How Unilever’s Brands Connect with Consumers
Discuss about the Case Study Report For International Consumer Marketing.
Unilever has been successful in maintaining its dominance over time. The company has made use of their understanding of the internal consumer processes that has undergone series of changes. The changes include the psychological processes that include the motivation, attitude, knowledge and perception of the consumers towards the brands and products (Fuchs et al., 2010). Unilever emphasizes on marketing its products to attract more customers by providing an explanation to how and why the consumers should purchase and use their products. This is done by emphasizing on how the products of Unilever can make their lives better and make them feel good about performing the action that is promoted by Unilever. This can be considered to be a part of knowledge in the psychological core (Solomon et al., 2014). Unilever has also been successful in making the customers informed about how they can make use of the Unilever products in an easier way and have also been successful communicating the fact that the products of Unilever fit with the environmental issues to create a good image in the minds of the customers. This again can be considered to be a part of the attitude in the psychological core.
The four external processes in the consumer’s culture that has proved to be important to the success of the Dove’s campaign include the ethnicity, religion, and social class and reference groups (De Mooij & Hofstede, 2011). However, in my personal opinion, the most important external process in the consumer’s culture that contributed to the success of the Dove’s campaign is the ethnicity. The Dove’s campaign can be said to be related to the stage of belonging to a social group that has a common cultural or national tradition. The campaign has emphasized on touching the customers by communicating them that there does not exist any norms for the beauty and promoted the fact that every woman is beautiful with her own characteristics and features. Unilever promoted the campaign without making any categorization of women so that it can target women of all the ages, sizes, race and religion (Puccinelli et al., 2009). The main and the most important idea behind the campaign was to target all kinds of customers. This proved to be detrimental in the success of the Dove’s campaign and the product worked out very well. The campaign also made the customers recognize themselves in the ads that encouraged and motivated them to use the product.
Which of the four external processes in the consumer’s culture do you think have been the most important to the success of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty? Why?
On the basis of the above question, I would like to emphasize on the fact that I personally agree with the decision of Unilever to efficiently link its brands with the efforts to encourage healthy and an environmentally sustainable behavior. This would prove to be beneficial in attracting more customers and Unilever can achieve a string brand image of socially responsible brand in the market. Moreover, the Unilever would also benefit in the form that when customers have a positive image of the brand they would not only purchase the brand but also influence and encourage others to adopt the brand though word of mouth marketing (Young et al., 2010). This would enhance the reach and exposure of the brand and enhance its market share, market presence and market reach. In this context, it can be said that Unilever not only emphasize on selling their products and making money, rather they also emphasize on ensuring the fact that customers’ needs are met and they are satisfied with their products. So, this has proved to be the best way that has encouraged Unilever to keep their customers and build loyalty.
One of the Ikea’s store in Sydney came established a temporary Manland that facilitated the men with the opportunity to watch sports programming and play video games while their girlfriends and wives were involved in shopping. The experiment or the idea was developed for providing a perfect solution for both, the blokes to whom shopping was a chore and for the ladies who used to force their partners around while they went for shopping. The main advantage associated this marketing strategy can be said to be the fact that it can be considered to be an attempt on the part of the Ikea to continue its image as a family friendly brand that emphasize on achieving the goal of appealing to all the men an environment that can be perceived as a rewarding shopping experience (Isaksson & Suljanovic, 2006). So, while the women used to shop, the men were facilitated with the opportunity to enjoy watching sports programme or play video games.
The disadvantage associated with the marketing strategy of Ikea can be considered to be the fact that programme or the Manland experiment or campaign of Ikea emphasized on targeting only the heterosexual men who did not like shopping. So, in this context, it can be said Ikea failed on targeting the other section of the blokes that include singles and gay couples through their Manlad campaign (Hawkins et al., 2010). So, this can be considered to be main reason why the campaign could not be expanded to other stores.
Do you agree with the Unilever’s decision to link its brands with efforts to encourage healthy and sustainable behaviors? Explain your answer.
I think, Ikea should not do much with this idea. This is mainly because the campaign can be criticized to be emotionally separating the partners to enjoy the shopping while spending time together. On the other hand, the campaign is also targeting a particular make segment of the society i.e. the males who are married or are committed to their partners and who do not like shopping. However, this should not be the case. The advertisement campaigns should be designed to target all the segments or otherwise it can limit the sales of the business (Oliver, 2014).
Conspicuous consumption can be referred to as the purchase of the goods and services by the consumers for a specific purpose i.e. the purpose of displaying one’s wealth. Conspicuous consumption is also a means that is adopted by the consumers for showing ones social status especially in cases when the goods and services are publicly displayed as too expensive for the other members of an individual’s class (Heffetz, 2011). Moreover, this type of consumption is mainly associated with wealthy consumers and at times is also applied to consumers belonging to economic class.
Voluntary simplicity can be defined as a lifestyle that is adopted by the consumers that minimizes the consumption and the pursuit of wealth and material goods (Gregg, 2009). The consumers emphasize on adopting voluntary simplicity for attaining a simpler, however a meaningful life.
According to Rucker & Galinsky, (2012), Compensatory consumption behavior can be observed to be derived from the notion that while many consumer behavior models are developed on the basis of underlying correspondence between actions and needs, an opposite approach can also prove to be equally valid in context to the behavior of the consumers that are characterized by a systematic lack of correspondence between the actions and needs. Thus, the consumes rather than satisfying the specific needs, tend to perform certain aspects of consumption that can be considered to be reactions to a general lack of need satisfaction or in order to compensate for weaknesses and failure of some sort (Rucker, 2009). Thus, the compensatory behavior on the part of the consumers can be referred to as the fact that consumption of the consumer is emphasized as a reaction to and as an attempt for making up for a general lack of esteem or self actualization.
