A note from RichardDear Colleagues,

Already 5 months into the year, a lot achieved, yet still a lot more to be done. I have been impressed with the early successes we are having with the CCLTs. All have now held their first meeting and are providing a step change in the way in which we operate. I hear often from both Mix Deployment and Mix Creation the benefits these meetings are bringing and our Business Partners appreciate the unanimity they deliver, encouraging us to go even further and even faster.

We are making progress on Insights and this too is being recognised. There is still much we can do here for the business and I would encourage all of you to focus on this area.

Several of the ULE have congratulated CMI on the way in which it is holding itself to account by making these insights transparent.

Since I last wrote to you, we have presented the 2020 view of the world. This work is led by Donna Goldfarb, and complements the consumer trends work to 2020 that we undertook in 2011. You’ll find more details in this newsletter.

Shawn O’Neal and I met with the Chief Customer Development Officer in May. The work that has been done on Shopper Insights – particularly on Channel H&As – has been well received. This year Tomas Emmers will help drive Shopper Insight into Mix Creation CMI to see how we can exploit this work even further.

For the first time we have laid out for the function those suppliers with whom we are prepared to do business. The “Approved Methodologies” guide has been issued by Chet and I would ask you all to familiarise yourself with this.

As I go around the function, many of you ask about our contribution to sustainability. In February, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a workshop hosted by the CMCO to look at this very topic. We have come up with four ideas that we are now exploring in detail. In late May, the VPs and I will attend a broader event where we start to flesh this out - exciting stuff, more to come.

Recently I have travelled to Singapore, Bangkok, New Jersey and Toronto. As always, I have been impressed by the enthusiasm and professionalism of the teams in each location. The visits keep getting better and better, the bar higher and higher!

Best wishes

Richard Davies

Inside CMIMay 2012

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Adopt a Family scheme takes off across Western Europe As part of the Consumer Voice initiative, the Western Europe CMI team launched ‘Adopt A Family’ – whereby Unilever ‘adopts’ a number of families in each market, visiting them each month with a different task. The programme, which started in Portugal, is now up and running right across the region – from Norway to Greece – managed by the local CMI Consumer Voice champion.

Our families are visited by people from many different functions – local leadership teams, through Marketing, CD, Media, HR as well as CMI.

So what have we used it for? As well as the benefit of literally getting close to our consumers, topics include ‘recession deep dives’ in Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the UK, what sustainability means to the

consumer in the UK, a Food-Safari theme planned in the Nordics and laundry exploration in France. 2012 will see greater co-ordination to deliver common insights across the region.

In the Netherlands, the CMI team have even adopted their consumers on Facebook – an initiative that made a splash in the national media.

For more information, please contact Alex Hardy, CMI Director UK&I

Winning with Shoppers in the Traditional Trade The Traditional Trade (TT) channel is, and will continue to be, a significant part of our D&E shoppers’ lives. While Modern Trade expands, D&E shoppers still frequent their TT stores for their everyday needs. In most cases this is a store close by, and one they are very familiar with. Relationships matter and convenience is king. And our D&E markets are highly diverse, so no TT store is the same.

The D&E Shopper team has recently completed a project called “How to win Shoppers in the Traditional Trade”. Filtering through shopper research from the past 6 years, and validating with supporting facts from markets around the region - we’ve arrived at 11 sharp insights specific to the TT Shopper. For each insight, there is a ‘So What’ statement and ‘Implications for Unilever’ to provide clear guidance on how to leverage the opportunities in TT. Examples bring the insights to life and illustrate how this knowledge is being applied to great effect.

The full deck on “How to win Shoppers in the Traditional Trade” can be found on the Shopper portal.

Consumer Voice

Shopper Video Streaming in London office

As part of the Consumer Voice programme, we wanted to bring this work to life and get people who are not ordinarily thinking about these types of stores, and these types of shoppers, closer to what really happens in this channel. To do this, we have been running continuous video streaming of Indian TT shoppers in the London office.

The inspiration for this comes from the CMI Teams in India and Vietnam who are already streaming shopper videos in their offices. The TT channel accounts for a big % of our business and we must make sure that the people designing and deploying mixes understand the TT shopper.

This is a great reality check for everyone who thinks Modern Trade first!

‘Adopt A Family’ kick-off in Germany

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After a career in CMI spanning categories and regions, Christina joined the CMILT at the beginning of 2012 as VP Mix Creation, Refreshment.

Are you a Unilever lifer or have you worked elsewhere?

