Unilever's predecessor: a history of antibacterial fortune

Many antibacterial daily chemical brands achieved "turning red" during the epidemic, and Unilever's antibacterial brand Lifebuoy, which once "entered China twice", once again entered people's vision.

 
Looking back, the birth of Lifebuoy is inseparable from the "cholera epidemic" that broke out in the history of Britain. Now, with the spread of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic worldwide, how does this century-old brand perform?

01 British national brands during the cholera epidemic

In the mid-19th century, Britain was in the period of Queen Victoria's regency, followed by the Georgian era, and the Victorian era after the Edwardian era, the peak period of the British Empire. At this time, Britain was not only a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, but its trade and economic development was also in full swing. Even the colonies spread all over the world, and it was called the "Sunless Empire."

 
However, with the progress of industrial civilization, the natural environment has also been affected. While celebrating the progress of science and technology, people "enjoy" the hustle and bustle of the city, and the industrial center city of London has also been called the "Fog City". At the same time, English literature also flourished, the most representative of which was Charles Dickens's "Wudu Orphans".

 
Although the economy and technology have developed, the city does not have a reasonable sewage treatment system. The sewage in London ’s drinking water sources has not been properly treated, leading to the famous epidemic in the history of Britain-"cholera". dead. Cholera is like a "ghost" that will explode every few years and spread from one community to another.

 
In order to stop the growing cholera epidemic, William Hesketh Lever has been looking for ways to protect people's health.
 

In 1894, Lever discovered carbolic acid as its ideal formula for making soap, and since then launched Lifebuoy (meaning "lifebuoy") disinfecting soap, and is committed to promoting hygiene knowledge. In recognition of Lever's contribution to health and hygiene education, the British royal family awarded him the title of Lord. At the same time, the Lever Brothers soap company (predecessor of Unilever) he founded also developed greatly during this time.

 
In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Britain joined the "Allied" camp to participate in the war. To encourage first-line soldiers, Lever provides Lifebuoy soap to them free of charge to help them maintain health, hygiene and optimal fighting conditions. Through its contribution to maintaining the health of soldiers, Lifebuoy has become the national brand of Britain.

02 Product innovation ushered in leapfrog development

 After two world wars, Britain paid a heavy price. The pre-war "world overlord" was overtaken by the United States, and the economy suffered heavy losses. Local companies like Lifebuoy have also entered a period of weak development.

 
Until the late 1950s, Lifebuoy introduced a new series of soaps to the market. This new launch is aimed at consumers who value product odor. As mentioned earlier, the formula of Lifebuoy soap is carbolic acid, so the product has a strong odor of charcoal. In order to attract female consumers who repel this odor, Lifebuoy added a new ingredient Puralin (polychromin) and changed the soap to The softer, brighter, feminine coral red has also become Lifebuoy's most iconic product feature.

 
Lifebuoy then focused on the fields of cleaning and antibacterial, and created the patented ingredients Active5 and ANS ™ technology. The latter is particularly well-known, the technology has a double sterilization effect-effectively disintegrate the defense function of bacteria, attack and destroy the bacterial cell membrane, 10 times effective against stronger mutant bacteria. With the effective development of product development, Lifebuoy's products can effectively protect against MRSA (a type of drug-resistant bacteria), NDM-1 super bacteria, typhoid virus, respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, dysentery, and common flu.

Lifebuoy pays special attention to the health education of children in the world. In 2000, Lifebuoy's "clean hands" campaign made a significant contribution to the goal of reducing the number of deaths of children under five by two thirds and preventing disease. In 2005, Lifebuoy was awarded the title of "Citizen Brand" in Indonesia in recognition of its work in health education over the years, including community health projects with UNICEF and the Indonesian Association of Doctors (IDA).

 In 2007, Lifebuoy collaborated with 2000 Mumbai families in Unilever ’s largest clinical trial to improve hygiene and family health. After using Lifebuoy products and receiving their health education, the incidence of diarrhea in children under five years of age in Mumbai was reduced by 25%. In 2008, the first Global Handwashing Day was held in more than 75 countries. As one of the initiators of the event, Lifebuoy and its partners promote the knowledge of children's health education to the world.

03 Why didn't the epidemic period become a "dark horse" in the Chinese market?

According to the regulations of the World Health Organization, the use of soap and alcohol disinfectants is an effective way to prevent the spread of new coronavirus. Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses, and Lifebuoy's soap and alcohol-based hand sanitizers can inactivate enveloped viruses and reduce infectivity.

However, in the previous domestic statistics of the killing brand sales list during the epidemic, Lifebuoy's "name" is rare.

 
Lifebuoy once entered the Chinese market in the 1990s and officially entered China in 2014 after a "return", but neither action caused much splash. Why is Lifebuoy, who frequently acts in the Chinese market and endorsed by large groups, "unacceptable"?

After Lifebuoy entered the Chinese market, the route it took was the non-differentiated product positioning and channel approach of other mainstream antibacterial brands in the Chinese market. The product was always based on sterilization. In the competition with other domestic international brands, it did not find and Amplify your own differentiated advantages, so as to fall into the competitive situation of robbing consumers with other brands in a single dimension.

 
In addition, Unilever failed to make the publicity and "bombing" necessary for the launch of the market in the brand guidance and advertising guidance of clean daily chemical products, leaving consumers with the impression of "following the trend". Under such circumstances, Lifebuoy is subject to different degrees of "sniping" by other brands of the same type, such as Shufujia, Dilu, Verox, etc. in terms of price, channels, advertising, and branding, resulting in Lifebuoy's product advantages not being prominent, and consumer choice The reduced situation has faded out of the mainstream domestic market over time.