Thus, on the basis of the above aspects, it can be said that the products of Ikea can be classified as voluntary simplicity consumption. This is because, the products of Ikea perfectly align with the theme of the brand of being complete and simple living for making the life of the customers easier thereby creating a sense of balance. However, it can be also be said that voluntary simplicity consumption of the Ikea products can also be evolved into conspicuous consumption for the individuals who might become addicted to shopping and making their purchase from Ikea. This is because, Ikea offers and displays products that are expensive that can provide the consumer with the opportunity to show his or her social status to the other members of his or her class.
Ikea’s Household Appeal
Ikea emerged as the pioneers of the mainstream advertisers that emphasized on appealing to the needs and wants of the gay couples. The TV commercial of Ikea showed two men shopping for furniture together and this led to a stir in part. This was because men were depicted in the ad as committed couple. Ikea displayed a billboard in Italy that featured two men holding hands and a shopping bag that displayed the headline “we are open to all families” (McMains and McMains, 2018). Thus, this groundbreaking television commercial that depicted two gay men buying furniture gained passionate reactions from the supporters and the detractors thereby leading to the development of some kind of commotion that is seldom seen on Madison Avenue. The move and the advertisement made the brand swamped with hundreds of phone calls and letters where some calls were for applauding the brand while others demanded axing the ad. So, it can be said that advertisement of Ikea gained both the criticism and acclaim.
In this context, it can be said that the ad did not harm the business of Ikea, rather it helped the brand and it also affected the ways major advertisers spoke to lesbians and gays. So, where in some comers, Ikea was criticized for promoting homosexuality, on the other hand the brand was applauded for taking a step to promote the gays a respectful place in the society and treat them as other normal human being. So, this also proved to be beneficial in changing the ways other advertisers looked upon gays. Later it was also observed that the marketers and advertisers who used to fear while promoting gays and lesbians in their advertisements emphasized on increasingly targeting the gays since they often enjoyed higher disposable household income levels when compared to other consumer groups (McMains and McMains, 2018).. So, this significant change and shift in the paradigm enhanced the brand image of the brand Ikea as an innovative and creative brand together with a brand that focus on social issues thereby developing an image of a socially responsible brand.
The marketing strategy of Ikea has made the brand one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The products are relatively cheap and are of good quality and any customers who have shopped at Ikea store have never left the store without an Ikea catalogue. In the age of smart gadgets and smartphone where it is quite difficult for business organizations to promote a catalogue online made of paper. However, Ikea uses the catalogue to advertise and promote its brand and products. Ikea emphasize on designing its catalogue in a manner that is practical visual, can reach the mass and are informative. Advertising and marketing through catalogues proves to be beneficial for Ikea to send its product list directly to its customers. The catalogues are facilitated with the detailed description of the products, the prices, variants, promotional schemes together with a product review (Armstrong, 2009). So, thsi proves to be biennial for the customers to collect all the desired information about the products from the Ikea’s catalogues rather than collecting product information from wide range of sources by involving their evaluable time and effort. So this proves to be convenient for the customers to gather all the product related information from a single point source. Moreover, the catalogues also prove to be beneficial with its convenience that is offers that it offers to its customers in placing an order (Fill, 2011). The convenience to the customers specially means the saving time and effort and searching for and evaluating the products in the process of their decision making.
References
Armstrong, G. (2009). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
De Mooij, M., & Hofstede, G. (2011). Cross-cultural consumer behavior: A review of research findings. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 23(3-4), 181-192.
Fill, C. (2011). Essentials of marketing communications. Pearson Higher Ed.
Fuchs, C., Prandelli, E., & Schreier, M. (2010). The psychological effects of empowerment strategies on consumers’ product demand. Journal of Marketing, 74(1), 65-79.
Gregg, R. B. (2009). The value of voluntary simplicity. The Floating Press.
Hawkins, D. I., Best, R. J., & Coney, K. A. (2010). Consumer behavior. Implications for marketing strategy, 5.
Heffetz, O. (2011). A test of conspicuous consumption: Visibility and income elasticities. Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(4), 1101-1117.
Isaksson, R., & Suljanovic, M. (2006). The IKEA experience: a case study on how different factors in the retail environment affect customer experience.
McMains, A. and McMains, A. (2018). 20 Years Before It Was Cool to Cast Gay Couples, Ikea Made This Pioneering Ad. [online] Adweek. Available at: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/20-years-it-was-cool-cast-gay-couples-ikea-made-pioneering-ad-161054/ [Accessed 11 May 2018].
Oliver, R. L. (2014). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. Routledge.
Puccinelli, N. M., Goodstein, R. C., Grewal, D., Price, R., Raghubir, P., & Stewart, D. (2009). Customer experience management in retailing: understanding the buying process. Journal of retailing, 85(1), 15-30.
Rucker, D. (2009). Compensatory consumption: How threat directs consumers’ product preferences. Advances in Consumer Research, 36, 131-134.
Rucker, D. D., & Galinsky, A. (2012). Compensatory consumption. In The Routledge companion to identity and consumption. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Solomon, M. R., Dahl, D. W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J. L., & Polegato, R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Pearson.
Young, W., Hwang, K., McDonald, S., & Oates, C. J. (2010). Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. Sustainable development, 18(1), 20-31.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
