CASE-STUDY

Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods manufacturer which is headquartered in London, UK. It deals in several product lines including food & beverages, detergents, hygiene & personal care, and minerals & supplements. The company employs 148,000 people around the world. It owns over 400 brands in 190 countries. Household names such as Surf, Omo, Lipton, Knorr, Magnum, Dove, and Vaseline are all owned by Unilever.

Unilever has a history of over 100 years in Australia and New Zealand. Over 70% of the Unilever products sold in these countries are made locally. Like many other organisations, Unilever has set several goals which need to be achieved over a period. This is to ensure it demonstrates its responsibility to the society in which the company operates. One of these goals is to be fairer, more socially inclusive world. Unilever aims to achieve this goal by ensuring that 5% of its workforce is made up of people with disabilities by 2025. Similarly, another goal for the multinational is to help put an end to 'throw-away' culture in Australia/NZ. This will be done by reducing the amount of virgin plastic in its packaging by 50% over the next three years. Unilever also plans to help its consumers transition towards healthier diets. As a result of this goal, it has decided that 95% of its packaged ice cream will contain no more than 250 kcal per serving.

Innovation is at the heart of Unilever's ambition to grow sustainably. The company is known as being a bold innovator. It invested over 800 million Euros in Research & Development in 2020 alone. It has eight key global R&D centres in six countries (US, UK, Netherlands, Italy, India, and China). As part of its innovation culture, Unilever's first online store "The Ice Cream Shop" has recently partnered with drone delivery company, Fkytrex. Buyers can place an order via an app and expect to receive their ice cream package (in their front/back yard) with a flight time of under 3 minutes. To prevent spillageor meltingduring delivery, Flytrex uses a wire-release system from its drones, carefully lowering items, such

as ice cream, rather than just dropping orders from the air. Flytrex packaging is designed to uphold the product's quality during flight and delivery. This service is currently being offered to consumers in North Carolina and Texas in the United States.

In 2017, Unilever brand Ben & Jerry's made the headlines by launching a range of cereal flavours (including Fruit Loot & Frozen Flakes) as an ice cream for breakfast. The company used Artificial Intelligence to reach this decision. It analysed publicly available information from multiple sources to see the content people post and reactions to it. Unilever found that there were around 50 songs that featured lyrics on "ice-cream and breakfast." The Insights Team at Unilever was able to employ and AI algorithm and sifted through tons of data. Metaphor analysis was undertaken on the unstructured, qualitative data retrieved from various platforms. It helped the team to understand how people process information and the type of unconscious needs which may exist. This insight came at a time when the company found businesses like Dunkin Donuts were already serving ice-cream for breakfast. It helped reveal an opportunity for Ben & Jerry's to make a sweet treat for consumers to enjoy first thing in the morning.

SURVEY RESEARCH

Let's assume Unilever has also undertaken survey research with its consumers. Here is some of the data which has been generated by analysing the survey responses.

GENDER
Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Male	257	48.6	48.6	48.6
Female	272	51.4	51.4	100.0
Total	529	100.0	100.0

AGE GROUP
Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	18-29	119	22.5	22.5	22.5
30-39	90	17.0	17.0	39.5
40-49	84	15.9	15.9	55.4
50-59	89	16.8	16.8	72.2
60-69	73	13.8	13.8	86.0
70+	74	14.0	14.0	100.0
Total	529	100.0	100.0

From which store or supermarket do you mostly purchase your groceries?
Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	About Life	1	.2	.2	.2
Aldi	45	8.5	8.5	8.7
Coles	141	26.7	26.7	35.3
Flemington Markets	5	.9	.9	36.3
Foodworks	1	.2	.2	36.5
Friendly Grocery	3	.6	.6	37.1
Harris Farms	34	6.4	6.4	43.5
IGA	5	.9	.9	44.4
Paddys Markets	11	2.1	2.1	46.5
Woolworths	215	40.6	40.6	87.1
Other local green grocer/market	62	11.7	11.7	98.9
Other (please specify)	6	1.1	1.1	100.0
Total	529	100.0	100.0

WEEKLY INCOME
Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Less than $299 per week	32	6.0	6.0	6.0
$300 - $599	49	9.3	9.3	15.3
$600 - $999	105	19.8	19.8	35.2
$1,000 - $1,499	109	20.6	20.6	55.8
$1,500 - $1,999	69	13.0	13.0	68.8
$2,000 and above	64	12.1	12.1	80.9
I would rather not answer	101	19.1	19.1	100.0
Total	529	100.0	100.0

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION
Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Postgraduate	103	19.5	19.5	19.5
Bachelor degree level	197	37.2	37.2	56.7
Advanced Diploma and diploma level	73	13.8	13.8	70.5
Certificate III & IV	52	9.8	9.8	80.3
Certificate I & II	12	2.3	2.3	82.6
HSC	56	10.6	10.6	93.2
Year 10-11	30	5.7	5.7	98.9
Year 9 and lower	6	1.1	1.1	100.0
Total	529	100.0	100.0

CORRELATION TEST
	Attitude towards ice cream	Intentions to purchase ice cream
Attitude towards Ice cream	Pearson Correlation	1	.481**
Sig. (2-tailed)		.000
N	506	506
Intentions to purchase ice cream	Pearson Correlation	.481**	1
Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
N	506	506

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

ONE-SAMPLE T-TEST

One-Sample Statistics
	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean
HB1.On a scale of 1 to 7, how much do you enjoy consuming ice cream generally?	506	4.58	.690	.022

One-Sample Test
	Test Value = 3
t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Mean Difference
HB1.On a scale of 1 to 7, how much do you enjoy consuming ice cream generally?	72.240	999	.000	1.577

INDEPENDENT SAMPLES T-TEST

Group Statistics

Q5.GENDER

N

Mean

Std. Deviation

Std. Error Mean

INT.

Male

252

4.9329

1.33876

.10859

Female

253

4.8889

1.42937

.11556

Independent Samples Test
	Levene's Test for Equality of Variances	t-test for Equality of Means
F	Sig.	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)
INT.	Equal variances assumed	.914	.340	.277	303	.782
Equal variances not assumed			.278	301.955	.782

INT. = Intentions to purchase ice cream this week (1= not at all likely; 7= highly likely)

- Unilever is interested in utilising secondary data before it starts collecting primary data for a research study on Sydney-based consumers. What possible sources of reliable information could the company look at?

- Suppose Unilever is looking into launching a new type of business in Sydney - ice cream cafes. However, it wants to do research and explore if this idea is at all feasible. What type of a research design would you recommend and why?

- If Unilever is planning to conduct a survey with residents of Parramatta, what kind of a sampling methodology would you recommend? Probability or Non-Probability? Which particular technique would you choose within this methodology? Why?

- How would you describe the demographic profile of the respondents of the Unilever survey (in the case study)?

- Explain what kind of information does the one-sample output in the Unilever case study provide to a marketing manager?