Unilever’s laundry biz is greener, and growing

Unilever is a global company that sells brands that deal with nutrition, hygiene, and beauty. Their mission statement is to add vitality to life through these brands. Their purpose and principals are to have the highest standards or corporate behavior towards the community, those they work with, and the environment. They try to do this by setting aspirations, working with integrity, creating a positive impact, and continuing commitment.
In a recent article, it showed that Unilever’s laundry detergent brand was growing quickly due to a new green product called small and mighty. It first came out in the United States and had success and so came out in Europe two years later. This product allows use of less detergent to do more laundry, smaller packaging which allows less plastic to be used, retailers can stock more product because the packaging is smaller, and they can fit more product on trucks which uses less diesel. Recent pressure from costumers to go green for less money has led to research to discover a new biodegradable enzyme that comes from nature. This enzyme is in opposition to a petroleum based one which creates more carbon emissions because it can be used a lower water temperature. This has led to another green product called Surf excel quick wash which came out in India and uses half as much of water which is scarce there and is also cold. The product had great success. The company has realized that it has greater success in emerging markets especially compared to its main competitors. Therefore, has opened more research labs in India and is choosing to move out of the U.S. They want to focus more on developing countries than already developed.

This article was very interesting because it shows what happens to global company’s brands and how one product can majorly impact where a product line is sold in the world. For Unilever detergent it seems it is best to be sold in developing countries. They would have never known that if they had not been pushed to try to develop more green products. It seems that their mission and principals are being used in their product brands.

Alyssa Roca