Unilever has been there for over a century, since 1872. The brand mostly produces products of personal care, cleaning agents, personal care and beverages. Throughout its journey it has faced ups and downs and have released products that have not been acclaimed as well as the others. But today it is the manufacturer of 400 brands and earns about 53.7 billion euros as per 2017 records. It is a London and UK based company started by the Lever Brothers and later joined by Margarine Unie to finally give rise to ‘Unilever.’ It is a multinational company and deals with over 190 countries.
Every company is evaluated on the basis of certain scales or meters, BCG matrix is one like that. The Boston Consulting Group help corporations to analyze their business units, that is, their product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis. Some analysis of market performance by firms using its principles has called its usefulness into question.
The ‘cash cows’, i.e. the products that ‘milk’ high amount of cash despite the slow growth of the industry itself. The investment in these products is the least, still they tend to generate cash. In case of Unilever, products like Surf Excel washing powder, Lifebuoy soaps, Ponds cream, Lipton iced, Close Up toothpaste, Rexona deo, Blue Band margarines and finally Knorr soups, that held the market strongly for Unilever. In terms of geographical segment America segment comes into the category of cash cows around 33% of company revenue is generated by America segment each year.
The ‘dogs’ are the products that barely manage to earn overhead profits for the company, they earn the break even amounts. The return on assets ratio is depressing for a company that earns considerable profits. Unilever has produced certain products- wheel, supreme tea and lifebuoy shampoo.
The ‘question marks’ are products that have a low market share in a high-growth market. It generally takes place at starting point for most businesses. Question marks have a potential to gain high market share and eventually become star products, and then further turn into cash cows when market growth slows. If that does happen, then after years of cash extraction, the product will degenerate into dogs when market growth declines. Clear Shampoo, Rin and comfort are the three products that proved to be a question mark for Unilever. In terms of geographical segment Europe comes into the category of question mark because Europe contribute the lowest share in company revenue.
The ‘stars’ products for Unilever is Sunsilk hair care, Lux body soap, Wall’s, Fair and Lovely and Energile. They are graduated question marks with a market or niche-leading trajectory and units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. They require high funding to compete with rival companies and maintain their growth rate. At a point when industry growth slows down, if they remain a niche leader or are one of the market leaders, star products become cash cows; otherwise, they turn into dogs due to low relative market share. In terms of geographical segment Asia segment is producing highest revenue around 40% of company total revenue. Asia geographical division also comes into the fold of stars.
Unilever has achieved quite a few milestones in terms of being environment friendly. They have started programs such as zero-non-hazardous waste production in over 600 sites. Unilever has a range of beauty brands that include products like Dove and Tresemmé, and they have announced that all of its offices, factories, distribution centres, data centres, R&D facilities and warehouses around the globe are now powered by 100% renewable grid electricity.
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