ico Nyanya

Research proposal: Unilever

Joseph Moore

Excelsior College

IT390 Project Management

Professor Snead

25 October

Description of organization

Unilever is an industry that produces consumer goods such as beverages, foods, personal home care products and cleaning agents. It was founded by Antonius Johannes and William lever the year 1930. It serves people worldwide Unilever is the third largest consumer goods company globally by revenues closely following Procter and Gamble and the Nestle. Being one of the oldest consumer goods company in the world, Unilever has its presence in about 100 countries. Unilever has more than 400 brands, but its main focus is on 14 brands. It operates in following major countries, England, United States-Netherlands, China, and India. Unilever has some branches in more than 100 countries. But its major concentration is in Hindustan in which Unilever has a lot of shares.

This project is about the study of marketing campaigns for Unilever products, which is as an essential part of running a business (Wong, et al., 2004). The project helps to identify effective ways to run successful marketing campaigns; this is because effective campaigns need a careful research, well thought out, detailed and effective strategies for implementation.

Business Objective

The chief aim of a marketing campaign is to identify the population appropriately who are likely to purchase Unilever products – so as to promote and present the brands to them. This entails informing the consumers about the available products on top of showing products features, benefits and giving them an offer they will not forget (Wong, et al., 2004). In this case, Unilever should aim at marketing its brands globally. The company should consider having largest market in different countries where brand name provides a good platform for its products. The better Unilever is able to define its best prospective consumers and separate them from the rest, the more efficient and effective marketing campaign can be.

Business Problem

The Unilever company is undergoing through a storm. There is a myriad of challenges that face the firm though they are all tied to one cause. In some instances, the company has been notified concerning certain defects in its products. For instance in 2000, the company was informed concerning the possible contamination of Worcester sauce with Sudan 1 Dye (Wubs, 2008). Unilever had to recall several of its products including Tomato and Pot Noodle, Colman Seafood sauce. Some of its products like the Flora Original Spread had to be recalled in 2006 given that undesirable flavor was detected. Recalls of products due to contamination or substandard nature of the product has a negative effect on the customer image, which in effect reduce customer and brand loyalty (Campos, 2010). With time, the firm has experienced a sharp decline in the amounts recorded as profits and incomes. The customer base in the firm has also drastically been reducing over time during the competitors, on the other hand, competitors are recording more sales revenues than Unilever. In addition, the firm has in the recent past also been marred by very high employees’ turnover rate (Wubs, 2008).

Preliminary Project Requirements

1. Security requirements

2. Audit requirements

3. I Information validity requirements

4. Information movement requirements

5. Reporting requirements 

6. Interview

7. Record review

8. Observation

Potential Risks

1. Operational safety risk -this involves the safety issues.

2. Financial risk- this entails examining if the requested funds will be enough for the project and if the project will deliver savings for projected scope.

3. Strategic risk- this involves analyzing if the funds will be used appropriately and delivers some of the company goals.

4. Operational-technical risk -this include potential interruptions of normal plant operations.

References

Campos, A. (2010). University-industry links in late-industrializing countries: a study of Unilever Brazil. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.

Wong, F., Huhman, M., Asbury, L., Bretthauer-Mueller, R., McCarthy, S., Londe, P., & Heitzler, C. (2004). VERB™—a social marketing campaign to increase physical activity among youth. Preventing Chronic Disease, 1(3).

Wubs, B. 2008, International business and national war interests, Unilever between Reich and Empire, 1939-45, Routledge.