To drive home the subject of his speech at the recent third annual Wharton Marketing Conference, Michael Polk, president of Unilever United States, flashed up a definition straight from the dictionary: 'Innovation: a new idea or method; a change in something established.' "It's not invention.... It's innovation" that is at the heart of successful marketing campaigns, Polk said. It's all about coming up with "dislocating ideas" that "disrupt the norm in a category."

He used the example of Unilever's Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty," which debunks the traditional notion of physical beauty and replaces it with a message of self esteem and confidence. Good marketing initiatives, like the Dove campaign, succeed because they "change the status quo" in a category, he suggested.

A Mission to Streamline
Polk, who is also group vice president for Unilever, is well positioned to talk about innovation. He leads an impressive portfolio of household brands that includes Dove, Vaseline, Lipton, Axe, Slim-Fast, Country Crock, Wishbone and Q-Tips. With $50 billion in global revenues and 209,000 employees in 150 countries, Unilever ranks third worldwide in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, Polk said. Though its roots are in Europe, Unilever has a sizable U.S. presence, with revenues totaling nearly $10 billion and a workforce of 15,000 people in 66 locations, including headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Polk joined the company in 2003 after 16 years at Kraft Foods, where he helped lead the integration of Nabisco and Kraft. In moving to Unilever, he joined a company that also was changing. "We have been on a mission over the past five years to streamline" the product lineup, Polk said. Between 2000 and 2005, Unilever's product categories declined from 17 to 11, and its brands went from 113 to 59. Even so, the company still has many brands with long histories, including Pond's skin products, which first began in 1846, and Hellmann's mayonnaise, which originated in 1905.

Polk said the diverse mix of food, hygiene and personal care items in Unilever's portfolio all revolve around the company's goal of helping people "look good, feel good and get more out of life.... It really is what we do. When we come to work in the morning, people really do think this way." For home products sold in this country, "it's all about simplifying life," Polk added, whereas in the developing world, "it's all about making life safer." Soap, for instance, isn't just about getting clean; it plays a critical role in stemming the spread of disease.

According to Polk, it is critical for companies today to develop a world-class "tri-lingual organization" fluent in the "languages" of the consumer, the customer and the company. "What you are doing is translating your agenda into the language of the person who has to execute it," namely the retailer who sells the product. He likes to think of Unilever as an "import-export business," with some good product ideas hatched in Europe or elsewhere and then exported to the United States, or vice-versa. Axe body wash, for one, was a hit in Europe well before Unilever brought it to the U.S. market.

Getting the Right Data
Polk outlined his formula for driving "category growth," stressing that it's not just about beating up the competition. Marketers need to have crystal-clear consumer insight ("good data, the right data is important"); concepts that change the frame of reference and expand category relevance; brands that take a point of view, and ideas that stretch the value proposition. A key to success is understanding "not just the way people say they will behave, but how they actually will behave," he said.

Polk complimented Starbucks, Apple and 3M for exemplifying the spirit of innovation by offering solutions that "change the consumer and the marketplace status quo." Starbucks, for example, "changed the rules on coffee." The Dove marketing campaign likewise works, because it hinges on a "dislocating idea," he said, adding that "90% of women are not happy with the way they look," and they are frustrated with the way beauty is portrayed in our society. Not everyone buys into Dove's inner-beauty message, promoted by real women with real curves, but that's okay, "because the folks who get it, really do get it and it is meaningful."

Lipton Tea Party
Polk offered another example of marketing efforts that "change people's perception of a category." Unilever doesn't market Lipton tea simply as tea. Instead, tea is portrayed as a healthy beverage, loaded with antioxidants. The campaign to make people think differently about tea is working, Polk noted. Not only are Lipton sales up, but just as important, sales in the overall tea category have risen.
The next "big play" for Unilever, Polk said, involves marketing Sunsilk hair products, introduced in this country this past summer after popularity abroad. Consumers will get to know Katie, who is 25 years old and in that "between" phase of life typical of her age group -- between universities, between jobs, between guys. For Katie, hair represents a "daily, harassing challenge."

Polk said that being a marketer has never been more exciting. "[This] is the most fun I've ever had because the opportunities and the playground are bigger than they have been for a long time."

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