1.

INTRODUCTION

1.1

About Unilever (M) Sdn. Bhd.

In 1947, the Lever Brothers established their company in Malaysia with a soap and
margarine manufacturing plant located in Bangsar. All these year, the company has
been growing along with Malaysian economic, social and political development. In
1994, Lever Brothers finally adopted the global brand name, Unilever, with 70%
owned by Unilever PLC (UK), 23% by Pemodalan Nasional Berhad(PNC) and 7% by
Lembaga Tabung Haji.
All these years, Unilever (M) Sdn. Bhd. expanded their business into various
fields, ranging from nutrition to personal care products. Unilever has always been
the key player in the food and household industry. Today, Unilever is not just any
brand but a brand that comes first in the mind of any household consumers, in other
words, Unilever is a consumers first choice of purchase. In order for them to achieve
such success, they understand that understanding consumers needs is crucial and of
course the local markets culture as well, for their growth. However, in their effort in
understanding all these, Unilever faced difficulties in meeting the complex cultural
nuances and through their sensitive responds, they are able to reap what they sow.
Through their efforts they have gain brand awareness amongst consumers
nationwide.
Unilevers effort brought some top brands in the market, such as, Dove, Lux,
Clear, Lifebuoy, Ponds, Breeze, Ekonomi Handalan, Sunsilk, Fair & lovely, Rexona,
Walls, Lipton, Knorr, Ladys Choice and Planta. All these brands have assisted them
in achieving their mission, Our mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet every day
needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look
good, feel good and get more out of life.. Unilever understands the importance and
multiple definitions of Vitality to various people and hence, they introduced these
products to the market where vitality is put at first and their unique selling point.

1.2

Brands of Unilever (M) Sdn. Bhd.

1.3

Competitive Analysis SWOT

1.3.1 Strength
Unilever is a globally and locally known strong brand. In Malaysia, it has over 60
years of history and hence they gain consumers trust and reputation along the way.
They are one of the trusted names in nutrition, hygiene and personal care products
across 150 countries. Their products are now part of our daily life necessities in
home. Thus, with their reputations, they have gained household awareness status
(Unilever (M) Sdn Bhd, 2011).
For a manufacturing company, distribution and logistics are crucial factors.
For Unilever, they have good distribution channels. They are able to shelf their
products in big retail players like GCH Retail (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Giant), Tesco Sdn. Bhd.,
Magnificient Diagraph Sdn. Bhd. (Carrefour). Big retailers like Giant, Tesco and
Carrefour, they have retail stores nationwide, and this hence makes Unilevers
products easily accessible. Apart from that, their products are also available through
wholesalers. They currently are working with several wholesalers from different
states, examples are, Teong Moh Trading Sdn. Bhd., Bee Seng Huat Enterprise Sdn.
Bhd., Fimmex Trading Sdn. Bhd., Sykt. Sima Trading, Penampang Enterprise Sdn. Bhd.,
Victory Trading and more (Unilever (M) Sdn Bhd, 2011).

1.3.2 Weakness
Regardless of their brand strength, Unilever still has their own weaknesses, for
instance, their lack of competitiveness in the price wars among other mature players
in the food industry. This can be seen in their recent annual sales growth rate in their
food brand portfolio. Among players like Nestle and Danone, Unilever is ranked at
third with 3.8% of sales growth while the previous two has higher growth,
5.7%(NSRGY.PK) and 7.0%(GPDNF.PK) respectively (Adam, 2010).

1.3.3 Opportunities
One of the opportunities for Unilever is to establish a supply agreement. Fluctuation
in commodity prices does affect Unilever in their pricing competitiveness because
they somehow need to lighten the burden by selling their goods at higher price to
consumers. However, if Unilever is able to reduce such fluctuation they can easily
maintain their pricing and at the same time gain a better competitive edge as
compared to other players like Nestle and Danone. This is where the supply
agreement comes in, where Unilever can establish a trade agreement with their
suppliers to ensure long run of supply at a more stable rate (Five Potential Benefits
of Strategic Alliance, 2007).
Unilever has strong Research and Development team. They are the leading
company in continuous Research and Development. According to Prof. Genevive
Berger, Chief Research and Development Officer or Unilever, they are always looking
for the best scientists and technologist to do researches on how they can innovate
their products and continuously seek for improvement to add vitality to consumers
life. Unilever spend an average of 1 billion on R&D annually. Besides, they also filed
around 250 to 350 patents application annually as well. Currently they have more
than 20,000 patents and patents application filed (Unilever (M) Sdn Bhd, 2011).

