VISION HUL's vision is to continuously innovate technologies to further reduce water consumption and further increase conservation in its

operations. Simultaneously, HUL sites will progressively help communities, wherever required, to develop watersheds. MISSION Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. INTRODUCTION Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest fast moving consumer goods company, with leadership in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. HUL's brands, spread across 20 distinct consumer categories, touch the lives of two out of three Indians. They endow the company with a scale of combined volumes of about 4 million tones and sales of Rs.13, 718crores. The mission that inspires HUL's over 15,000 employees is t o "add vitality to life". With 35Power Brands, Unilever sells Foods and Home and Personal Care brands in about100 countries worldwide. HISTORY Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Company. HLL's brands like Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond's, Sunsilk, Clinic, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality Wall'sare household names across the country and span a host of categories, such as soaps, detergents, personal products, tea, coffee, branded staples, ice cream and culinary products. These products are manufactured over 40 factories across India and the associated operations involve over 2,000suppliers and associates. Hindustan Lever Limited's distribution network comprises about 4,000redistribution stockists, covering 6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population, and about 250 million rural consumers. HLL is also one of India's largest exporters. It has been recognized as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India. Presently HLL has over 16,000 employees including over 1,200 managers. Its mission is to "add vitality to life."The AngloDutch Company Unilever owns a majority stake in Hindustan Lever Limited. In the late 19th and early 20th century Unilever used to export its products to India. This process began in 1888 with the

PORTERS FIVE FORCE MODEL: BUYER POWER: Consumer faces weak buying power because customers are fragmented and have little influence on price or product. to negotiate the price with the companies. from retailers. SUPPLIER POWER: supplier power simply because of the cost they incur when switching suppliers. of business with these companies are also be holden to their customers

THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS: amount of capital investment needed to enter certain segment in house hold consumer products, the threat of new entrant is fairly low. get its products on the shelves of the same retailers as its much larger rivals. Low threat of new entrants. THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES: helping to build a competitive advantage, but even the pricing power of the brands can be eroded. igh threat of substitutes. DEGREE OF RIVALRY: in this category enjoy multitude of choices. of shampoo instead of another ,making the industry quite competitive

SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS: Strong and well differentiated brands with leading share positions. Brand portfolio includes both global Unilever brands and local brands of specific relevance to India. Consumer understanding and systems for building consumer insight. Strong R&D capability well linked with business. Integrated supply chain and well spread manufacturing units. Distribution structure with wide reach, high quality coverage and ability to leverage scale.

High quality manpower resources.- Strong and well differentiated brands with leading share positions - Distinctly placed products providing reach to every segment of society. - Consumer understanding and systems for building consumer insightIntegrated supply chain and well spread manufacturing units - Distribution structure with wide reach, high quality coverage - The launch of project Shakti has helped HUL to create brand awareness and extensive reach in rural India. WEAKNESSES: High Social costs (housing, food grains & firewood, health and other welfare measures) in the Plantation business -Price positioning in some categories allows for low price competition like Amul captured Kwalitys market. - Limited success in changing eating habits of people.- Competitors focusing on a particular product and eating up HULs share, like Nirma focusing on soaps and detergents. OPPORTUNITIES: Upgrading consumers through innovation to new levels of quality and performance. Emerging Modern Trade can be effectively used for introduction of more upscale Personal Care products. Growing consumption in Out of Home categories. Position HLL as a sourcing hub for Unilever companies in various countries. Leveraging the latest IT technology - Untapped market in branded Ayurvedic medicines and other such consumer products. - Opportunity in Food sector: changing consumer tastes - Expansion of horizons towards more and more countries THREATS: Low priced competition now present in all categories. Grey imports. Spurious/counterfeit products in rural areas and small towns. Changes in fiscal benefits. Unfavourable raw material prices in oils, tea commodity etc

