How Unilever Is Preparing for the Future of Work

How Unilever Is Preparing for the Future of Work

Launched in 2016, Unilever’s Future of Work initiative aimed to accelerate the speed of change throughout the organization and prepare its workforce for a digitalized and highly automated era. But despite its success over the last three years, the program still faces significant challenges in its implementation. How should Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, best prepare and upscale its workforce for the future? How should Unilever adapt and accelerate the speed of change throughout the organization? Is it even possible to lead a systematic, agile workforce transformation across several geographies while accounting for local context? Harvard Business School professor and faculty co-chair of the Managing the Future of Work Project William Kerr and Patrick Hull, Unilever’s vice president of global learning and future of work, discuss how rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation are changing the nature of work in the case, “Unilever's Response to the Future of Work.”

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Brian Kenny:

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI launched the latest version of ChatGPT, the largest and most powerful AI chatbot to date. Within a few days, more than a million people tested its ability to do the mundane things we really don't like to do, such as writing emails, coding software, and scheduling meetings. Others upped the intelligence challenge by asking for sonnets and song lyrics, and even instructions on how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR in the style of King James. But once the novelty wore off, the reality set in. ChatGPT is a game changer, and yet another example of the potential for AI to change the way we live and work.

And while we often view AI as improving how we live, we tend to think of it as destroying how we work, fears that are fueled by dire predictions of job eliminations in the tens of millions and the eradication of entire industries. And while it's true that AI will continue to evolve and improve, eventually taking over many jobs that are currently performed by people, it will also create many work opportunities that don't yet exist.

Today on Cold Call, we welcome Professor William Kerr, joined by Patrick Hull of Unilever, to discuss the case, “Unilever's Response to the Future of Work.” I'm your host, Brian Kenny, and you're listening to Cold Call on the HBR Podcast Network.

Professor Bill Kerr is the co-director of Harvard Business School's Managin

Unilever Digital Transformation

Used to follow Unilever closely

05/30/2023

Unilever Exits: Conny Braams, Graeme Pitkethly Departing

Lisa Johnston  Editor-in-Chief    in Consumergoods.com

Unilever digital twins (?)

Unilever announced leadership changes, with Conny Braams, chief digital and commercial officer, set to depart the company in August and CFO Graeme Pitkethly retiring next May. 

Braams, who is the company’s marketing leader and a member of the No. 5 publicly owned consumer goods company’s leadership team, has held the role since April 2022 and has been with the company for over three decades. Her previous title included chief digital and marketing officer, and she oversaw Unilever’s end-to-end digital transformation, as well as its marketing and customer development worldwide. 

See also: How Unilever Expedites Product Innovation With AI, Automation, and Robots

Pitkethly, meanwhile, joined Unilever in 2002 and has held such roles as executive VP and general manager of Unilever’s U.K. and Ireland business, as well as senior VP of finance for global markets and global head of M&A. 

Their departures from the company accompany a larger environment of change at Unilever, which restructured into five business groups last year and is set to welcome its new CEO, Hein Schumacher, July 1. Schumacher will replace Alan Jope following a one-month handover period. 

Stay informed on industry news and trends - subscribe now

Unilever said it will undertake an internal and external search for its new CFO successor, with Braams’ successor announced at a later date. 

Digital Leadership 

When Braams assumed the chief digital and commercial officer role, it was a new position for the company. Under her tenure, Unilever prepared its teams for the potential advent of the metaverse and other virtual experiences and evovled to meet consumers’ sustainability priorities as the company pushed forward on acquiring “purpose-driven brands.” 

