Unilever’s Pricing Strategy is increasing the discount on the normal prices of their products and cutting down marketing and advertising expenditure to compensate. This strategy illustrates the spending power that consumers have in the current price-driven market.The strategy follows on from Procter and Gamble’s pricing strategy where the company instituted major cuts on the discounts they provided on their products and increased advertising instead. Unilever is a British-Dutch corporation who owns many brands across food, beverages, cleaning products and personal care sectors. Unilever was founded in 1930 by the joining of British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margerine Unie. Both companies had a common interest in palm oil which is a foundation of both products. They used the merger to efficiently import larger quantities of palm oil.
Unilever now owns over 400 brands through its acquisitions over the years including Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Hellmann’s and Wall’s Ice Cream. The most recent of its ventures has been to enter into an agreement where they have sold Sanex to Colgate, Palmolive in return of Colgate-Palmolive’s detergent brands, Fab, Lavomatic and Vel in Columbia. However, the company’s main focus is ‘billion dollar brands’, 13 brands which achieve annual sales in excess of $1billion. Unilever’s products are sold in 180 countries worldwide.
In 2008, the company was targeted by Greenpeace UK for buying palm oil from suppliers who were responsible for damaging Indonesia’s rainforests. Unilever responded by founding the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and has now committed the company to buying all its palm oil from sustainable sources. In 2010, Unilever acquired enough GreenPalm certificates to cover Europe, New Zealand and Australia. GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme, a product of the RSPO, committed to tackling environmental and social problems created by the production of Palm Oil.
Unilever now owns over 400 brands through its acquisitions over the years including Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Hellmann’s and Wall’s Ice Cream. The most recent of its ventures has been to enter into an agreement where they have sold Sanex to Colgate, Palmolive in return of Colgate-Palmolive’s detergent brands, Fab, Lavomatic and Vel in Columbia. However, the company’s main focus is ‘billion dollar brands’, 13 brands which achieve annual sales in excess of $1billion. Unilever’s products are sold in 180 countries worldwide.
In 2008, the company was targeted by Greenpeace UK for buying palm oil from suppliers who were responsible for damaging Indonesia’s rainforests. Unilever responded by founding the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and has now committed the company to buying all its palm oil from sustainable sources. In 2010, Unilever acquired enough GreenPalm certificates to cover Europe, New Zealand and Australia. GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme, a product of the RSPO, committed to tackling environmental and social problems created by the production of Palm Oil.
