CASE PRESENTATION

The Multiple Faces of

Unilever
 Company Background

Unilever is a British-Dutch transnational consumer goods

company co-headquartered in London, United
Kingdom, and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Unilever was founded on September 2, 1929, by the merger

of the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and the
British soapmaker Lever Brothers.

It has made numerous corporate acquisitions, including Lipton (1971), Brooke Bond
(1984), Chesebrough-Ponds (1987), Best Foods (2000), Ben & Jerrys (2000),
Alberto-Culver (2010), Dollar Shave Club (2016) and Pukka Herbs (2017). Unilever
divested its specialty chemicals businesses to ICIin 1997.
BRANDS
Company Vision

Our vision is to grow our business, while decoupling our

environmental footprint from our growth and increasing our positive
social impact.
The Multiple
Faces of Unilever
Marketing Platforms
Personal
Communications
Question 1:

What makes personal marketing

work? Why are Dove and Axe so
successful at it?
Question 2:

Can personal marketing go

too far in a company? Why or
why not?
Question 3:
Is there a conflict of interests in
the way Unilever markets to
women and young
men? Is it undoing all the good
that might be
done in the “Campaign for Real
Beauty” by
making women sex symbols in
Axe ads?