India, China to drive Unilever growth: Polman

With sales growth in developed markets slowing down, more and more companies will shift their innovation capabilities to growth markets like India and China, according to Paul Polman, chief executive officer of Anglo-Dutch consumer products maker Unilever.

Polman, who is on a four-day visit to India, said in Mumbai today that Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever Ltd - the fastest-growing among the entities that form part of the €44 billion company - will be the lynchpin of the strategy to achieve the group's overarching objective of doubling revenues by 2020.

"The Indian entity has turned out its best results in the past 30 years," he said, adding that it would probably continue to grow much faster than the group itself.

As a result, Hindustan Unilever will need to metaphorically spawn a clone that will be as big as itself in the next few years - he didn't spell out the timeline - if the global parent hopes to double its size in the next 10 years.

"In the next 10 years, the global entity will grow its revenues by the same magnitude that it took 125 years to achieve," said Polman, who was poached from Nestle just over two years ago to revive the fortunes of a giant that had started to flounder against niftier rivals.

The turnaround has started to show, with Unilever's overall volumes surging 5.8 per cent in 2010 against 2.3 per cent in the previous year. The emerging markets - which Polman calls the "growth markets" - already account for 53 per cent of Unilever's total business.

The Unilever boss is also paring costs across the organisation, which sells its products to over 2 billion consumers in 180 nations. It's already started to pay off: in 2010, Unilever delivered savings of €1.4 billion. "This year we expect savings of €1 billion," he added.

Polman seems to have seen off the worst of the economic crisis and is now ready to ratchet up growth without worrying too much about the sharp surge in food prices.

"I wouldn't worry about the commodity price surge for the next six months. But, after that, I would like to see the dust settle down. A 2-3 per cent food price rise is something that we are comfortable with because that means the farmer is going to get a decent price for his produce. But I do worry about the uncertain spikes in food prices," he added.

Polman is also aggressively pushing a new agenda at Unilever with the sustainability living plan, which seeks to balance the compulsions of growth with the responsibility of protecting the environment.

The plan has three objectives: first, slash the environmental impact of Unilever's products by half by reducing carbon emissions; second, ensure the group only sources sustainable agriculture supplies; and third, improve the health of a billion people worldwide.

"We have to take up the responsibility because the governments around the world have clearly failed to deliver on environmental goals," he added.

The plan will be implemented across all brands and will also cover countries such as India.

Unilever - which has 12 €1-billion brands, including Axe, Dove, Knorr, Lux and Lipton - has an environmental imprint for every single brand within its portfolio.

"We have built a database. There's a baseline for each brand and we are looking to trim the environmental impact of every one of them," added Harish Manwani, HUL chairman and Unilever's president for Asia, Africa and Central & Eastern Europe.

However, Polman felt that there was little merit in the Indian government's proposal to legislate that firms spend at least 2 per cent of their net profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. "CSR has to be embedded in the company and its products. It has to be built into the business model," he said.

source: http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_h/Hindustan_Lever_Ltd/20110309_paul_polman_oneView.html

Mass vs Niche: Unilever's Keith Weed answers what's right! (CNBC-TV18)

