Gojo: Education key to achieving ‘audacious’ goal

As the company behind Purell hand sanitizer, Gojo’s “big, hairy, audacious goal,” as described by the company’s VP hygiene sciences and public health advancements Jim Arbogast, is to “bring well-being to 1 billion people every day.” And the company’s strategy for how retailers can help with that goal is based on extensive research Gojo has done about how best to provide hand hygiene touchpoints.

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One of the company’s recent collaborative studies examined the impact that readily available Purell had on a group of health systems employees. The studies compared the rate of illnesses among those who had Purell available and those without. After a year, Gojo found a 24% reduction in illnesses and doctor visits among the group who had Purell available. Given these insights, Arbogast said Gojo wants to partner with organizations to drive a reduction in infections and preventable illness through hand hygiene, while noting that Walmart could play a large role in that because of its access to patients in need of education.



“I think the challenge for shoppers ... is to view hand hygiene at the right moments as critical to their health,” Arbogast said. “A big opportunity where I can see Walmart and others partnering and communicating that is societal education — telling the right kinds of stories that really make a difference to change behaviors.”