Unilever

100 Victoria Embankment London, United Kingdom, Telford, PA 18969 44-(0)-207-822-5252 unilever.com

A Girl Will:

Mission
Unilever is committed to supporting sustainability and providing our consumers around
the world with the products they need to look good, feel good and get more out of life.

Vision
Unilever has a simple but clear purpose to make a sustainable living commonplace.
We believe this is the best long-term way for our business to grow.

Existing Programs
Unilever is involved in various community relations programs across the globe. It has
organized a 3-year graduate program known as the Future Leaders Program, which is
designed to train young professionals through contact with examples of leadership,
formal training, and international stints. Unilever is also currently involved in an annual
campaign, launched in 2014, oriented around oral health called Brush Day and Night.
It has been a recurring program that ran in 13 countries in 2015. More African and
European countries became involved in 2016. The campaign focuses on getting parents
and children to interact and positively engage in the daily process of brushing their
teeth. In addition, a program known as The Seeds of Prosperity is active in India. It is
designed to help improve nutrition and hygiene for farmers in these areas. The program
will soon be expanded to Kenya and Malawi. The campaign involves running interactive,
educational programs for farmers and has seen measurable success after its test run in
India.

Assessment
Unilever has been published in the news frequently for a variety of its existing
campaigns, but not as frequently for its community relations programs. Other pledges,
such as disclosing fragrance ingredients in products and eliminating gender stereotypes
from advertisements, have received more attention. Existing community relations
programs, however, have not received such media exposure. The existing programs are
thorough, far-reaching, and are promoted heavily through controlled media, such as the
Unilever website homepage. Unilever clearly operates through a strategic planning
process and values its sustainability programs across the world. It orients its business
goals around them in a way that suggests strong corporate responsibility.

Assessment of Ethics
Although Unilever has created programs to improve the lives of global citizens, there
are areas where it has not always been ethically sound, such as Unilevers history of
animal testing. Unilever has stated that it is committed to ending animal testing and
finding humane alternatives, however, PETA has stated that Unilever has not eliminated
animal testing from its entire line of cosmetic brands. Although they no longer test their
products on animals themselves, they allow third parties and other countries to take part
in animal testing where it is required by law in order to sell their products, such as
China. Another ethical pitfall arises from Unilevers claim to promote sustainability.
Although it has claimed to promote sustainability, it has cut down rainforests to make
room for large plantations of genetically identical palm trees, despite its pledge to make
its palm oil sustainable

Opportunity
Through the Future Leaders Program, Unilever has helped women with a Bachelors
degree accomplish their goals in the field of engineering, but has yet to develop such a
program for girls who are not yet in college. High school is crucial for young women,
who are surrounded by the ever present stereotypes and expectations of society.
Engineering has traditionally been a male-dominated field, and Unilever has the
opportunity to create a program to help young women rise above stereotypes and
expectations. The opportunity is to create a program for high school girls to encourage
and enable them to pursue engineering while creating a more positive image of Unilever
as an equal opportunity organization and one that is involved in communities around the
United States. This, in cooperation with existing programs, will allow Unilever to create a
continuous, positive experience for young women across the nation.

Proposed Solution
Unilever will create a high school program entitled A Girl Will , designed for girls
between the ages of 14-18, which will encourage them to disregard gender stereotypes
and consider engineering as a possible career path in the future. The goal of this
program will be to inform the girls about the opportunities that can be achieved by
earning an engineering degree and the benefits that they will bring to their community
by doing so.

Justification
Many girls choose not to go into the engineering field due to gender stereotypes placed
on them by society. A Girl Will is a campaign that will focus on success stories and
positive exemplars of female engineers in order to fight the stigma against women
pursuing a career in science and technology. One of Unilevers prominent goals is to
attract female engineers to the field and promote gender balance. A Girl Will is
necessary in order to accomplish and support this goal by targeting girls at an earlier
age than the Future Leaders Program, when girls are truly deciding which direction
they want to take their lives.

Theme
The title of Unilevers campaign is a A Girl Will . The theme will empower girls to go
beyond what society says is acceptable and pursue a rewarding career in whatever they
may be interested in.

Goal
Unilever will increase female enrollment and interest in the field of engineering by
informing high school girls about the opportunities that these careers provide.
Objectives
To inform 90% of high school girls about possible opportunities in the engineering field
and the impact they can make by entering the field by September 21, 2017.

To create a 75% increase in positive perception of the engineering field among high
school girls by October 22, 2017.

To generate a 30% increase among high girls majoring in engineering by May 1, 2018.

Strategy
Unilever will seek to create various interactive touch points and opportunities with high
school girls to empower them to go beyond gender stereotyping and enter the field of
engineering.

Publics
Girls between 14-18 years of age.
Parents
News Media
Womens groups

Key Messages
Engineering has always been a male dominated field and in the United States
only 18% of engineering students are women.
Research has shown that due to stereotypes, lack of encouragement, and
teasing in school girls are discouraged from entering engineering field.
Unilever has launched A Girl Will to inform girls everywhere that they too can
succeed in engineering. A Girl Will is meant to promote the benefits of an
engineering degree and attract girls to the field for greater gender balance and
representation.
Young girls and parents can visit Unilevers A Girl Will website for more
information and post on twitter with the hashtag #agirlwill to show their support.

Spokesperson
Unilever Chief Human Resources Officer Leena Nair.

Tactics
To inform 90% of high school girls about the interesting opportunities in the engineering
field and the impact they can make by entering the field by September 21, 2017.
Develop and distribute controlled media, such as brochures and posters
describing scholarship programs offered for girls who chose to go into the
engineering field.
 Create a commercial showing what female engineers accomplish in the world,
which will air during Once Upon a Time.
Create an informational website, providing information about the scholarship
opportunity offered by Unilever, articles written by female engineers about their
experiences in the field, and the careers a girl can get with an engineering
degree.
Send female engineers from Unilever to high schools across the nation to hold
assemblies in which they share their experiences and promote the engineering
field for women.
To create a 75% increase in positive perception of the engineering field among high
school girls by October 22, 2017.
Create a video success story series about successful female engineer that states
what they have done to help their community.
Create a Facebook page for parents that informs them about ways they can
encourage their daughter to enter the engineering field.
Create a twitter hashtag #AGirlWill to support and promote sharing of female
success stories.
Create an Instagram page for images and stories of women who have made a
difference in the engineering community.
To generate a 30% increase among high girls majoring in engineering by May 1, 2018.
Host an engineering National Signing Day for girls committing to a college or
University for engineering
Kick off the campaign by sending spokesperson Leena Nair to Ellen, to discuss
National Engineering week starting February 22, to encourage female enrollment
in engineering programs.
Host an engineering scholarship competition, where highs chool girls submit a
video of an engineering project they have created, for the chance to win a variety
of scholarships, as well as prizes such as a new iPhone 8 or a MacBook Pro.

Evaluation
The goal of this campaign is to increase female enrollment in the engineering field,
which will be measured by tracking female enrollment in engineering degree programs.
Female attitudes toward the engineering field can be measured with pre and post
surveys.

Maxims
Personal face-to-face contact is the most effective means of communication.

The degree of clarity, simplicity and symbolism has a direct and measurable effect on
message acceptance.
 Works Cited

Welsh, J. (2013, October 16). These Are The 7 Things Keeping Women Out Of Science
Careers. Retrieved February 16, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/7-things-
keeping-women-out-of-science-2013-10

https://corporatewatch.org/company-profiles/unilever-corporate-crimes

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/companystories.aspx?CompanyId=560872&CategoryId
=207

https://www.unilever.com/