To survive and prosper over the long term, learn how
to adapt your business model by making it servant to society and the
environment. Not the other way around.
Sustainable Tea at Unilever
In 2010, Unilever announced its
commitment to a new "Sustainable Living Plan," a document that set
wide-ranging, companywide goals for improving the health and well-being of
consumers, reducing environmental impact, and, perhaps most ambitiously,
sourcing 100% of agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. Such a goal
implied a massive transformation of a supply chain that sourced close to 8
million tons of commodities across 50 different crops. Unilever CEO Paul Polman
believed that the company's ambitious goals could drive savings, product
innovation, and differentiation across the company's portfolio of products. But
more importantly, it would create a company better suited to survive in the
future that Polman envisaged:
This is a
world that is challenged. When you look at the interdependent challenges that
we face on food security, poverty reduction, sustainability of resources,
climate change, and social, economic, environmental development, these
challenges have never been greater. And I believe that these pressures will
only increase as 2 billion more people enter this world and many aspire to
increase their living standards.1
The changes
happening at Lipton, Unilever's €3.5 billion tea brand, were an important
cornerstone of Unilever's plan. For more than five years, Michiel Leijnse, the
global brand director for Lipton Tea, and the Unilever procurement team had led
the transformation of the Lipton brand and its supply chain toward a goal of
100% sustainable sourcing. Approximately 25% of all Unilever tea now came from
Rainforest Alliance-certified farms, and real gains had been made in the
social, environmental, and economic sustainability of tea production. The scale
of Unilever's mainstream partnership approach was unprecedented in the
beverages industry, where "ethical" brands had failed to grow beyond
niche market positions. Unilever's goal was to have all of the tea in Lipton
tea bags sourced from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms by 2015, and to have
every kilogram of Unilever tea sustainably sourced by 2020. Leijnse was
confident that the company could achieve these goals, but it faced two critical
issues as it worked to make them a reality.
The first
issue was how Unilever could transform a supply chain that was not only
geographically very diverse hut also highly fragmented. Unilever bought tea
from all producing regions, and in many markets, the majority of production was
controlled by smallholders who sold their tea at open auctions. Unilever and
the Rainforest Alliance had successfully certified Unilever's own tea estates
and those of many large plantations, hut the firm now faced the increasingly
difficult task of convincing smallholders in worldwide markets of the benefits
of changing agricultural practices and pursuing Rainforest Alliance
certification. India, for example, was a major tea producer and consumer, hut
the small scale of many of the farms and the nature of local farming practices
made certification a significant challenge. What should Unilever do in such
markets? Should Unilever insist on Rainforest Alliance certification or instead
work to implement, incremental change through standards better suited for
Indian practices? How could it persuade hundreds of thousands of smallholders
to adopt new farming methods in markets where most tea production and
consumption was local and Unilever was not the dominant buyer?
The second
issue was whether and how Unilever could gain market advantage from its move to
sustainable tea. While the adoption of Rainforest Alliance certification
appeared to have led to market share growth in some Western markets, it was not
clear either that this would continue or that the concept of a sustainability
message would resonate with consumers in developing markets like Turkey, India,
or Russia. How should Unilever market its sustainability efforts in emerging
markets?
Beyond these
two key issues, several other smaller hut also potentially important, questions
consumed Unilever's attention. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan committed
the company to sourcing 100% of all agricultural raw materials
sustainably by 2020. Did this mean moving to sustainable paper in tea bags and
packaging or to sustainable ingredients sourced in very small amounts—such as
chamomile—where there was currently no sustainable supply? If so, what was the
best way to approach such moves? And more broadly, were there lessons in
Lipton's experience for the rest of Unilever's agricultural supply chain and
for the power of sustainability as a source of consumer differentiation?
Unilever and Lipton Tea
Unilever
In 2011,
Unilever was one of the world's leading consumer goods companies, selling
everything from food products to personal-care and home-care goods. It was a
company with a global reach, with sales coming from more than 180 countries,
over half of which were in the developing world. Worldwide, over 2 billion
consumers used Unilever products each day, and 2010 revenue was over €44
billion ($59 billion11).2 (See Exhibit 1 for income statements from
2006 to 2010.) Just over half of these sales came from foods and beverages,
with 31% of sales in personal care and 17% in home care. (See Exhibit 2 for
a breakdown by segment.) The company employed 167,000 people globally. Much of
the company's success was due to its portfolio of strong brands. The company
had 12 brands with individual sales over €1 billion per annum, including such
widely recognized products as Lipton, Dove, and Axe.
The company
faced competition from a number of other large consumer goods companies,
including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Colgate-Palmolive. (See Exhibits 3 through
5 for
further comparative financial figures.)