See also: Unilever Becomes a Cloud-Only Enterprise Following Massive Migration

Prior to taking on the position, she also previously served as executive VP of Middle Europe and EVP food solutions for Asia, Africa and Middle East, leading those regions’ digital transformations. Braams, who got her start at Unilever as a marketing trainee in 1990, has been a member of the leadership team since 2020.    ... '

Consumer Goods: Unilever, Kimberly Clark, KC -- Jumping Into AI

Used to analyze what Unilever was doing in applications of Advanced tech.  Here related: 

How Unilever Expedites Product Innovation With AI, Automation, and Robots

04/21/2023 By Liz Dominguez Managing Editor,   in Consumergoods

Robots are having a heavy hand in product innovation at Unilever, thanks in large part to the efforts being implemented at the company’s Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) in Liverpool, according to a recent blog post. 

These innovations are having a global impact, influencing product discovery, research, and manufacturing in not just the U.K., but across the sea in the U.S. as well. There’s three special “ladies” to thank, per Unilever, and they’re named Ariana, Shirley, and Gwen. 

These three robots are working alongside 250 R&D experts at Unilever’s 120,000-square-foot facility to help develop science-backed products through the power of automation. 

According to Unilever, MIF has the highest concentration of robots doing material chemistry in the world, and each machine is designed to crunch “colossal amounts of data and maintain consistency across samples and testing.”

The company makes it clear, however, that it isn’t looking to replace human efforts; it’s merely freeing up time by reducing time-consuming, repetitive jobs so that experts can focus on invention and exploration.

“The MIF’s purpose is to create a community of talented future research leaders, exchanging ideas with academic colleagues and accelerating the discovery process,” said Unilever. “Our partnership here allows us to tap into the best minds and resources in robotics, which strengthens our insights and capabilities to power next-level innovation, scientific discovery, and produce products with superior performance.”

Will robot management be a job of the future? CGT thinks so. Find out more.

Meet the Robots

Beauty bot Ariana is preparing mass amounts of hair fiber samples in mere seconds in order to create hair products for Unilever’s brands, including Dove’s Intensive Repair line. Using a patented Fiber Repair Actives technology, Unilever can help consumers reconstruct inner hair fibers to reduce breakage and repair from within the hair strand. 

Shirley

This robot is helping to expedite and mimic the process of hair washing and rising, running through 120 samples of hair every 24 hours. Shirley can rise, detangle, and blow dry hair, speeding up the analysis process so researchers can create accurate haircare product formulas, such as for the TRESemmé’s Colour Radiance Booste product line. The range of products uses tech that Shirley helped invent in order to better protect hair surfaces and keep color vibrant longer within hair fibers.

Gwen 

Robot Gwen plays an important role in the sensory aspect of products, generating, measuring, and analyzing foam. As Unilever uses foam in many of its products to deliver ingredients, the company said it’s important it can accurately attribute performance related to the amount, quality, and type of bubbles and froth. 

“Understanding its physical, chemical and consumer relevance is important in product development,” said the company. 

The Role of AI and Data

Along with robotics, the company has also heavily invested in artificial intelligence, an advance that it said allows Unilever to parse through “vast quantities of data in record time” in order to make discoveries and create new formulas. 

For example, for the company’s Hourglass Confession Red Zero lipstick, Unilever used AI to quickly analyze different color combinations before landing on a specific pigment — a research process that would normally take millions of physical experiments to replicate. 

The company has filed more than 200 patents between 2022 and 2022 using this type of invaluable data, investing more than 100 million euro into its innovation hub in order to benefit from these types of technologies.

“We are nothing without our science-backed products,” said Samantha Samaras, head of science and technology, Unilever Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care, in a statement.

Unilever’s relationship with data-powered innovation only grows stronger, as showcased by the company’s commitment to improve digital organization and data warehousing across the enterprise by moving entirely to the cloud. 

Under the new leadership of CEO Hein Schumacher, who has a long track record of transforming supply chains with sustainable and automated technology, it’s expected that Unilever will continue on this path.

An Industry-Wide Effort?

Automation and artificial intelligence go hand-in-hand, and a growing number of consumer goods companies are implementing both as they scale their supply chain transformations, focusing on either end-to-end reinvention or putting special emphasis on a particular area. 

