A comparison the business strategy of unilever and procter&gamble in asian market

in Vietnam Closeup, P / s: With the main product is toothpaste with compatibility suitable for all ages this is a brand that many people choose to use on the oral hygiene market. AX: brand of perfume products, hair gel for men Rxonae: A popular deodorant brand worldwide Pond’s: owns the skin care products trusted by many women because of its quality and reasonable price compared to cosmetic lines from other brands. A line of laundry products for clothing and household utensils Omo, Viso. Surf: These are cleaning brands that dominate the market in Vietnam today. With quality, easy-to-use laundry soap products, Unilever is trusted by many customers. Comfort: Along with clothes cleaning products, comfort is a brand that includes clothing products with many scents suitable for many families in Vietnam. Sunlight washing dishes, Sunlight cleaning floors, Cif: Sunlight has become a trusted kitchen cleaning brand that has been trusted for the past 15 years. Vim: Vim is a cleaning product that cleans bacteria in the toilet with simple and effective use. With 3 current product lines, Unilever owns more than 400 outstanding brands including many famous brands in Vietnam, including OMO, Surf, Lux, Dove, Hazeline, Ponds, P / S, Close. Up, Vim, Cif, Sunsilk, Sunlight, .. Unilever's Asian Market Strategy From the beginning when penetrating into the Asian market, unilever was oriented to business under the Mutidomestic strategy. For a new market with a large customer base and diverse cultural, consumer habits, Unilever must make product differentiation to meet local needs. The favorable condition for unilever to implement this strategy is that countries in Asia have a large number of people in the same country. For example: China (1.3 billion people), India (nearly 1 billion people); Indonesia (200 million people),... In order to pursue this strategy, the company must build activities in almost every function to suit each target market. Strategy for the product In product research and development in Asian markets, Unilever focuses on meeting the needs and tastes of each country. Each country will need different products with different characteristics. When the decision to enter a new market is made, unilever will select existing products that may be suitable for this market, or research to create a new product based on market resources and needs. Unilever's products are diversified, classified into many models to meet the diverse needs of customers. To pursue the Mutidomestic strategy, the company had a large number of industries with separate product segments. Products with specific characteristics in the same category will make it easy for customers to choose and fit the tastes of customers to change products. Food and beverage group products in Indonesia: Picture 2. 1 Unilever 1 Food and beverage products at Phiplipine: Picture 2. 2 Unilever 2 Products of personal care group in Vietnam: Picture 2. 3 Unilever 3 Products of personal care group in India: Picture 2. 4 Uniever 4 Besides the differences in product quality among countries, Unilever also focuses on product packaging design according to the tastes of each country. For example, in the Japanese market, eco-friendly products are encouraged to be manufactured and consumed. Products labeled as Green Power are Dove, Lux, Clear, Timotei and Lipton. Strategy for the price For the price policy, at present, compared to other competitors in the Unilever market, there is a price segment for products that are spread out. This makes it easy to reach a wide range of customers, everyone can access Unilever products as the company's original mission. The customer segments that the company wants to target are those with low and medium income. Those who have a basic need for using Unilever products. Having a large market share in 90 countries around the world, Unilever focuses on not only countries with developed economies in Europe but also poor countries in Asia. Unilever is also taking advantage of the development of a wide range of different product lines to meet the needs and income of millions of people around the world. in many different countries. Unilever is also the first company to introduce small packages of shampoo for poor customers. In many countries like China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka ... Unilever is also considered as a "local company". Strategy for the Promotion In advertising policy, Unilever focuses on exploiting traditional images, imbued with the identity of each country. The advertising style changed from classics, direct product introduction to metaphor in television ads is a prominent highlight in the ads of Unilever. The advantage of this style is simple, easy to understand and suitable for customers in many large markets. The ads of Sunsilk, Clear, Dove are now more closely following new market developments, have a more attractive storyline and not only limited