When we look to unilevers history we will find that applying FDI through acquisitions and Merging as follows

The early begin of the company from 1910 till 1919 there was a very hard circumstances as there was the first world war which made trading difficult to everyone

From 1920 till 1929 companies agree to merge which helped in the creation of unilever

From 1950 till 1959 new markets open up in emerging economies around the globe.

From 1960 till 1969 as the world economy expands unilevers economy expanded and it began developing new products and entering new markets and running a highly ambitious acquisition program Also unilever achieved great market power through applying vertical integration Unilever also followed a strategy of vertical integration to secure key raw inputs and services and entered into operations

Such as oil milling, plantations, chemicals and packaging. They also expanded into new countries in Africa, Asia, The Middle East and Latin America.Unilever strategy formulation: Identifying company mission and goals as follows:

We are a successful, growing, sustainable business. We will work to create a better future everyday. We will help people look good, feel good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and for others. We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the world. We will develop new ways of doing business that will allow us to double the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact.

As we see unilevers mission was designed to indicate how companys operations affect its stakeholders

it was balanced as it focused in its first part on the corporate brand and the company itself as describing the company with success and growth and sustainability

then it focused on the customers themselves as they help people to look good

Then it focused on shareholders whom are seeking for profits and double sizing the profits and the company Then it focused on the environmental responsibility through reducing their environmental impact

- Identifying core competencies and value creating activities as followsUnique abilities of Unilever Company is mainly represented in its work force as they are always attracting best talent in the market place and also they are following a strategy called the compass and one of its core objectives is winning with people This is because developing and retaining the right quantity, quality and diversity of people is crucial to their growth strategy.Also they applied online Learning Management System (LMS) which offers learning programmes in more than 20 languages to nearly 130,000 employees in over 100 countries. The system provides around 7,600 e-learning modules.

All employees with corporate intranet access have a learning passport that enables them to manage their own skills development, while at the same time allowing us to drive specific training that is strategically or legally required. In early 2011 we formed the Unilever Learning Academy (ULA). This brings together all our major functional academies (Marketing, Supply Chain, R&D, Finance, HR, IT, Customer Development) with our Leadership Skills and General Skills teams to share best practices and to adopt common processes and standards for learning. The Academy also provides career skills maps for all our functions, providing employees with a clear understanding of their development journey and access to the tools they need to build a successful career.By this way we find how Unilever Company gives great concern to its workforce which is one of its core competenciesPorter's 5 Forces Model

For cost leader businesses like Unilever a cost leadership strategy may help to remain profitable even with:Rivalry, new entrants, suppliers' power, substitute products, and buyers' power. This analysis for Unilever is as follows:RivalryUnilever competes on the basis of its prices since the low cost products of Unilever and its broad range of products allow it to enjoy a big family of customers. It is because of its diversified product line that allows it to enjoy above average profit and allow it to maintain low cost advantage over its competitors in the market.CustomersAs its a part of Unilevers competitive advantage that it offer low prices that help it to retain its customers and to earn profit.SuppliersUnilever as a Cost leader is able to absorb greater price increases before it must raise price to customers.EntrantsUnilever creates barriers to market entry through its continuous focus on efficiency and reducing costs and because of its economies of scale.SubstitutesAs there are many substitutes available in the market to Unilevers products so for Unilever its more likely to lower costs to attract customers to stay with their product, invest to develop substitutes, purchase patents and invest in R&D.As Unilever deal with a wide variety of products so it also focuses on its value chain. It identify and evaluate the ways in which it can use its resources to identify and evaluate the ways in which its resources and capabilities of workers can add value. It focuses on its primary as well as support activities to achieve this objective.According to Unilevers annual report, it defines its customers importance as:We believe we are well placed to help people understand how their brand choices and small actions, when added to those of others, can make a big difference across the world.

For example, Unilever's detergent brands are used in 125 billion washes a year. That is the equivalent of 14 million washes every hour. Every time a Unilever consumer does the laundry at a lower temperature or with a full load, the reductions in energy, CO2and water are cumulatively very large.With consumer use accounting for nearly 70% of our greenhouse gas footprint, inspiring our consumers to change their behavior will be key to achieving our mission of creating a better future every day. Unilevers Five Levers for Change methodology is helping us create effective behavior change campaigns. (Unilever annual report,Web)DifferentiationUnilever is providing value to its customers through unique features and characteristics of its products. This is done through high quality, features, high customer service, rapid product innovation, advanced technological features, image management, etc Unilever Creates Value by: Lowering Buyers' Costs with Higher quality and quicker response to problems. Sustainability Higher quality products Creating barriers by perceptions of uniqueness and reputation Creating high switching costs through differentiation and uniqueness Wide product line Efficient customer service and focus on customers needs Operating all over the worldPorter's Five Forces ModelEffective differentiators can remain profitable even when the five forces appear unattractive. Analysis of Unilevers differentiation strategy porters five forces is as follows: Rivalry Brand loyalty is the strongest point for Unilever to have its competitive advantage. It means that customers will be less sensitive to price increases, as long as the firm can satisfy the needs of its customers As Unilever always strive to satisfy the needs of its customers so intense rivalry for Unilever is not a threat Suppliers Because differentiators charge a premium price they can more afford to absorb higher costs and customers are willing to pay extra too so bargaining power of suppliers is low here that give a competitive edge to Unilever (Albany,Web) Entrants Brand Loyalty provides a difficult barrier to overcomeSubstitutes Once again brand loyalty helps combat substitute products.FocusUnilever focus more on the demographic features of population, it targets all age groups and offer a wide variety of products to the people of all ages. It also focus on the emerging markets like a few years ago it started to focus more on India because its an emerging market. Apart from that its wide variety of products more and its attention to its value chain make it capture a big market share. It focuses on customer needs and customer satisfaction. It focuses on innovation, quality and R&D. It also focus on its low cost and has a wide base of customers so all these factors together give it a competitive advantage over others in the same industry.