Abstract
Diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis, helminthic infections, and other infectious diseases resulting from poor personal hygiene remain prevalent worldwide. This chapter reports on Vietnam’s Wash Your Hands with Soap campaign that encouraged young children and their mothers to wash their hands with soap. A number of challenges were identified, including the poor sanitary conditions in local schools, the misperception of the efficacy of water-only handwashing, the consideration of communication as the key tool of intervention, and health officials’ red-tape practices. Yet, there were opportunities such as governmental agencies’ coordination, international donors’ financial support, and Unilever’s substantial resources, and marketing skills. Informed by the exchange theory and social learning theory, free soap was distributed to local households and public areas in targeted regions by the Clean Hands Task Force. The Clean Hands Toolkits were also developed, and the Clean Hands Squad Game offered. The campaign raised the awareness of and engaged with not only the target audience but also the wider public in the promotion of handwashing with soap. Its scope of implementation was expanded from 18 provinces to 50, reaching 26 million people. The proportion of population who reported washing hands with soap rose from 14.6 to 66.5% in targeted areas.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brand Vietnam. (2013). Clean hands task force in action. Retrieved from: http://www.brandsvietnam.com/3282-Lifebuoy-Viet-Nam-Biet-Doi-Tay-Sach-Hanh-Dong, February 6, 2018.
Curtis, V. (2005). Hygiene and sanitation in Vietnam. Retrieved from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTTOPSANHYG/Resources/1923125-1166719802892/SWAT_Vietnam_hygieneandsanitation_0505.pdf, January 15, 2018.
Giadinhvatreem. (2015). Clean hands squad: Useful playground for kids. Retrieved from: http://m.giadinhvatreem.vn/xem-tin_biet-doi-tay-sach-%E2%80%93-san-choi-bo-ich-cho-tre_572_4254.html, February 24, 2018.
Indochina Research. (2007). Vietnam national handwashing initiative consumer research baseline survey final report. Hanoi: World Bank.
Lifebuoy Vietnam. (2013a). Wash your hands at 5 critical times with Lifebuoy. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFi-cxr1R10, February 25, 2018.
Lifebuoy Vietnam. (2013b). Clean hands task force in action. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8eI1Tr5mfQ&list=PLfeG706MynWcqFSZuIkNCITHTkrZ8vOZu, February 25, 2018.
Lifebuoy Vietnam. (2015). Clean hands squads game. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKZ2zD3kDy0. August 12, 2018.
Ministry of Health (MOH). (2016). The ministry of health launches the campaign “10 million clean hands journey”. Retrieved from: http://moh.gov.vn/news/Pages/TinHoatDongV2.aspx?ItemID=1732, February 23, 2018.
Muare. (2014). Lifebuoy clean hands team toolkit global handwashing day. Retrieved from: https://muare.vn/posts/lifebuoy-bi-kip-biet-doi-tay-sach-ngay-the-gioi-rua-tay-voi-xa-phong.3357640, February 23, 2018.
Nguyen, N., Paynter, N., & Nguyen, M. H. T. (2011). Vietnam: A handwashing behavior change journey. Retrieved from: https://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-FA-Vietnam-LN-HWWS-lowres-DEC-2011.pdf, February 10, 2018.
PSI Vietnam. (2016). 2016 Rural sanitation and hygiene behavioral study Vietnam. Retrieved from: http://www.psi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Final-Sanitation-Behavioral-Study-2016-Report-PSI-VN-September-2017.pdf, February 25, 2018.
Puffer, S. M. (2015). International management: Insights from fiction and practice. London: Routledge.
Rheinländer, T., Samuelsen, H., Dalsgaard, A., & Konradsen, F. (2010). Hygiene and sanitation among ethnic minorities in Northern Vietnam: Does government promotion match community priorities? Social Science and Medicine, 71(5), 994–1001.
UNICEF. (2007). A summary of national baseline survey on environmental sanitation and hygiene situation in Vietnam. Hanoi: UNICEF.
UNICEF. (2008). Poor sanitation putting children at risk in rural Vietnam. Hanoi: UNICEF.
Unilever (2012). Lifebuoy: Global handwashing with soap day. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com.vn/news/press-releases/2012/ngay-the-gioi-rua-tay-voi-xa-phong-chung-tay-vi-tuong-lai-vietnam.html, February 6, 2018.
Unilever. (2013). Handwashing with soap for effective prevention of diseases. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com.vn/news/press-releases/2013/rua-tay-voi-xa-phong-huu-hieu-de-phong-benh.html, February 15, 2018.
Unilever. (2014). For a healthier Vietnam with Lifebuoy. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com.vn/news/news-and-features/2014/vi-mot-viet-nam-khoe-manh-cung-voi-lifebuoy.html, February 23, 2018.
Unilever. (2015). Lifebuoy way of life, towards universal handwashing with soap. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com/Images/lifebuoy-way-of-life-2015_tcm244-418692_en.pdf, February 25, 2018.
Unilever. (2016). Changing handwashing habits for better health. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/improving-health-and-well-being/health-and-hygiene/changing-handwashing-habits-for-better-health, February 25, 2018.
Unilever. (2018). Sustainable development for a brighter future. Retrieved from: https://www.unilever.com.vn/sustainable-living/, March 25, 2018.
World Bank. (2008). SOAPBOX: The public-private partnership for handwashing newsletter. Retrieved from: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/677411468162258540/text/483690NEWS0Soa10Box338903B01PUBLIC1.txt, February 24, 2018.
World Health Organization. (WHO). (2017). Children: Reducing mortality. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs178/en/.10, February 20, 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Doan, H.M., Truong, V.D. (2019). Using Social Marketing to Promote Handwashing with Soap for a Healthier Vietnam. In: Basil, D., Diaz-Meneses, G., Basil, M. (eds) Social Marketing in Action. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13020-6_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13020-6_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13019-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13020-6
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)