One such area? According to IDC’s Futurescape report, by 2023, 50% of all supply chain forecasts will be automated through the use of artificial Intelligence.

Read more: Building the Supply Chain of the Future: 5 Consumer Goods Companies Investing in Innovative Approaches

Other areas of focus include supply chain workforce, merchandising, fulfillment, and more. 

Take, for example, Kimberly-Clark, which is leveraging an AI-enabled tool to automate the distribution planning and deployment process, as well as improve scheduling. Additionally, Mondelez International chief sales and marketing officer Martin Renaud said earlier this year that more than 1 million stores have access to its automated intelligence-enabled “suggested other” function, which has so far freed up representatives to engage 45% of more time in robust selling vs. administrative tasks. 

More Robotics News

ChatGPT: Do These Transformative Consumer Goods Use Cases Outweigh Concerns?

In this edited webinar transcript, Albert Guffanti, VP of the Retail Technology Group at Ensemble IQ, leads a discussion on the topic of generative AI, touching on use cases and reasons why the consumer goods industry should embrace the tech.

ChatGPT

Henkel To Shift Entire Digital Infrastructure to the Cloud

Henkel has announced plans to migrate fully to the cloud over the upcoming months.

Coty Launches Internal Upskilling Metaverse for Global Workforce

Beauty company Coty has stepped into the metaverse, launching a virtual campus designed to upskill its global workforce.  ....'

How Unilever Expedites Product Innovation, AI, Automation and Robots

We saw similar trial adoption in the 80s and 90s.

How Unilever Expedites Product Innovation, AI, Automation and Robotics

Liz Dominguez 

Image  Unilever  Dove

Robots are having a heavy hand in product innovation at Unilever, thanks in large part to the efforts being implemented at the company’s Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) in Liverpool, according to a recent blog post. 

These innovations are having a global impact, influencing product discovery, research, and manufacturing in not just the U.K., but across the sea in the U.S. as well. There’s three special “ladies” to thank, per Unilever, and they’re named Ariana, Shirley, and Gwen. 

These three robots are working alongside 250 R&D experts at Unilever’s 120,000-square-foot facility to help develop science-backed products through the power of automation. 

According to Unilever, MIF has the highest concentration of robots doing material chemistry in the world, and each machine is designed to crunch “colossal amounts of data and maintain consistency across samples and testing.”

The company makes it clear, however, that it isn’t looking to replace human efforts; it’s merely freeing up time by reducing time-consuming, repetitive jobs so that experts can focus on invention and exploration.

“The MIF’s purpose is to create a community of talented future research leaders, exchanging ideas with academic colleagues and accelerating the discovery process,” said Unilever. “Our partnership here allows us to tap into the best minds and resources in robotics, which strengthens our insights and capabilities to power next-level innovation, scientific discovery, and produce products with superior performance.”

Will robot management be a job of the future? CGT thinks so. Find out more.

Robots   Ariana

Beauty bot Ariana is preparing mass amounts of hair fiber samples in mere seconds in order to create hair products for Unilever’s brands, including Dove’s Intensive Repair line. Using a patented Fiber Repair Actives technology, Unilever can help consumers reconstruct inner hair fibers to reduce breakage and repair from within the hair strand. 

Shirley

This robot is helping to expedite and mimic the process of hair washing and rising, running through 120 samples of hair every 24 hours. Shirley can rise, detangle, and blow dry hair, speeding up the analysis process so researchers can create accurate haircare product formulas, such as for the TRESemmé’s Colour Radiance Booste product line. The range of products uses tech that Shirley helped invent in order to better protect hair surfaces and keep color vibrant longer within hair fibers.

Gwen 

Robot Gwen plays an important role in the sensory aspect of products, generating, measuring, and analyzing foam. As Unilever uses foam in many of its products to deliver ingredients, the company said it’s important it can accurately attribute performance related to the amount, quality, and type of bubbles and froth. 

“Understanding its physical, chemical and consumer relevance is important in product development,” said the company. 