On CNBC-TV18’s special show-Storyboard, Keith Weed, chief marketing and communications officer of Unilever spoke about the company's recent restructuring and future plans.
Below is the verbatim transcript of his exclusive interview with Anuradha SenGupta in Cannes. Also watch the accompanying video.
Q: We are talking on a day when we hear that Unilever has just announced huge broad-based restructuring of its business. Instead of categories like home, personal care and food, you have added refreshment too. How does that impact your work, and marketing function?
A: The rational behind is still the same with main focus on growth. We made a greater focus on our categories to ensure that we have greater expertise and a greater driver behind our brands. For me and the marketing function, we are going to be very much the glue that brings the whole of the marketing organization together and focus on the expertise and driving our marketing high.
Q: In India when we talk to Hindustan Unilever, there is this conversation from brand development those guys are brand building and that brand building is handling the local business and is responsible for sales in that area, whereas the innovation and what brands will come in is the function of development. How is this structure going to be impacted by this re-organization and what does this mean therefore for people who are working with you?
A: It doesn’t change at all the brand building and brand development. This is an organization where we can get the equity development expertise and the innovation and brand design etc and the brand development and then being really close to the local consumer.
At the end of the day, our business is built in one purchase at a time and one use at the time. So, we are going to be very close to the local markets, but also we are going to be at the leverage of the expertise of Unilever’s brand development skills across the markets. So the brand development and brand building are the main obkectives.
Q: What is the difference between the way you approach consumers in the emerging markets and developed world?
A: It’s very good question and you are right by saying that you are clubbing it altogether, you can’t is the answer. So we don’t club is altogether. We look at not even by country, but then we also look at consumers in clusters by their lifestyles. In fact a 14-year-old boy has more in common across Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Beijing than across the demographics in just, say, Mumbai.
So we are looking at cross sections people. This is the reason why I was saying about brand developments enables to look at target audiences, it appear, across areas. So we look at people in particular lifestyle segments. So things they engage with and then from that develop brand propositions for them.
Q: I find it interesting that most consumer goods companies are putting in a lot of effort to emphasize their commitment to the societies they belong. We heard Paul Polman speak often enough of sustainability and how it goes beyond just the environment and but looking at the environmental impact your businesses are having and yet, how does this become a differentiator for companies like yours because whether it is you, P&G or Nestle, everybody is talking the same language when it comes to the corporate brand that is being put forward and has being used to leverage product brands on?
A: Firstly, it’s great that big businesses are engaging sustainability agenda. I want the more here because we have got some big challenges in this world. Big companies taking part in missions to help the environment paves the way for betterment as challenges of the world rise. We will see more companies coming on board and more companies having sustainable mission.
Two things differentiate us: one, our DNA- the sort of values empowered by Unilever back from the late 1800s, with Lord Leverhulme and him building a company based on strong societal connection is very much in the DNA. It’s very comfortable to have a trajectory for us. Second, it is the different way we are looking right now at an environmental footprint is widely due to consumer use.
So, we are not just looking at the piece, we looking after the manufacturing and offices. We are looking at consumer use at consumer disposal and that whole life chain, the whole value chain piece is a differentiator.
Q: Do you as a marketing head for Unilever see the corporate brand as being integral to the marketing of your product brands because clearly there is a lot of effort to create and promote the corporate brand identity?
A: Absolutely, it’s a good question. The change in digital world left companies some what sort of behind the brands and it was hard for consumers to really engage with what is the brand behind the brands. Now in the digital world you can easily research very quickly and find out what is the company behind. So people are more interested.
People want companies like us to be transparent and they want to learn more about Unilever. So we are promoting the Unilever brand more. But it’s more trying to explain to a consumer who is this company behind the brands that you know now.
Q: Does it make a difference to the consumers when they are actually making purchase decisions?
A: It does. So the building of trust and confidence behind the brands in all the tests we have done have shown is a positive thing.
Q: Give me a sense of how you are looking at traditional media because television especially in the developed market seems to be doing very well?
A: Television is very important to us and will be for a long period of time. In fact the term traditional and digital is an unhelpful term and it’s one we all use. But traditional pulls together TV and cinema and radio and print and then on the other side on digital you have got mobile and search and e-commerce.
So these terms in themselves are helpful, but also unhelpful and when you look inside that you find the TV is still very important and will be and also not just TV, video. So if you think about it, what is TV? It’s a moving picture on a square screen. Actually if you think about it whether that’s going to be on your computer, on your mobile device, on iPad, it’s still a moving picture and the whole video form is something that consumer is engaged with significantly.
Q: You have talked about the fact that you see brands as media properties, you want to tell us what you are doing with the examples of some brands and how that has worked for Unilever?
A: Yes, it’s a new area that we are experimenting in over the last sort of year or so. The model of we call paid, owned and earned and so paid is buying advertising on TV or search whatever owned is our own site. So this is Unliever.com or Axe.com and then the earned of course is a whole social space.
So in that middle piece what we are trying to do is find ways of engaging consumers and building content and in that we are creating partnerships with people who are engaged with our brand, so actually Axe in itself is an interesting brand.
But if I go then say down to Latin America we have Axe mobile phone. So we are using the brand as a way to engage with consumers and give consumers benefits and services beyond just the products that we sell.
Q: You have said that Unilever you would like to be ahead of the consumer. So that when they get there you are already there. Over the past year since you have been at the head of this function, do you think the job has become or the function has become more complicated or less complicated? More or less challenging?
A: The whole marketing area is incredibly exciting and it’s very challenging. It’s a great time to be in marketing because there are so many options. But you are completely right, you need to be sharp and keep ahead of all the changes. So I have teams who are going at sort of two speeds really: one, being competitive today and then other’s team worrying about how we are going to be competitive tomorrow.
Q: This is over USD 3 billion worth of marketing spend, isn’t it?
A: Yes. We are not short of resources. What we are like everyone else short of over opportunities and ideas etc and I am very greedy in that area. So I am trying to find new ways to innovate in this space. So you will continue to see us innovating.
Q: You can’t tell us about the new things?
A: When you see them you will recognize them

