Unilever rebrands to stake its place in personal care

Food & Drug Packaging, July, 2005 by Kate Bertrand

Acknowledging a less than stellar fiscal 2004, this year's No. 3 personal care packager, Unilever, has made some bold organizational changes and repositioned its corporate brand.

Unilever, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, has several leading personal care brands. These include Dove, Lux, Axe, Suave, Degree, ThermSilk and Pond's.

Signaling a change for the future, the company announced it would modify its executive leadership structure from a two-man team of joint chairmen/CEOs to a more standard model with a single chairman and a single CEO.

In addition, Unilever continues to streamline its brand portfolio. It announced this spring the sales of its global prestige fragrance business, Unilever Cosmetics International, to Coty Inc. The $800 million transaction includes the perfume licenses for Calvin Klein, Cerruti, Vera Wang, Chloe and Lagerfeld plus a manufacturing and distribution center in New Jersey and a distribution center in Lille, France.

In December, Unilever rolled out its new brand positioning and a new corporate logo. Representing "vitality," the logo combines 25 icons, including the sun, a heart and a bird. The new logo will appear on all the company's packaging by year-end. Over time, the Unilever name also will be phased in on the packaging of products from all the company's subsidiaries.

In the past year, the company has significantly pumped up marketing efforts for Dove, relaunching Dove skin, hair care and deodorant products with new graphics and packaging. Unilever also has extended its line of Lux bar soaps, adding new fragrances and redesigning the packaging.