Univever Boosts Availability

 Was our biggest competitor ....

Unilever’s Newest Way to Boost On-Shelf Availability,   Lisa Johnston,  Senior Editor

The tool recommends whether to continue manufacturing products and accounts for such factors as profitability, consumer purchase habits, and retailer benefit.

Unilever shared insight into how it’s leveraging machine learning and advanced analytics as part of its SKU rationalization process.

While long a tool in the CPG toolbox, SKU rationalization accelerated during the pandemic’s unprecedented consumer demand and ensuing supply chain crisis. Many consumer goods companies used the period as an opportunity to cut back poor performers in order to simplify production, optimize on-shelf availability (OSA), and bolster their retail partnerships.

In a company blog post, Unilever said the company is leveraging a new data-driven tool that uses advanced analytics to provide a more holistic and granular assessment of its portfolio. Segmenting the data by brand, customer, category, and channel, the tool recommends whether to continue manufacturing products and accounts for such factors as profitability, consumer purchase habits, and retailer benefit.

[See also: Unilever and Ahold Partner on Consumer Behavior With Visual Learning End Caps]  

It’s said to offers both total and cross-market views of rationalization opportunities; as a result, the Unilever market teams receive greater visibility into top-performing products, as well as insight into where there may be opportunities to invest. The teams can also better track overall portfolio performance, and the No. 4 publicly owned consumer goods company expects the technology to provide additional cost savings within the discontinuation process, as well as optimize both in-store and e-commerce OSA. 

Learn More on CPG Innovation

Like the many consumer goods companies turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning, Unilever emphasizes the role of its employees in the process, pointing to the required “human touch."

Morgan Vawter, global VP at Unilever’s data center of excellence, said the technology helps the company make faster and better decisions by marrying the perspectives of its retailers, consumers, and business.

“This is supported by clear targets from our leadership and by robust end-to-end governance,” she added. “The tool gives us visibility of each SKU delisting execution, so we have full traceability of every step to realizing its value.”

Unilever Building a Stronger Social Playbook

Plans to include methods like livestreaming, shoppable media, group buying and gaming.   Note $3 Trillion mentioned below.

Unilever’s Social Commerce Playbook Adds New Start-up Platform

The Positive Beauty Growth Platform initiative is led by Unilever’s beauty and personal care division, which includes such brands as Dove, Axe and Love Beauty & Plane. 

Unilever is readying for the $3 trillion-plus social commerce tsunami with a new initiative wooing start-ups.

The No. 6 consumer goods company’s Positive Beauty Growth Platform is inviting scale-up and start-ups to apply to collaborate on beauty tech and innovation projects. It will host a series of pitch competitions and challenges for companies operating in social commerce — especially those in livestreaming, shoppable media, group buying and gaming.

The initiative is led by its beauty and personal care division, which includes such brands as Dove, Axe and Love Beauty & Planet, and accepted partners will pilot their idea in collaboration with select brands.  

The global social commerce market is pegged to be valued at $3.37 trillion in 2028, up from $474.8 billion in 2020, according to Grand View Research, which cited personal and beauty care segment as one segmented expected to especially benefit.

Social commerce is being propelled both as a discovery and a buying channel thanks to an increase in social media usage during the pandemic, with more brands investing in their ability to provide immersive and convenient experiences to seize on this growth.

Social platforms, meanwhile, are doing their part to grease the wheels: TikTok last week launched the TikTok Shopping solution suite that includes additional commerce experiences, integrations with third-party commerce partners, and live shopping, among other features.

Beyond growing sales, leveraging social commerce provides brands with another opportunity to leverage the benefits of direct-to-consumer selling — chiefly forging closer relationships with consumers and the first-party data it can bring. Twenty-three percent of consumer goods companies in the annual Retail and Consumer Goods Analytics Study said they’re investing in social media analytics for the first time, while 40% are making upgrades to a current system.  