Three Startups to Remember: Bubbli, Push Pop Press and Bluefin Delight at TED

Some of the biggest hits and touchpoints so far at this year’s TED Conference have come from tech start-up founders’ talks and show-stealing demos. Here are three companies you’ll likely be hearing about again:

In recent weeks multiple people have told me about Bubbli, saying it’s a see-it-to-believe-it experience. At TED on Wednesday the company gave the first public demo of its augmented reality application, which creates navigable photos.

Basically, Bubbli enables you to take a picture with your phone camera that shows not just what’s directly in front of you, but also what’s all around, above and below you. Then, other people can navigate the view of the world captured by that “bubble” by holding their own phones in front of them. When their phone is moved up or down or left or right, they see what you would have seen in that same direction.

At least that’s how I think it works. The Bubbli demo was a bit raw, in part due to connectivity issues.

Bubbli co-founder Ben Newhouse gained recognition for building the Yelp Monocle feature, which was the iPhone’s first augmented reality app. It uses the phone’s built-in compass to overlay Yelp restaurant ratings onto a camera view of the surrounding area.

Bubbli, which is funded by August Capital, describes its goal as to “build the matrix by defining a new medium to express the physical world around us.”

Meanwhile,Bluefin Labs co-founder Deb Roy used his full-length speaking slot to describe the process of surveilling his house with video cameras to capture the process of his son learning to speak. In order to analyze more than 90,000 hours of video, his MIT team created machine learning systems that helped trace the evolution of his son’s learning moment by moment.

Roy has now taken a leave of absence from MIT to extend these machine learning techniques to social media discussions of television programs. His company, Bluefin Labs, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures.

In a previous conversation with NetworkEffect, Roy told me that Bluefin now analyzes 30 television channels 24/7 and computes their intersection with Twitter Firehose data, Facebook updates and blog posts in real time. Bluefin’s customers are big brand advertisers, agencies and media companies who want to better understand how ads and programs resonate with online audiences.

TED attendee and financial commentator Paul Kedrosky was effusive about Roy’s talk on Twitter, calling it the best ever. “Epic, moving and wondrous. Generated biggest standing O in ages,” Kedrosky tweeted.

And on Tuesday,Push Pop Pressshowed off a reimagined digital version of Al Gore’s book “Our Choice” built for the iPad and iPhone with interactive infographics, videos and voice overs. For instance, one demonstration of wind energy generation can be manipulated (as pictured) by a user blowing on the device’s screen. That was a big crowd pleaser.

TEDsters (you’ll notice they’re an effusive bunch) called the demo “mind-blowing” and “amazing.”

We’d written before about how Push Pop Press is highly anticipated given its founders’ background. Mike Matas, who showed off the app on stage at TED, was formerly a design prodigy at Apple.

Caveat: I am not at the conference myself, but have a press pass for the live stream. TED continues through Friday, and session videos will be posted online in the coming weeks.

