Company Summary
The following report is on the Australian supermarket business Woolworths that has its products supplied by the multinational organization, Unilever. From the business standpoint, Woolworths and Unilever are in partnerships for a long time. Many of the products are already under the shopping sections of the Woolworths outlets. In this assessment, Unilever has planned to introduce a new range of deodorant products that would be featured in the different supermarket outlets of Woolworths. Therefore, Woolworth is planning to introduce new measures based on the target customers and the strategies that would be used to promote the product so that sales can increase. The product selected for this report is Axe Bullet that is a new addition to the collection of body deodorants from Axe. The report also highlights the ways Woolworths can promote this new product to its targeted customers.
Unilever is an international company that is also one of the world largest company that deals with consumer goods. The company is over than 85 years old that has into branches throughout different major cities across the world. The company owns over than 400 brand worldwide with a turnover rate of over 50 billion euros (Alssema et al. 2015). Some of the popular products that Unilever deals with Woolworths include Dove, Lipton, Lux, Sunsilk and Surf and many more products (Battersby and Peyton 2014). The company is divided into four major divisions of products that include food products, home care products, personal care products and beverages. Out of these most of the profit is from the personal care products as of 2013, the company had a total turnover of around 50 billion out of which 36% of the profit was from personal care. The company also spends a huge capital on research and development of products. Unilever has introduced a variety of products over the years which has been exception in the Australian market when they were sold through Woolworths. As the supermarket chain is well reputed it holds a huge trust factor amongst the common Australian consumers, it has a huge profit rate. Consumers normally tend to buy products from services they trust and as Woolworth hold the trust factor; Unilever would sell its products through its channels in a bulk quantity.
Unilever is organized into four major division that includes food, home care products, personal care products and beverages. Food products include varieties of soups, bouillons, snacks and different of toppings that would include sauces, mayonnaises, margarines and many more. Home care products include powders, different types of liquid for washing, cleaning products and even soaps. Personal care would include skin care products like moisturizers and hair products like shampoos, scents and body deodorants and oral products like toothpaste and mouthwash and beverages include various kinds of refreshments such as ice creams and soft drinks (Nazarova 2015). In Australia, Woolworths is already the leading supermarket chain and the products of Unilever brought a lot of turnover. It is also known that Woolworths provide various loyalty schemes for its customers, which would include online shopping and home delivery and as the products of Unilever are basically day to day used products, the sales rate of these products specially are higher than the rest. The current statistical update shows that the sales rate of Unilever grew to a 3.5% increase from the year of 2017which reflected good performance in market. As of February 2018, there was a fourth-quarter sales growth in the company that accelerated the performance in emerging markets which made sure that Unilever ended their year at a high note. Regarding the competition of the company, Unilever faces competition from its two major rivals Nestle and Procter & Gamble. There are also local market competition from ConAgra, Danone, Henkel, Mars, PepsiCo Johnson & Sons and many more. Regarding the market share, as of 2016 the gross market share of the company is at a 49.6% worldwide.
Product Segment Summary
In the Australian market, the new product that Unilever has launched at Woolworths includes the body deodorant Axe Bullet. Axe is also known as Lynx in some countries. Unilever launched the product in the year of 1983, and therefore Woolworth already has implemented the various range of Axe deodorants it in the Australian supermarket. However this new product, Axe Bullet will be introduced into the various supermarket chains of Woolworths (Mortimer 2017). The deodorant built quality is smaller than the normal Axe deodorants. The shape of the deodorant resembles that of a bullet for which it has been given that name. The product has a wonderful appeal to it which is unique than its previous containers. The new deodorant from Axe also provides a lighter and sweeter small than the previous versions whoever there is not too much difference in the smell. What Axe has made a significant change is the appeal of the product and a it is smaller in size compared to the rest of the deodorants, it is also pocket friendly for the consumers.
