Another way in which purpose comes to life at Unilever
is via its brands, which are the main conduit with its
stakeholders. The company is working hard to imbue
all its brands with a purpose. While marketers are no
doubt familiar with brand positioning statements,
Unilever now has “brand purpose statements.” Take
Domestos for example. Domestos is a toilet cleaner
whose social mission is to improve health and wellbeing
by attacking the issues of open defecation and
providing access to toilets to the large segment that
needs such access. Unilever has committed to helping
25 million people gain access to toilets by 2020, and
they have also founded the Toilet Board Coalition for
this purpose. Needless to say, more toilets potentially
mean more Domestos sales, but that doesn’t detract
from the social benefit of providing better sanitation,
reduced incidence of disease and the human dignity
that goes with being able to use a toilet. Along with
other purpose brands (such as Dove, Pureit, Lifebuoy,
Knorr and others), Domestos is one of the fastestgrowing
Unilever brands.