This 14 page paper examines the position of Unilever in Brazil when they were trying to decide whether or not, and how, to market laundry detergent powder to the lower income segment of the market in the north-east of the country. The paper gives an analysis of the company and the position it found itself in. Presents a swot analysis of the position of the company and then makes recommendations to the way that the company could compete in this segment. The paper also includes four graphs which could be used in a presentation and a bullet point summary of the general findings of the paper. The bibliography cites 4 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: TS14_TEunibrazil.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
30,000 workers. Unilever has a total of 1600 brands in a global market, these include 45 detergent brands. Unilever has also had a long history in Brazil. The company started
in Brazil in 1929 and in 1930 the first manufacturing facility was opened in Sao Paulo producing sunlight soap. Omo, which is Brazils leading laundry detergent brand, was launched by
Unilever in 1957. At the time it was the first laundry detergent and was able to leverage the first mover advantage, a potentially valuable form of competitive advantage (Porter, 1985)
The level of Unilever experience in the Brazilian market is extensive so it may be argued that Unilever understand this market. It was Unilever that launched the first margarine in
Brazil in the 1970s with Doriana. The operations in 1996 consisted of three divisions; home care products were covered by Lever, personal care by Elida Gibbs, and the food
section by Van den Burgh. However, the detergent remained a major product for Unilever in the Brazilian market, so helped to push forward the growth of the other divisions.
Unilevers position in Brazil was strong; in the detergent market its three brands of OMO, Minerva and Camperio already had an 81% share of
the market. Each of these brands has its own individual market position within the laundry detergent market. Omo was the most popular brand across Brazil, rated the highest in the
areas of consumer expectations including the cleanliness and whitening, smell and softness, ability to remove stains, dissolve ability to powder, packaging, and level of harm to colours. This brand of
detergent has a 52% share of the market and is sold before $3 a packet. Minerva was the only brand which was sold