Unilever was established in 1948 and produces house hold products like; detergents, toiletries, cosmetics, and food products. Unilever is a large corporation that has over 500 firms worldwide. Their products are sold in more than 170 countries. Unilever originated in Europe and then expanded to the United States, starting with two U.S. factories. They can be located in parts of Asia, Africa, North America, the Middle East, Western Europe, and South America. Unilever has a very impressive portfolio that includes eleven brands that annually gain revenue of more than one billion dollars each.
Unilever is aiming for global processes and alignment of their human resource activities. “Unilever is working with Accenture to identify supply opportunities within the marketplace and will look to develop longer term relationships with a rationalized base of preferred suppliers. We seek to do business with those who can supply goods and services in a reliable and cost effective manner.” (2010) there is even a way to apply to be one of Unilever’s suppliers that will provide human resource goods and services. Unilever gained a lot of their success because of the ability to adapt to new markets and technology.
In order to help with the increase in revenue, Unilever changed companies focus to places with higher potential for growth. Concentration on new emerging markets like China, who had a high young population with increasing incomes, caused their developing world sales to increase by substantial amounts. Even while the company was facing struggles such as the Great Depression of the 1930’s, they were concentrating on diversification and expansion of their food markets. Unilever put great efforts into research and development. Unilever’s marketing efforts only varied slightly from the 1950’s until the 1980’s. In this time frame Unilever focused on technology, new products, new global markets, and keeping up with the world economies expansion. By the time the 1980’s arrived Unilever was one of the biggest global corporations which allowed them to focus their marketing efforts on their existing portfolio. By the 1990’s Unilever chose to keep its focus on its portfolio and even eliminated some of their brands so they could keep a strong focus on the top global sales products. In the 2000’s the company implemented a new five year strategic plan that focuses on the needs of consumers and a better future.