Unilever
Ten
Lipton Tea was the largest tea brand in
the world, with annual sales of approximately €3.5 billion.b
Unilever's tea portfolio contained a number of other strong regional brands,
such as PG tips in the United Kingdom (U.K.), Lyons in Ireland, and various
other brands in countries worldwide, including India, Pakistan, Russia, and
Poland. Lipton's global market share was nearly three Limes that of its nearest
rival, Tata Beverages, the owners of Tetley Tea.
Lipton teas were sold in over 130
countries and were particularly popular in Europe, North America, the Middle
East, and parts of Asia. Growth in the developed world was around 1% to 2% a
year, hut the markets of the developing world—specifically, India and
China—were seen as particularly promising, with anticipated annual growth rates
of close to 10%.
In 2010,
Unilever sold nearly 350,000 tons of tea. Approximately 90% came from external
suppliers, with the remainder coming from Unilever's own estates in East
Africa, including its flagship estate in Kericho, Kenya. Every market had a
distinct taste in tea, making it to some extent reliant on supply from
particular countries. For example, the North American market sourced much of
its tea from Argentina, since its tea was particularly well suited for iced
tea, which was popular in the U.S.
The Global Tea Market
Tea was the
world's most popular beverage after water. In 2009, approximately 4 million
tons of tea was produced in 46 countries, with China, India, Kenya, and Sri
Lanka accounting for 70% of global production.3 Kenya, where much of
Lipton's tea was produced, accounted for approximately 8% of global production,4
hut was the world's largest exporter of tea (see Exhibit 14 for a breakdown of global tea
production).5
Tea was
consumed for a variety of reasons and in a wide variety of blends. Russia, the
U.S., and the U.K. were the biggest net importers of tea, accounting for nearly
30% of global imports.11 Japan, with its strong preference for green
tea, consumed approximately a fifth of all the global green tea supply. In many
countries, tea was an ingrained part of daily life for cultural and historical
reasons. In other parts of the world, tea was becoming increasingly popular due
to its perceived health benefits.7
Historically,
global tea markets had suffered from oversupply. The resulting price pressure
was exacerbated by tea's high degree of commoditization, low switching costs
for consumers, and tea's perishability, which meant prices were often cut
drastically to clear stocks.8 Despite moderate gains in the price of
tea since 2000, the price of tea in real terms in 2010 was still 35% lower than
its peak in the mid-1980s.9 (See Exhibit 6 for global average tea prices,
1960-2010.)
Ten
Production and Its Consequences
Tea
production was a very labor-intensive activity. With a few regional exceptions,
tea production occurred year-round, as farmers carefully hand-picked the top
two to three leaves of the plants every 7 to 21 days, depending on the altitude
and climate.10 Tea plantsc could grow to a height of 30
feet or more, but were usually cropped at about 2 to 3 feet and then pruned
regularly in order to make them easier to pick.11
The leaves were plucked by hand and then
processed immediately, either on-site at the plantation or at a bought-leaf
factory.12 During processing, tea leaves were withered, macerated,
oxidized, dried, and sorted on-site. The processed tea was then transported to
a broker or auction, after which it was blended, sometimes flavored, and
packaged. Finally, it entered the relevant retail sales channel before ending
up with the consumer.
Inappropriately
managed, tea production could raise a number of social and environmental
concerns. The industry contained a mix of large-scale estates and smallholders,
each with their own challenges. Over the years, there had been reports of bad
working conditions on poorly managed plantations that damaged worker health
through exposure to harmful pesticides and agrochemicals. In certain cases, the
workforce included migrant laborers with no protection in case of illness,
pregnancy, or other factors.13 Workers generally received low wages
and were not always given medical care, housing, education, or pensions.
Further, in some cases, independent trade unions, when they existed, had been
accused of corruption or ineffectiveness.14
For some
smallholders who grew tea as a cash crop, tea production implied the conversion
of tropical forests into agricultural land, which could lead to reductions in
the diversity of local species and to soil degradation.15 However,
for most farmers, unsustainable practices were a result of focus on increasing
yields and not acreage. Logging for the firewood needed to dry tea could lead
to local deforestation, which could in turn lead to problems in water
retention. Some farms used excessive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides,
which could negatively affect soil quality and pollute local soils and
waterways. Years of commoditization had contributed to a downward price spiral
that put pressure on workers and the environment as farmers tried to safeguard
their income.
Unilever's Commitment to Sustainable Tea
Unilever
first established a set of good agriculture practice guidelines in 1998. The
guidelines outlined sustainable farming practices for the suppliers of its
major crops, including tea, palm oil, and tomatoes, and included 10 key
indicators of environmental, social, and economic performance, each with its
own sub-parameters (see Exhibit
7b for more details). Unilever did not impose the guide on
external suppliers, but shared it with them and with the broader public. This
was the first move of this kind in the industry.
In 2006,
Leijnse began the process of transforming this internal commitment into a major
consumer-facing initiative. He believed that many Western consumers had become
sufficiently concerned about sustainability that it might help drive product
differentiation. More importantly, he saw this as an opportunity to transform
the entire tea industry, benefiting not only tea workers and
c There are two main
varieties of the tea plant: China and Assam. The Assam variety, which is used
in India and Kenya, is the most common. All varieties can be and are used to
produce green and black tea. There are many kinds of hybrids between the
varieties, and other factors like soil, climate, altitude, picking time, and
processing all affect the flavor.
the
environment, but also purchasers of tea who were reliant on a healthy supply
chain. Aware that such a transformation was not costless, Leijnse explained the
initiative's rationale:
If we didn't do something to
transform the industry, at some point we just wouldn't be able to get the
quality and quantity of tea we need. While we might see market share gains in some
markets, it won't always be the case. It is a challenge to properly align the
short-term and long-term interests of the brand.
Tea
Certification and the Rainforest Alliance
Leijnse and
his team decided to pursue certification for the brand and chose the Rainforest
Alliance, a founding member and secretariat of the Sustainable Agriculture
Network (SAN), as its certification partner. There was significant overlap in
Unilever's and the Rainforest Alliance's approaches to sustainable agriculture
practices; both focused on environmental, economic, and social factors.
Further, the Rainforest Alliance focused on market-based premiums rather than
fixed price supports (characteristic, for example, of FairTrade products) as
the best way to create change. The Rainforest Alliance had some consumer
recognition from previously successful campaigns certifying a range of other
commodities, including bananas, coffee, and cocoa, hut had no prior experience
with tea certification or on the African continent, where Unilever had decades
of experience in its tea estates.
Unilever set
ambitious targets for the implementation of Rainforest Alliance certification.
By 2011, it had successfully achieved its initial target of having all Lipton
Yellow Label and PG tips tea bags in Western Europe certified by 2010. Lipton
had committed to sourcing all the tea in Lipton tea bags from Rainforest
Alliance-certified estates by 2015, approximately a third of all Unilever tea
volume. And if Lipton were to meet the commitments of the Sustainable Living
Plan by 2020, 100% of Unilever's tea would need to be sustainably sourced,
although the plan did not commit Unilever to using tea from Rainforest
Alhance-certified farms.
The certification process The
Rainforest Alhance evaluated farms based on 10 principles covering issues such
as worker welfare, farm management, and environmental protection, each with its
own criteria.16 The Rainforest Alhance certified entire farms, so
that in order for any of a farm's crops to he certified, the entire production
area for ah crops had to meet the standards. In order to obtain and maintain
certification, a farm had to he in compliance with at least 50% of the
applicable criteria associated with each principle and with at least 80% of the
total set of applicable criteria. Further, there were 15 critical criteria that
were mandatory for certification, regardless of overah comphance (see Exhibit 7a for
information on certification standards).17
While independent farmers bore
the costs of complying with the Rainforest Alhance standards (for each estate
or group being certified, there was a certification cost of approximately
€3,000 to €4,500, or $4,000 to $10,000, depending on farm size18),
Unilever also incurred costs in choosing to buy certified tea. First, Unilever
paid a premium for the tea. In 2011, this was approximately €0.08 per kilogram
of tea. In 2010, the average market price per kilogram of tea was €1.69
($2.28).19 In the market for certified coffee, there had been price
premiums of 15%. From 2011, Unilever had to pay the Rainforest Alliance a
participation fee of €0.0089 ($0.0125) per kilogram of tea in order to carry
the organization's frog logo on its packaging. Unilever's procurement
organization devoted six full-time employees to work on the rohout of global
certification education and spent approximately €200,000 per year on the
development and deployment of farmer training, in conjunction with the
Rainforest Alhance.
Scaling Certification in the Supply
Chain
Unilever had
to certify almost a quarter of its tea volumes to meet its 2010 goals. Given
the lack of any preexisting certified sources, Unilever and the Rainforest
Alliance faced a significant challenge in developing large volumes of certified
tea in a relatively short lime. To address this, Unilever initially focused on
certifying its own production in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as some of its
larger and better-managed tea suppliers.
Achieving the firm's 2015 and 2020 goals
would require working further down the supply chain with smaller, less organized
suppliers operating in widely varying countries, each of which had different
agricultural practices, government support, and institutional capacity.
Unilever had been successful in building a certified supply chain in East
Africa. Could it replicate this across the entire supply chain?