And while today’s large legacy consumer goods brands are “trying” social commerce rather than defining it as an imperative at this point, Len Schlesinger, Baker Foundation professor at Harvard Business School and former vice chairman/COO of Limited Brands, told CGT recently, “the smart ones are trying everything.” For some, this is taking the form of investing in acquiring DTC brands for learnings, with others are building out their venture capital capabilities.

For his part, Sunny Jain, Unilever president of beauty and personal care, noted the importance of collaborating when it comes to the “mega-trends of the future.”   .... ' 

Saving Capitalism

A podcast of interest,  based on my employers of the past,  plan to listen to.

First He Saved Unilever. Now He Wants to Save Capitalism.

HBR IdeaCast

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, led a dazzling career in consumer goods, from Procter & Gamble to Nestlé to the British multinational. His experience fending off a hostile takeover bid taught him that the doctrine of shareholder capitalism is wrong. He believes there’s a better way of doing business, one that embraces all stakeholders — not just stockholders — and improves the environment. He cofounded the consultancy IMAGINE to further sustainable goals, and he shares his advice for the next generation of leaders. With Andrew Winston, Polman wrote the new book “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More than They Take”.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hbr-ideacast/id152022135?i=1000537615229

Unilever on Our Brave New Post Pandemic Work Future

Lots of future predictions, here from the CPG world we studied. 

Fit for the postpandemic future: Unilever’s Leena Nair on reinventing how we work

As Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), responsible for 150,000 Unilever employees, Leena Nair prepares for postpandemic work by focusing on both the care of people and the competitiveness of the business.  ... '

Sent from McKinsey Insights

Covid Executive War Game

 How accurate, complete?  Unclear, but it is useful to see a number of the components involved in a game of corporate management.  Interesting too is the Unilever involvement.

Covid-19 'War Games' Program Could Help Save Your Job

Reuters   By Sinead Cruise

November 11, 2020

Unilever-owned uFlexReward has developed the Covid-19 War Game, which allows U.K. executives to consider the impact of job cuts on future earnings prospects. Players formulate a strategy to reduce people costs by 20% at a fictional company, allowing them to weigh mass layoffs versus alternatives, and their long-term impact on the company and the broader economy. The game integrates staff salaries, pensions, bonuses, and share awards into one real-time cost base so players have a better view of different ways to trim costs, from making many smaller cuts to eliminating entire business units or the bonus pool. Strategies arising out of a head-to-head version of the game featuring teams of Unilever and Endava executives will be judged on Dec. 3. .... 

Unilever and Alibaba

Followed Unilever for years,  an interesting direction for them in technology.

Latest Unilever Partnership to Focus on Next-Gen Digital Marketing
By Alarice Rajagopal - 07/07/2020 in ConsumerGoods

Unilever is partnering with the digital and technology intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, Alibaba Cloud, on a strategic initiative that is expected to enable Unilever to action on next-generation digital marketing campaigns.

In the partnership, Unilever will be able to utilize Alibaba Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-based technologies to optimize its omnichannel, online and offline demand generation activities. With intelligent analysis, Alibaba Cloud’s solutions can help to unlock detailed insights into Unilever’s customers buying patterns and behavior. The data-driven business intelligence could help Unilever accelerate the creation of new and precisely targeted digital marketing campaigns. It could also enable Unilever to predict more precisely and quickly respond to changing customer buying habits across multiple platforms. .... "

Unilever: Virtual Plants via Digital Twins

Followed arch-rival Unilever for many years, always impressed by their tech expertise.  We did some similar things, creating an experimental supply chain that could be tested via crowd sourced management (ask me for a paper copy, or a consult)  But they seem have take not much further, can see why.  Adding direct sensors, for example.   Why not always have a supply chain you can

Unilever Uses Virtual Factories to Tune Up Its Supply Chain 
The Wall Street Journal
By Jennifer Smith

