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Unilever Socializes the Brand

11/17/2014
If you work in marketing, you know dealing with today’s demand for content is no small task. Maintaining the consistency of product information and digital assets internally is one thing, but today, brand managers must maintain it across an ever-increasing number of departments and channels. Consumers search an average of 10.4 sources for product information to better help their decision-making, yet a whopping 75 percent of them find inconsistent product information while doing so.

As Canada’s e-commerce landscape began to flourish, Unilever (www.unilever.com) realized the inefficiencies connected to its lack of a product information management (PIM) hub. Product data lived on multiple spreadsheets across multiple divisions, and digital assets could be found somewhere between the marketing team and agencies.

With no time to waste, Unilever enlisted the services of
Hubba (www.hubba.com), a B2B social network that also acts as a product information-sharing platform to simplify digital asset management.

“Hubba seemed to be a very natural fit for us because its platform really is designed with the marketer at heart. Not only is the tool incredibly user-friendly but the initial on-boarding and uploading of content was incredibly quick and painless,” says Jessica Armstrong, E-Commerce Team Lead, Unilever Canada.

Unilever is using Hubba in two key areas. First, to create a single source of truth internally for information around all of its brands, including Dove, Hellmann’s, AXE, Knorr, St. Ives and Magnum. Although it started as a digital/online initiative, the e-commerce, sales, brand management, trade marketing and additional groups will be using Hubba to update, access and store everything they’d want to know about any individual product Unilever sells.  

Secondly, Unilever uses Hubba to give retail partners (particularly online) a link to the latest, most complete story on any given product that it manufactures. Just like any social network, a user can invite the people who rely on product information to connect with him or her, giving constant, real-time access to media rich product data so that he or she can help shoppers make informed decisions.

“From the outset, Hubba has saved us something we all find very valuable: time,” says Armstrong. “No longer am I wasting hours searching, managing lengthy e-mail threads, or making phone calls tracking down product information and content.”

Externally, Armstrong expects the new platform to eliminate a lot of mundane administrative tasks for Unilever’s buyers, category managers and marketers, allowing more time to focus on strategic initiatives.

“Content is king when it comes to online and digital initiatives, so having a single repository for information with everything we’d ever want to share about our products is huge,” says Armstrong. 
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