Our brands in society

Customer trends & market opportunities

The world is experiencing unprecedented social, economic and environmental change. The global challenges of poverty, malnutrition, poor health and disease are becoming more acute and more complex, while the effects of climate change are being felt on every continent.

For some companies this represents a threat but for others it provides a huge opportunity for innovation and growth.

Many of the world's social and environmental challenges are felt most acutely in developing and emerging countries. For example, it is these countries that will suffer the worst effects of climate change. However, given their rate of economic development, these are also the very markets that will be the main source of growth for Unilever in future.

Companies that can develop products that meet the functional needs of consumers while taking into account these social and environmental challenges will be better placed to grow than those that do not.

Another significant trend in recent years has been the emergence of 'conscience consumers' – people who want to make a positive difference to the world through the brands they choose to buy. From being a minority group of consumers seeking out a small selection of mostly niche brands, this has become a more mainstream movement, with large numbers of people now actively seeking out products with a positive social or environmental benefit or avoiding those that are perceived as having a negative impact.

Our approach

Anticipating that this would become a big trend, the Unilever Executive decided in 2005 that social, economic and environmental factors should be integrated more deeply into the development and innovation plans of our brands.

To help evaluate the risks and opportunities presented by this agenda, we developed an approach called Brand Imprint. This provides our brand teams with a 360º scan of the social, economic and environmental impact that their brand has on the world.

For each brand a multidisciplinary team conducts a detailed assessment, looking first at the direct and indirect impacts of our products, or their 'imprint', across the value chain. The team then gathers insights about the external influences on the brand's future growth, drawing from consumer and stakeholder research.