Unilever is using data streaming from sensor-equipped machines to create virtual versions of its factories that can track physical conditions and allow for testing of operational changes. The "digital twin" technique uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze massive amounts of information from connected devices in an effort to make production more efficient and flexible. The technology, which Unilever developed with the help of Microsoft, lets the company make real-time changes to optimize output and use materials more precisely, helping to limit waste. Unilever now has eight such digital twins of plants in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. ...  "

AI Inspires Unilever

Considerable article on the topic that takes it beyond food:

How AI helped Unilever discover 'breakfast for dessert'    by Omar Oakes in CampaignLive

The FCMG giant's global head of insight has co-written a book on AI in marketing. But what has Unilever learned and how is it keeping up with the pace of change in tech?

It is often said that the world’s most successful people are voracious readers. Titans of business such as Warren Buffet credit their success to consuming vast amounts of information in order to become the smartest person in the room.

But what if you’re a normal person in marketing who doesn’t have hours every day to read, but still wants to be ahead of the curve and create worthwhile insights for your brand? 

Stan Sthanunathan, the Unilever head of insights credited by the company as its "chief provocateur", believes artificial intelligence could hold the key for marketers to learn more deeply about culture and society in specific and targeted ways. A mechanical engineer by training, Sthanunathan left Coca-Cola after 17 years to join Unilever in 2013 to lead its global insights division from London.

Sthanunathan has co-authored a new book, AI for Marketing and Product Innovation, that presents itself as a hands-on guide for creatives and marketing professionals to learn more about AI through primers and real-life examples.  ....  " 

Unilever Shopkick and Image reco

Unusual promo that includes image recognition.

Suave Promotion Brings Image Recognition to Walmart   By CGT Staff 

Unilever’s Suave brand is promoting a Veteran’s Day cause program at Walmart using new 2D image recognition technology shopper rewards app Shopkick.

From Oct. 14 to Nov. 18, Suave is donating $1 to the nonprofit Fisher House Foundation for every limited-edition Suave package purchased. The brand’s goal is to raise $1 million.

Shopkick members can use the app to interact with the Fisher House “Helping Military Families” logo on Suave’s promotional packaging to receive “kicks” — the Shopkick program’s rewards currency.

In addition, Shopkick will donate 10% of the overall campaign budget to Fisher House, which provides access to a home-away-from-home (at no cost) for the loved ones of hospitalized veterans and active military personnel.

“2D image recognition has benefits for both brands and consumers,” said Shopkick’s chief executive officer Adam Sand. “Shoppers learn about product and company benefits and brands bring attention to cool campaigns, new product or packaging and what makes them unique.” ... " 

Unilever Taps JD.com

Mor own agent models tried to understand the difference between rural and urban markets in China.  Here this is likely much closer to the problem.

Unilever taps JD.com network to reach rural Chinese markets
Unilever has created a partnership with e-commerce company JD.com to expand the reach of its products, transporting them among warehouses in China so the goods are available in rural areas. JD.com operates more than 500 warehouses, 7,000 delivery stations and a delivery fleet that can reach nearly all of China's consumers with same- or next-day delivery, the company said. .... "

Retail Supply Chains

Useful examples, more detail would be useful.  We note that CPG company Unilever's was best.

In  Supply Chain Digest

Another View of the Best Supply Chains   by Dan Gilmore

Different Methodologies of Course Lead to Different Results in Gartner and Kantar Top Supply Chain Lists

I recently summarized both the results and the method used by Gartner to compile the Top 25 Supply Chain list for 2018, an approach first started by the former AMR Research in 2004. Gartner acquired AMR in 2009.

The list of course much interest, and companies that make it naturally tout that honor. As I noted in my column, I occasionally get calls from companies looking for advice on how to make the top 25.

Let me first say that I do not have a better way to compile a top supply chain list than the way Gartner does it. Only limited information is available for analysis – no one is sharing cost information, as just one example.  .... "

Unilever and WPP Collaborate for Disruptive Tech

Unilever and WPP Launch Collaboration in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Unilever and WPP have established an in-house collaboration with Unilever Foundry and its start-up community.

