Marketing Plan Unilever 6w2sc

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 Care

Fabric Cleansing

Skin Cleansing

Skin Care Oral and Care Personal Grooming

Hair Care

Tea Based Beverage

Vim

Wheel

Lux

Dove

Taaza

Lifebuoy

Fair Lovely

Dove

Pond’s

Vaseline

Rexona

Surf Excel

& Pepsodent CloseUp

Sunsilk Clear

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 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 deg 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.

Market Growth Rate

Relative Market Share 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 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 markup 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 followingConsumers

The final consumers

Retailers

The retail stores

Wholesalers

Manufacturer

Manufacturer:

Own distributors

Unilever itself

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 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 ments 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 ments 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 ments 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 deg 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 ister 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 Tk.1500 Tk.1800 Tk.2000

Break-even volume 6000 3000 2250

Expected sales units 20,000 18000 13000

Total revenue

Total cost

Profit

30000000 32400000 26000000

24800000 22400000 16400000

5200000 10000000 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 pharmaceutical stores

2010 Tk520000

2011 Tk.857800

2012 Tk.1052000

2013 Tk.756050

2014 Tk.912500

Super markets Total sales

Tk.310000 Tk.830000

Tk.502500 Tk.1360300

Tk.770000 Tk.1822000

Tk.592000 Tk.1348050

Tk.798520 Tk.1711020

Direct cost of sales pharmaceutical stores Super markets Total Cost of sales

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Tk.410000

Tk.786500

Tk.887300

Tk.689200

Tk.850200

Tk.260000 Tk.670000

Tk.492200 Tk.1278700

Tk.716100 Tk.1603400

Tk.516050 Tk.1205250

Tk.706300 Tk.1556500

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

ments(newspaper & TV) Campaign Cost Sponsoring & event organizing Sales promotion Total sales & marketing expense

220000

186500

173200

158400

187900

50000 30000

35000 50000

21200 41200

10200 32250

28700 61200

120000 420000

90500 362000

86520 322120

53600 254450

62510 340310

Percent of sales

50.6%

26.61%

17.67%

18.87%

21.86%

Sales vs. Expense: 2000000 1800000 1600000 1400000 1200000 1000000 800000 600000 400000 200000 0

Sales Expence

2010Sales vs.2011 2012 2013 Graph: Expense of “WhiteLight” 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 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-toothwhitening-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