Reckitt Benckiser Marketing Director (West Africa), Oguzhan Silivrili, speaks on consumer initiatives through Dettol, the company’s flagship brand, to promote hygiene and on the claim of protecting families from up to 100 illness causing germs. The interview was conducted by Senior Correspondent, GODDIE OFOSE.
Latest campaign on Dettol
The mission of Dettol is to champion good health, and this it has done successfully for the past 50 years in Nigeria, fostering best hygiene practices.
This aligns with the vision of Reckitt Benckiser (RB), which is to create a world where people are healthier and live better.
Over the years, RB has shown commitment to this vision and this can be seen through our various programmes – Global Handwashing Day, partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health to combat the spread of Ebola, and recently, this new campaign, unveiling the claim that Dettol protects families from up to 100 illness causing germs.
This campaign is another opportunity for us to bring the importance of health and hygiene to the forefront in Nigeria. Lots of children die daily in Nigeria due to diarrhea; therefore, the intent of this campaign is to educate Nigerians on how simple steps, like washing of hands and using appropriate antiseptic soap, can help prevent loss of life.
There are about 10 million germs on each person’s hands and research has shown that these 10 million germs fall into about 100 types of common germs which cause illnesses.
Therefore, we need a solution that can protect from all 100 types of germs. Solutions that do not protect from all 100 types of germs are substandard and we advocate that people do not protect themselves with substandard solutions but with gold standard solution.
Dettol is the only antibacterial brand which has been proven to protect from up to 100 illness causing germs, which is why we advocate that Nigerians do not take a risk with the lives of their loved ones; but rather adopt the gold standard kind of protection they can get.
Goal of the campaign
Dettol has been reaching Nigerians with different grassroots marketing activities like the School Hygiene Programme (SHP), which has reached over three million children since inception; the New Mom Programmes (NMP), which has reached approximately five million new moms in hospitals since inception; Health On Wheels (HOW), and so on.
Over the years of having this campaign, we do not sell products to targets; rather, we enlighten them, give them brochures to help them recall hygiene messages and give them free products. All of these programmes form the pillar of this campaign and they convey one singular message of upholding good health practices.
Health On Wheels is like a cherry on the cake. I love this initiative as it affords us the opportunity to reach neighbourhoods. We are reaching more than 500,000 people in the next three to five months, going door-to-door and providing free health checks and at the same time educating Nigerians on the benefits of best hygiene practices.
Target
This campaign is targeted at children as they are the most vulnerable ones because they do not have a strong immune system yet, and also mums, because they take care of the family and have the health of the family as top priority.
This is also a pan-Nigeria campaign. The New Mum Programme, the School Hygiene Programme, and the Health On Wheels mentioned earlier go across Nigeria, not limiting ourselves to big cities but touching neighbourhoods.
We plan to reach about three million people by the end of the first quarter in 2015 one-on-one with all the pillars of this campaign through the pan-Nigeria commercials, media breaks, digital interactions with people on social media platforms like facebook, twitter.
We are also sending out 500 million text messages to Nigerians, educating them on how to remain healthy and protect themselves.
All of these one-on-one pillars of the campaign have started and would be on for the next 12 months. To add a bit of fun to the campaign, the SMS takes the form of a challenge; whoever gets it and participates in it, and solves the challenge, gets some rewards.
Modalities
The campaign has started; you can see the adverts in the stores, on television and everywhere. The New Mom Programme has recorded tremendous success. The Health On Wheels kick-started at the end of November 2014 will run till the end of the first quarter of 2015.
We have had these programmes for over the past 50 years – ranging from the Global Handwashing Day, School Hygiene Programmes, New Mom Programmes, and Partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health to combat the spread of Ebola, and recently, to this new claim of protecting from up to 100 illness causing germs.
But all these programmes have one underlining message of championing health and educating Nigerians that simple steps like handwashing can protect their lives and those of loved ones.
This year, what we did was to tie all our programmes together to have Dettol save 10 million lives. This is also in line to help Nigeria reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing child mortality rate by 2015. This is why the emphasis is on face-to-face enlightenment of Nigerians.
Unlike commercials which hit millions of people with a message and goes off without changing them to hygiene agents, the face-to-face affords the opportunity to properly instil best hygiene practices in Nigerians and convert them into hygiene agents by having them instil this hygiene practice in at least two others.
This is the power of word of mouth; if a mom hears a hygiene message from another mom who has practised it and it works for her, she would be more inclined to do same.
Therefore, if we can reach over three million Nigerians in the first quarter of 2015 and we encourage them to further enlighten two other persons, we would reach over 10 million Nigerians with the best hygiene practice message before the end of 2015.
Consumer expectations
This year, we have recorded creative platforms to enlighten Nigerians about how to remain healthy, we are going to consolidate these platforms in 2015 and Nigerians can expect more innovative solutions from Reckitt Benckiser that would make their lives healthier and better.