Unilever dreams big with Aviance
Paul Polman, chief executive officer of consumer-products giant Unilever, recently voiced his long-term commitment to the global expansion of "Aviance" - the company's direct-selling business for luxury cosmetics.
Speaking at the grand launch of the brand in Malaysia last month, Polman revealed the company’s strategy to make Aviance, which was created in Thailand, |a success in other markets across the |world.
“I’ve witnessed the success of Aviance in Thailand. During several of my visits, I had the pleasure to see what the brand is doing there for consumers to improve their lives and make people feel good and look good. The brand is now being launched here in Malaysia and will give the same opportunities to all the wonderful 26 million people in this country,” Polman said. “As everybody knows, there are 7 billion consumers globally that we need to give the opportunity to buy our Aviance products.”
Unilever is represented in 190 countries and sells consumer products under the Ponds, Fair & Lovely, Dove and Lifebuoy brands as well as edibles under the Lipton and Knorr labels to name a few. At least one of the products produced by Unilever can be found in at least seven out of 10 homes.
In fact, it has been recorded that a Unilever product is used 2 billion times a day in different corners of the world.
“Now, we’d like to make that number 4 billion and we want it to be Aviance,” Polman said.
He explained that Unilever had a long history, starting about 130 years ago in England and the Netherlands.
“We have 170,000 wonderful people working for us every day and every night to bring our products to the people. Our mission is very simple – to make people feel good and look good to improve their lives. In many places in the world, also in this part of the world, there are many opportunities to further improve consumers’ lives,” he said.
Polman said Unilever was a company of brands, people and passion, which is what made the firm successful.
He said that the strength of Aviance was in line with the company’s motto of fulfilling consumers’ dreams of youth and beauty as well as building their self-esteem.
By doing this, Unilever also fulfils its business associates’ dreams of wealth, wisdom and independence, which helps many people in the world support their families and lead a good life.
“Unilever has great ambition. Our ambition is to not only sell products, but to actually improve people’s quality of life. We have ambition in a plan that we call the ‘Unilever Sustainable Living Plan’, making the world better for everybody, being careful with the resources that we use, giving opportunities to many people to find work and employment to improve their lives and the lives of their families,” he added.
