Davis ThinkingUnilever is set to unveil “big innovations” as soon as next year as Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman seeks to replicate the success Procter & Gamble Co. had with products like the Swiffer. Unilever, the world’s second-largest consumer-goods maker, expects the first results from its so-called Genesis projects to trigger new products next year, Chief Innovation Officer Genevieve Berger said in London. Genesis is a code name for scientific breakthroughs usable across Unilever’s product lines. “We’ll start with personal care and have a clear road map of applications in other categories,” Berger said in an interview, declining to give more specifics before products she said would be “big wins” are announced.
Unilever PLC said Friday that it plans to buy Sara Lee's personal care unit for $1.87 billion in cash in an effort to boost its presence in Western Europe and in Asia. Unilever is a major Anglo-Dutch consumer products maker that owns well-known brands like Dove soap and Axe deodorant. "Personal care is a strategic category and a key growth driver for Unilever," said Unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman, in a statement. "The Sara Lee brands enjoy strong consumer recognition, offer significant growth potential and are an excellent fit."
Paul Polman is the only senior executive to have worked at each of the three biggest consumer-product marketers on Earth in the past five years -- Procter & Gamble Co., Nestlé and Unilever. As such, he's seen a variety of takes on how to run global marketing, and his unique perspective is this: No single solution will work universally, even within the same company.
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