Unilever, is a consumer goods producer multinational company. Unilever headquarter, is located in London, United Kingdom. Unilever was established in 1930, by the merger of margarine Company and soap making company namely; Margarine Unie and lever brothers. In 2012, Unilever generated highest revenue in consumer goods industry. It deals in the following consumer products, which are as follow; personal care products, beverages, and food and cleaning agents. Unilever has around four hundred brands. Its products are available in 190 countries around the globe. The most selling brands of Unilever are; Knorr, Lipton Rama, Surf, Heart brand Ice creams, Euro, Omo, Rexona, Lux and Sunsilk.
BCG Matrix of Unilever
BCG matrix was developed by, Boston based private consulting firm; “Boston consulting group”. Name of the Matrix is derived from the firm name. BCG matrix framework has been designed for the companies which operate in different industries, to analyze the potential of the company’s each segment. It is difficult for companies to sustain all the division of the company at once. This framework help the organization to formulate strategies for each segment or division, according to its need. This is a four dimensional graph each dimension states the position of the company segment in the industry. This framework is depict with the help market share and industry sales growth rate, where industry sales growth is plotted on the on the Y-axis, vertically and market share is plotted on X-axis, horizontally. The four quadrant framework characterize segments in to the following categories; Dogs, Question mark, Cash Cows and Stars. Each category suggest different strategies for the segment. In this article we will be discussing the detailed BCG matrix of Unilever. Unilever has four segments namely; Foods segment, followings products are produced, by foods segment; soups, snacks, mayonnaise, bouillons, margarines, sauces, salad dressings and spreads, Home care segment; following products are produced by home care segment; , liquids and capsules soap bars, powders, and other cleaning products Refreshment segment; following products are produced by Refreshment segment; weight-management products, ice cream, tea-based beverages and nutritionally enhanced staples sold and Personal care segment, following products comes into the category of personal care products segment; skin care products, hair care products, oral care products and deodorants.
Question Mark
Question mark are those segments which have low relative market share and operates in high sales growth industry. Unilever food segment fall into the category of question mark. Food segment market share of Unilever is declining every year, despite of high industry sales growth rate. Unilever has to focus on this segment to turn this division into star because the industry has the potential to grow in terms of sales. Company ought to invest more on product development to beat its competitor and increase its market share in food industry. In terms of geographical segment Europe comes into the category of question mark because Europe contribute the lowest share in company revenue.
Stars
Those segments are considered to be Stars, which have high relative market share and compete in high sale growth industry. Unilever personal care segment is considered to be stars because its market share is growing every year and mentioned division generate highest chunk of revenue for the company. 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.
Cash Cows
Cash cows can be characterized as those segment, which have high relative market share and competing in the low sale growth industry. Home care and refreshment segments of Unilever can be labelled as Cash cows because both have high market share in low growth industry. Both industries have witnesses decline in sales. Such segments are crucial for the company and plays a vital role in the sustenance of company. 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.
Dogs
Dogs are those segment which have low relative market share and are operating in high sale growth industry. Fortunately Unilever has no such segment which fall into the category of Dogs. Unilever is one of the largest producer of consumer goods and mostly such companies do not have Dogs in their company. However, such segment, which fall into the category of dogs, better be sold.
References
Global revenue share of the Unilever Group from 2011 to 2015, by product segment. Retrieved from.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/254217/global-revenue-share-of-the-unilever-group-by-product-segment/
Global revenue share of the Unilever Group from 2011 to 2013, by region. Retrieved from.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/254234/global-revenue-share-of-the-unilever-group-by-region/
Finding Growth in the Beverage Industry. Retrieved from.
https://www.iriworldwide.com/en-US/insights/blog/January-2016/Finding-Growth-in-the-Beverage-Industry
Unilever Spreads Split Boosts Chance of Exit as Shares Gain. Retrieved from.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-04/unilever-plans-to-split-spreads-business-into-standalone-unit
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