Unilever to Test Mobile Coupons (WSJ.com; Andrew Lavallee)

In Trial at Supermarket, Cellphones Will Be the Medium for Discount Offers

Seeking to marry a ubiquitous device with a time-tested marketing technique in a sour economy, Unilever plans to begin a trial run Sunday of a new technology that lets consumers redeem digital coupons by having a supermarket cashier scan their cellphones.

The test, being conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, N.J., will include discount offers for some of the Anglo-Dutch packaged-goods company's most popular brands, including Breyers ice cream, Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton tea. Samplesaint, a Chicago mobile-technology firm, developed the system.

"This has been a Holy Grail thing that people have been trying to figure out," says Marc Shaw, director of integrated marketing at Unilever, the first major marketer to test such a service in the U.S. "I think this is on target for where consumers' heads are at right now."

To get the coupons, customers must visit the Web site Samplesaint.com, from which they can transmit the Unilever discount offers to an Internet-enabled cellphone. At checkout, the cashier scans the bar code on the phone's screen, redeeming the coupon and deleting it from the phone. The test will run for four weeks, and Mr. Shaw says he hopes to see it extended to other stores after that.

Mobile coupons have been an area of growing interest for marketers, though the growth of overall spending on mobile advertising has been slowing down. Research firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile-ad spending to grow 17% this year, less than half of last year's 35% gain.

Supermarkets, packed with hundreds of brand names vying for attention, are an important venue for coupon providers. In an April study, Icom, a division of Epsilon Data Management, said 87% of survey respondents who had used coupons in the past month redeemed them at grocery stores, compared with 47% at restaurants and 41% at department stores. Earlier this month, Randalls Food Markets, a unit of grocery giant Safeway, announced a coupon initiative with technology providers Cellfire and Shortcuts.com that links discount offers to customers' loyalty cards.

But technological hurdles remain. Many coupons offered on the Web are printable but can't be transferred to a mobile device. And many cellphone-based coupons require the cashier to enter a code shown on-screen. Manual entry can slow down the checkout process, a big disadvantage in low-margin, high-volume retail businesses.

"We're still in an attempt-and-learn phase" in mobile couponing, says Andy Murray, chief executive of in-store-marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi X, part of Publicis Groupe. Mr. Murray is skeptical that shoppers will load coupons onto their phones before making grocery runs, and he says finding, presenting and redeeming the coupons could prove to be a hassle for some. "Shoppers have a time budget, a money budget and a frustration budget," he says.

The potential for entry errors and other glitches has kept some big companies from trying the format, says Landy Ung, founder of 8coupons, which provides online coupons for the New York market. Steven Boal, CEO of printable-coupon site Coupons.com, says checkout with a mobile coupon is "fraught with peril," ranging from incompatible devices to software bugs to phones that get dropped while being passed back and forth. In addition, many retail scanners can't penetrate a cellphone screen to read the coupon.

Lawrence Griffith, CEO of Samplesaint, says his company's technology has solved most of those problems, and is expected to greatly reduce coupon fraud, since coupons will vanish from the cellphone after redemption and can't be forwarded or emailed. "We have full control," he says.
Unilever's Mr. Shaw says putting marketing offers on a phone ties brands to a personal device that people tend to keep with them at all times. "The cellphone is the thing that when you leave it behind at home, you go back and get it. It's the organizer of our lives," he says.

American consumers have been heavy users of coupons amid the recession, and online-coupon providers have seen traffic and usage grow this year. Mr. Boal says Coupons.com is developing a mobile platform it will launch in the third quarter, while 8coupons, currently focused on the New York market, will add Washington this summer, followed by Boston, Chicago and San Francisco in coming months, Ms. Ung says.

Because consumers can select the online coupon they want, the offers have far higher redemption rates than those in newspaper inserts and other ads. Cellfire typically sees redemption rates in the mid-teen percentages, says CEO Brent Dusing. Icom and others in the industry estimate the average redemption rate for traditional coupons is less than 1%.
Unilever isn't abandoning traditional print coupons, or even other online partnerships, like one it has with Cellfire. "It's just another way to do this," Mr. Shaw says. "We want to be out there with as much variety as we can."

Star Magazine Teams with Unilever to Launch iPhone App (www.stylelist.com; Laura Kenney)

Hot Tip! The iPhone App store is about to get a little juicier in the celebrity gossip section.

