Unilever 2005 Annual Report Download - page 33

30 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2005
Operating review by category
Home and Personal Care
Highlights in 2005 included:
• The success of all Small & Mighty liquid detergent has
underlined the power of stronger relationships with our
customers.
•Dove and Rexona extended their leadership with launches such
as Dove Cool Moisture and Rexona ‘teens’.
• Technological breakthroughs have spearheaded the recovery of
our Home Care business, as well as hair in Asia.
• To make greater inroads in the US skin market, we opened a
new $23 million R&D facility in Connecticut.
Vitality is now central to our Home and Personal Care business.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, the Omo Dirt is Good
campaign and the Lifebuoy Handwashing campaigns in Asia are
tangible programmes that bring Unilever’s vitality mission to life in
our Home and Personal Care brands.
The success of Lifebuoy in India and Indonesia contributed to the
performance of our skin business in Asia, as did the launch of
Pond’s whitening platform, which underlines Unilever’s strength in
the face care sector across Asia.
The new Dove Cool Moisture range was launched in North
America while the Dove firming range was rolled out globally. We
also extended the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty with the
creation of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund for young women to
educate and inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty.
In South Africa we relaunched Vaseline with a range of lotions
and creams aligned with the new global packaging. We also
launched South Africa’s first mass-market male lotion, new
Vaseline ‘For Men’.
To grow our share of the male grooming market, we launched
Axe shower gel in North America. Within just three years, Axe has
become the leading deodorant brand in the US. We also launched
Rexona Sport for Men with an award-winning advertising
campaign called ‘Stunt City’. Rexona is now the number one male
deodorant brand in Russia and Ukraine.
In hair, the new Sunsilk colour enhancement range in Europe
has been designed to increase the brand’s appeal among young
consumers. In oral care, the world’s first centre-filled gel
toothpaste was introduced in Vietnam.
Innovation has reinvigorated our laundry business. The Omo Dirt
is Good campaign was rolled out across most of Asia after its
launch in Latin America and Europe, giving us near global
coverage. In Europe, we introduced a new gel-layered detergent
tablet that helped make Skip the fastest growing HPC brand in
France by the end of 2005. A new whiteness shading technology
in Latin America gave consumers more appealing whites with
Radiant. The proprietary technology behind the innovation is
ensuring we keep ahead of our key competitors. In North
America, all Small & Mighty is leading the concentrated liquid
detergent market. Its success illustrates how great mixes, which
have both a consumer-winning innovation and a strong customer
benefit, can be successful. In China, we continued to develop the
fabric conditioners market where Comfort is the market leader.
The level of innovation in household care has been equally
creative. Cif, for example, rolled out pioneering power cream
sprays for the bathroom and kitchen. The traditional offer to the
consumer of cream from Cif has now been enhanced with an
attractive new proposition with the same power of the Cif cream
in a spray. Domestos, meanwhile, extended its ‘kill germ’ power
into a new territory with the sink and drain unblocker that now
clears blockages up to twice as fast as the market leader.