Strategy adopted by HUL HUL (Hindustan Uni Lever Ltd) formerly HLL and see how the complex task of brand management is actually handled. This company is taken for this article as HUL is considered as one of the most successful in Brand Management.HLL

has a large brand portfolio consisting of nearly 110 bands. In every product line, it has built a number of brands over a period of time. Quite a few brands have come to its fold from the parent company. It has also acquired several ongoing brands from the market. HLL also vigorously pursues brand extension strategy. And concurrently, HLL undertakes line pruning and brand restructuring and consolidation, based on marketing compulsions. HLL is also playing the rejuvenation and re-launch game. With great benefit the corporatelevel endeavours at business expansion and diversification are also throwing new challenges on the brand strategy front. HLL lends itself for a proper understanding of the complexity of the brand management task. We shall examine how HLL handles the complex demands in brand management. Such an array of brands is the outcome of a conscious corporate strategy by HLL. As a corporate, HLL wants to be a leader in every one of its businesses and the strategy is to fight on the strength of the competitive advantage arising from the which will lead to a significant reduction in prices of food, making food more affordable and thereby increasing consumption. The growth in food consumption in turn will increase farmers incomes, the slowdown of which is a key reason for downturn in Indian industry. We as a country have responded to crises through concerted action born out of national consensus. The success of the Green Revolution and the White Revolution are proof of this. Now, we need a Food Revolution to foster a virtuous cycle of regenerative, broad-based growth, he said. Calling it the paradox of Indian agriculture, Mr. Banga pointed out that while go downs were overflowing, about 42% of the rural population and 49% of the urban population received less than the accepted daily calorie intake norm. This is because these consumers can not afford food at the current prices. Since food consumption has hit a plateau, farmers incomes have stagnated, despite rising procurement prices. Mr. Banga said that the policy framework has so far sought to increase agricultural income by increasing minimum support prices or subsidies. But with food going out of the reach of large sections even at current prices, the only way to increase farmers income is to increase consumption of food. HLLs modeling has demonstrated that if, for example, the price of wheat can be reduced by Rs.2 per kg, and consumption will increase by 25% (about 41 million tones) among the lower income groups. soaps, as an example, HLL has the objective of being a national player (not a niche or a regional marketer) and the leader therein. HLL also wants about 30 per cent of the corporate income to come from this line. So, HLL opted for the strategy of developing quite a few strong brands in this line, and among them they cover different market segments and price points. Dove, Lux, Liril, Rexona, Pears and Lifebuoy are the outcome of such a well planned brand strategy.

Action plan by HUL: The Chairman of Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), Mr. M.S. Banga, addressing the companysAnnual General Meeting, presented an actionplan for a Food Revolution to sustainablyaccelerate agricultural growth which, in turn, will regenerate and sustain demand across the economy. With over 70% of the population being dependent on it, agricultural growth has a multiplier effect driving demand across all sectors of the economy and overall GDP growth. He announced that HLLs modeling had shown that a 3% incremental growth in agriculture will lead to a 2.6% growth in the manufacturing sector, taking overall GDP growth closer to the 8% mark. Food Revolution: Mr. Banga outlined a strategy Challenge Cost: To reduce costs, Mr. Banga said that agricultural pricing could be guided by HLLs philosophy of Challenge Cost, instead of the prevalent cost-plus model. The company first determines what the consumer is willing to pay for the benefits a product offers. It then determines an appropriate margin. The target consumer price less the target margin gives the Challenge Cost that HLL achieves through its expertise in R&D, manufacturing and supply chain. Mr. Banga presented a strategy and action-plan to determine and achieve such Challenge Costs in the countrys agriculture. He said that HLLs modeling had shown that if such a strategy is implemented, the cost of wheat, for example, can come down by Rs.2.50 per kg, If the saving is shared, it will both increase consumption and farmers incomes. Mr. Banga proposed a three pronged strategy encompassing a) Precision Farming to improve farm productivity within the current land-holding pattern b) creating a structure to facilitate growth of a vibrant food processing industry and c) identifying various enablers for the model to work. to match the variation of soil and terrain across time and the area of his plot rather than following the current practice of a one size fits all approach which manages crops at the lowest common denominator. should be forged through the establishment of Farmer Service Centres. These would be partnership webs between the farmer and agri-input companies, banks, insurance companies, grain handling and storage companies, and food processors. To be run as a private enterprise, Farmer Service Centers would have an appropriate radius of operation. be implemented with reorientation of Government policies towards promoting efficiencies and value addition.

