simple task of hand-washing that can help avoid life threatening diseases. Pepsodent brings back little joys to the task of brushing for kids. Red Label Tea opens a plethora of health benefits for its consumers. They created a special 7 p.m. soup time with Knorr Soups.Great products, superior innovation and effective marketing are essential for building world-class brands. Throughout their history, they have been at the forefront in developing innovative and impactful ways to build their brands.

MARKET PLACE
In 2010-11, They built on their ongoing innovations and activities to drive market development. Outstanding customer service and great in-store execution helped us sustain winning relationships with customers. They have restructured their front-end selling system through a number of carefully crafted steps. They streamlined the footprint of all their categories to ensure they can all be

12 sold at every store. This streamlining has led to a sharp increase in the distribution of our brands. They also developed a specialist sales system with dedicated resources for top-end skin care and cosmetic products.2010-11 saw many new initiatives for distributors. A tool has been developed to evaluate each distributors performance and reward them accordingly for their achievements. It also gives managers of the Company an avenue to review each distributors performance, discuss plans for the future with them and help them reap greater benefits. Next-generation technology deployed in 2010 has yielded significant execution improvement and translated into business benefits in urban markets. The process has been extended to rural markets as well. Besides, the technology is now supported with improved back-end analytical models for sharp recommendations and intelligent, scientific and outlet-specific execution tasks that help improve on-shelf availability and hence success at every outlet. The on-shelf availability is supported with extensive merchandising and visibility. The programme has tripled in the scale of operations, is significantly more reliable, well-managed and measurable, thus improving the in-store presence of our products.

13 In 2010-11, Modern Trade continued to be the fastest growing channel in the market and winning in this channel is one of the key priorities for the Company. The Company has partnered with customers on several important initiatives and worked towards developing and building categories of the future. In addition, execution and driving up on-shelf availability remains a key focus area. These initiatives have resulted in HUL corporate shares going up in the channel over the last two years and HUL being recognised as the Supplier of the Year by key retailers. We also embarked on an extremely ambitious project to further increase our distribution, which has also been a key competitive advantage for us. Based on coverage information and extensive data mining, new markets were identified in both urban and rural. In 2010-11, the Company extended its relationship with Shakti and took the initiative to the next level through Shaktimaan. Project Shaktimaan enrols an unemployed or under-employed male member of a Shakti family to sell their products in the surrounding villages. The initiative enhances two aspects simultaneously livelihood opportunities of the Shakti family and the quality and depth of the distribution of HUL products.

14 The outcomes have been tangible and manifold: Leading market development Establishing suitable livelihood for the underprivileged Creating a self-sustaining business model Accessing markets beyond the reach of traditional distribution models By the end of 2010, there were more than 23,000 Shaktimaan representatives going to villages across India. Shakti Programme has helped in tripling the rural footprint by reaching out to increased outlets. The project is supported with centralised tracking of stores along with the quality of coverage to deliver sustained sales

CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT
Delivering competitive, profitable and sustainable growth requires a mindset of continuous improvement. This means being fast and flexible in the supply chain while keeping end-to-end costs competitive. It also requires them to make the most of our scale and aim for the best return on every rupee spent. Continuous improvement is key to developing a consumer-led and customer-led, agile value

15 chain. In this value chain, they have always explored opportunities for improving efficiencies in various forms. On an ongoing basis, they continuously raise the bar to remain competitive on all fronts. They have been doing so across our supply chain in the area of procurement, make and deliver, through the following drivers: 1. Leveraging our global scale and knowledge to make our supply chain most competitive. Regular benchmarking with global and local competitors is a key element of this process. 2. Reduction in inventories and reduced time-to-shelf improves our product freshness and deliver superior consumer value. 3. Prioritising speed and flexibility in their supply chain to deliver growth 4. Driving TPM to continuously reduce business waste and eliminate losses in our supply chain. The efficiencies generated from the above initiatives are ploughed back into enhancing their product offerings. They continue to drive their supply chain to deliver topquality products with world class service, at a competitive cost.

16 Return on marketing investments (ROMI) is an area where they have stepped up focus in recent times. ROMI is about maximising the effectiveness of our advertising, promotional and trade investments. They are deploying various techniques that allow us to assess all the marketing levers to drive growth and superior yields from marketing investment. The learnings from the past investments are being deployed to improve the effectiveness of future activities. All marketing costs and assumptions are evaluated and savings are derived by stopping non-productive activities or driving better efficiencies on the planned spends.

