Unilever Swot Analysis

Overview of company

Unilever is a British-Dutch international consumer goods company founded in 1930 through merger of the Dutch Margarine Unite and the British soap maker Lever Brothers co. Unilever owns over 400 brands varying from food and beverage to home and personal care; thirteen of these brands generate annual sales of one billion euros or more. In 2016, the Unilever Group had a global revenue that amounted to about 52.71 billion euros. The largest product segment of the Unilever Group is their personal care segment which generated approximately 20.17 billion euros in 2016. (Source: Statista.com). Dove is Unilever 's biggest product brand and in 2016 it generated about 5.45 billion U.S. dollars. (Source: Statista.com)

On any given

Our Corporate Purpose states that to succeed requires "the highest standards of corporate behaviour towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and the environment on which we have an impact." (Source Unilever.com)

Unilever values define how they do business and interact with colleagues, partners, customers and consumers. Company’s core values are integrity, responsibility, respect and pioneering. Unilever follows these values for expansion into new markets, recruit new talent and face new challenges, these employees in the decisions and actions they take every day. (Source Unilever.com)

Unilever’s corporate mission is “to add vitality to life, to meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.”. The significant components in Unilever’s mission statement are:

1. Adding vitality to life

2. Meeting everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care

3. Helping people feel good, look good, and get more out of

Before the 1950’s, it was widely believed that an organisation’s sole responsibility was to provide the best financial return to its shareholders. Yet, today with the emerging societal and institutional focus on CSR, organisations are pressured to pay attention to their social responsibility (Waddock, 2008). This means that organisations’, particularly large, successful organisations’, responsibility entails more than financial obligations, as when striving to be a socially and sustainably responsible organisation, and thus potentially obtain benefits (Maignan, Ferrell & Hult, 1999; Tench & Yeomans, 2009), an organisation should endeavour to maximise profits, obey the law, be ethical and be a good corporate citizen (Carroll,