RESOURCE ALLOCATION AT HUL The giant of Indian FMCG sector, HUL from soap to food to personal care to household care has a share in every product enters into Indian household. Now the giant is trapped in Gorilla war fare across the product line. Different competitors with different strategies are on the battle field. The strategic problem evolves when the focus of different competitors is category specific and even some are competing with cost differentiation as additional one. Icecream segment is a weak point for HUL as a low revenue stream. Vadilal and Mother dairy are fully focused to tap the ice-cream lovers. The hair care segment is inhabited by Cavinkare, Marico, Dabur, P&G and Garnier. Even tea market is shrunk by Tata tea and other regional players. Medimix on the regional level; Nirma and Godrej with good geographically expansion are eroding the toilet soap market. If Fair and Lovely is a knight for HUL then Cavinkare is looking for a square of chessboard to counterattack with Fairever. Its unusual but w ell expected game when a player is playing against competitors of different strengths and at different geographical locations. The strategic problem comes when its a matter of resource allocation. The key insight is (dont share with anyone) that HUL being a part of Unilever International has to maintain a profile margin for its mother company but on the other hand P&G gets full resource support from the mother company. That is the only reason why P&G always urge HUL for price wars. The strategic trap of HUL is witnessed by a bottleneck in the product portfolio of the company. The options for P&G are open for price war because of two reasons. Firstly, resource support from P&G International and secondly the competitive challenge will have a cascading effect on HUL. Here we have one example to understand. The products in price war could be detergents and shampoos but the Vicks and Whisper of P&G is standing apart of competition as leading brands and providing a safe revenue to the company. But in case of HUL there is no such brand which is not in influence of warfare. The chakravyu for HUL is active from multiple dimensions. Local players like Medimix playing on price front. Big market leaders like Colgate Palmolive and P&G playing on their respective fronts, former on user imagery and strong brand position and later with head on strategy. Its not easy to play price war with local players but HUL has to stop them from invading the market. The innovative moves of project Shakti, Project Millennium and Operation Bharat were some successful moves to solve the problem at regional and rural level. However HUL does not have any turf to challenge P&G without a hit on its revenue. Lets view a bigger picture, HUL is in war with a bunch of companies whose each element (particular company) is focused on a particular category. Sometime back HUL has chosen a strategy which we call proliferation. There was N number of variants of a brand from oral care to skin

care segment. The objective was to give various options to consumers and then back-out the non-performing variants. HUL named it as the product line rationalization strategy. It can be witnessed by the acquisition of brand Nihar by HUL to Marico. If you look at the performance chart of the HUL for the past 20 years, the performance is mind blowing. Year 1990, HUL entered the oral care market with Close-up with gel variant and within a span of 9 years took 18 percent market share at the expense of Colgate, the market leader. There is a crucial need to strategically place brands on strong positions. BALANCED SCORE CARD The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. HUL follows a very good balanced score card system. Every department right from marketing, logistics, sales, finance and Human resource are internally connected. It is very important for an organization like HUL to have an internal fixed process in a company which has very less profit margin. Every department is very well connected. With the Indian retail boom started already HUL has identified the flaws in the system and has successfully modified entire system of sales and marketing internally. It has had good competition from proctor and gamble but it has emerged out as a leader in the fight between both of them.HR strategy of HUL is so good that the employee satisfaction is to the highest level which enhances the motivation in the employees and allows them to be very open in their minds for the effectiveness of the organization. Hence, we can say that balanced score card system has been successful be it any organization. -Unfavourable raw material prices due to inflation, reducing profitability. - Reduction in real income of consumers due to high inflation. Export of Sunlight soap, which was followed by Lifebuoy in 1895 and other famous brands like Pears, Lux and Vim soon after. In 1931, Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company, followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited (1935).T h e t h r e e c o mp a n i e s w e r e m e r g e d i n N o v e mb e r 1 9 5 6 a n d t h e n e w e n t i t y t h a t c a m e i n t o existence after merger was called as Hindustan Lever Limited. HLL offered 10% of its equity tothe Indian public, and it was the first among the foreign subsidiaries to do so. Currently, Unilever holds 51.55% equity in the company. Brooke Bond entered Indian market in 1900 and in 1903 it launched Red Label tea in the country. In 1912, Brooke Bond & Co. India Limited was formed.

Unilever acquired Brooke Bond through an international acquisition. Similarly, Lipton's link with India date back to 1898.Unilever acquired Lipton in 1972 and in 1977 Lipton Tea (India) Limited was incorporated. Pond's (India) had been in Indian market since 1947.possession of strong brands. It is this strategy that is getting reflected in the development of a multitude of strong brands.

Performance Trends:

Financial Record: