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Building an Insights Engine: How Unilever Got to know its Customer
Introduction
The need to attract more customers and to retain the already existing ones by a company is not only about production and distribution. The old firms always face the challenge of competition from the new and small firms that keep on growing. Market research has to be shifted from production and distribution oriented to customer centrality. Findings from the research market are only profitable to a company when it is converted to knowledge and finally to actions. As a costumer-centric, there is need to consider the changes in attitude, motivations and needs …show more content…
It was used by Unilever to gain expansion of her markets through consumer centrality. Unilever found out that most of her consumers were looking for products and brands fitting their cultures and lifestyle. The consumer centrality was the best remedy to meet consumers’ tastes and to compete with the new local firms in the market. To overcome every challenge in the market, Unilever had a specific and most effective Insights Engine. Insights Engine had ten characteristics which were divided into two broad categories of operational and people. Operational characteristics consist of a synthesis of data, independence, integrated planning, collaboration, experimentation, forward-looking orientation and affinity of action. On the other hand, people characteristics consist of whole-brain mindset, business focus, and storytelling. All of these characteristics played a significant role in the success of Unilever. Data synthesis enabled departments to gather data from the customers, and the I.T department makes it retrievable by the users of the company. The employees can see their progress (Van den Driest, Sthanunathan & Weed, 2016, par …show more content…
The company has done great to the customers by first getting their tastes and needs before the introduction of products in the market. It has also helped improve the standards of living to customers through hand washing initiatives, cholesterol free campaign and teeth brushing in the night. The sustainability video chats and visitation of customers in their homes have handled specific customer needs. The attempt to address the societal needs have created the marketing opportunities for the company. The employees have been trained and given an environment for interactive talks. Storytelling initiative has made the employees feel part of the