Unilever Sustainable living Plan


They have ambitious plans to grow the Company. But they recognise that growth at any cost is not viable. They have to develop new ways of doing business which will decouple our growth from our environmental impact while increasing the positive social benefits arising from their activities simultaneously. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, launched globally in 2010 by their parent company Unilever, is the blueprint for doing this. It is not a new concept for Unilever and for its operations in India. They have long been working on our impact on society and the

17 environment. One example is their work to improve the nutritional quality of their products. Nutrition Enhancement Programme was a cross-category benchmark developed by Unilever Food & Health Research Institute, based on international dietary guidelines. HUL introduced this programme across key food brands in India to reduce the levels of unhealthy ingredients such as trans-fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar. Another example is the progress HUL has made in reducing CO2 emissions from energy and water in the factories. Measured per tonne of production, since 2004 they have achieved reductions of 29% in CO2 from energy and 36% in our use of water in 2010. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan brings together all the work Unilever has been doing globally and at the same time sets many new global targets to enable it to achieve its growth ambitions sustainably. The plan sets out over 50 social, economic and environmental global targets and three big goals for Unilever to achieve by 2020 globally. The global targets are wide ranging and take into account impact across the value chain.

18 The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan will result in three significant outcomes by 2020 globally: Help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being. Halve the environmental impact of the making and use of Unilever products. Enhance the livelihoods of thousands of people in Unilevers supply chain. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan is the right thing to do for people and the environment. But it is also right for Unilever: the business case for integrating sustainability into our brands is clear and persuasive. A growing number of consumers want reassurance that the products they buy are sustainably sourced and protect the earths natural resources. Many retailers have sustainability goals of their own and need the support of suppliers like Unilever if they are to achieve them. This collaboration is broadening and deepening the relationships they have with their customers. Sustainability is a fertile area for product and packaging innovation. It is allowing us to deliver new products with new consumer benefits.

19 Over half of Unilevers global sales are in developing countries including India, the very places which face the greatest sustainability challenges deforestation, water scarcity and poor sanitation. These countries represent major growth markets for Unilever, so if Unilever can develop products today that help people adapt to the changing environment of tomorrow, it will help Unilever grow faster in future. Managing our business sustainably not only generates cost savings, it can also save consumers money.

MARKETING STRATEGY 2011-12


BRANDS AND INNOVATION
Two out of three Indians use our products, making their brands a part of every day life. They help people look good, feel good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. Bigger, better, faster innovation Brands and innovation are at the heart of everything they do. Research and Development (R&D) is the home of breakthrough technology for bigger, better, faster innovations.

20 Home & Personal Care In 2012, they launched Lifebuoy Activ Naturol Shield, providing breakthrough technology in germ protection. The technology packs a combination of naturally occurring substances with the best of technology in cleansing, providing ten times better protection against disease causing pathogens. It is a matter of pride for them that the Unilever R&D centre in Bengaluru, India, was the lead research centre for this innovation. The launch of Ponds Age Miracle Cell ReGEN Range brought to the Indian market the most advanced antiageing technology developed by the Ponds Institute. The New Ponds Age Miracle with Intelligent Pro Cell Complex gives aging skin cells three times more skin renewal power. This extensive collection provides everything the contemporary Indian woman needs for flawless naturallooking makeup. In another innovation, Fair and Lovely introduced a future tube to upgrade sachet consumers to an affordable yet aspirational format. This enabled incremental volume and value consumption by inviting existing sachet users to trade up to the future tube, which apart from being innovative and easy to use was priced to deliver greater value.

21 In Hair Care, the Keratinology innovation launched by Sunsilk is specially designed to prolong the beauty of salon-treated hair. It features Keratin Micro Technology, which works to intensively nourish and reconstruct the hairs surface for stunning hair renewal and keeps salon beauty for longer. The Color Rescue range by Dove brought to the Indian market a unique product that repairs damaged hair and helps lock in the vibrant colour for longer. In laundry, the Rin portfolio was further extended with the launch of Rin Perfect Shine Neel in the Liquid Blues category. The Rin portfolio currently includes Rin Washing Powder, Rin Detergent Bar and Rin Bleach. Liquid Blues is a logical extension for the Rin brand, which carries the promise of delivering sparkling white clothes. Comfort, the fabric conditioner brand, has grown with innovative market development. Comfort anti bacteria was launched as a new variant during the year to build on the huge success that the category has seen in just a few years since it was first launched in India. In colour cosmetics, Lakm launched the premium range of Absolute makeup a high performance color cosmetics range, with leading edge technology sourced