Photo credits, via TED:

Terrence McArdle + Ben Newhouse, Inventors, in Session 5: Worlds Imagined, on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at TED2011, in Long Beach, California. Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED

Deb Roy, Cognitive scientist, in Session 4: Deep Mystery, on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at TED2011, in Long Beach, California. Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED

Mike Matas in Session 3: Mindblowing, on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, at TED2011, in Long Beach, California. Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED

source: http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/20110303/bubbli-push-pop-press-and-bluefin-delight-at-ted/

Apple set to unveil new iPad, with or without Jobs

(Reuters) - More than a year after igniting the tablet computing craze, Apple Inc prepares to unveil the second version of its blockbuster iPad on Wednesday -- possibly minus lead showman Steve Jobs.

Plenty has changed over the course of the year. The iPad became a bona fide smash, essentially creating the tablet category and triggering a wave of me-too products that are just starting to hit the market.

Now, as rivals Motorola and Research in Motion race to catch up, Apple itself is going through a transformation.

There is as much speculation about whether iconic Chief Executive Jobs will take the stage at Wednesday's event in San Francisco as there is about the new device.

Jobs traditionally launches major products with a pizzazz and style that reflect his eye for detail and design. But he took indefinite medical leave last month and Apple has not given details of the cancer survivor's medical condition.

His absence is bound to spark a fresh round of speculation on his condition. And his presence will be scrutinized equally closely for any signals on his health.

Many in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street doubt he will return to the company he co-founded in 1976.

In his absence, it is a good bet that Tim Cook, the company's operations chief and Jobs' heir apparent, or marketing head Phil Schiller, will lead Wednesday's show.

If Cook does appear, investors will scrutinize his performance. While Wall Street has grown comfortable with Cook's leadership, Wednesday would provide the first major test of his showmanship skills -- a key asset for marketing maestro Apple.

Regardless, the company is in little danger of losing its massive lead in the tablet market in the near term. With a big first-mover advantage, the company is rolling out the second-generation iPad just as most its rivals are bringing their first offerings to consumers.

IPAD, PART DEUX

The new model will sport the same 10-inch screen but should be lighter, thinner and faster, according to a plethora of analyst and blog reports. Apple is expected to add a camera to enable video chat using the FaceTime application.

Shares of some Taiwanese component makers rose in Asian trade on Wednesday ahead of the launch.

Camera module maker Genius Electronic Optical Co Ltd and lens manufacturer Largan Precision Co Ltd were starting new supply deals with Apple, two sources said in December, but neither could confirm for which product the modules were intended.

Genius jumped as much as 5.1 percent before ending 2.5 percent lower, while lens manufacturer Largan edged up 0.2 percent in a broader market down 1.2 percent. Hon Hai Precision, whose parent Foxconn manufactures Apple products, eased 1.8 percent.

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/02/us-apple-idUSTRE7210W120110302

Facebook Acquires Group Messaging Service Beluga

Facebook has added to its acquisition arsenal with the purchase of messaging service Beluga.

Beluga and Facebook will work together on "new and better ways to communicate and share group experiences," Beluga said in a note on its Web site. "We're excited to continue to build our vision for mobile group messaging as part of the Facebook team."

Beluga is "group messaging made easy," the company said. The free app - available for iOS and Android devices - is intended to help friends stay in touch on the go. "Use it to plan a night out or just share updates and photos," Beluga said.

Beluga is the brainchild of three former Google execs. Prior to founding Beluga, CEO Ben Davenport helped build Google AdSense, president Lucy Zhang worked on Google AdWords, Google News, and Google Docs, while CTO Jonathan Perlow served as senior staff engineer at Google, working on Gmail, Gmail Chat, and Mail Goggles. Perlow also served as a development lead at Microsoft, while Davenport helped build MSN Explorer.

"For now, Beluga will continue to function as it does today," Beluga said. "Your Beluga account and data will not be lost. We'll be providing more details on future plans for Beluga in the coming weeks."

The Beluga app has location-based functionality, which could be a good fit for Facebook's Places location feature. Last month, Facebook also added a "shared deals" option for developers, meaning users could share information about discounts with others on Facebook.

Earlier this year, Facebook acquired mobile ad start-up Rel8tion to improve hyper-local ad targeting to its 200 million-plus mobile subscribers.