Star Magazine has partnered with Unilever to launch their new iPhone App for free, beginning in early April. Delivering its news to readers in the simple, list format that works so well on the iPhone, Star will package their breaking celebrity scoops, exclusive photos and fun pop culture factoids into iPhone format.

For the launch, Unilever will be sponsoring three different sections of the App with three of its brands: Suave Body Care's Mango Mandarin Body Wash launch, Degree Ultra Clear anti-perspirant and deodorant, and I Can't Believe it's Not Butter spread. For the Suave promotion, users will be able to share what's making them feel "blissful," and their messages will be geofiltered to see who else is sharing in the area.

They can also vote on whether a celebrity photo is "blissful or not," and the chosen photos will receive a special pink wrapper to promote their status. Fans will also find beauty tips, along with fragrance information on the the new Mango Mandarin Body Wash, which has an eau that Suave says women prefer over Bath & Body Works' popular Mango Mandarin scent.Degree Ultra Clear will sponsor a section on red carpet looks, and A-List approved health tips will be the focus of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. The app will be available in early April.

To get it when it becomes available, visit the App Store on your iPhone and search for Star-Mobile, or text iStar to 99799.

Keith Weed nets new CMO role at Unilever (Marketing Week, Rosie Baker)

Expanded role now includes control over communications, with a place on the board.

Unilever has promoted Keith Weed, head of global homecare, oral care and water, to chief marketing and communications officer.

He takes up some of the responsibilities handled by Simon Clift, who revealed in February that he was leaving the company after 30 years to spend more time with his family.

Weed has been given the additional responsibility of overseeing communications and he will take a seat on the Unilever board. He will report directly to chief executive Paul Polman.

Polman says: “This is the first time Unilever has had a CMO at the top table and is a key step to having a sharper consumer focus in the company.”

A Unilever spokesperson adds that it made “strategic sense to put marketing and communications together” and “give both functions a voice on the executive board”.
Former Lever Brothers chairman Andrew Seth says Weed is well placed for the role because he knows the business well and turned around Unilever’s laundry business.

Seth, now chairman of consultancy Brand Intellect, says the appointment of a CMO from within the company is a mark of Unilever’s skill at training and developing marketers with a broad experience across the business.

However, Zaid Al-Zaidy, former Unilever innovation manager for Axe and now managing partner at digital agency Saint, says that while it is important to have a CMO, “marketing happens at such a personal level in the digital age, and how can a CMO deliver that from above?”
Unilever spent £5.3bn (£4.8bn) on advertising and promotions in 2009, up £250m (£225m) on the previous year, and has revealed plans to recruit 30 marketers to enhance its marketing capabilities.

Unilever Names Keith Weed CMO (AdWeed, Andrew McMains)

Unilever has filled its top global marketing position with insider Keith Weed, and has expanded the role to include communications.

Weed (pictured), 48, also will take a seat on Unilever's executive board, which is made up of top management within the company. As a result, the board will expand from nine to 10 members, according to a company representative.

Previously, Weed was an executive vice president in charge of home care, oral care and water brands. Effective April 1, he becomes chief marketing and communications officer, reporting to worldwide CEO Paul Polman. Weed succeeds Simon Clift, who as CMO also reported to Polman but didn't sit on the executive board. (See also: "Shops Contemplate Life Without Simon.")

"This is the first time Unilever has had a CMO at the top table and is a key step to having sharper consumer focus in the company," Polman said, in a statement.

Weed held his evp role for about three years. Unilever has identified his successor in that post but has yet to publicly name the executive.

As chief marketing and communications officer, Weed will oversee execs in charge of media services, consumer insights, research, agency relationships and Unilever's internal marketing academy.

Clift had been CMO since 2005, when he assumed the dual role of CMO and group vice president for personal care. He shed the personal care post in 2008. His exit marks the end of his 28-year career at the consumer packaged goods giant.

Unilever, whose global revenue totaled about $57 billion last year, is among the biggest advertising spenders worldwide. In the U.S alone last year, Unilever spent nearly $715 million in major measured media, up from $635 million in 2008, according to Nielsen. Those figures don't include online spending.

Unilever names Keith Weed as CMO (Marketing Week)

Unilever has appointed head of global homecare, oral care and water Keith Weed as chief marketing and communications officer.

