Unilever JM's Knorr

: sustainable leadership in the Portuguese bouillon market

Abstract

Unilever Jerónimo Martins (ULJM) was the Portuguese based Company selected to serve as background for the development of a teaching case in Marketing, followed by a teaching note, intended to be used as a pedagogical tool in undergraduate or graduate programs. Knorr brand, marketed by ULJM, is clearly the leader brand in the Portuguese bouillon market. However, like many other manufacturer brands, Knorr has been losing shelf space and market share to private labels (PLs). The sustainable growth of Portuguese retailers, the increasing quality of its PLs, at lower prices than manufacturer brands, and the country’s unfavourable economic situation, are key contributors to the increasing success of PLs. In 2008, the Portuguese Knorr team was faced with the challenge of developing a Share Recovery Strategy (SRS) for Knorr bouillons, the brand’s core category, which has been losing significant volume and value share to PLs since 2004. Students are presented with the market environment, the Company and the brand’s facts and figures and the challenge to make recommendations regarding a new product Knorr R&D team has just developed and which is intended to integrate the SRS. Recommendations include which Marketing and SRS objectives the new product should accomplish, if it should be launched as an In&Out or as a permanent stock keeping unit, and other decisions involving place, price and packaging format. Students have the possibility to make several calculations which, supported by qualitative and other quantitative data, will help them make sustained decisions, bringing them closer to the real-life business.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Borges Assunção (Supervisor) & Sandra Oliveira (Co-Supervisor)