Hygiene

Our approach to hygiene

Our brand portfolio enables consumers to meet a broad range of their hygiene needs. Through these brands, and by working in partnership with others, we can achieve our goal of making a real contribution to people's health and hygiene.

Many of our brands have long had health and hygiene as a core part of their vision. For example, Lifebuoy has been championing hygiene throughout its 110-year history.

Today, our Global Health through Hygiene Programme co-ordinates and enhances the impact of our hygiene initiatives, working with brands such as Lifebuoy, Pepsodent, Domestos and Pureit, and with partners such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Particular brands lead specific hygiene activities, for example, Lifebuoy runs our handwashing campaigns in partnership with UNICEF.

Leading the way on handwashing

Simple hygiene habits like washing hands with soap could halve the number of childhood deaths from diarrhoea. Making soap affordable and widely available is part of the solution. Yet more than 5 000 children still die every day from diarrhoeal diseases. This is because behaviour change is needed too. Recognising this, our programmes focus on understanding what will trigger behaviour change in individual cultures and communities and then use these insights to create campaigns that achieve sustained improvements.

Measuring behaviour change is difficult. The Global Health through Hygiene Programme works to develop evaluation measures to monitor impacts. Unilever scientists, working with partners at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, developed and tested a novel and reliable way to assess changes in handwashing behaviour – SmartSoap bars. These bars are fitted with movement sensors that measure changes in usage. We started using them in a joint study in rural villages in India. This has led to new insights that will be used to improve the effectiveness of the far-reaching Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna handwashing campaign.

In India Lifebuoy's 'glowgerm' demonstration (see picture above) counters the common misconception that 'visibly clean' is 'hygienically clean'. When held under ultra-violet light, glowgerm powder glows on hands washed only with water, providing a dramatic reminder of the need for thorough handwashing with soap.

Swasthya Chetna

Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna ('health awakening') has already helped around 80 million people in 28 000 Indian villages become more aware of basic hygiene, stressing the importance of handwashing with soap. Working in partnership with local and national stakeholders, the five-year campaign aims to educate a total of 200 million people – 20% of the population. In 2006 sales increased by almost 7%, with particularly strong growth in the eight states where the programme was launched. Similar programmes are now being adapted and rolled out in Bangladesh and East Africa. 

In safe hands

In 2006 Lifebuoy and our Marketing Academy developed a process called In Safe Hands. As part of Unilever's involvement with the World Bank's Global Public–Private Partnership for Handwashing, we help public sector organisations in Asia and Africa create behaviour change programmes to promote handwashing with soap. Four-day workshops, led by Unilever marketers, teach campaign-building skills to those involved in community handwashing programmes. Workshops were held in Vietnam and Kenya in 2006, with further workshops planned for 2007 and beyond.

Pureit

Pureit is a unique in-home purifier, providing water that is free from harmful germs, without needing electricity or pressurized tap water, making it ideal for people in urban and rural areas. Pureit was launched in India's Tamil Nadu state and has now been extended to the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This affordable purifier costs €30 and has a running cost of just half a euro cent per litre.

Promoting oral health

Poor oral health causes pain and discomfort and can lead to life-threatening illness. Around 1 billion people do not brush their teeth at all and some 2 billion brush only once a day.

For our oral care business, our vitality mission translates into a commitment to make a measurable contribution to oral health around the world. Signal/Pepsodent, our leading toothpaste brand, aims to improve health by helping people change their behaviour, for example, by encouraging them to brush twice a day.

In 2005, we entered a three-year agreement with the FDI World Dental Federation to launch a global oral health programme. The FDI is a federation of national dental associations, representing nearly a million dentists around the world. One of its core objectives is to improve people’s brushing habits. In countries where the ratio of dentists to overall population can be as low as 1 per 100 000, this can be a real challenge.

In 2006, projects were underway in 31 countries, including a school-based initiative in North Vietnam, an education programme for deprived communities in Chile and a three-year infant programme in Poland.

As well as working on the ground, we are developing new products, including the world's first quality toothbrush which retails at the equivalent of just €0.20. Launched in early 2006, this toothbrush is now available in countries in Asia and Africa.

The Pepsodent Fighter is a quality, low-cost toothbrush which brings the possibility of better oral health within the reach of low-income consumers.

Dental hygiene is important in developed markets too. In France, Signal is running a campaign for all six-year-olds by providing educational materials to their teachers. Evaluation by independent scientists showed that these materials were proving to be highly effective in changing brushing habits and the results were published by the International Association for Dental Research in June 2006.