22 from our Italian and French partnerships. With a stunning range of high-end face, lip, nail and eye offerings, along with professional make-up applicators, Lakm Absolute provides the Indian woman with a premium long-wear line. Axe, the leading deodorant with a presence of over 10 years in India, saw the portfolio extended with the launch of Axe Shower Gel. The Axe grooming range for the young Indian male also includes Shaving Gel, Foam, After-Shave lotion, and CologneTalc. Foods Rising consumption and changing tastes are opening up new opportunities. The tea bag market in India has tripled in the last three years with growth being led by exotic, flavoured and green teas. In order to outgrow the market and capitalise on this opportunity, Taj Mahal and Lipton last year launched 11 new flavours in the flavoured tea bag and green tea bag segment. The burgeoning caf culture in India has been driving growth of in-home consumption of coffee as well. To leverage this, Bru introduced three new brands in the premium and masspremium segments of the instant coffee market viz. Bru Exotica, Bru Gold and Bru Lite and initiated a pilot in the retail space by opening eight Bru World Cafs in Mumbai in 2011. The Frozen Dessert category continued to grow

23 with successful innovations during the summer of 2011. New Cornetto Disc, Paddle Pop Grape Apple Jelly, Selections Roasted Almond Chocolate and Black Currant Raisin which targeted and delighted youth, kids and families alike. Reducing salt Their Knorr portfolio has been revamped to introduce newer variants with less sodium over the past few years. This has resulted in an average 13% sodium reduction among our soup top sellers. In 2011, we also reduced sodium in Kissan ketchup formulations by an average of 11% Reducing calories To cater to the needs of the growing number of health conscious people, Kwality Walls, our frozen dessert brand, offers product formats which deliver less than 99 Kcal in one standard scoop of 80ml, in its Selection range. Providing healthy eating information their labels carry information on energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugars, fat, and where relevant on saturated fat, fibre and sodium. HUL also participates in the 'The Choices program', a front-of-pack labelling programme aimed to help

24 consumers make the healthier choice. They aim to have two-thirds of our foods and beverages portfolio comply with the Healthy Choice guidelines by 2015. Around 60% of their major food and beverage brands Brooke Bond, Bru. Knorr, Kissan, Kwality Walls already comply with the Healthy Choice guideline. Water The Pureit innovation addresses one of the biggest technological challenges of the century that of making safe water accessible and affordable for millions. Pureit provides four litres of as safe as boiled water at a running cost of Rs 1 without the hassles of boiling, without the need of electricity or a continuous tap water supply. Pureit has protected 30 million lives in India alone and is currently available in seven countries. Pureit Marvella RO was launched in 2011. It is the only RO water purifier with 15 days Advance Alert System. The range also includes Pureit Marvella, Pureit Classic 14 litres and Pureit Classic 23 litres.

25 Looking ahead Their innovations continue to focus on strengthening the core and leading market development across segments. Every day were working on ways to make our brands the best, most innovative and most agile in the world.

MARKET PLACE
Consumers are at the heart of our business. They have a large base of consumers served through millions of stores. They are now reaching out with more stores, better stores and better standards of service. At the same time, they are making special efforts to reach out to the remotest corners of India, delivering products and services to people and places that were never served before. More stores: faster spread, larger reach Coverage expansion was a key thrust area in 2011, building on the expansion they undertook a year earlier. Over the last two years, they have added one million new stores, doubling our coverage and taking HUL products and services to some of the remotest corners. They have used technology, our rich insights and our flagship programme, Project Shakti, to spread out fast. The project has been strengthened in 2010-11 with the Shaktimaan initiative under which men of the Shakti families are given bicycles to cover surrounding villages to increase HULs

26 distribution and sales as well as enhance the income of Shakti families. There are now 30,000 Shaktimaans across India. Shakti Amma will continue to drive home-tohome sales in their village and Shaktimaan will cover small retail outlets in surrounding villages. Perfect stores: right product, right outlet, right quantity The Perfect Stores programme is aimed at improving availability by maintaining and building assortment in outlets and ensuring better visibility of HUL products at the point of purchase. Currently, 1.1 million retail outlets that account for more than 90% of HUL turnover in retail outlets work as Perfect Stores. Half of these were enrolled in the Perfect Stores programme in 2011, delivering higher sales and market shares than the average stores. Project iQ, which uses sophisticated analytics to reach out to these Stores, won the 2011 Global Unilever IT Award for Releasing the Power of Information. Customer Centricity: the customer comes first 2011 saw greater focus on customers to drive growth and ensure a seamless working relationship with our partners. They institutionalise the Joint Business Planning (JBP) process for distributive trade in 2011. Under this, the customer

27 and HUL agreed on a set of deliverables to set the tone for growth ahead of the market. This was complimented with a comprehensive customer reward and recognition through the programme Customer Differentiation Tool. They also launched Customer Credo, under which members of our customer team and partner functions spent 50,000 man-hours to connect with the customer. They rolled out a programme christened Happy 2 Help across more than 2300 distributors to help better customer connect and quick resolution of their issues. This is an active effort at issue identification and resolution using the customer helpline Levercare. Almost 4000 pending issues were resolved within a month. They plan to repeat the exercise once every quarter. Modern trade: Growth through partnership Modern trade is one of the fastest growth channels for HUL. To build on this, they created joint marketing plans with leading customers like Walmart, Metro and Tesco. The Modern Trade team swept the Customer Awards for 2011 with several strategic customers like Tesco, Walmart and Hypercity.