The target market for Axe is normally the young male ranging from the age of 16-30. Axe is a revolutionary deodorant that had taken the industry of deodorants by storm since the 90s. Axe as a company has targeted the same audience over and over again, and to much of a surprise, it us the teenage audience that actually buys the product the most. This brand actually directly speaks to the audience that this product would create a sexual tension between the consumer and an attractive opposite sex (Srinivasan and Lu 2014). The advertisements also promoted by Axe show the same elements of masculine sexuality that draws a huge population of the young male audience into buying the product. Many people have labeled this product as a ‘trap’ for the young gullible male audience into buying each new deodorant from Axe however, that is actually the power of promotion, brand and the marketing mix (Palermo et al. 2016). If promotion and advertisement is used correctly, a brand would be able to sell any product to anyone, and Axe is one of the biggest example of such.
Axe already has a huge audience base throughout the world. Due to the high reputation of the brand, Unilever has taken many steps over the years, both in urban areas and rural areas. However what actually Axe different as a product is the pricing (Benmiled-Cherif, Kaufmann and Manarioti 2016). For example in this case Axe Bullet, it is sold in a bundle, that is if a deodorant of 150ml is sold at 5 AUD then Axe would provide two deodorants in one package for 7 AUD. What makes Axe unique and popular is not the various range of products it provides but the smartly done price. That is not only makes it affordable but also increases the sales count from the company’s end without making the customer worry. On top of that, Axe has included various campaigns both online and offline (Trevena et al. 2014). For Woolworths, as it is already the most reputed supermarket chains in Australia, Unilever would provide many. Axe has used many promotional methods such as tagline ‘The Axe Effect” in advertisements that has been an USP towards the business (axe.com 2018). The products are successful in the market because of its impressive and unique campaign. The Axe deodorants have became so popular that the campaign ensures everyone should try it at least once, even if they are loyal to a different brand. With sensuous elements in place, the advertisements show men who are shown to use the deodorant and attract beautiful women with the means of this product.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that when Woolworths would include the deodorants of Axe Bullet from the company or their partner, Unilever, it would be beneficial for the company. As Woolworth deals with personal care based items of Unilever, such as body care products like deodorants, soaps, shampoos, this states that Woolworths already have a separate section for the newly launched Axe Bullet. As the product is well known to the target audience, Woolworth will not have to spend too much capital on its promotion. Just a few advertisements on the internet would be sufficient to draw the young male audience in buying the product. As mentioned before, being a small product, which comes in a bundle package, it would easily make a lot of sales as it is really portable and can be carried anywhere.
Alssema, M., Boers, H.M., Ceriello, A., Kilpatrick, E.S., Mela, D.J., Priebe, M.G., Schrauwen, P., Wolffenbuttel, B.H. and Pfeiffer, A.F., 2015. Diet and glycaemia: the markers and their meaning. A report of the Unilever Nutrition Workshop. British Journal of Nutrition, 113(2), pp.239-248.
axe.com 2018 AXE available at https://www.axe.com/us/en/home.html [accessed on 1st September 2018]
Battersby, J. and Peyton, S., 2014, June. The geography of supermarkets in Cape Town: Supermarket expansion and food access. In Urban Forum (Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 153-164). Springer Netherlands.
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Mortimer, G., 2017. Getting rid of plastic bags: A windfall for supermarkets but it won’t do much for the environment. The Conversation, (17).
Nazarova, V., 2015. Corporate Diversification Effect on Firm Value (Unilever Group Case Study). Annals of Economics and Finance, 16(1), pp.173-198.
Palermo, C., McCartan, J., Kleve, S., Sinha, K. and Shiell, A., 2016. A longitudinal study of the cost of food in Victoria influenced by geography and nutritional quality. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 40(3), pp.270-273.
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Trevena, H., Neal, B., Dunford, E. and Wu, J.H., 2014. An evaluation of the effects of the Australian Food and Health Dialogue targets on the sodium content of bread, breakfast cereals and processed meats. Nutrients, 6(9), pp.3802-3817.
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