Last year, it also bought startup Chai Labs, online file service Drop.io, social check-in network Hot Potato, and recommendation engine nextstop.

source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381245,00.asp

Unilever Turkey's Cornetto Ice Cream Wins Global Mobile Awards (Advertising Agency)

It may not be the Academy Awards, but today I am eagerly awaiting the results of the GSMA Global Mobile Awards. I was a member of the jury that determined the best mobile-marketing campaign in the world in 2010. Here's what I learned when suddenly thrust into the global (i.e., not U.S.-centric) world of mobile marketing:

1. Contrary to what Steve Jobs said last year, mobile marketing does not suck: It just sucks a lot of the time in the U.S. When I think of the great campaigns and simple creative (some even purely on SMS) executed in countries with minuscule budgets and on all phones, well, the U.S. loses hands down. Emotion does not have to come through video; it can come through a simple image or even copy in a text. A campaign executed in Afghanistan (outdoor and SMS were the primary media used) equated restoration and extension of cell service with rebuilding communities and an entire country, and had me in tears.

2. We love devices more than we love marketing. Western entries focused on apps, and apps solely on iPhones. I still cannot make the connection between shaking denim (two different brands used the accelerometer function for branded apps) and brand loyalty or increase in intent to purchase the jeans. Same goes for any of the mass-market brands with download numbers in the tens of thousands. These are companies that need to move millions of units. Huh?

3. If you're going to focus on a cool aspect of the phone, make it novel and continually rewarding. Apps can just be fun, but when the fun wears off in less than 30 seconds, it's a half-baked marketing effort. In Japan, there is an app called "iButterfly" that uses GPS, augmented reality and the motion sensor of the iPhone all for a loyalty program. The more consumers use it, the more likely they are to collect rewards. They have to use it in public places -- by waving the phone around as they "catch" and collect really cool-looking virtual butterflies triggered at locations around the country -- thus making a viral spectacle of themselves. But the program is not about people waving phones -- it's about increasing loyalty and delivering coupons in an innovative way. Take that, Groupon, with your mega-discounting ways that may actually decrease loyalty.

4. Rich media is not the solution: embrace the creative "limitations" of mobile. In writing for Ad Age on mobile, I have interviewed agencies all over the U.S. These agencies complain that clients want rich media and overlook simpler solutions such as banners for the mobile web. Those clients need to take a trip to China, India or South Africa and see how even a simple banner on a rudimentary browser works in places where the mobile device is the primary mode of internet access. It's all about relative real estate and reaching an audience at the right time and right place. OK, the U.S. is different. Research here shows that non-flashing mobile banners typically work two to four times as well as they do on the wired web. Take another look at the difference in user experience between mobile and the morass that is web design and you will see why.

5. Cross-platform does not mean do it on more than one device. To be considered cross-platform in the U.S., marketers using mobile think they are being edgy if they execute on Android as well as on the iPhone. Wrong. Cross-platform involves using more than one medium. Mobile works brilliantly for activation of "traditional" media campaigns. For reaching demos turned off of broadcast TV and print, let's talk urban audiences and anyone under 34. Why isn't mobile integrated into the larger media mix? It's not hard.

6. If it's a mobile-marketing campaign, actually use mobile as media. AT&T submitted a campaign promoting that because its phones are GSM, you can use them anywhere in the world. The campaign is visually stunning, featuring hands cleverly painted to look like iconic images from various counties -- for example, hands become the Great Wall of China or Indian elephants. They did print and place-based media in airports, to target people who travel and need such options on their phones. But if you are selling a service related to mobile phones, why not actually use mobile app inventory on your competitors' mobile phones to sell the idea?

7. Mobile is a reach medium: Treat it like one. The Western campaigns focused on smartphones, which, despite huge growth, will likely never penetrate the whole U.S. population. Overall mobile penetration is about 85% right now, according to sources such as Nielsen. That blows away the internet. So if we have all these devices, why not market to the masses using SMS and banners? I would like U.S. marketers to take a look at campaigns submitted from Kenya, the Philippines and Sri Lanka that worked on all devices and where success was measured in percent of the total population of the country reached.

