When studying about the four business models, I happened to have a cup of tea by my side. The tea bag brand is Lipton, from Unilever. After some researches I started to think about the relation of the four business models and this world’s leading company.
Unilever is a multinational consumer goods company headquartered in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It mainly operates in the daily consumer goods sector, covering areas such as food, beverages, cleaning products, personal care, health, and nutrition and so on. Unilever has many well-known brands worldwide (such as Lipton, Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Lux, Omo, etc.), and its products are almost universally available, making it one of the world’s leading fast-moving consumer goods companies. Unilever was chosen as the unit of analysis for its exceptional commitment to strategies and actions that contribute to society and the planet (Iglesias et al., 2022).
Unilever’s business model mainly revolves around innovation and integration across multiple sectors, with fast-moving consumer goods at its core, with strategies like sustainable development, brand strength, and global operations to achieve profitable growth.
When it comes to basic raw materials and components like sugar, packaging bottles, and cartons, Unilever operates just like any big manufacturer with a traditional supplier model.As a powerful buyer, Unilever sets clear specifications, quality standards, and pricing requirements. They pick the most cost-effective and reliable suppliers through methods like bidding.
Another newer model is that Unilever puts forward a specific challenge then they call for solutions from universities or research institutions. Once they find a suitable solution, Unilever integrates this external technology into their product development process, production lines, and global brands through licensing, co-development, or acquisition. Finally, they leverage their massive production, marketing, and distribution network to launch the final product in the global market( Laursen & Andersen, 2016). At this point, Unilever acts as the integrator.
Therefore, we can’t just say that Unilever is or isn’t a certain kind of model. Their operations are a mix of different approaches, which is pretty much the norm for big multinational companies these days: using the most efficient business models in different parts of their operations.
References:
Iglesias, O., Mingione, M., Ind, N., & Markovic, S. (2022). How to build a conscientious corporate brand together with business partners: A case study of Unilever. Industrial Marketing Management, 109, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.12.008
Laursen, L. N., & Andersen, P. H. (2016). Supplier involvement in NPD: A quasi-experiment at Unilever. Industrial Marketing Management, 58, 162–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.05.023