The partnership, which involves a flexible new Team Unilever model along with specialist input from WPP, is designed to meet the FMCG giant’s marketing needs in a period of technological change and drive innovation. ...

Peter Dart, WPP’s global team leader for Unilever, added: “We wanted to co-create a structure that allows us to work more closely with Unilever and focus on all the various services along the consumer journey that can help Unilever and its brands grow. The key is agility and the enhancing ability to respond to disruption in the consumer products market as well as in marketing services offerings.” ... " 

Emerging Markets Innovation

Chief executive says the company’s innovation pipeline may be the strongest it has ever been.  By Keith Nunes in Food Business News.

Emerging markets, innovation drive Unilever’s 2017 results
Chief executive says the company’s innovation pipeline may be the strongest it has ever been. ... " 

Top Consumer Goods Companies

Top 100 Consumer Goods Companies 2017
By CGT Staff - 12/27/2017

How tough is the consumer goods market these days? Almost one-third of the world’s largest public consumer goods companies experienced sales declines in 2016. Another 25 leading companies posted growth of 2.0% or less.

That means the annual letter to shareholders didn’t deliver much in the way of good financial news at more than half of the companies listed in CGT’s "Top 100 Consumer Goods Companies" for 2017.
These decidedly disappointing results confirm the research at IDC Manufacturing Insights, which finds that only 3.0% of the $35 billion in net growth in the consumer goods industry over the last three years has come from traditional, large enterprise players.  .... "


I have worked directly for or with projects for several of the top 5.  - Franz

CPG, Unilever Big Data and Digital Twins

Always good to see interesting examples in the CPG industry, where I spent a good part of my career.   Save digital twin applications at GE.  Several useful concepts to be learned here.


CPG Industry Levels Playing Field with Power of One   Posted by Bill Schmarzo   in DSC.

Special thanks to Brandon Kaier (@bkaier) for his research and thoughts on the Digital Twins concept.

Unilever, one of the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) industry’s titans with over 400 brands and annual sales greater than $60B, recently bought Dollar Shave Club for $1B. Now normally I would not think twice about such an acquisition, peanuts in the world of mergers and acquisitions. ....

It seems that Unilever could have easily created their own subscription model without having to pay $1B for customers with whom they already have a relationship. So I don’t believe that Unilever just bought a subscription model. Instead, I think Unilever bought a capability; a capability to capture and mine individual customer product purchase behaviors – the frequency, recency, intensity, magnitude and monetary value of purchase behaviors at the level of the individual consumer – and to eventually apply this analytic capability across more of their brands.

Think about the purchase behavior details Dollar Shave Club has on each of its individual subscribers. Unilever has no similar behavioral knowledge or insights at the level of the individual consumer; they only know how much product they push through retailers and distributors like Walmart, Kroger and Target.

To be actionable, Big Data must get down to the level of the individual – the “Power of One.” Big Data enables capturing customers’ individual tendencies, propensities, behaviors, patterns, associations, and relationships in order to monetize the resulting customer, product and operational insight .... " 

Unilever CMO is Guest Editor at Think with Google

The article also includes a look at a number of technology areas of  prime interest to marketing.

Meet our guest editor, Keith Weed

In our ongoing effort to provide a window into what’s top-of-mind for industry game changers, we’re handing over the keys to Think with Google next week.

Keith Weed, chief marketing and communications officer at Unilever, will be our guest editor for the week. His massive portfolio includes brands ranging from Axe and Dove to Ben & Jerry’s and Knorr.

What to expect? He’ll certainly take a look at hyper-empowered consumers and the best ways to reach them. He’ll also highlight some of the campaigns that are already getting it right. And he will share his own takeaways after making the rounds with other industry heavy-hitters at Advertising Week.

Until then, we thought we’d offer a few thought-starters of our own from this week. .... "