Our brands in society

Consumer trends & market opportunities

The world is experiencing unprecedented social, economic and environmental change. The global challenges of poverty, malnutrition, poor health and disease are becoming more acute and more complex, while the effects of climate change are being felt on every continent.

For some companies this represents a threat but for others it provides a huge opportunity for innovation and growth.

Many of the world's social and environmental challenges are felt most acutely in developing and emerging countries. For example, it is these countries that will suffer the worst effects of climate change. However, given their rate of economic development, these are also the very markets that will be the main source of growth for Unilever in future.

Companies that can develop products that meet the functional needs of consumers while taking into account these social and environmental challenges will be better placed to grow than those that do not.

Another significant trend in recent years has been the emergence of 'conscience consumers' – people who want to make a positive difference to the world through the brands they choose to buy. From being a minority group of consumers seeking out a small selection of mostly niche brands, this has become a more mainstream movement, with large numbers of people now actively seeking out products with a positive social or environmental benefit or avoiding those that are perceived as having a negative impact.

Our approach

Anticipating that this would become a big trend, the Unilever Executive decided in 2005 that social, economic and environmental factors should be integrated more deeply into the development and innovation plans of our brands.

To help evaluate the risks and opportunities presented by this agenda, we developed an approach called Brand Imprint. This provides our brand teams with a 360º scan of the social, economic and environmental impact that their brand has on the world.

For each brand a multidisciplinary team conducts a detailed assessment, looking first at the direct and indirect impacts of our products, or their 'imprint', across the value chain. The team then gathers insights about the external influences on the brand's future growth, drawing from consumer and stakeholder research.

Our Brand Imprint process

The first brands to conduct a Brand Imprint were Dove and Lipton in 2006.

Our major brands and categories have now completed a Brand Imprint. This has resulted in important commitments and inspired new ideas for addressing social and environmental issues. For example, the process helped Lifebuoy and Signal/Pepsodent/Close Up develop their social missions.

Our laundry brands have recently launched a new consumer-facing sustainability initiative - the Cleaner Planet Plan. The initiative aims to:

• reduce the environmental footprint of our laundry brands

• design products that help our consumers to reduce their environmental impacts

• help and motivate people to adopt laundry habits that reduce their environmental impacts. 

The experience we gained through the Brand Imprint process helped us develop the next stage of our approach. In 2008 we finalised a Vitality Framework to help us deliver our Vitality Mission in a systematic and measurable way. See Strategy page for more.

The Brand Imprint process provides the building blocks for brand teams to understand and assess how sustainability issues impact and are impacted by our products. The Vitality Framework and metrics help integrate sustainability considerations into the everyday business processes of our categories and brands. This helps us drive a common, aligned plan across our brands. Together, these tools help us integrate social and environmental sustainability into the heart of our business strategy.

The role of the corporate brand

Since 2002, the Unilever brand has become more visible to shoppers, with our corporate logo appearing on the back of all our product packs. All our companies are now called Unilever.

Most consumers still do not connect our individual brands with our corporate brand. But we see the growing importance of ensuring alignment between the two on sustainability issues.

With individual product brands taking a stronger stance on social and environmental issues, consumers will look at the corporate brand for its values and approach. Product brands can only communicate effectively and credibly on these issues if they have a firm foundation in the company's overall approach and commitment.

As the 'corporate brand', Unilever is in a strong position with its long-standing sustainability commitments. In future we will work harder to harness the trust and relationships we have built up through our corporate initiatives, to engage directly with consumers on this agenda and support our individual brands in their efforts.

Working with others

Across all our activities we seek to engage with stakeholders to help us identify issues of concern, guide our reporting and provide feedback on specific areas of activity. Working in partnership is crucial in developing and delivering some of our major sustainability commitments. Our partners bring expertise on specific questions as well as the networks to deliver practical initiatives on the ground.

Our principal global partnerships are with: