Unilever Vice President Of China: I Thought The Company Was Stupid.

Dialogue

Unilever habitually likens itself to an elephant in Europe.

The company hopes that the elephant can dance and jump out of the fast pace. The main stage in the future will be the emerging markets represented by China and India.

Ceng Xiwen, vice president of Unilever China, told Xinhua that the complexity of China is no less than that of the European Union.

It is a lesson from the past to view China as a single market rather than a lot of scattered markets.

He believes that Unilever is still quite satisfied with the development in China, but there are still many places to learn.

"Competition with Procter and gamble"

Reporter: as the first Chinese director of Unilever, you have witnessed the process of the company in China over the past 20 years. How do you view the road that the company has gone through in China these years?

Ceng Xiwen: Unilever is a long-term vision enterprise.

It's not about how to earn money.

At the very beginning, when I first entered Unilever, I thought the company was a bit stupid, but after all these years, I found Unilever to build roads.

When it meets a river, it will not cross the river by feeling the stones. Instead, it will have to build a bridge. If it meets a mountain, it will not bypass it, but it has to build a cave.

Unilever is going to repair this highway.

After the high-speed road repair, the company's progress in China is very fast.

Reporter: most people in the industry have commented that Procter & Gamble seems to be more important in China.

Compared with Procter & Gamble, Unilever always feels so bad. What do you think of this statement?

Ceng Xiwen: we are doing.

In the past 5 years, Unilever has had a relatively rapid growth compared with the past. Our gap with P & G is shrinking step by step, and we are very confident about this.

By working hard, we will achieve our expectations.

It's like running long distance and running fast at the beginning. It doesn't mean that we can win in the end.

In addition, there is an old saying that fat is not fat at childhood.

"There was an idea of listing."

Reporter: Unilever is very stressed.

Ceng Xiwen: We used to have the idea of going public, and the state supported it. But then we decided to give up first.

Unilever believes that China is a place that needs continuous investment and development for a long time. If we take into account long-term investment, the returns may be relatively low.

As a listed company, the idea should be that since we get money from investors, we can not refuse to repay.

Therefore, we prefer to go on the market later, and we should also take account of investors and consumers.

Reporter: Recently, about the launch of the international board, Unilever has been very active. Is there any new progress in this regard?

Ceng Xiwen: listing on the international board is quite similar to Unilever's listing again, which is the responsibility of the head office.

Reporter: in the process of localization, Unilever has had any "sacrifice" or "compromise"?

Ceng Xiwen: we are not compromising, but more research on Chinese consumers, closer to the Chinese market.

In the past, we thought that many common products could be applied, but in fact, we now find that Chinese consumers have their own characteristics.

Unilever now has a large consumer research center in China.

We find that Chinese consumers and European consumers are different in many details.

For example, Chinese consumers have more hair than European consumers, so products need more flexibility.

"Seeing China as a diversified market"

Reporter: Unilever localization in China, what do you think is more successful and what is lacking?

Ceng Xiwen: Unilever used to think of China as a single market. Just like many multinational companies have just entered China, there will be a similar calculation: if a family uses a toothpaste is tens of millions of toothpaste, simply add or multiply.

In fact, multinationals often do not adapt to the Chinese market because they are not very familiar with the complexity and regionally of China.

In recent years, what Unilever has learned in China is getting to know more and more about China.

In China, whether consumers, markets or business models are different in all parts of the country, there are different ways in the eastern, central and western regions.

This is the biggest experience of Unilever in China, and it is a lesson from the past.

The complexity of the Chinese market is not less than that of the European Union. Inner Mongolia people and Cantonese have no differences in consumption habits, including languages.

Unilever has fully understood this in China now.

China is no longer regarded as a single country, but as many scattered markets.

If the enterprise wants to expand the market, it must conform to the Chinese characteristics, expand the market and understand the consumers from a province or a region.

Reporter: do you think there is anything else that needs to be improved in Unilever's localization strategy in China?

Feel the pulse

In recent years, Anglo-Dutch Company Unilever is facing greater pressure from its competitors. Its competitor's Procter and Gamble has restrained sales and profit margins of some of Unilever's products.

In the past few years, the two daily chemical industry giants have fought price wars and scrambled for shelves at retail terminals.

Some time ago, Unilever's price increase had a great impact on the industry.

To sum up, there is the problem of rising cost of raw materials and high cost of logistics, and the best way to relieve pressure is to increase prices.

Unilever's Chinese executives are familiar with the Chinese market, and the company has been emphasizing localization. The company's recognition of the mistake is still not up to the outside world.

Behind this decision may be the company's higher level, the core of Unilever and Unilever's own culture.

This incident may be regarded as a sign of the problem of localization.

P & G's attitude in China is more like an ordinary person, while Unilever has some sense of elites and always gives people the feeling of "carrying on". The company's corporate culture insists on its own line.

It can be said that Unilever is a respectable businessman who does not follow the mainstream. It is worth respectful. But in China's imperfect market environment, this kind of moral culture and temper can also become a constraint.