Providing the world with unique products that meet customer demands for personal care, nutrition and hygiene, Unilever is a brand that is here to stay. Brand Building Director for Unilever Bangladesh, Zaved Akhtar shows Mehrin Mubdi Chowdhury what makes Unilever a powerhouse of success
You’ve been in Unilever Bangladesh since 2000; what branding strategy do you think has been successful for the company in sustaining the goodwill amongst customers? How and why do you think it made a difference?
First and foremost we ensure that we provide consumers with the best product experience for the price they pay. The reason consumers adhere to any branded product is consistency; consistent product quality, consistent experience, consistent pricing, and even consistent availability. Since the outset as an organisation we have strived to ensure that we have great experiences available at the right price point at the right channels at arms’ reach for the people we serve. Today that has helped us to have a strong corporate share and be strong market leaders across most categories that we operate in.
Our country has undergone numerous transitions in the socio-economical forefront in the last decade. How has it affected the operations at Unilever?
Bangladesh is a great example of a country that has pulled itself out of poverty and set itself in the path of becoming one of the ’watch out nations.’ We have been able to improve overall income and livelihood and these changes have enabled consumers to be more health and hygiene conscious. Beauty quotient of the country has also gone up. Consequently demand for health hygiene products have also increased. This has dramatically shifted the nature of our business from a predominantly soaps and detergent company to a more personal product business catering to the health, beauty and hygiene need of the Bangladeshi people.
For a country that is heavily immersed in all forms of media, which advertising strategy works best for Unilever and its consumers- above the line (ATL) or below the line (BTL)?
Both have a role. For building brand image and driving quick saliency and reach ATL is a fantastic medium. BTL comes to play when you have longer messages to convey. For instance, when we are trying to run thematic communication to drive and improve equity we should be using predominantly ATL whereas BTL would be a great medium to build niche and market development opportunities.
Consumer behaviour changes rapidly and so does the market. How has Unilever been able to cater to the needs of the masses with the changing trends?
As the leading marketer in the FMCG category, one of the most important traits is to be the catalyst of change. Unilever luckily has been able to be a pioneer in many instances. We were the first to introduce synthetic detergents in the market, first one to introduce skin lightening creams, dish wash, deodorants, to name a few. However, with the world flattening and with the proliferation of media this will be even a bigger challenge in coming days as to how we can continue to be the catalyst of change. We need to have foresight and be able to shape trends. This will help us stay one step ahead of the competitors and help improve the quality of life of Bangladeshi people.
Ever since you’ve been in the branding territory for Unilever, what sort of challenges have you faced? How did you overcome them?
There are always challenges. They come in diverse forms and shapes. Some cases you will see that a ‘me too’ situation comes up and hence one tends to lose differentiation or you get attacked by discounters. Although it serves as a compliment that people want to replicate our products, it also means that we have not evolved fast enough.
The key to overcome these challenges is to stay ahead of everyone. And the way Unilever does this is by ensuring that we are close to the people we serve and understand the needs and see how we can influence trends.
Our CEO Paul Polman had set a clear vision for the company –double the business, whilst halving our environmental footprint and improving the lives of the people we touch. Second, the way we ran our marketing side of things needed to change as well. It became largely technical, complex and very process-oriented, generating little success out of complex brand teams and structures. Marketers thought in terms of market share, innovations, execution; but had largely lost the sense of building brands that change people’s lives. Hence we recrafted how we do marketing and today we call this Crafting Brands for Life, where we talk about putting people first, i.e., we craft brands for people not marketers managing brands for consumers, building brand love, i.e., create brands that people can’t live without, unlocking the magic; we combine magic and logic to give exceptional brand experience. We are all craftsman and craftswoman.
What new campaigns is Unilever Bangladesh involved with?
We just launched three new initiatives in October itself, Dove Day, Lifebuoy Life Saver Campaign and Knorr #shareameal. All of these are a part of our brands’ purpose to ensure that we bring a meaningful difference to peoples’ lives. Dove Day celebrates womanhood and calls women to be proud of their looks. Through this we reinforce the idea that beauty shouldn’t be a source of anxiety, rather it should be a source of confidence. Lifebuoy Life Saver invites people to spend an hour of their time to teach children how a simple act of hand washing can save their lives. And finally Knorr #shareameal campaign is inviting people to join the movement of sharing meals with those who have not been as fortunate.
There are a lot of start-up companies in the market. Do you think they would need to implement branding strategies to generate traffic? Why do you think so? How do you think this can be achieved?
Start-ups can bring a great idea to fruition. However, in order for the idea to be a massive success, they would need to ensure that they are able to market their idea and build scales. Both of these would require a sharply positioned product that can quickly get scale.
Start-ups bring in fresh thinking and new concepts to the business and Unilever believes that there are plenty of opportunities to collaborate that can help us partner with them and address business challenges.