to the introduction of pure products but have focused more on the impact factors. targeting specific customers, so that customers can remember, identify, distinguish and select its products among similar products in the market. Strategy for the place With the low price segment of products and based on the demographic situation of the Asian market, Unilever's target customers are those who live in rural areas where there is a high demand for protective products. birth, daily consumer goods. In order to bring products to this group of customers, unilever has built a large dealer network everywhere, from the city to the countryside. Accompanied with advertising and branding, the company has reached out to a large number of customers and has taken the upper hand of this market leader. P&G'S BUSINESS STRATEGY IN ASIAN MARKETS General introduction about Procter & Gamble History of development The name Procter & Gamble (P&G) is known as a “giant” in the production of consumer goods in the US and the world. P&G established on October 31, 1837 in Cincinnati, Ohio by William Procter and James Gambler, British and Irish immigrants, they merged Procter candle manufacturing company with Gamble soap production facility. By the early 1860s, the company had revenues of nearly a million dollars. At the moment, there are about eighty employees working for P&G. During the American Civil War, the company signed a contract to supply soap and candles to the Army. In addition to the experience and increased profits during the war, these contracts also introduced their products to soldiers around the world. In 1879, James Norris Gamble, James Gamble’s son organized research and development of cheap but high quality white soap and exported to areas of central Spain. The product is called Ivory and this name is due to the idea of Harley Procter - son of William Procter. Ivory is associated with clean, pure, gentle and lingering aroma. In 1882, P&G used $ 11,000 to advertise Ivory in the weekly newspaper. In 1886, Ivory began to be produced at the Ivorydale factory. In 1887, P&G started a program of distributing profits to workers based on their capital contribution to the company, which was associated with their survival with the success of the company. This program was proposed by William Cooper Procter. By dividing the shares in the company, he thought that they would be less likely to go on strike. In 1890, P&G increased its charter capital to expand the company. William Alexander Procter established a research laboratory at Ivorydale to research and develop the soap making process. It was one of the first product research laboratories in America. After William Alexander Procter died. In 1907, William Cooper Procter became chief executive of P&G. In 1911, P&G introduced Crisco, which is one of the first vegetable oils in the world, it is a healthy solution when no longer cooking with animal fat and more cost effective than using butter. In 1915, P&G built its first factory outside the United States. The company is located in Canada with 75 workers, producing Ivory and Crisco. In 1924, the company sets up a market research department to research customers' interests and shopping behaviors. In 1930, based on Thomas Hedley company, P&G acquired Newcastle upon Tyne and became an international company. After this merger, P&G has become a solid bridge between the US and Northwest England The company expands its production and sales to other countries. A lot of new products and brands have been launched. P&G continues to open more branches in many other areas. In 1935, the company expanded its global business, Philippine Manufacturing Company was the first company established in Asian countries. In 1950, established the first branch in Venezuela. In 1946, P&G introduced Tide laundry detergent, it is a product that is superior to the products currently on the market. Tide took the lead in the market in 1950. In 1960, P&G opened its first office in Frankfurt, Germany with 15 employees. This year P&G also introduced Downy fabric softener, P&G's first fabric softener. In 1973, P&G started manufacturing and trading its products in the Japanese market. In 1988, P&G entered into a joint venture with a manufacturer in China, the largest consumer market in the world. In 1992, P&G received the World Environment Center Gold Medal for its international business achievements. Introduced Pantene Pro-V and later became the fastest growing shampoo in the world. In 1993, the company's turnover was 30 billion USD and 50% of it was in other countries around the world. Procter & Gamble have acquired a number of other companies that diversify product lines and increase profits significantly. Some of these companies are Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals, Richardson-Vicks, Noxell, Shulton's Old Spice, Max Factor, and the Iams. In 1994, P&G had to draw public opinion because of the losses from borrowing using derivative interest rates. The company sued its