I’m a ‘wanna-be’ Unilever lifer. I joined mid career in 2000, to merge separate Foods and HPC businesses with strategic CMI leadership. The challenge rolled from Egypt to Mashreq to NAMET Board, various AMET categories, HPC Europe, Global Hair and Beverages, all with a CMI vision at the heart of a bigger business change agenda. Prior to Unilever, I partnered in setting up an Insight-led management consultancy, as regional rep for Booz-Allen & Hamilton, with an exciting diversity of businesses. My start in this function was in P&G, as part of their new leaders’ programme.

What has been the biggest achievement in your career so far?

Changing CMI’s role from Insight partners to Insight-led business leaders. Be it in co-building the case for CMI as a function; cementing implicit segmentation and Brand Audits in AMET and Europe; building global capability in Innovation and Brand Value tracking; or mobilising categories towards consumer-led strategies, brand positions and culture. Instituting the Beauty vision and manifesto in Hair with its EVP was probably the most telling in how CMI lends itself to inspire and lead a change in organisation. In Beverages, we were fortunate to motivate significant changes in portfolio strategy and the quality of our mixes and brands, with a facelift in insight programme leadership and teamwork. CMI occupies a unique place to spot and drive a needed consumer agenda, well above fulfilling a desired deliverable.

So through it all, really, my biggest sense of achievement was in seeing CMI talent stretch and grow - in leadership confidence, interdependence, resilience, improvisation and practical insight that reshapes the future. It’s the CMI people who make the difference, and make it last.

What excites you most about your role?

A lifetime supply of great hair transformers, exciting beverages, cooking legos, skin dabbles, chunky ice creams, and friends the world over – what more could a girl ask for? I can finally demand what women really want. I’m definitely excited about strengthening Refreshment’s contribution to Unilever and One CMI – we have a 24/7 engagement in consumers’ lives with great brands, making us a powerful enabler for a balanced Unilever business.

Yet the real excitement in my role is in our One CMI ability to transcend and leverage a pan view of insights, capabilities and suppliers to drive a real powerhouse for Unilever. Everyone in our industry has data and tools. I believe no one has the combined power of the CMI talent that we do.

What is your vision for Refreshment CMI?

Refreshment gives consumers social pleasure and zest for life in a bite or cup, with a responsible business model. We need to grow fast, with scale and profit. We pride ourselves in our diversity, youth, skilled entrepreneurial leadership, equal importance of development and deployment, work and life. That just about sums it up for CMI too. We can’t afford to sidetrack into regional/global silos or skews of magic/logic. We need both.

My vision is for CMI to take the responsibility as One to really lead Refreshment into a global stronghold for Unilever behind Insight - that’s strategic, leading edge, fast, scalable, brings the future forward, comes in byte sizes and grows our work enjoyment and talent. That’s all.

What do you do when your Blackberry is off?

I turn my iPhone on! Believe it, I have a life – a loud, busy, crazy Mediterranean style family, who stay connected the world over via Apps and social media. My two daughters refuse emails as ‘douche.’ Mum lives on FB and Youtube, my husband’s a text addict even across rooms. We’re movie, beach and Asian food buffs – cinemas, travel, restaurants, kitchen experiments and picnics is when we mostly switch off. When I grow up I want to become a missionary in Africa, and the girls have an eerie sense of social justice. We work with orphans and underprivileged women through our Church.

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CMILT Profile Christina Habib

Winning With People

New Appointments

Half year PDPWith June fast approaching, it’s time

to reflect on your performance and development plan over the first half of the year.

The mid year is an excellent time to review:

1. Your Performance (3 work goals):

Discuss progress against your 3 goals with your Line Manager and check

that the goals are still relevant and stretching.

2. Your Development (+1 goal):

Discuss progress against your development goal. Take the time to reflect on the development required for your current role and for your longer term career plan.

Mid year checklist

So, take the initiative now and set up your mid year review in your Line Manager’s diary for the end of June. Prepare for the conversation by

reflecting on your own performance against your 3+1 goals. Remember, the CMI SOL booklets provide real examples of behaviour against which you can check your performance. If you didn’t gain 360 feedback in December, you may want to ask others for feedback in June.

After your conversation, adjust your 3+1 goals if required, update your development plan and capture any actions in your CMI coaching log books.

Sarah Redshaw

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Congratulations to our new Directors, whose appointments have been announced recently.

