Harry Dekker – Unilever

Harry Dekker is Media Director at Unilever Benelux, fulfilling the role for over 27 years. In 2017, Harry ranked 30^th in the Media100, a list of the most influential people in the Dutch media. Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company selling products in around 190 countries.

growth needs to be earned

According to Harry, consumers play a key role in brand growth: “We often talk about reinventing a brand or building a brand, but that is a very ‘macho’ approach, ignoring the fact that the power lies with the consumers. In the end, it isn’t the manufacturer defining what your brand stands for. Ultimately, people determine whether your offer is worthwhile, relevant and add value to their lives. A brand is not created in a factory or an office, it is created in the heads and hearts of people. Brands and products can be a very straightforward and rational choice: I need a functional solution , and you offer me that, so I choose you. On the other extreme, we have ‘love brands’, which become a part of people’s lives. That is hard work for a brand, and you have to earn such a special position. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The danger of marketing is following almost an industrial approach, thinking it is some kind of magic recipe for success. .”

“You don’t determine what your brand stands for. In the end, it is the people who determine whether you are worthwhile and add value to people’s lives.”

‘get real’

Harry highlights the importance of transparency: “An important pillar of our ‘Get on the Frontline’ marketing model is ‘get real’. Someone once said: ‘In marketing, you may tempt, but you may not deceive.’ We are all aware of what is happening in the world, so I am fine with brands being challenged in this area. We are part of a society that is increasingly more transparent, and the moment of truth is also to question yourself. What is your value? Why should people choose you each time and stay loyal to you? And how do you prevent it from becoming artificial or even misleading? The time of ‘cosmetic’ marketing is over. As Unilever, we are trying to move away from the term ‘consumers,’ as it conjures up the wrong image. So, we like to refer to ‘people we serve.’ Customer centricity is a big part of that. For too long, we have been sending a lot and haven’t listened enough.”

“The danger of marketing is thinking it is some kind of magic recipe for success.”

the ball pit

According to Harry, adapting to the world we live in can be challenging for large parties: “Big companies tend to consolidate. When the world becomes challenging, we assume that becoming even larger is the solution. I compare it to an Ikea ball pit. The moment the balls in the pit get bigger, there will eventually only be skippy balls. Those big skippy balls create a lot of space for creating new opportunities, and space for other players. These new players benefit from the large ones who have gone for scale and pay a hefty price for it. They lose speed, and the granularity of marketing, to get down to the nitty-gritty of what people need. This was also a risk for  Unilever. So, we are going to split up into five large divisions. It is the realisation that we created a ball pit with large skippy balls, and lost speed and surrendered granularity in the process. We need to close those gaps and regain focus on real consumer needs.”

“We are part of a society that is increasingly more transparent, and the moment of truth is also to question yourself.”

taking refuge in Vinex-thinking

“Not every brand can take that step,” Harry continues. “You must be open to question whether renewing (‘brand renovation’) is still possible, or whether you need new brands or partnerships to do it. A long time ago, there was a metaphor within Unilever: ‘We must return from Vinex thinking to urban renewal.’ Some brands could or did not dare to reinvent themselves and they fled to all kinds of new (sub)brands, categories, and markets, where they had hardly a licence to operate. To give some context to this Vinex metaphor: n the Netherlands, there was not a lot of space left in big cities to build new housing, so, it was decided to start building Vinex-neighbourhoods outside the cities. At Unilever, some brands were neglecting the city they lived in, the core of the brand. We took refuge in Vinex-thinking and it took resources away from the core of our brands. What you are left with is a city-centre that is becoming impoverished, and a bunch of Vinex-neighbourhoods nobody is excited about either. So, we moved back to urban renewal and restored our core.

With a brand like Unox for instance, how can you keep that brand relevant and future-proof? You must be honest too: how far can you expand a brand without losing credibility? Unox is a  brand often associated with meat, but should you then transform such a brand into fully plant-based? In this category, De Vegetarische Slager (Vegetarian Butcher) is already strongly positioned. That is the beauty of a large company with a diversified brand portfolio; you can start to divide different roles. At the same time, we see a shift from brand focus to category focus. The question is not; what can Unox offer as a single solution to customers, but what do people need and how can we best fulfil this by using the richness of our broad foods brand portfolio?”

“Sometimes you need to say goodbye to something where you can no longer make a difference. That feels like a capitulation, but it creates a lot of focus in the organisation.”

STEP ON CONSUMER CENTRICITY AND MAKE BOLD CHOICES

On the flip side, Harry shares how brands sometimes need to say goodbye to products or categories: “In 2017, we sold our margarine business, which formed our foundation back in the nineteen-twenties. We said  goodbye to something ‘we could no longer make a difference .’ That feels like a capitulation, but it creates a lot of space and focus in the organisation. That is the most important thing in what we call ‘The Unilever Compass’: step up on consumer centricity, regain focus and be prepared to make bold choices. The ‘One Unilever’ organisation became almost too big at expense of focus and speed. I  sometimes compare it with claying in school. There are so many different colours you can work with, but the moment you mix all those colours, what remains is a grey mass and beauty gets lost. Large companies must look for a balancing act. Using the possibilities that a big company offers, without it becoming mediocre and too much alike. We are not going back to the old Unilever, but we are moving forward to separate divisions, with their own profit and loss responsibilities. By doing so, you create so much more room to manoeuvre and respond to consumer needs.

start with a clean sheet

Harry acknowledges challenges the company may face in its transformation: “How will a brand manager for Ben & Jerry’s located in the Netherlands define success? Will success be primarily based on selling more ice cream in the Netherlands, or will you move towards a more agile and collaborative way of working where a team will feel responsible for success in the entire European marketplace? When the announcement was made, someone said: ‘Unilever has been around for over 100 years, and together we have been drawing a massive painting for 100 years. When we wanted to change things, it felt a bit like erasing parts of the drawing. Sometimes you just need to start with a clean sheet of paper and draw something completely new. It will certainly lead to disruption, but it is also the disruption that we need to write new  chapters together”

“In the spirit of the times and the speed with which we can all express ourselves; the moment of truth is more persistent than ever.”

RESEARCH IS AN INVESTMENT TO GAIN INSIGHTS AND GROW  BUSINESS

“That category approach will increasingly involve thinking about the brands we need and what role those brands should play to deliver on consumer needs and expectations,” Harry continues. “Where to play, but also how to play? Which brands and which messages are still relevant? Truth is also not static; it is different now than it was last year. But the truth is also passing daily exams. When people are in the shop, we of course want our products to go into their carts and baskets. Every moment of the day you are tested, not just on purchase, but also on quality, relevance, availability, presentation, and price value. At one point, market research within Unilever was seen as a cost. We believe research is not a cost, it’s an investment to gain insights and to grow your business. It helps you understand people better and serve them better. Luckily, we are now moving away from testing the waters sporadically. We need to keep our finger on the pulse much more closely.”

The bar has been raised

Harry concludes: “it is incredibly important to think from a blank sheet of paper, a new recipe, fresh ingredients, and to protect yourself from blind spots and an industrial approach to marketing. Especially today, simply passing is not enough, the bar has been raised. You are taking exams more often and more insistently than in the past. In the spirit of the times and the speed with which we can all express ourselves; the moment of truth is more persistent than ever.”