The Certification of
Unilever's Estates in East Africa
The Unilever
estates in Kenya and Tanzania were the first sites to he certified. Unilever
had actively worked to maximize1 long-term yields and to control
costs ever since planting commenced on the 13,000-hectare estate20
in Kericho, Kenya, in 1928. For example, the estate left tea hush prunings on
the field to rot, rather than removing them as waste or for use as firewood or
cattle food; this practice maximized soil fertility and water retention. The
estate also carefully managed its fertilizer use. Fertilizer was not only
expensive hut also a potential threat to soil quality if mismanaged. Onsite
hydropower provided reliable electricity at one-third the cost of power bought
from the Kenyan grid, and the tea was dried using wood sourced from
fast-growing eucalyptus forests planted on the edge of the estate. In contrast
to estates in Asia, Kericho was able to minimize1 use of agrochemicals
and other pesticides because of the favorable climate and appropriate
management of the surrounding land, which was home to natural predators of many
pests.
The Kericho
estate also invested in the health and well-being of its 16,000 employees and
their dependents. The employees, who were paid a fixed sum per kilo of tea
plucked, typically earned two- and-a-half limes more than the local
agricultural minimum wage. In addition, Unilever provided them free access to
company housing and health care, including the company's hospital and
pharmacies, and the employees' children were educated in company-owned schools.21
The company had recently invested €1.2 million to update many of these
facilities.
The Kericho
estate achieved some of the highest yields in the world, with annual yields of
3.5 to 4 tons per hectare, compared to an average of 2 to 3 tons per hectare in
India. At the Unilever estate in Tanzania, which followed similar practices,
the yields were 3 tons per hectare compared to less than 2 tons per hectare in
the rest of the country. "The sustainability work we did at Kericho made
good agricultural sense, and in the long run it also made good financial
sense," explained Richard Fairburn, former managing director of Unilever
Tea East Africa. "We understand that this is simply the way the industry
needs to operate in order to survive and thrive."
To further increase the supply of certified tea, Unilever identified a
priority list of its larger supphers in Africa, Argentina, and Indonesia. Many of
these estates were already professionally managed and were certified following
adjustments to existing practices using available tools.22
Working Down the Supply Chain
Initial success with
smallholder farmers in East Africa Certifying the 500,000 Kenyan
smallholders from which Unilever purchased tea was a critical component of the
Rainforest Alliance rollout because East Africa alone accounted for nearly
one-third of Unilever's total tea requirement. Fortunately, Unilever was able
to work with the Kenyan Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and with the IDH, the
Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative, to design a program that "trained the
trainers" and led to the rapid diffusion of sustainable farming practices
across the country.
The KTDA was
a highly respected farmer's cooperative covering 62% of all Kenyan production
through 59 factories. Its goal was to help local farmers receive better prices
as well as to provide training and other extension services. In 2011, Unilever
bought approximately 40% of KTDA's production.23 Unilever worked
with the KTDA and the Rainforest Alliance to educate the locally elected lead
farmers who did the bulk of the smallholder training. Each factory elected 30
to 40 lead farmers, each of whom received approximately three days of training.
International donors like IDH covered most of the training costs, hut the KTDA
was ultimately expected to take over this responsibihty, estimated to be about
€1 to €2 ($1 to $3) per tea farmer.24
Each lead
farmer was to train approximately 300 other farmers through group and
individual training, focusing on hands-on demonstration of sustainable
agricultural practices. The meetings could also be a way to increase awareness
of the potential price premiums paid for Rainforest Alliance-certified tea. The
certification criteria were broken down into easy-to-communicate, actionable
activities, and the Rainforest Alliance helped develop simple posters and
checklists that the lead farmers could distribute (see
for
an example). The process was designed to be very participatory. The KTDA's
extension officers, who also received training, provided further technical
support.25
The
certification process was organized at the factory level. For the external
audit, the Rainforest Alliance or an authorized third party checked compliance
with a sample of farmers at random. Before this, each farmer was also
internally audited by a lead farmer, hut never the same lead farmer who had
trained him. Lead farmers received modest financial support in the first year
to cover the costs associated with their efforts.
Most of the
changes expected of farmers did not require huge changes in practice or much
investment. For example, getting farmers to leave their prunings in the field
(to improve1 soil quality), rather than removing it for use as
firewood, required persuading them to plant trees for fuel. Tree seeds were
very cheap, and Unilever subsidized the cost. It also encouraged farmers to
make compost from organic waste, rather than burning it, and make better use of
waste and washing water.
Some changes
were expensive. For example, the Rainforest Alliance standards required the use
of personal protective equipment for the spraying of (approved) pesticides.
This could cost up to $30, half a month's salary for a smallholder.26
However, the KTDA set up its own micro-credit scheme to assist farmers with
these kinds of purchases, and in some places, the local smallholders had pooled
money to buy a single set of equipment that they shared.27 A
Unilever pilot study in 2004 showed that total net investments were less than 1
% of total cash farm income for the first year.