28

Project 3G: Building engagaement with 20,000 Associates


Point of presence is critical for our business because it is here that 70% of decisions to buy are made. The quality of their presence at the point of purchase is directly corelated to the capability of their business associates and their people in the field. These associates are responsible for in-store execution. In the interest of bringing in sustainable HR processes for better management of performance and engagement of third party associates, HUL has launched a platform named 3G (short for Gain, Grow, Get ahead). This platform enables HUL to reward and recognize top performing associates, enhance their capabilities and provide a clear career path for growth, thereby ensuring high motivation levels amongst the associates to enable better execution in the market. Project Express: Gateway to rural They want to enhance our coverage even further to enable them reach as much as 90% of the rural population. In order to achieve this, they have to ensure a viable sustainable business model for our associates. This calls for partnering with businesses like mobile telecommunications, which have a similar wide reach. They have partnered with Tata Teleservices Limited to

29 increase our rural foot print and give a fillip to rural distribution as well as the earnings potential of Shakti entrepreneurs. They are working to extend this partnership to 15 states.

CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT
Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, processes and services. This leads to a step up in all round performance. Their focus on doing every small thing better every single day is bringing consumers and customers better quality and service while delivering substantial savings and accelerated growth. Lean, responsive, consumer-led Consumer needs are changing rapidly. They must study these changing needs and respond to changing aspirations. Every product and service is shaped and built from the perspective of our consumers. In addition, they must take all that we already do well and do it even better, faster and more efficiently to help build a lean, responsive and consumer-led organization. Better service Service as measured through 'On Shelf Availability' saw a significant improvement in 2011. Overall service level as measured through CCFOT (Customer Case-Fill On-Time)

30 saw an improvement of 260 basis points. Modern Trade reported a sharper improvement of 400 basis points. These results were delivered through structured initiatives which are robust and sustainable. Better quality They are systematically improving the quality of our products as perceived by our consumers. In 2011, consumer complaints per million units fell by 13%. As an example, they changed to laser coding on bottles so that markings became easier to read, eliminating complaints that coding was sometimes smudgy or illegible. Flawless execution Their business has seen strong volume growth over the last several quarters. In order to support this growth, they are adding capacity in a structured and cost effective framework. They are leveraging the global capability of Unilever to execute with speed. They added 20% capacity during 2011.They are equipping our facilities with state-ofart technology and rigorous standardization to ensure that designs are rolled out faster at newer locations under the principle Design Once, Deploy Everywhere.

31 Cost savings They have saved 6% in total supply chain cost by exploiting improvement opportunities at every node in the value chain. Wherever they find opportunities to add value or cut costs, they take them. They execute fast and replicate even faster. An example of this is the low cost business model for the washing powder brand, Wheel. Managing cash They continued to drive cash delivery and sustained negative working capital in 2011. They reduced days-onhand inventory. They aim to bring stocks down further through continuous improvement of our business planning process. Partnerships with suppliers Their suppliers are vital partners in our sustainable growth ambitions. They work with them to create better, faster innovation. In line with their commitments in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, they increased the amount of agricultural raw materials obtained from sustainable sources.

32 Growing sustainably They have begun using alternate biomass-based fuel to generate steam at some of our manufacturing facilities. In 2011, as part of the first phase of this shift, they changed to sustainable fuel at three factories. The work involved perfecting the biomass based boiler technology and sourcing of biomass based fuels. Driving down Costs, Improving margin Their market leading washing powder Wheel has seen margin improvement through our low cost business model (LCBM) approach, which optimises margins at every link in the value chain. For Wheel, LCBM included improvement in trade terms and advertising budgets as well as in the manufacturing and distribution network.

ANALYSIS OF HUL MARKETING STRATEGY

2012

STRATEGY

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROJECT WORK


ANALYSIS OF HUL MARKETING STRATEGY

Mahesh Chandra Mohanty M.Com Part I 10/5/2012

REFERENCES
www.business-standard.com www.hul.co.in www.financialexpress.com/news/hul-itc-take-battle-to.../658713/

35

Independent.academia.edu/.../Hindustan_Unilever_Limited-_a_study www.oppapers.com/.../marketing-strategy-of-hul-in-india-page1.htm.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_strategy Hindustan Unilever Limited Registered Office: Unilever House, B D Sawant Marg, Chakala, Andheri East, Mumbai 400099 www.hul.co.in

You might also like