Raffaella Rossi

Director Refreshment Europe

Sascha Doerr

Director Savoury Europe/RUB

Sylvie Lasoen

MD Director France

Candice Pomi

Director Refreshment LatAm

Stacey Grant

Director Foods NAMET & RUB/Africa

Meet Team Vietnam

Last month, the CMILT took great pleasure in awarding the inaugural Annual Team of Champions honour to CMI Vietnam. Congratulating Nguyet and her team, Richard said “Whilst the standards of entry were high, the judges were particularly impressed with the transformation of CMI Vietnam through DragonLite.”

We asked Nguyet to tell us a little bit more about CMI Vietnam.

How would you describe Team Vietnam?

We are a small team. All of us – apart from me – have less than 2 years experience in Unilever. I’d say we are a young, energetic and passionate team with a great spirit,

keen to drive holistic Vietnamese consumer understanding into the heart of Unilever.

What made 2011 special for your team?

With Unilever Vietnam’s ambition to be the Youngest Billionaire in Unilever by 2015, my team needed to do something special. In Q4 2010 we set a new vision, to step change the consumer and market knowledge and provide the business with competitive advantage to achieve this goal. We knew that, to realise this vision, 2011 would be a year of transformation for CMI Vietnam, from “information supplier” to “solution provider”.

How did you go about achieving your ambitions?

Inspired by the Dragon and Bolshoi projects, we spent time learning and adapting, and led the global pilot of DragonLite - a strategic framework leading us through all initiatives. Within 6 months, we had identified 106 actions and over half of these have now been implemented.

We held six big workshops, attracting up to 400 participants

from across the functions: Marketing, CD, Finance and R&D. This way, we brought LSM, Digital Life, Shopper DNA, Shelf Health Check and Good to Great Communication to life for our business partners.

And now, every month, we present an important CMI topic to the Unilever Vietnam Board – to stimulate and challenge their thinking, and keep that consumer focus. So far, we’ve covered distribution opportunities, white spaces, MMM/ROMI and also a ‘call to action’ for in-store opportunities. It’s great to engage with the top!

If you had to sum up Team Vietnam, what would you say?

“Better every day” is our motto, in our effort to become a world class CMI team.

And how are you planning to celebrate your Champions award?

We were delighted that our company chairman, JV Raman, hosted a celebratory dinner for us. And we’re looking forward to planning our prize from CMI – a special awayday for the whole team … we’ll let you know how that goes!

Announcing the CMI 2011 Team of Champions

Congratulations to Will Pratt, CMO/CMI Assistant Finance Manager at 100VE, who is our Q1 CMI Champion. Will was selected for this award for his invaluable support to the CMI VPs in reshaping the budgets for the new One CMI structure. Sarah Redshaw said “Will consistently offers a high level of service, delivering on time and in a calm, level-headed manner which is greatly appreciated.” This has

been a busy time for Will, pictured here with his baby daughter Beatrix – he has just passed his final CIMA exams, and will soon be moving to Unilever UK as Category Finance Analyst, looking after Pot Noodles and Peperami, amongst other tasty things.

Well done, Will, and all the best for your new role.

Our Q1 CMI Champion Will Pratt

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Learnings from the Spreads teamAs Brand Keys come under the CB4L spotlight, NeedScope tools will prove invaluable.

The Spreads Category’s NeedScope exercise, conducted in 2010, led to strategic repositioning work, most significantly a decoupling of Flora UK from the Heart Health brand. In brief, we recognised that the former had a brown ‘we’ position, whereas the rest of the brand had strengths in a blue ‘I’ positioning.

As a result, Marketing and DDB did a lot of work on the Brand Key. CMI supported this rework, but we also wanted independent validation to make sure it was going in the right direction. We asked TNS to model the revised Brand Key back into NeedScope.

We found that the new key did not land exactly where it was intended. We identified which emotional/functional/social attributes caused the misalignment and which elements of the new key needed reworking. For some of these elements, there was debate. For others, it was clear that the wording or tone had been misleading and needed to be sharpened. Most importantly, the exercise was an opportunity to discuss and collectively agree on a Brand Key on the basis of independent data. The ad agency planner said:

“It’s a great tool to help us… we always try to put a ‘bit of everything’ in those BK visions. This reminds us that we shouldn’t. Being a ‘bit of everything’ is being ‘nowhere’... just as it shows on the map. It’s also good at reminding us why we should be simple AND precise when writing our brand strategic documents.”

Inspired by our success, we have gone on to use the Renovate tool ourselves, to look at other Brand Keys, with a wealth of consequent learning.