Many of the farms saw yield gains of 5% to 15% from the implementation
of more sustainable practices, improvements in the quality of the tea, and
reductions in operating costs, as well as higher prices for their tea. Average
income increased by an estimated 10% to 15%. Unilever also felt that
sustainable practices would help farmers better adapt to the climatic changes,
like abnormal rainfall
patterns, that
many locals were already experiencing.28 But, according to Fairbum,
the most salient benefit to farmers was their personal empowerment: "The
Kenyan smallholders are ultimately interested in creating a farm in good health
that can be passed on to future generations. That was the 'sustainability' that
resonated with them."
By 2011, the
Rainforest Alliance had successfully certified over one-third of the
smallholder farmers in Kenya, and Unilever was confident that eventually all
Kenyan smallholders would gain certification. One encouraging sign was that
some of the first groups to become certified had since independently renewed
their certification.29 Whether this model could be rolled out to
other teagrowing regions like Turkey and India was, of course, still in question.
Marketing the Sustainable Message to Consumers
While
Unilever's procurement organization took the lead on sustainable sourcing,
Leijnse's major task was to explore whether and how the company's commitment
could be translated into increased sales or market share. This effort was
complicated by the fact that Unilever had a portfolio of tea brands, each with
its own distinct brand proposition. Leijnse had responsibility for Lipton, the
largest of the brands, hut he needed to work closely with his fellow brand
managers across the category to frame appropriate messages and to communicate
them well. His research suggested that an increasing number of consumers were
interested in a brand's ethical position and that credible action could change
consumer preferences, hut no one believed that any of Unilever's tea brands
should become "green" brands. "Certification was never
approached as green marketing, hut rather as a new marketing message for
consumers," explained one manager involved with the U.K. campaign.
"Consumers aren't choosing our product because it's green, hut because
this new message was aligned with their expectations for our brand."
Retailers
were very supportive of the certified tea—some even demanded it—since the
product was well ahgned with the retailers' own sustainability initiatives for
their businesses and supply chains. Despite this, none of the brand managers
wanted to charge a premium for sustainable tea. Instead they hoped to use
certification to boost brand equity and, possibly, market share.
The
Early Successes of the Rainforest Alliance Initiative
Unilever launched the Rainforest Alliance
certification with full-scale marketing campaigns for all of its biggest
Western European and Australian tea brands, including Lipton Yellow Label, PG
tips, and Lyons. In some markets, the campaigns had significant success. In
others, however, the impact was much more limited.
The PG tips success The U.K. market was
a large and important one for Unilever, representing just under 10% of the
firm's tea production. The almost €990 milliond (£850 million)
market was dominated by two major brands, PG tips and its rival, Tetley Tea,
each of which had roughly a quarter of the market.30 PG tips was a
classic, black tea blend, with few line extensions.
Unilever saw the U.K. as a progressive
country in terms of environmental policies. However, while Unilever's research
suggested that the mass-market consumers were aware and concerned about
"sustainability issues," broadly defined, they were not interested in
paying more for green products. The PG tips brand was a mass-market,
working-class brand that held a place in the everyday lives of its consumers,
who were, in general, middle aged and middle income. The brand
d Using exchange
rate of €1 = £0.86 as of December 2, 2011.
proposition was one of sociability,
family, and lightheartedness. This was captured in its ad campaigns, which were
infused with offbeat British humor.
In 2008, PG
tips was the only brand on the market proposing any sustainability
differentiation. The marketing team treated the initiative as a major brand
innovation and devoted its entire €12 million (£10 million) marketing spend in
the launch year 2008 to promoting the efforts. Previous U.K. experience
indicated that it took 12 to 18 months to address mental barriers and get the
full message to consumers. The challenge for the PG tips team was to find a
message that would resonate with its core consumers while maintaining
consistency with the brand's core proposition. "It was a huge
challenge," explained Neil Gledhih of the PG tips campaign. "We had
to talk to mainstream consumers in a way that explained a complex topic without
preaching, ah in a language aligned with the brand."
The chosen
message, "do your bit: put the kettle on," emphasized the positive
action that consumers could take by drinking PG tips. The campaign tried to
keep the lighthearted spirit of the brand's previous campaigns and used its
well-established characters: a talking monkey called Monkey and a working class
man named Al. In one of the ads, for example, Monkey, presenting a shde show in
the kitchen, explained to Al what certification meant, and how easy it was for
him to do the right thing (see
for sample ads). The campaign
used TV and print, as weh as a short movie that was shown as a preview in
cinemas and was ultimately included as a DVD in special promotion packages
along with a tea towel. Packaging was also changed to include the certification
seal and a description of the alliance.
Prior to the
campaign, PG tips and Tetley Tea were bathing hard for the top spot in the
British market. However, following the campaign, PG bps developed a significant
lead in market share, which increased by 1.8 points, while Tetley remained
relatively hat; the purchase repeat rate increased from 44% to 49%. Sales of PG
tips increased by 6%. Surveys suggested that following the launch of the
campaign, there had been a steady increase in the perception of PG tips as an
ethical brand.