8. Do something big: change behavior. Advertising is supposed to be a transformative experience. Gillette and safety razors changed the way men approached their mornings, as did Kellogg's with the American breakfast. Mobile campaigns in developing countries have audacious goals. A campaign from Brazil was focused on getting a nation of talkers to be texters. The largest carriers there banded together (try that, AT&T & Verizon!) and did a simple campaign using text, web and interactive voice response. Within a few months' time, from Ipanema to the Amazon, those thumbs were flying.

9. Learn from Captain Kirk: It's called a "communicator," not an "i" or a "touch" anything. Those things that Kirk and Spock used to talk to each other were called "communicators." They actually talked to each other on them and did not fiddle with them when bored. So much of mobile marketing in the West assumes we have time to play with it, tap it and zap it, and overlooks the primary communication function of the phone. The best marketing is supposed to engender communication between companies, products and people. If you're a marketer or an agency person, become an angry bird yourself and ask whether your next mobile campaign really communicates a clear brand message, engages the target audience, reaches more than 10 people and provides something of value people respond to. And by response, I don't mean a click or game interaction.

10. And the winner is ... Congratulations to Unilever Turkey and Cornetto ice cream.The campaign was designed to engage young ice-cream eaters and included SMS, PR, interactive outdoor and promotional marketing. Using a wall projection system, Cornetto took over the outside of a building in Taksim, Turkey's equivalent to Times Square. Anyone with any phone could play a game in which people texted to move images around the projection. Winners got a free ice cream, redeemable on the spot. It made the national news and became the talk of Turkey. Since the best ideas are made to be "evolved," I dare anyone to get a few permits and execute in Times Square. How cool, engaging and rewarding would that be? Maybe not ice cream right now -- how about hot chocolate or lattes? Go to YouTube to watch the campaign in action.

by Kathryn Koegel

Tweet like an Egyptian-Hillary Clinton tries it out

Young Egyptians, who famously used Internet services like Facebook and Twitter to launch their recent revolution, turned their focus to Hillary Clinton on Wednesday. They peppered the top U.S. diplomat with skeptical questions about longtime U.S. support for former President Hosni Mubarak and what many felt was its slow embrace of the movement to topple him.

Clinton, taking a personal spin at what she has called “21st Century Statecraft”, fielded a selection of some 6,500 questions that young Egyptians posed through Twitter, Facebook and the Arabic-language website www.masrawy.com — and many reflected deep suspicions about the U.S. role in Egypt.

“My question is: Does America really support democracy? If yes indeed, why the U.S. was late in its support of the Egyptian revolution?” one questioner asked Clinton.

“The attitude of the U.S. during the Egyptian revolution was to support the Egyptian regime first. Then, when the revolution turned successful, the U.S. switched sides and supported the Egyptian youth and the youth revolution, and the U.S. said that we learn from Egyptian youth. Why was such delay?” another wondered.

Clinton gamely took them on, stressing that the United States used its influence in Egypt to help press for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and the launch of a reform process that would lead to “an Egyptian model of democracy.”

“So I think that we were walking a balance, because we wanted to be sure that our messages did not push anyone into doing something that we disagreed with, namely violence, which we tried to, in every way possible, prevent,” Clinton said.

Clinton — who in the past has described the Mubaraks as family friends — said U.S. officials had not been shy about pushing the Egyptian strongman to make political reforms.

“I personally know how strongly the United States did speak out on behalf of reforms, ending corruption, ending human rights abuses. We were not successful. I mean, I will be very honest with you. Our efforts, whether they were in public or in private, did not change the regime.”

Clinton has steered the State Department deep into the waters of social media, using everything from YouTube to Arabic-language Twitter feeds to get the U.S. message across. And while she gave full credit to Egypt and its young people for achieving political transformation, she did note that the United States provided “many of the tools” that built the revolution.

“Facebook and Twitter, even the Internet, are American inventions, and we are proud that these American inventions are helping to connect people up around democracy and human rights and freedom and an agenda that will lead to a better life in Egypt,” she said.

She said that U.S. hopes were now riding on the transition process, and urged young Egyptians not to allow their politics to get “hijacked, either by a return to dictatorship or by an imposition of extremism or any other reason in between.”

PHOTO CREDIT: REUTERS/Mike Segar (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seen through a camera viewfinder on Feb. 18, 2011)