Age-long beauty soap, Lux brings consumer campaign to fore

The words of an America author, Thomas Fuller, says: “It is much better to have your gold in the hand than in the heart”. The saying proved right as first millionaire, Adebiyi Oluwatobi got her gold in her hands in the ongoing ‘Lux Gold Search’ promo, launched by Unilever Nigeria Limited, maker of Lux beauty soap.

When consumers thought the days were over for the age-long beauty soap, Lux, it was unknown to them that Unilever, the maker has some interesting plans up their sleeves. The different variants of the soap have brought about renewed interests. The name ‘Lux’ means light in Latin, but it was chosen as the name for the soap because of the word ‘luxury.’ Its ongoing promotions rekindle consumers love for the beauty soap. Adebiyi Oluwatobi, a bead maker in Sango Ota, Ogun State, had used Lux beauty bar soap that made her a millionaire for close to two months without the knowledge that a coin that will bring her fortune was hidden in the soap.

“We’ve used the Lux soap to the last size and I complained to my husband for not replacing it on time. He pleaded that I should use the small one like that and promised to replace it the next day. While having my bath, I felt a hard substance and decide to rinse my face to look at it. I saw a coin and in amazement I ran out of the bathroom naked, screaming that what type of soap is this that my husband brought home. My husband was scared too and he took a closer look at the coin and found that it is about a promo on the soap. He wanted to trash it immediately but I asked him to bring it for me to see well, I screamed again “we are millionaire. I showed him the inscription on the other side of the coin, saying we have won a million in the ‘Lux Gold search promo,” she related.

She said: “We put a call across and it was confirmed that we have won a million naira in the ongoing promo. We are then asked to report to Unilever office and redeemed our prize. I give thanks to Unilever for making me a millionaire and my greatest thanks goes to Almighty God for hearing our prayer because we earlier told God that we need money to take care of ourselves, especially to take care of the baby we are expecting.”

The elated winner said: “I found out about the promo from my siblings. When I was told about the promo, I had thought I will win a washing machine because that’s the one of the things I needed in the house. But I am very happy I won one million. I will encourage my friends to participate since I now know that it is for real. I am going to use this money to expand my business.”

Speaking at the prize presentation of the first millionaire in Lagos, Anil Gopalan, vice president, operations, Unilever Nigeria, gave insight into the origin of Lux and its mission to its teeming consumers.

“Since the launch of Lux in 1925, it has been the choice of over 1.5 billion users per day; our course is to make our consumers superstars; that’s the reason behind the usage of super stars like Genevieve Nnaji, Munachi Abe; even Hollywood super stars as models. We in Unilever Nigeria produce Lux in our Agbara factory to Unilever global standards. Lux is a strong player in the beauty soap segment in Nigeria. As one of the biggest and fastest growing consumer product, our motto is to improve the lifestyle of Nigerian consumers by making them look good, feel good and get more out of life,” he said.

According to Olumide Aniyikaiye, the brand manager, this promotion is a part of the brand’s mission to bring the best of beauty within reach of every woman in Nigeria, and providing her an exceptional pleasure in her bathing and skin-care experience. This promotion is Unilever way of rewarding loyal Lux users, as well as get new users to experience the brand.

For Rotimi Oyesiji, the category manager, skin cleansing, Unilever Nigeria, Lux is a high quality soap, formulated with special natural ingredients and first-class perfumes to suit different people, making them look more beautiful. It produces a creamy rich lather that cleans the skin well and leaves the skin smooth and soft.

By: Daniel Obi