Innovation is key to Unilever’s quest to keep the handwashing drumbeat going. Soap and innovation do not intuitively belong into the same sentence, but Lifebuoy has found some different ways to promote its brand and the benefits ofhandwashing. One product, a color-changing handwash, shows children how long they should wash their hands by transforming from green to white; it’s fun for kids, and assures parents that their kids have had their hands under the faucet for a long enough period of time. First launched in India and Indonesia, the product is also available in markets throughout Africa and Asia. Of course, liquid handwash has a higher cost than bar soap, so Unilever developed a mini-pump that allows consumers to keep those hands clean, but at an affordable price.
Unilever Hindustan would not release any specific information that indicated any correlation between its handwashing campaign and sales of Lifebuoy. But according to the company spokesperson interviewed for this article, such programs have benefits all the way around. If more people buy soap, after all, the market for this product increases, and not just for Unilever and Lifebuoy, but also for their competitors. Furthermore, an increase in sales can also inspire companies such as Unilever to find, and fund, even more ways to encourage people to wash their hands.
“This program is unique because it is not just a charitable CSR program that sits aside to the business,” the spokesperson said, “but clearly draws resources and innovation to make it even bigger, benefitting both businesses and communities.”
While Lifebuoy’s brand team runs the various handwashing campaigns, the company relies on employees across its operations to contribute in order to make this program thrive. With over 1,500 employees volunteering at schools across India, Unilever’s work in this country of 1.3 billion people is arguably the largest corporate social responsibility program worldwide when considering the number of people touched by this series of campaigns.