Our approach
Helping people meet their hygiene needs has always been at the core of our business. Ever since the launch of our Lifebuoy soap, over 100 years ago, we have been making a significant contribution to the health and hygiene of people in both the developed and developing world. More recently, the launch in India of Pureit, our household water purifier, offers consumers a convenient way to provide safe drinking water for their families.
Many of our brands have integrated health, hygiene and well-being into their mission and identity. For example, Lifebuoy continues to lead handwashing and behaviour change projects while improving oral health is a core part of Signal/Pepsodent's mission.
Our Global Health through Hygiene Programme works with our brands and partners such as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UNICEF and the World Bank, to improve our technical capability in the area of health and hygiene, particularly in evaluating behaviour change.
Encouraging behaviour change
Around the world billions of people do not wash their hands with soap at the critical times during the day to prevent the spread of germs. Governments, health agencies and non-profit groups campaign to change this, by promoting good health and hygiene habits. However it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of such campaigns. We have been at the forefront of developing a novel method for measuring behaviour change, through our smart sensor technology.
By placing a sensor inside soap bars, researchers can gather accurate data unobtrusively during handwashing trials. To assess our Swasthya Chetna hygiene awareness campaign, we studied the washing habits of 25 households in a rural village in India. We used soap with smart sensors inside to check whether people were washing their hands at the right times to prevent the spread of germs. Our research identified that knowledge and awareness among villagers of the importance of good hygiene habits had improved, and provided insights to further develop the education programme.
We have used smart sensor soap in a study in Uganda. Working with UNICEF and with local and national government, we set out to ascertain whether school children could act as agents of change within their families to promote handwashing with soap. Results of the study are being analysed and will help assess the potential of this approach to be carried out on a much larger scale around the world.
Independent endorsement
During 2007 the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap initiative (PPPHW) carried out a study using smart sensor soap, a study funded by the Gates Foundation. A trial in Bangladesh confirmed our smart sensor soap technology to be the most effective in monitoring and evaluating handwashing, and will now be used for further studies. This has been an important endorsement of our technology and the contribution it can make to handwashing campaigns which have the potential to make a real difference to hygiene habits in the world’s poorest communities.
Swasthya Chetna hygiene education programme
Since 2002, when Lifebuoy's Swasthya Chetna five-year hygiene campaign was launched in India, the project has reached nearly 44 000 villages and around 100 million people. Our Indian business has invested over US$5 million in the programme and although we did not achieve our ambitious target of reaching 200 million people by the end of 2007, we intend to continue working towards this aim. We have extended Swasthya Chetna to Bangladesh and Pakistan and are looking to launch a version in Africa.
Lifebuoy's 'glowgerm' demonstration 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.
In Safe Hands
The In Safe Hands process, developed by Lifebuoy and our Marketing Academy, is also built on the insight that behaviour change is needed to achieve health improvements. This initiative involves teams of Unilever marketers teaching campaign-building skills to public sector employees involved in community handwashing programmes. Following workshops in Vietnam and Kenya in 2006, we held a further workshop in Tanzania in 2007, training a total of 240 public sector professionals including representatives from UNICEF, the World Bank and national governments.
Water sanitation & hygiene
We are also working with Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), a partnership of public and private sector organisations, to look at water, sanitation and hygiene issues in poor urban areas, particularly slums in developing and emerging countries. Together with WSUP and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, we have designed an approach to hygiene behaviour change which will be tested in a pilot programme in Bangalore, India. This will assess whether improved water and sanitation conditions delivered in conjunction with a hygiene behaviour programme are better than infrastructure improvements alone.
Pureit
Pureit is a unique in-home purifier that provides water that is ‘as safe as boiled’ without needing electricity or pressurised tap water. Pureit's germkill performance has been tested and verified by a range of scientific, medical and public health institutions, and meets the criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the toughest regulatory agency in the US.
Pureit is the only in-home water purifier that provides this level of safety, protecting against waterborne diseases like diarrhoea, jaundice, typhoid and cholera, without depending on boiling, electricity or pressurised tap water - thereby making safe drinking water more accessible to urban and rural consumers.
One unit costs €32 and has a running cost around half a euro cent per litre, making it a much more affordable option for urban and rural consumers.
Pureit is now available in three states in India: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
UNICEF and Hindustan Unilever are working together in a project in Southern India to bring safe drinking water to schools and day-care centres in low-income communities. The project has involved the placement and use of Pureit purifiers in a hundred schools, and in a hundred day-care centres covering a total of 15 000 children.
Improving oral health
Oral disease is the second most common illness on the planet. The consequences of poor oral hygiene can begin with discomfort and pain, but can lead to life-threatening illnesses. Around the world, over 1 billion people do not brush their teeth at all, while around 2.5 billion only brush once a day with a fluoride toothpaste. This is a growing problem in developing countries due to low awareness of oral hygiene, poor healthcare and changes in diet. Brushing teeth is important not only for good oral hygiene and general health, but having clean teeth and fresh breath contribute to well-being and personal confidence.
In 2007 we launched a new mission for our oral care brands – to encourage children and their families to brush twice a day, once in the morning and once at night before going to bed. Our brands Signal, Pepsodent and Close-Up are already working in partnership with the FDI World Dental Federation to improve oral health in 38 countries. Our mission will build on this strong foundation.
In Indonesia and China our night brushing campaign has been finding ways to encourage children to brush their teeth before bed. Encouraging tooth-brushing at night is important as this is when the mouth is particularly susceptible to bacterial attack due to lower saliva levels. As with handwashing, changing people's everyday habits is key. We believe that brushing habits that last are best forged between the ages of 4 and 8 and that children learn best by copying their parents. Our campaign therefore focuses on children in this age group as well as their parents. We are using smart sensors in toothbrushes to monitor the effectiveness of our campaign.
Understanding and measuring the impact of our campaigns is key to achieving tangible results – the same smart sensor technology we use to analyse handwashing habits is also be used to observe toothbrushing habits accurately and unobtrusively.
Personal hygiene & well-being for all
Looking good and feeling good about life also contribute to overall health. How a person feels about their personal appearance can boost their sense of self-esteem, confidence and well-being. This is true in all societies, rich and poor, in the developed or developing world.
The emotional and psychological impacts of a positive self-image are recognised, although difficult to measure and quantify. Scientists are also starting to link positive emotions to good physical health and longevity.
Increasingly we are looking at how the brands we develop can improve both physical and emotional well-being. We believe taking care of yourself and looking your best should be an option available to everyone. That is why we have developed small-sized packets of products such as shampoo and hair conditioner and developed a low-cost quality toothbrush (the Pepsodent Fighter), to make our products more accessible for low-income consumers.