1.3.4 Threats
Like any other companies, regardless of their industries, Unilever does face their
own threats.

Earlier this year, Unilever is threatened by the fluctuation in

commodity prices. According to Mr. Polman, CEO of Unilever, they can withstand the
burden of increasing commodity price if they pass on the inputs cost is passed on to
consumers (The Hindu Business Line, 2011).
Another threat for Unilever is the increasing number of players in the market.
In the past few decades, Unilevers competitor might only be big firms like Nestle
and Danone, however, recent years, private labels are introduced. The emergence of
private labels is a threat to all players of their own respective industry. Private label
products are priced so low and soon become consumers preferences. Hence, now
Unilever is not only competing with the aforementioned competitors but also strong
retailers like Tesco, Carrefour, Giant and more (Nigel, 2008).

2.0

MARKETING

2.1

Target Audiences

Unilevers target audiences are segmented based on psychographic segmentation.

Unilevers mission is to add vitality to life and thus they are targeting on consumers
who are health conscious and at the same time chasing for better taste in their foods.
Hence, Unilevers target audiences are:

Health conscious consumers.

Consumers of all age.

2.2

Positioning

Using FCB Grid Model, a positioning concept is derived.

THINKING
HIGH
INVOLVEMENT

Informative

FEELING

strategies

for Affective

products that are technical in products

strategies
that

nature and purchased based on psychological

rational thinking and motives (affect,
(cognition,

affect,

and conation.

for

provide
benefits
cognition,

For

example,

conation). For examples, cars, cosmetics, jewellery, fashion

house, computers, etc.
LOW
INVOLVEMENT

etc.

Habit formation strategies for Self-satisfaction

products

that

repeatedly

after

are

bought for products seen as "life's

researching little pleasures" (conation,

first purchase decision - routine affect,

purchases (conation, cognition, example,
affect).

strategies

cognition).
lollies,

For

biscuits,

For example tomato magazines, impulse items,

sauce, soap, toothpaste, etc.

etc.

For Unilevers Walls Ice-cream, it is located at the 4th quadrant of the grid, where
consumers gain the final self-satisfaction after consuming the ice-cream and
whereby involvement is very low, in other word, theres not much decision making
required prior to the consumption.

2.2.1 Positioning Concept

Healthy

Tasty

Fun

Refreshing

2.2.2 Unique Selling Point

Price

Nestle
Nutrition
Values

Taste
Walls
Ice-cream

Quality Control

The current new Walls Hearts Ice-cream will be positioned as the most preferred
choice by consumers which focus on Nutrition Values and Quality Control.

Quality is the vital ingredient of Walls brand. Walls has been performing well due to
their high quality standards. The ice-cream can either be consumed as leisure food
or party food snacks. The plus point of this new ice-cream is that consumers will not
have to worry about their health while consuming this ice-cream. Few of the benefits
of this ice-cream is that its low in fat, high in carbs, and rich in probiotics (Anne,
2010).

10

2.3

Marketing Objectives

Increase Unilevers food products sales volume and market share from 3.8% to 8.0%
and strive to be the leader among competitors like Nestle and Danone by end of
2012

11

2.4

Marketing Mix

2.4.1 Product
Walls ice-cream can be categorized into a few categories, premium, kids, family
oriented and affordable. In terms of flavours, they focused on three main flavours,
chocolate, vanilla and fruits (Unilever, 2010). The introduction of Walls Heart is an
ice-cream with vanilla and fruits flavouring. The product is supposed to give a
tropical and refreshing feeling.

2.4.2 Price
Walls can use a combination of value-based and psychological pricing method. The
value given to consumers is the nutritional value. As for the psychological pricing
method, we are going to price the new Walls Heart at a range par with Cornetto icecream.

2.4.3 Place
Walls distribution network is wide and easily available in major retail store, sundry
shop and hypermarkets. Walls distribute their products through their mother
company, Unilever. This made distribution easier as retailers can also purchase
Walls products at the same time (Food & Beverage: Foodstuff, Drinks, F & B Supplies,
Ingredients, Cutlery, Crockery & Catering Equipment, 2011).

2.4.4 Promotion
Walls is going to promote their product through mass-media such as TV, Out-ofhome media and adverts. In addition, Walls will also use free sampling to promote
its product. For its new product, Walls uses promotion tools such as magazines,
radio, retail media and newspaper.
Besides, we are also going to do road shows in Universities and Colleges to promote
our new ice-cream to youngsters (Please refer to appendix for image sample).
12

3.0

ADVERTISING

13

3.1

Advertising Objectives

As for the advertising objective, it is derived from the AIDA model.

Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

Looking at the movement towards action chart, we can simply break the 4 steps into
3 realms.
Cognitive - Ads provides information and facts.
Awareness

Affective - Ads change attitudes and feelings.

Interest

Conative - Ads stimulate/direct desires and leads to action.

