Aquaphor is a well known brand in the beauty industry but it originally, and still is, a pharmaceutical brand. In 1924 Aquaphor came our as “Eucerin Aquaphor Healing Ointment.” The Aquaphor Lip Repair, released in 2011, is now on the top of many Christmas stocking stuffer lists and is the center of many viral videos. I want to explore how this pharmaceutical brand can go from a product that just sits in your medicine cabinet to having a viral product that everyone has dubbed the “emotional support lip balm.”
Aquaphor as a Brand
I think the addition of the Aquaphor Lip Repair is a great brand and marketing tactic. The shift Aquaphor has made from simply being a skin salve to what they are now is impressive. By creating the lip balm, Aquaphor shows that not only are they listening to their consumers but they think it’s a great idea as well. This shift shows they have deep knowledge in branding psychology as well as an ability to evolve with consumer needs, positioning themselves as more than just a functional product but as an essential part of daily self-care.
The University of Southern California has a post on this kind of brand psychology, and they discuss how by doing marketing tactics that reflect the brands core personality as well as taking the proper steps when changing up the pace you can not only keep your current consumers but possibly become more popular along the way.
By following these steps Aquaphor was able to successfully shift as a brand and increase their popularity:
- interrupt the old pattern
- create comfort
- lead to a new normal
- shift the feeling in favor of the brand
- follow it up by satisfying the critical mind
Packaging Design
While there are many factors to to a sucessful brand and lip balm, Aquaphor cannot only attribute their success in marketing and branding as the only parts of their success. I believe that their packaging design is the pivot point to why consumers love the lip balm.
Their packaging is not only versitile, by coming in two different formats, but it is easy to use and decently aesthetic. Another thing I’ve seen that I think helps Aquaphor is the internet trend of customizing the lip balms by bedazzling, stickering, and creating accessories to make the lip balms keychains.
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Thanks for reading!
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