"Project
Sunshine": the Australian success Like the U.K.'s tea
market, Australia's market was relatively straightforward, with only a handful
of available products and most of its sales in black tea. Before the launch of
the campaign in 2009, the Lipton brand held nearly a quarter of the €260 milhone
(345 million Australian dohars [A$]) market. Unilever's other brand, Busheh's,
had an approximately 13% share of the market. The local team chose the phrase
"Make a Better Choice with Lipton, the world's first Rainforest Alliance
Certified tea," and because of the relatively small portfolio, implemented
it across the majority of the products. The team felt that the phrase was
aligned with the existing brand vision, which had been "Drink Better, Live
Better," an attempt to increase the perceptions of quality and the health
benefits of the Lipton brand. The €1.1 million (A$1.4 million) campaign covered
television, print, and public relations. Unilever also supported the initiative
with in-store promotions. It changed packaging to include the Rainforest
Alliance seal on the front of the package, with further explanation of the
initiative and its benefits on the back and sides. Customers were not charged a
premium for certified tea, since surveys had found that higher prices were a
perceived barrier to sustainable consumption. Relahve to the same test period
the year before the campaign, sales were up 11%, and Lipton's market share rose
by 158 basis points from 24.2% to 25.8%. Average purchase value per occasion
rose from €3.11 to €3.23 (A$4.10 to A$4.25). The only area where the Lipton
brand did not improve1 was in perceptions of quality, which
decreased shghtly during the campaign.
Full activation in Italy: The
Italian tea market was estimated to be approximately €285 million in 2010.
Unilever's share was approximately 12%.31 The Italian marketing team
supported the certification with a €3 million mixed campaign of television,
press, online, public relations, in-store promotions, and packaging updates.
The team chose the message, "your small cup can make a big
difference." Following the first year of the campaign in 2008, Lipton saw
sales of its Yellow Label brand increase by 10.5% and market share increase by
over two full percentage points. It also witnessed an increase in its buyer
base, which came mostly from younger and more upmarket consumers. The team
continued to support the campaign with in-store promotion in 2009 and a web and
editorial partnership with Italy's National Geographic magazine in 2010,
all of which cost €250,000.
The French market
disappointment In 2010, Lipton had a 37% market share in the €430
million French tea market.32 Lipton's main competition came from
retailers' private-label brands, which accounted for 30% to 40% of sales. In
France, Unilever's portfolio was more diversified than in other countries:
Lipton sold over 40 different tea products. Whereas in the U.K. and Australia,
Unilever had been able to carry the certification message on the majority of
its products, in France, it was initially only linked to the Lipton Yellow
Label black tea product, representing only about a fifth of sales.
The first
wave of the campaign in France retied heavily on a significant public relations
effort to educate consumers and customers (i.e., the retailers) and inform them
of Lipton's certification efforts. The team focused on engaging key opinion
leaders and journalists with press releases, media and press conferences, and
trips to the Kericho estate in Kenya. The press widely covered the brand's
efforts, and the team members felt that they had made significant inroads in
attracting attention. Print ads with the message "your tea can make a
difference" were placed in travel and cooking magazines and were primarily
focused toward current consumers, who tended to be female and over the age of
50.
The loam's
research had suggested that French consumers were less likely to buy box of tea
with a Rainforest Alliance seal on it. This reluctance appeared to reflect a
dislike of changes in packaging rather than any lack of concern for
environmental issues, hut as a result, the team chose a staggered approach to
package change, whereby certification was initially announced only on the
inside of packages before being added to the back. Only in 2010 did the seal
start to appear on the front of the packages. This made it harder for consumers
to link advertising support to the product they were seeing on shelves.
The campaign
received TV support in 2009 and 2010, and held an online competition, in which
the winners won a trip to Kenya, which was intended to engage consumers and
bloggers. The limited television advertisements that ran in the fourth quarter
of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 contained scenes of sustainable farms in
Africa, as well as information about the Rainforest Alliance (see
In
total, only 10% of the team's marketing spend went toward supporting the
Rainforest Alliance message, with the remainder going toward more conventional
promotion and support of other innovations. Lipton market share remained flat,
and awareness of the brand did not increase. Further, the campaign was not
successful in linking Lipton to the Rainforest Alliance, and Lipton was not
seen as more ethical than other tea brands.
The U.S.
experience The U.S. tea market was an almost €1.5 billion ($2 billion)
market in 2010.33
Unilever launched its U.S. campaign in the summer of 2009 with a
particular focus on the brand's green tea line, where Lipton was second in the market.
