FMCG giant Unilever spent €700m in extra brand and marketing investment during H1, with much of that going behind its 30 power brands and its “unmissable brand superiority” framework.
What’s that about?
Product superiority has been a theme of recent years at leading FMCG companies. But, Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher told an earnings call, “product superiority is about a functional benefit – does the product do what it’s supposed to do.”
The business is now taking what it calls “a more holistic look at our brand performance”, of which product superiority is but one part. “We’re looking at, in total, 21 metrics behind these 6 Ps [product, packaging, proposition, promotion, place and price],” Schumacher explained.
“The causal link between improvements in these six Ps and stronger brand performance is clear,” he said, adding that the business has validated that across numerous studies.
Necessary but not sufficient
“Making our brands unmissably superior is a necessary, but not the only condition for faster growth,” Schumacher went on. “We also need to get better at scaling our innovations.”
Here, Unilever now has two goals: doubling the average size of its innovations overall; and driving a select number of top innovation projects to over €100m in 2025 and beyond.
Key quote
“We’re looking at unmissable brand superiority as the primary benchmark for taking actions” – Hein Schumacher, CEO at Unilever.