As CB4L focuses on Brand Keys in 2012-13, you may find this a useful technique. Requirements are:

1. A relatively recent NeedScope

2. A reasonable alignment between Brand Key features and NeedScope attributes

3. A healthy interest in analytics (using the Renovate tool yourself) or some budget for TNS consultancy.

For more information, visit the best practice paper on the portal or contact Laura Parker, Libby Rhodes or Becky Leftley.

Approved Methodologies and Suppliers

Needscope for Brand Key

Do the right thingCMI will always use world class, validated, research techniques and suppliers in every project we commission. This is the foundation of all our consumer insight, guidance and solutions.

The Market Research Approved Methodologies deck provides a list of methodologies, suppliers and standard timings for the key types of market research, approved by the CMILT and the Innovation Board. Methods cover all three pillars - Mix Creation, Mix Measurement and Mix Deployment.

• CMI must use these approved methodologies and suppliers for all project types covered in this deck

• CMI should never use methodologies or suppliers which have been refused approval

• New supplier techniques must be sponsored by a member of the Innovation Board as a pilot with a Boscard and gatekeeping/evaluation through the IP process

• For any project type not covered in this deck, you must check with the appropriate VP/method champion before project commission

• In countries where the Qual Accreditation programme has been completed (China, India, South Africa and Singapore) it is mandatory to use only accredited researchers and moderators, listed in the deck.

For all Approved and Not Approved methodologies, go to the Innovation Board portal.

For more on Qual research accreditation please contact Donna Goldfarb, Manish Makhijani or Nitesh Priyadarshi.

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Check out two new papers added to the Mix Development Best Practice Suite announced in the last newsletter:

Best of IPSOS Product Tests

Best of PRS Packaging Research Toolbox

More coming soon. For more information, please contact Chet Henderson

Best Practice Tools

Insights

The Insight team, led by Donna Goldfarb, VP CMI MC Foods, and Camillo Pandolfi, Director CMI MD Southern Europe, are always on the search for new insights like those illustrated here, so do not hesitate to send us your great stories!

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You too could be an Insight HeroAnytime a brand succeeds in truly connecting with people, it is thanks to an insight. CMI has a key role in providing the business with more and better insights, and driving the insight culture. If we can harness our collective insightfulness, our brand concepts, communications and product development will be stronger and better able to win in the market.

In 2012, CMI has raised both the quality and the quantity of insights delivered to the business:

• 400+ insights uploaded to the Insights Portal, seven months after its launch

• 165 of the best insights published in the first two Quarterly Reports, to the acclaim of our senior business partners

• 90+ sessions booked for 24:7 Insight Marketing Training, with the first sessions already underway, co-facilitated by CMI and our partner agency.

Some teams and individuals have distinguished themselves with their passion and contribution. Their stories illustrate the role of both local and global insights in deploying effective mixes that resonate with consumers.

So, here goes with the first ever Insight Heroes Wall of Fame:

Heike Simon Gigi Santiago Ruth Maliwat Mohamed Elsharkawy, Timothy Wu, Natalie Ong, Whitney Cua, Shefali Murdia

Saridha Fuangfu

DACH

Mother/Daughter Relationship

A touching insight leading to a win-win relationship with the customer

INDONESIA

Hitting first base, Deo

How to make the “Axe effect” work in conservative Muslim markets

US, ARGENTINA, UK

“Morning after effect”

Shedding new light on Deo Category Drivers

HAIR

Clear, Project Cosmo Care

Telling consumers how cleansing is different from nourishing even if they suffer from dandruff

THAILAND

Entertain Me: Thai Values

How to transform a global concept in a resonant ADV for local consumers

Rachel Weekes Neil Munro Heidi Jiang Dan ChadwickUK

Embarrassing Products

New opportunities for e-commerce from uncovering the source of a consumer frustration

SHOPPER

Wisdom of Crowds

Why telling shoppers our brands are N°1 is always a good idea

CHINA

Gender differences in digital gaming

The insight that generated 15 million downloads for Clear

UK

Influencing dosing behaviour in Laundry

Driving sales growth for Persil Capsules

More to come!

An encouraging start, but this is just the beginning. Now it is up to all CMI Directors to keep the momentum going, get your team’s great insights uploaded regularly onto the portal, drive insight culture, and support the 24:7 training roll-out.

Make insightfulness your daily habit!

Get in touch

Leading the way in understanding the Asian consumer

Unilever CMI sponsors newly founded Institute on Asian Consumer InsightLaunched in March this year, the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight, based in Singapore, aims to become the world’s go-to centre for companies seeking to grow their business in Asia. Unilever CMI is proud to have been involved from its inception.

Through research, education programmes and industry

collaborations, ACI will help companies develop strategies for Asian markets. It is the first organisation of its kind to focus on understanding Asian consumer behaviour. Interviewed at the launch event, Pradeep said “Unilever is delighted to support ACI. We need thought leadership and insights about Asian consumers that we can use for marketing and product innovations.”

The Institute will be led by Executive Director Bernd Schmitt, Professor of International Business at Colombia Business School, and currently Visiting Professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, NTU. ACI will have access to some of the world’s best brains in fields including marketing, culture intelligence, engineering and neuroscience.

Unilever will be one of the principle sponsors of ACI’s flagship event, the first Annual Asia Consumer Summit, to be held in October. Modelled on the World Economic Forum, senior

decision-makers from government, companies, research firms, creative agencies and academia will gather to examine growth and strategy issues, the latest Asian consumer trends and ways of leveraging business opportunities in Asia.

In addition, Unilever will be taking part in ACI’s regular industry roundtables, and has commissioned the Institute to conduct a project on ‘What beauty means to Asian consumers.’

On the other benefits for CMI, Pradeep adds “We hope that our collaboration will help to shape training such as our Advanced Masterclass programmes. Our involvement with ACI’s MSc Programme on Consumer Insight will, I’m sure, play an important part for us in securing top next generation talent for the CMI of the future.”

To find out more, go to ACI’s website or contact BV Pradeep for more details.

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Diary DatesTechnique Updates Please note, we have had to make some changes to the dates for the rest of 2012. Bear with us, and please do your best to fit these into your busy diaries. You can find all the dates for 2012 on the CMI portal home page.

Technique updates coming up, 9am and 2pm UK time

• 26th June Strategy Update • 12th July Product Testing• 21st August Mix Development • 29th August Insights

CB4L Quarterly Marketing Forum• 13th June A QMF Special with Qual Research Expert Rebecca Wynberg

Pradeep takes part in a panel discussion at the ACI launch event

Your Feedback Please!

Do let us know your thoughts on any of the articles and the newsletter.

And we’d welcome suggestions or ideas for your own contributions… please contact sue.christopher@unilever.com

We’d like the newsletter to go to everyone in CMI – please check that everyone in your team has received it, and let jenny.andrews@unilever.com know the names of anyone we’ve missed.

Thank you.

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Getting to the future first

A rallying cry for the Trends WorkstreamHow do we help Unilever spot trends that will define our future and drive action? With the mission of getting Unilever to the future first, CMI’s Trends team is busy pulling together research on trends and their implications for our business, and embedding the skills that all of us in CMI need to do our part.

You may have tuned in to the recent Technique Update on Trends. Here’s a reminder of some of the valuable resources available to you:

Macro Trends 2020: created for the ULE, this presentation identifies the 20 top trends likely to affect our world, and combines them into 4 Macro Trends on which Unilever must focus. It poses “thought starter” questions: what are the challenges and opportunities we face as a business?

Global Consumer Trends 2020: the most comprehensive document in the Trends toolkit. Published in May 2011, this updates the 7 Trends Compass trends, and includes significant new information on key market forces and market/country drilldowns, and explores critical macro drivers.

Global Monitor: to explore trends at the regional level, this site, provided by our trends partner The Futures Company, gives you access to surveys in 21 countries (>28,000 consumers), country level reports and dashboards, data tables and detailed trend findings. Signing up for access is easy at http://www.unilever.thefuturescompany.com/

Quarterly Trends Newsletter: for an up-to-the-moment, in-depth look at today’s top trends. Since the first issue in 2012, topics covered include societal values in different parts of the world, consumer attitudes to health, shopper foresight and, most recently, trends in pack and promotion.

And how can you get more involved? Well, an essential starting point is the Trends and Foresight Essentials booklet, which explains how to apply the trends work to understand the way consumers, markets and categories are likely to change in the future. This document is part of the CMI Skills Essentials programme which we protect as key intellectual property. For a password and access details, contact Debbie Springford or Sheela Smale.

The Trends Workstream invites everyone in CMI to explore these tools and use them to build your business. It’s the only way Unilever can win the race to the future.

For more information, please contact Dan Paul-Heskins, CMI Director for the Foods ‘local jewels’ in the US, who joins Debbie Brandwene and Donna Goldfarb to lead the Trends Workstream.