Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 33

Case Study Example The company is a market leader in home care market and personal care market that includes products such as deodorants, antiperspirants and skin cleansing products. According to the company website, Unilever is geared at working with integrity and making positive impact in the society through managing all environmental impacts in order to attain long-term goal of developing a sustainable business (Deighton 2). For decades, Unilever described itself as a company with local roots and global scale and eleven of its leading brands that include Lipton, Omo, Dove and Blue Band earned over $ 1 billion in annual revenues. Unilever was $ 50 billion in annual revenues, but its competitors such as Nestle had $ 69 billion, Procter and Gamble had $ 68 billion while Kraft Foods had $ 34 billion. The company operated in all continents and decentralization of operations enhanced diversity, but led to challenges of control. Although some brands attained high market share, the company lacked a global identity thus leading to the ‘Path to Growth’ strategy of 2000 that aimed at cutting down the 1600 brands to 400 brands that would become the ‘Masterbrands’. The shifts to Masterbrands aimed at decentralization and global vision that would ensure cooperation across all geographic markets (Deighton 4). In the 1980s’s Dove’s advertising highlighted the functional benefits such as avoiding of dry skin and marketing slogans referred the brand as ‘moisturizing cream’. Dove was selected to be a Masterbrand in 2000 in personal care categories such as hair care products, body lotions, hair styling products, facial cleansers and deodorants. Although the advertisements focused on the functional benefits, the communication had to shift to cater for the numerous categories and thus Dove would stand for a point of view. In 2004, Unilever recognized the need to position the brand according to consumers’ point of view in order to attain high brand