Desire

Action

Objective: The advertising campaign held is to build consumers awareness towards

Walls Heart new ice-cream. Walls would like to convey the message of a fun and
loving lifestyle but at the same time healthy for consumers. Ultimately, Walls want
to create a idea of healthy snacks in consumers mind to encourage purchase.

14

3.2

Advertising Planning

3.2.1 Message Strategy

Message: Love your Heart by Walls

The message strategy is created based on rational and emotional appeals.

Rational Appeals
Feature appeals

Emotional Appeals
Joyous and love appeals

The execution of the above mentioned appeals are through slice-of-life, lifestyle and
dramatization execution techniques.

15

3.2.2 Creative Strategy

As mentioned earlier, the three execution technique is slice-of-life, dramatization
and lifestyle technique. These will be the core concept for our creative strategy.

3.2.2.1 Combination of Slice of Life and Dramatization

Slice of life is defined as a cut out sequence of ones life and re-portrays them on
screen. Dramatization execution technique creates a suspenseful situation or
scenario in the form of a short story. Dramatizations often use the problem/solution
approach as they show how the advertised brand can help resolve a problem.
Message to be conveyed: Somethings missing in your life, have a taste of Heart by
Walls.

3.2.2.2 Lifestyle
Lifestyle execution technique shows how well the product will fit in with consumers
lifestyle.
Message to be conveyed: Walls Heart, your heart-loving ice-cream.

16

3.2.3 Media Strategy

3.2.3.1 Combination of Slice of Life and Dramatization
For this execution method, we are going to use video clips, and media to be used are
website and TV commercials.

3.2.3.2 Lifestyle
For lifestyle execution method, we are going to use printed ads. For this strategy we
are going to use the advertisement mounted in 7-11 stores and trains.

17

3.3

Designs

Packaging for new Walls Heart Yogurt Ice-cream

18

Walls Heart Printed Ad for Trains

(Lifestyle concept)

19

7-11 Ads (Wall Sticket on Fridge)

Floor stopper design for Tesco.

20

3.4

Budget

No.

Item

Price per Unit

Quantity

Total (RM)

2 cycles x

32,000

(RM)
1.

Floor Stopper

400/cycle

40 stores
2.

In-Train Panels (STAR LRT)

85/month

3 months

5,100

x 20 trains
3.

In-Train Overhead Panels

130/month

(PUTRA LRT)
4.

7-11 Advertising ( Wall sticket

TV Commercials

250/month

TV Commercials (8TV/20secs)

2 months

250,000

x 50 stores
700/filmlet

(NTV7/20secs)
6.

7,800

20 trains

on fridge)
5.

3 month x

15 filmlets

73,500

x 7 days
700/filmlet

15 filmlets

73,500

x 7 days
7.

TV Commercials (9TV/20secs)

700/filmlets

15 filmlets

73,500

x 7 days
8.

TV Commercials (TV3/20secs)

700/filmlets

15 filmlets

73,500

x 7 days

21

Subtotal

588,900

+) Govt. Tax (6%)

35,334

Grand Total

624,234

Additional Cost (Estd.):

Creative idea

Inclusive of

RM 100,000

actor/actresses fees,
filming, props and designs.
Printing

Printing for printed ads.

RM 15,000

PR Events **

Booth preps for

RM 5,000

Roadshows
Grand Total RM 120,000
** Road shows held at: Taylor UC, Inti UC, Sunway UC, Segi College, Monash
University and UTAR.

Hence, total for overall promotion and advertising equivalent to RM 744,234.

22

3.5

Timeline

23

4.0

Evaluation

24

The measurement of the effectiveness of a media plan can be conducted by the

advertising agency or by independent research services, using methods such as
surveys, feedback, tracking, and observation.
In order to evaluate the effective of both the TV ads and printed ads, we are
going to place a feedback cum contest forms in 7-11 stores and retail stores.
Consumers will pick up the form and tell us what they think of the TV commercial
and why they love our new product. The feedback form will be seen as a contest
form for consumers but from Unilevers perspective, it is a feedback form to gather
consumers opinions of the advertisement and what attracts them into buying the
new launch product.
Another method use to evaluate the effectiveness of ads is through the sales
figure by end of 2012. We shall compare the figure from 2010 til 2012 to see if we
have achieve our objective, that is to achieve 8.0% of increased sales volume by
2012.
We will also set up a Facebook fan page to perform a likeability test. We shall
post our TV ads on the page and have them to click on Like if they like the ads. The
likeability test will help us to know whether we are able to reach the desire stage in
the AIDA model in consumers mind. As for our website, we will use tracking services
provided by 3rd party ad agencies. We will track based on page per view to see how
many users actually visited the page.

25

5.0

Bibliography

26

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28

6.0

Appendix

29

Sample car for road shows to Universities and Colleges