The mainstream black tea range was not linked to the Rainforest Alliance
initiative. Company research had shown that 80% of U.S. consumers wanted to buy
eco-ethical brands, although without sacrificing cost or quality. Only 5%
were willing
to pay a premium. The message used was "Your Small Cup Can Make a Big
Difference," although Unilever also had other messaging for its
ready-to-drink beverage line running concurrently. To generate credibility,
Unilever allowed National
Geographic to create independent TV, print, and online content
about the certification, which was published between June and September 2009.
The campaign was also supported by a sponsored trip to the Kericho estate for
three online bloggers and journalists, as well as advertising in online and
social media. It changed the packaging to include the Rainforest Alliance seal
on the front and information about certification on the side and flap of the
package. A retail partnership with Walmart and Sam's Club provided information
and positive images at the point of purchase, which helped reinforce
perceptions of health and quality benefits (see Exhibit 13 for examples of in-store
promotions). The marketing team's analysis indicated a strong ROI for the
€740,000 ($1 million) campaign; however, given the size of the business, the
investment was relatively small. Unilever did not see any significant effect on
overall market share for Lipton or the Rainforest Alhance-certified green tea.
Challenges Going Forward
A few years
after the launch of the certification scheme, many of Unilever's major
competitors responded with their own certification programs. Tetley, Twinings,
and Yorkshire Tea all made arrangements for some or all of their tea suppliers
to obtain Rainforest Alliance certification, while Pickwick and Carmien Tea
opted to use UTZ, a certification scheme originating in The Netherlands.
Yorkshire Tea announced a goal of selling 100% Rainforest Alliance-certified
tea by 2015.34 Twinings had goals of 100% certification by 2015 for
its Everyday brand tea.35 Tata's Tetley Tea vowed to have 100% of
its branded tea certified by 2016, a year after Lipton.36 The surge
in demand placed pressure on the Rainforest Alliance, which expected to be
certifying close to 20% to 25% of the world's tea supply by 2015.37
The Emerging Market Challenge
With
competitors committing to third-party certification, sustainable tea at
Unilever faced a number of challenges going forward. On the supply side, the
company had to improve farming practices in some very difficult markets in
order to meet the company's targets. On the marketing side, Leijnse and his
colleagues had to decide how to proceed in emerging markets. Could consumers in
countries like Turkey, Russia, or India be persuaded to value certified tea? If
so, how? And how could Lipton maintain a point of difference in countries where
competitor brands had followed suit?
Reaching
100% Sustainable Sourcing
In 2011, Unilever sourced
approximately 25% of its global tea requirement from India; most of India's tea
was consumed domestically. Some Indian tea growers had already achieved
Rainforest Alhance certification, hut they were generahy exporters and Unilever
purchased a significant share of their production. Converting smaller domestic
producers to sustainable practices presented (at least) two tricky challenges.
First, developing an organizational model that could handle training and rohout
was likely to be difficult. A large proportion of India's tea was grown by
smallholders who sold to local tea factories. However, in contrast to the
situation in Kenya, there were no government- sponsored tea cooperatives, and
farmers were free to seh to any factory. Some factories did provide extension
services and training for their farms, hut the quality of these services varied
dramatically.
Second, farming practices in
India were in conflict with the Rainforest Alliance over two main issues, child
labor and pesticide use. The standards did not permit certified farms to employ
anyone under the age of 15, hut Indian law and the United Nation's
International Labor Organization permitted the employment of 14-year-olds in
developing countries. Moreover, in India, the pesticide Paraquat was widely
used in tea production. It was quick and effective, hut it was also highly
toxic when ingested or if absorbed by a person without protective equipment.38
It was implicated in many suicides in the developing world due to its low cost,
potency, and widespread availability. The European Union banned the use of
Paraquat, hut the U.S. allowed its use, with restrictions.39 Rainforest
Alliance standards did not permit its use, and since the ban on Paraquat was
one of its critical criteria, it could not make exceptions by country.40
Unilever
could potentially address these issues by introducing an alternative standard
tailored to India's local practices. This standard could act as a stepping
stone toward future certification. Unilever would almost certainly need
partners to transform Indian tea growing. One option was to work with local
NGOs, as it had in Kenya; another was to implement industrywide initiatives.
Marketing in India
and Other Emerging Markets
Getting the messaging right in
India would he another important challenge. Tea was the traditional hot
beverage of India, and the market was estimated to be €1 billionf
(RS 64.6 billion), with Unilever the market leader with a share of around 30%.