bank for fraud, which placed its management in an unusual position when confronted in court about their involvement in transactions they did not understand. In 1995, P&G received the Medal of Technology, which is America's highest medal for achievements, inventions, and application of science and technology to improve the lives of billions of people around the world. In 1996, Procter and Gamble decided to invade the food and pharmaceutical market again. The company developed a new product called Olestra, also called Olean and used Olestra. Replace fat in chips and snacks In 2000, Alan G. Lafley became the new CEO of P&G and completely changed the structure and orientation of the company, opening a new chapter in history for this corporation. In January 2005, P&G announced it had acquired Gillete, forming the world's largest consumer goods manufacturing and distribution group, pushing Unilever into second place. Brands like Gillette razors, Duracell, Braun and Oral-B batteries added to the company's product range. The acquisition was agreed by the EU and the Federal Trade Commission, provided P&G agreed to sell the brand of battery-powered toothbrushes to Church and Dwight. The company also abandoned the line of toothpaste toothpaste products of Gillette, Rembrandt. Right Guard, Soft & Dri and Dry Idea deodorant brands are sold to Dial Corporation. Business philosophy - purpose - values - Operating principles Business philosophy, goals, values ​​and principles are fundamental to P&G's unique cultural traits. Throughout more than 170 years of history, although the business of the company has grown and changed, these factors have remained and will continue to be promoted even in the future. • Business philosophy: "For a good life" (Touching lives, improving life). To accomplish this goal, P&G annually devotes a sizable budget, to social and charitable activities. The company is well aware: consumers are owners. P&G places consumers at the heart of every decision and always researches what they need and seeks to precisely meet their needs. • Business culture: For the past 165 years, P&G has the goals, values ​​and principles in their business. At the core of P&G's goals, values ​​and principles are personal integrity and respect for personal freedom. Since the beginning of business, P&G has always focused on ethical issues and basic management principles. Developing brand and people at P&G is the foundation to build the success of the company. P&G does improve the lives of consumers around the world in many ways such as supporting humanitarian, educational and social efforts. What P&G does, the products P&G produces give people greater benefits in life. Sustainability and philanthropy are fundamental principles of P&G's survival. P&G Live's charitable programs, Learn and Thrive, help disadvantaged children aged 1-13 get a healthy start, go to school, learn the life skills needed to build a fresh future brighter. People at P&G who volunteer their time and expertise to create contentment around the world. UK & Ireland Community Matters is just one of P&G's sustainable development programs for economic, social and environmental development.  • Purpose: unify the development strategy, provide valuable and high quality products to improve the lives of consumers, contributing to making life more and more meaningful. • Value: Attract and recruit the best people in the world, build a solid organizational structure from within, reward all things that impact the company well. Every person who works at P&G is a valuable asset of the company.  - Unity: P&G always tries to achieve the right goals; always frank and honest in the work; comply with the provisions of law; uphold values ​​and principles in every action and decision.  - Leadership: P&G has a clear vision for the goal it is aiming at; focus resources to achieve leadership and strategic goals; Develop strategies, eliminate barriers.  - Ownership: Accept individual responsibility to meet business needs, improve the system and help others improve their performance. Everyone is the owner of the company, considering the company's assets as its own property, associating its survival with the success of the company.  - Passion for victory: Always the concept that "To be the best at doing what matters most". Always dissatisfied with the current position. Always improving to win the market.  - Trust: Respect colleagues, customers and consumers. Believe in the ability of others. Always believe that people will work best on the foundation of trust. • Operating principle: P&G trusts all employees to work with the company, judging through the differences that each individual and organization can do; inspire people to work and allow people to reach their full potential with challenging standards and goals. The interests of the company and the individual are inseparable, P&G believes that the success of the company is the success of the individual. The company encourages individuals to continuously develop their creativity. Concentration at work is essential to aligning goals and strategies, adding value to the business. P&G is often concerned with standardizing, simplifying, and arranging existing work for innovation in the way work is done. P&G attaches great importance to developing the superior understanding of consumers to be able to offer advanced products and services of better quality to meet the increasing demands of consumers. Building and developing good relationships with customers and suppliers, linking with universities and governments to achieve their goals effectively. Organizational structure, size and branch system Headquarters: Downtown Cincinnati, Ohio • Currently, P&G has a large scale with 180 branches in more than 80 countries on all continents:   - In America, there are typically branches: Canada P&G Inc., Central America P&G Interamericas Inc., Chile P&G Inc., Colombia P&G S.A. , South Africa Procter and Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd., P&G do Brazil (Brazil), The Procter & Gamble Company (United States), Venezuela Procter & Gamble, ...  - In Europe, typically branches: P&G Rakona (Czech Republic), P&G Portugal SA (Portugal), Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania (Romania), Yemen P&G Yemen Ltd. (Western Europe), Procter & Gamble Oy (Finland ), P&G Espana SA (Spain), P&G France (France), Procter & Gamble Switzerland Sarl (Switzerland), Procter & Gamble Nordic Inc. (Sweden), Procter & Gamble UK (United Kingdom), ...  - In Asia, with branches such as: Procter and Gamble OOO (Russia), Thailand P&G Manufacturing (Thailand), Vietnam Procter & Gamble (Vietnam), P&G Guangzhou (China), Singapore P&G (Singapore), P&G Egypt (Egypt), Saudi Arabia Modern Products Co. Procter & Gamble Distributing Philippines, Incorporated (Philippines)  - In Oceania, there are branches: Australia P&G, Austria P&G, ... Subsidiaries established overseas only deal in a number of key products, the structure of the company is a hierarchical structure of products, with brand managers. To be more effective in building relationships with the company's customers, Procter & Gamble has established an office near its major department store.   • Procter & Gamble's board of directors currently has thirteen members: Alan Lafley, Robert A. McDonald, Charles Lee, Ralph Snyderman, MD, Margaret Whitman, James McNerney, Lynn Martin, Johnathan Rodgers, Ernesto Zedillo, Scott Cook, Rajat Gupta, Patricia Woertz, and Kenneth Chenault Scope of activities P&G produces a variety of products and goods. Starting with soap and candles, their product lines have expanded significantly. For more than a century, P&G is one of the leading companies in the number of brands produced. P&G branded products reach consumers worldwide more than 3 billion times a day. To achieve that success, P&G has provided high quality products that create great value and increasingly improve the lives of consumers. This is most evident in the sales, profits and creative value that the company has brought, allowing all employees and shareholders to operate and develop stronger. To date P&G has more than 300 brands, divided into the following categories: Personal & Beauty: Olay, Head &Shoulder, Pantene, Gillette House & Home : Duracell, Tide, Downy, Pringles. Health & Wellness : Oral-B, Braun, Align.. Baby & Family : Luvs, Pampers, Charmin. Pet care & Nutrition : Eukanuba, Iams. In addition, P&G also has brands that bring in 500 million dollars or more in annual sales. Combined with these 23 well-known brands, becoming the 43 leading brands among the 300 brands of the company, accounting for more than 85% of sales and 90% of profits, 20 brands of 500 million dollars. Success achieved P&G owns dozens of famous brands such as Pantene, Rejoice, Pert, Head & Shoulder, Vidal Sassoon, Camay, Xest, Tide, Max Factor, Oil of Olay, Pampers, Whisper, Pringles ... More than 300 P&G products Being consumed in nearly 200 countries around the world. The group's sales reach Euro 44 billion annually, equivalent to about 55 billion USD. After just acquiring Gillette Corporation in 2005, this figure reaches to over 70 billion USD. In 2008, revenue reached 83.5 billion USD, profit 12.1 billion USD. In 2007, revenue reached 76 billion USD, profit was 10,034 billion USD. 24 brands of P&G with sales of over 1 billion USD (Crest, Pampers, Olay, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Ivory, Tide, Charmin ...) and more than 18 other brands with sales from 500 million USD up to 1 billion USD P&G products are sold in nearly 200 countries around the world with about 6 billion users. The company also produces its products in more than 80 countries around the world concentrated in the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Australia, some countries in Asia, especially China. In 2008, P&G ranked 5th in the "Global Most Admired Company" poll and 2nd in the "Top Companies' Leader" category created by the magazine. Holding Fortune, 8th place