Ch. 11 Developing & Managing Products

Burt's Bees began in 1894 selling candles. The owners at the time Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz used left over beeswax from Shavitz' honey bee business to create the candles. In 1991 when the company incorporated they extended there product mix to include beeswax based lip balms.

Below, take a look at Burt's Bees first lip balm.

Today the Burt's Bees lip balms remains the companies best-selling product. Over the years the company has extended and modified many of its existing products, and the lip balms have continued to evolve as well. The product lines have changed as well as the packaging, still going hand-in-hand with the Burt's Bees Greater Good business model while staying creative and eco-friendly.

The difference between the first and second picture clearly show a difference in the same Burt's Bees product, and here it is clear that packaging plays a large role in the evolution and life-cycle of a product. The older version is much harder to find today and while shopping at local retailers that stock Burt's Bees merchandise it is hard to find on shelves.

In time Burt's Bees has brainstormed and developed new versions of the same type of product existing within a product line, which now ranges from lip shimmers, to tints and to lip glosses. Additionally all the products within this category are still made with beeswax, and other natural ingredients of course.

Ch. 16 Promotional Planning for Competitive Advantage

Burt's Bees most recent 'Güd' line focused on a newer niche of products, those heavily influenced by scent. As a change from what I have become used to in a Burt's Bees product it in interesting to see the brand position there focus slightly elsewhere to adhere to a new and younger target market. Burt's Bees wanted to target this consumer, women between the ages of 18 and 24 who are interested in products that are trendier, and have more mass appeal, than a beeswax lip balm. Lately it has been good to see through this process and others how many companies are using social media to boost sales promotion and create advantages for products.

An example is the Burt's Bees Güd line, whose FaceBook page had over 170,000 likes before its official launch, in conjunction and at the same time scratch and sniff ads for scented lotions and creams were launched in Allure and Lucky magazines. The use of street teams at nationwide universities also helped to bring exposure to the brands new line. The photos above show the unusual ads by Baldwin& that Burt's Bees used to promote its new fragrance focused line.

Ch. 10 Product Concepts

As mentioned before Burt's Bees is a personal care company, specifically it is part of an ever-growing niche industry of 'natural' personal care products. The items that Burt;s Bees offer range from, hand creams and body lotions, to face washes and lip balms. In recent years they have broadened and expanded product offerings to include, lip glosses shimmers and sun-screens.

People who routinely use Burt's Bees products and choose them specifically are buying specialty consumer products. In essence this means that potential customers are 1. purchasing a product that fits there individual and personal wants, and 2. is searching for extensively and reluctant to choose an alternative.

From its line of lip products there are two main categories to choose from. Lip Color and Lip care, further down these categories are divided into eight specific product offerings which gives the consumer a nice variety to choose from when deciding what they would like to use on there lips.

From its line of facial products again the varieties are many and vary based on the different needs and wants of customers, from those with sensitive skin, to others looking for specific ingredients and even those of want a little bit more radiance on there skin. 

It is also important to mention that since Burt's Bees is a company committed to the Greater Good there recycled post-consumer packaging plays a large role in its brand identity. They are a company that is focused on the environment, that understands the key role played by a company and the responsibility of reducing carbon footprints and working diligently towards sustainability. 

Below is an excerpt taken directly from the Burt's Bees website to illustrate the companies personal commit to providing environmentally friendly products through its packaging. Since it plays such a large role in a companies waste production, it is a defining characteristic of the company to put its best foot forward to reduce its level of waste. 

Our Packaging Innovations

As a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, we’re continuing to develop innovative sustainable packaging solutions for ourselves—and the industry. In addition to using the highest approved levels of Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) or Post Industrial Recycled (PIR) and recyclable materials whenever possible, here are a few of our other achievements:

• Our new lip balm and lip shimmer packaging labels are now shrink wrap free. In just one year this has eliminated 1800 miles of shrink wrap film that would have been sent to the landfill — enough to wrap the Statue of Liberty 100 times!


• We’ve trimmed the excess packaging from many of our products — some by 50 percent!


• We’ve also pioneered the introduction of TerraSkin™ Wraps, an environmentally friendly, treeless and bleach-free paper alternative we use to package most of our bar soaps. It has a lower absorption rate so we can use 20-30 percent less ink when printing. And because it’s stronger and water resistant, it makes for less waste.

Ch. 18 Sales Promotion & Personal Selling

In chapter 17 from last weeks blog post, I introduced Baldwin&, the advertising agency that Burt's Bees worked with on an award-winning ad campaign for its natural personal care products, The Natural Vs. campaign. Additionally while working with Baldwin&, Burt's Bees created an interactive advertisement in Minneapolis that was followed by sales promotions through the Burt's Bees Facebook page.

The ad was to promote a new line of products called Intensive Hydration. Made of up of thousands of small coupons of a woman's face that was dry and flaky. Throughout the day as people pulled off the coupons, the image changed to reveal a fresh face, with smooth skin that was intensely hydrated. This combined both advertising and sales promotion. From chapter 18 I learned that sales promotion directly supports advertising activities, and while they are very different aspects of marketing they work towards similar goals; to boost sales, establish and maintain brand image, promote customer loyalty, and stimulate repeat customers. In conjunction with this, a YouTube video was posted online and as the video ended it sent the consumer directly to the Burt's Bees Facebook page, where they could get coupons for this new product. The advertisement was only located in Minneapolis, but with the use of the video and Facebook, Burt's Bees and Baldwin& were able to reach a much broader audience nationwide. The use of the internet has huge potential to drive customer growth and in turn increase sales, by promoting new products, advertising on websites like Facebook, and using the tools of the internet to increase brand awareness. 

Burt's Bees also offers an Outlet on its website. Other sites generally call this a sale, and while the Burt's Bees site features no sale section it does have an outlet page. Some of the most popular products like Burt's Bees lip balms are on the outlet page as well as natural care sets, including a line of pomegranate infused items, sets of lotions and creams, and even travel-size friendly products. This is another form of sales promotion. Repeat customers are able to try products that they love and new customers are offered products at a lower price that may in turn stimulate a new customer base and increase loyalty to the Burt's Bees brand.