Demand for tea was robust, with the market growing an estimated 12% per annum
by value and 3% per annum by volume from 2005 to 2010. The demand for tea had
actually outstripped the growth in national tea production, resulting in tea
price increases in 2010.41
Approximately two-thirds of the
market, by volume, was sold as unbranded loose black tea (in bulk). Only
one-third of the market was branded tea, which was almost exclusively loose
black tea in packets. Tea bags represented less than 2% of the market, but were
a growing segment. Green tea was another high-growth category, particularly in
urban areas, because of its perceived health benefits.42 Almost
three-quarters of all tea was still sold through independent small grocers, but
supermarkets and hypermarkets had begun to slowly increase their share as
rising incomes began to shift consumers' buying behavior. Branded coffee shop
chains had also become popular, particularly with young Indian consumers, who
increasingly viewed tea as an old-fashioned beverage.43
Unilever's Indian subsidiary,
Hindustan Unilever, sold mostly through two major brands, Brooke Bond and
Lipton, which had market shares of 19% and 6%, respectively, in the branded tea
market. Its main competitor was Tata Global Beverages, which had a market share
of 26%, mostly under its Tata Tea brand, which had almost 20% of the market by
retail value.44 But Unilever also faced competition from regional
tea companies, which took pride in tailoring their blends and preparation
methods according to local preferences and which often competed aggressively on
price.
Under the
Sustainable Living Plan umbrella, Hindustan Unilever had begun to introduce
products designed to improve1 the quality of life of India's poorest
consumers, including new, highly effective hand soaps and a range of water
purifiers. (See Exhibit
12 for an illustration of the plan.) The company had also been
marketing Surf Excel, a concentrated laundry detergent, which required two
fewer buckets of water for washing than competing products.45 The
company believed that if the environmental issue was tangible and had an
immediate local impact, people's awareness and
f
Using exchange rate of €1 = RS 69.6 as of December 2, 2011.
appreciation
of the issue was generally high. But it was less clear if Unilever could
communicate the comparatively distant benefits of sustainable tea farming.
Leijnse
wondered whether the company's recent experience in Turkey could provide any
lessons. In Turkey, the tea-growing industry played a prominent role in
national cultural identity, and the Turkish loam had chosen a message that
suggested that certified tea offered national benefits, highlighting gains to
domestic producers, as well as to the country's tea crops (see Exhibit 8 for
sample packaging in Turkey). Should Leijnse attempt something similar in India?
He also had
to consider how tea could be marketed in emerging markets where there was no
teagrowing base. One such example was Russia, where Unilever had a 16% share
of the almost €3 billion!’, (115 billion rubles [RUB]) market in 2010. Tea was
a traditional Russian drink consumed by almost everyone.46 A
domestic tea manufacturer led the market, and while volume growth had been
limited, sales in the market had been growing at close to 15% since 2005, as
consumers switched to more expensive varieties of tea and as the major Russian
brands continued to expand the range of their offerings.47 Could
Unilever's sustainable tea platform serve as the basis for product
differentiation that would drive growth and market share in Russia? Or should
Unilever forgo any promotion of sustainability and instead focus on other ways
of competing in the Russian market?
Concluding Thoughts
With the
launch of Rainforest Alliance certification in 2007, Unilever had started the
transformation of the tea industry and improved the lives of hundreds of
thousands of farmers. It had also demonstrated that in certain markets,
certification could increase market share. However, with most major tea
manufacturers implementing aggressive certification targets of their own, it
appeared that sustainability might, at least in Western markets, become
increasingly more a cost of doing business and less a source of competitive
advantage. Unilever needed to decide not only how to ensure that 100% of its
supply chain could he sustainably sourced, hut also how that message could be
communicated in a diverse group of emerging markets.
Leijnse also
needed to decide how far he could push sustainability in the brand. If Unilever
were to reach its targets under the Sustainable Living Plan, it would
eventually need to sustainably source all agricultural raw materials, including
the paper and board used for the tea packaging and tea bags (see Exhibit 10 for
its agricultural raw materials by volume). Could it communicate this to
consumers in a useful way?
Looking
across Unilever, Leijnse wondered if his experiences in tea had anything to
contribute to marketing managers grappling with the potential benefits of 100%
sustainable sourcing. From a marketing perspective, tea and the Lipton brand
had been an obvious place to start addressing sustainability, given the tight
link between the raw material and the end product. The same could not be said
for many of the other raw materials that Unilever purchased. For example,
Unilever was the world's largest buyer of sustainable palm oil, and it had
committed to ensuring that all its purchases came from sustainable sources by
2015. Consumers did not ultimately buy sustainable palm oil, hut rather,
products that contained it, such as soap and edible fats. Unilever was
uncertain whether to make consumers aware of its efforts. Moreover, Leijnse had
experienced increased attention and criticism from activists since launching
the Rainforest Alliance partnership; would the Sustainable Living Plan
potentially make Unilever a bigger target for scrutiny? Were there any lessons
that could be learned from Lipton?
“Sustainable Tea at Unilever”
1) Why did Unilever commit to sustainably source 100% of its tea?
3) What should Unilever do with its tea business in India? Should it pursue Rainforest Alliance
certification? Should it market sustainable tea to consumers?