He takes up the responsibilites of Simon Clift, who is stepping down, and has added communications to the role.

Weed will take up his new role on 1 April 2010 and will be a member of the Unilever Executive, reporting to chief executive Paul Polman.

Business Week on Unilever's Laundry business

Unilever's Laundry Biz Is Greener, and Growing

Its sustainable detergents, Surf Excel and Small & Mighty, are launched in developing markets. Now they're driving growth in Europe, too

When Unilever (UN) challenged its scientists to come up with a detergent that uses fewer resources, greener materials, and less packaging, few thought it was possible. Yet Small & Mighty, the industry's first super-concentrated liquid detergent, launched in October 2005 in a partnership with U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), 18 months ahead of rivals such as Procter & Gamble (PG). What started as a means to boost Unilever's green credentials now is opening up avenues of innovation that are helping to drive growth in the company's once-lackluster laundry unit. Since rolling out Small & Mighty in Europe in January 2007, more than 30 million bottles have been sold.

The virtue of the product is that consumers can wash the same amount of laundry with one-third the detergent. Smaller packaging means each bottle uses 55% less plastic, enabling retailers to stock three times the number of bottles in the same space, saving on labor and out-of-stock costs. There's big savings for Unilever, too, in manufacturing and transportation. The company says it saves 500 million gallons of water and 150 million pounds of plastic each year. And the smaller bottle means Unilever can transport three times as much product in every truck, saving 26 million gallons of diesel each year. "It's a good example of how good environmental practice is good for the company's bottom line," says Keith Weed, Unilever's group vice-president for home care.

Soapmakers such as Unilever are under pressure from both retailers and consumers to go green in the same moment that the cost of commodities used in manufacturing is skyrocketing. Complicating the manufacturers' dilemma is market research that shows consumers want more environmentally friendly products but don't want to pay more for them or compromise on performance. At the same time, a myriad of new laws banning many traditional chemicals has reinforced the need for detergent makers to find biological alternatives.

Biodgradable Enzymes

To come up with a solution, Unilever went back to nature. At the company's research and development labs in Northern England at Port Sunlight and in Mumbai and Bangalore, scientists experimented with new biotech ingredients such as enzymes that use less expensive oil-based materials than traditional chemicals. These enzymes, which are biodegradable, replace petroleum-based ingredients with plant-based ones. They not only produce less carbon at the factory and in the washing machine but also offer improved performance at lower water temperatures.

Detergent makers have long used enzymes in products but have only recently discovered that enzymes deliver additional environmental and other benefits. For starters, enzymes weigh less but work just as well as bulkier chemicals. That means Unilever can use fewer ingredients in Small & Mighty's formulation, helping to cut manufacturing costs. Because such biological ingredients work in a different way from chemicals, "they are opening up new possibilities in terms of making products more efficient and sustainable," says Keith Rutherford, Unilever's R&D director for sustainable cleaning and vitality at Port Sunlight.

Much of Unilever's knowhow in creating more earth-friendly products comes from its experience in developing markets. Its Surf Excel Quick Wash, launched in 2004 in India, uses half as much water as traditional brands, saving consumers two buckets of water a day, or an estimated total of 14 billion liters each year. That's an important innovation for consumers in the dry southern states of India, where clothes are washed by hand and water is scarce. Sales of the brand are up 27% in the first six months of 2008 in India, where Unilever boasts a 40% share of the detergent market. Moreover, Unilever's detergents for use in these markets are formulated for use in cool water: Many people in developing countries do not have access to hot water.

Getting Out of Hot Water

Now such insights are helping to fuel innovation for Unilever in developed markets, whose consumers are becoming more environmentally aware. "Washing temperatures are coming down in the developed world, and our experience in the developing world is helping to drive innovation globally," says Mike Pilkington, who heads Unilever's R&D in Port Sunlight.

Unilever aims to use that knowledge to boost growth in its $8.2 billion laundry business in Europe and emerging markets. In July 2008 the company sold its U.S. laundry business for $1.4 billion to U.S. private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners. "Unilever was at a significant scale disadvantage in laundry in the U.S. vs. P&G, with very little prospect of reversing that position," says Dresdner Kleinwort consumer goods analyst Warren Ackerman. In the U.S., top player P&G had a 62% market share, he notes, more than five times larger than the No. 2-ranked Unilever. Globally, Unilever still trails P&G, with 20% vs. its 27% share, respectively. "Unilever is using its exit from the U.S. to focus on developing markets where it is the clear leader," Ackerman says.

