ChapStick® Talks while Lip Balm Walks, Thanx to Bullpen.

Brock Wagner arrived casual, his aloha shirt laid way back. He spoke about guerrilla-marketing St Arnold beer as anticipated below. In the energy-packed crowd, though, what caught my eye and ear were the small, blue-covered tubes placed by each place-setting by Colin Hageney of sponsor Bullpen Marketing.

As you can see – this secret photo carefully taken for me by Bullpen CD Suzi Senna – each of these tubes advertises the upcoming AMA Crystal Awards. But when I picked one up and idly asked about it, one of my table-mates said, “Oh! ChapStick!”

I replied that I didn’t think this tube was actually ChapStick – one of America’s best-planted brands. Then someone else (Kerri Ryan, I think, of Kryanoutloud Marketing) pointed us all in the right direction: “Lip balm.”

Later, one of the luncheon program presenters drew the crowd’s attention to the promotional item, calling it…ChapStick.

Now part of Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, the ChapStick brand is 100 this year. Its website offers a shallow look at the product’s history – a visitor from outer space would be hard-pressed to figure out why ChapStick is so widely used and well-known.  But we know, don’t we? A simple, always-useful product that’s as close as our pocket or purse, with a consistent trade dress that today’s company continues even through a gazillion product line extensions.

Then there’s Colin’s lip balm with its own purpose-designed label. For him, it is a extremely effective brand vehicle: “Be the name on everybody’s lips,” as he says on the Bullpen blog. I suspect that, as long as users think its ChapStick, everyone will be happy. The product and the brand are effectively the same.

My tube is kiwi-strawberry flavor. Thanks to everyone for the great luncheon program – a nooner filled with beer and lip balm. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.

Events, Sponsors, Volunteers / by Richard Laurence Baron

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