for the "American’Most Admired" award, P&G also ranks 4th in the World ’most Innovative Company list. And was voted No. 1 by the Consumer Goods Companies Association for 23 years ... On April 22, 2009, P&G was awarded the "Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for Designing Greener Chemicals" by environment protection on behalf of the White House. This award is given annually to individuals, companies and technology organizations that create products with chemical formulations that do not harm the environment. P&G Chemicals, together with Cook Composites and Polymers (CCP), received this award thanks to Chempol® MPS technology developed and commercialized by partner organizations. According to expert judgment, Chempol® MPS is a technological innovation with the use of adhesive compounds derived from dicarboxylic acids. P&G's strategy in Asian market In Asia, P&G pursues a strategy of transnational international business, characterized by the following characteristics: - Understand the high cost reduction force: If in the European market, P&G only cares about the quality of its products without worrying about how much they have to sell the product at. , P&G had to change. For example, in the Chinese market - Asia's largest market, P&G had to adjust the prices of all its products in order to compete with domestic rivals. - Due to high local pressure: P&G has brands originating from Europe and America, so many of their products are not suitable for Asians. Especially for family care products because the culture in Asia is very different P&G, in turn, moved towards the Asian market by setting up factories in Asian countries, typically Vietnam in 1995. In Vietnam, the company opened 2 factories of international standard in the province. Binh Duong with over 30% of output is exported to Australia, Japan, Korea, Europe, India, etc. P&G Vietnam has consistently achieved double-digit growth and has received great praise from the government and the community. P&& products began to have a clear differentiation between countries. However, P&G products are still popular, regional and high-priced, not fully meeting the needs of many in the low-end segment. Strategic decisions and activities are broken down by business unit by country. This strategy has a high customer base, but exploits limitations on economic scale. Strategy for the product P&G pursues a cautious strategy when selecting the most profitable segments, high product positioning, targeting the urban consumer group so highly effective. The way P & G's product development in Asia has also been said by its top executives is to monitor market demand and expand to other brands in the same field, respectively. Currently in Asia there are about more brands of P&G in areas such as: - Childcare (Pampers) - Fabric care (Ariel, Downy, Tide) - Women's care (Whisper) - Hair care (Head & Shoulder, Pantene, Rejoice) - Home care (Ambi Pur) - Groming (Gillette) - Dental care (Oral - B) - Skin and personal care (Gillette, Olay, Safeguard) Although the number of brands is not much like Unilever but Unilever's products are always innovative. Science and technology are increasingly advanced and developed, resulting in increasing demands as well as requirements and choices of different products of customers. Therefore, P&G is always actively innovating its products to keep up with new consumer trends. They always focus on bringing good brands to consumers, not those that are backed by aggressive advertising but quality that does not satisfy consumers. P&G always tries to market quality products above average. After being accepted and used by customers, their products continue to be continuously improved. When P&G declares to its customers that their products are "new and improved", they will actually be of better quality. This is in contrast to many other companies, after their products are released to the market, they often maintain or even reduce the quality of their products for higher profits. P&G has used multi-brand art for the same product. For example, they have launched Oral - B and Crest which are all brands of oral hygiene products, Rejoice, Head & Shoulders and Herbal Essences are all brands of hair care products or Olay and SK-II. are all brands of skin care products. The purpose of this policy is to serve many different customers and compete with competitors with similar products. Because there are so many products on the shelves, P&G occupies the exhibition space and has a great influence on the distribution agents Strategy for the price In the European market, P&G products are mainly concentrated in the high-end segment, with high prices compared to other similar products. However, in Asian market, there are many developing countries so P&G needs to change the price policy to suit consumers' income in this market. P&G uses quite a variety of pricing strategies: - Low price strategy to maximize profits: The company spends huge amounts of money on research, development a