Affordability
People everywhere, whatever their income level, aspire to use high-quality and innovative products on occasions when looking good and feeling good are important.
Making our products more affordable
Every day around the world, 160 million people choose a Unilever brand. People have different lifestyles, tastes, preferences and budgets. By providing high-quality, innovative brands that offer value for money, we aim to meet the different needs of consumers around the world.
We also seek to tailor our brands to meet the specific and varying needs of our consumers. Tea, for example, is drunk in different styles around the world and we offer varieties to suit local tastes and customs.
Everyone needs to wash, but they do it in various ways. Much depends on the availability and cost of water, as well as the affordability of soap. In Iceland, 70% of people use a bath; in Israel, 82% use a shower; in Iran, two-thirds use a shower too, but another third use a mug; in Cambodia, half use a klong jar (a water container), and the rest use the river; and in Ethiopia, 69% use a bucket.
We need to be sensitive to such local conditions when designing our soap bars or shower gels. We use our global knowledge and experience to address local issues, and deliver local solutions at an affordable price.
It is sometimes suggested that people living on low incomes should not seek to buy global brands. We disagree. Our research and experience have shown us that poorer consumers are often the most discerning. When spending from a limited budget, they cannot afford to waste money on products they do not trust to be effective. The Unilever brand gives them the confidence to know that the product will deliver on its promise, so their money will be well spent.
Small pack sizes
In several markets our best-known brands are available in small sachets, offering a small amount of shampoo or detergent at a low cost. This makes our quality brands attainable by people with low or irregular incomes.
In many countries, small sachets of shampoo or washing powder cost less than the equivalent of 10 US cents, and their sales can account for a significant proportion of turnover.
Examples of small pack sizes costing less than 10 US cents include:
Royco soups, Close Up toothpaste and Omo laundry powder in Africa
One-rupee sachets of Lux and Sunsilk shampoo in India
Our 30g pack of Pepsodent toothpaste in India – enough for a family of five to clean their teeth once a day for ten days – costs just six rupees (around €0.11).
As well as small pack sizes we are developing new products. During 2008 we launched a quality, low-cost toothbrush. Pepsodent Smart Clean is priced at just 10 rupees in India (equivalent to 16 euro cents) and 1 850 rupiahs in Indonesia (approximately 13 euro cents).
Pureit
Our Pureit in-home water purifier provides affordable and safe drinking water for middle-income families in India as it is cheaper than boiling water or buying bottled water. Pureit provides water that is 'as safe as boiled' without needing electricity or pressurised tap water. In 2007, one rupee bought 3.5 litres of Pureit safe drinking water (including the initial one-off costs of the purifier unit). This made it a more affordable alternative to boiling water or bottled water, where one rupee bought 2.5 litres or just 0.3 litres respectively.
During 2008, the product was rolled out to 23 states in India, and reached all 28 states by early 2009. It is now bringing safe drinking water to more than 5 million people in a million households.