Unilever promptly moved its R&D out of the U.S. and opened new labs in India. Today nearly 40% of Unilever's laundry sales come from emerging markets. And with five-year average growth rates of 8.3% in emerging markets compared with just 0.6% for developed markets, that figure is expected to grow. According to analysts, Unilever's strong focus on sustainability, coupled with innovative launches such as Small & Mighty and Surf Excel Quick Wash, have revitalized the business. The turnaround in the laundry division brought largely by Small & Mighty "is one of Unilever's biggest successes," Ackerman says.

Capell is a senior writer in BusinessWeek's London bureau .

Original article here

Interview with Keith Weed, Global VP, Homecare & Hygiene, and Laurie Mayer, BBC Broadcast Journalist

Unilever has announced the sale of its North American laundry business. Keith Weed, Gobal VP, Homecare & Hygiene, discusses the thinking behind the sale.

Laurie Mayer
Keith, the North American laundry business, a key, major market, by your own admission it was a healthy business, so the first question must be, why on earth have you sold?

Keith Weed
Well, it was our decision to do it and, indeed, our decision to do it now. It's a good thing for Unilever and a good thing for Unilever's laundry business. We have a very big laundry business globally. More than 5 billion euros. We sell more than 7 million washes every half an hour. However, our business in the States is sub-scale. We've used that size to our advantage in a sort of David and Goliath battle with the leader. But on a sustained business going forward, this market needs to consolidate and, through the consolidation, be more effective to compete.

Laurie Mayer
Isn't the plain fact of the matter that Procter & Gamble had a stranglehold on the market? You've just cut and run when you could have invested more? Or you could have found a partner to eat into market share?

Keith Weed
Well, at the end of the day it's about choices and the choice that we have made is we have better investment opportunities elsewhere in the world. We're very committed to this market. It's one of our foundation categories and in the lifeblood of Unilever. The removal of the North American business, a slower growth business, actually removes the drag from our business. We have other areas of investment with more attractive opportunities from our perspective in laundry around the world, where we’d prefer to put our emphasis, our focus and our resource.

Laurie Mayer
What does it say about your commitment to the North American market? Are consumers and customers there going to be able to have access to a full range of product now the sale's gone through?

Keith Weed
Very much so. As far as a customer, retailer or a consumer, our products will be on sale along with the products of the acquirer. And together that will be managed as a bigger, more-scale business, a more competitive business in the North American market.

Laurie Mayer
So what sort of opportunities have now opened up now that you can focus resources on more profitable areas?

Keith Weed
This has been well planned for some time. So, we've already moved, for instance, the liquid detergent programme, our R&D programme, across to Europe. We've increased the research and development resource in Mumbai in India. Last year I put in 75 new scientists there. And the actions that have been taken are well in place and we're well prepared for the new business focusing on Europe and the developing and emerging markets.

Laurie Mayer
Looking back, should you have got out of North America perhaps earlier? Were you wrong to stay there as long as you did?

Keith Weed
Timing's important in business and this is the right time. It's a decision about moving right now when the business has good momentum. We've had a very good business momentum in the US. We have been a major innovator. We've led the concentration agenda with ‘All Small & Mighty’. The whole of the market is now moving into concentration with benefits to consumers, to retailers and to the industry as a whole. And importantly, a very strong environmental story where we now have concentrated products. Now's a great time to sell with the business in good shape and it's time for the next phase of development for the new owners in the States.

Laurie Mayer
So is it really possible to manage a global platform when there's a huge area missing?

Keith Weed
We have huge scale. As I said, we are the leaders in the developing and emerging markets. We have an 80% share in South Africa, over 60% share in Thailand, 80% share in Vietnam, 70% share in Brazil. And if you come across to Europe, we're the brand leader in the UK, for example. So many very strong positions. We're committed to this market. We are a major innovator. We've led innovations year after year from tablets and capsules, through to concentrated liquids. We have a very strong sustainability programme as well. We feel very confident about this market. It's the right thing to do. It's the right thing for Unilever. It's the right thing for the consumers and the retailers, and, of course, our shareholders.

Laurie Mayer
Keith Weed, thank you very much indeed.

Keith Weed
Thank you.