The Buzz about Burt’s Bees and Bleach - Another Great Brand Story Gets a New Ending

This may be more of a note to self for future reference in a year or so.  It seems as though Burt’s Bees wonderful line of personal care products (my personal favorite being their lip balm) will be sold to Clorox for $925 million in cash.

According to the Burt’s Bees website it’s all good:

A Letter to Our Loyal Customers:  As you’ve probably heard by now, we at Burt’s Bees are entering an exciting new chapter in our lives as a result of the recent sale of the company to The Clorox Company. It’s a great opportunity to help us better deliver against our mission of making truly natural personal products available to everyone, everywhere.

This new journey gives us the energy and the resources to do even more. Not only will we be able to accelerate our growth, but this will also help us to grow the natural personal care category in general, furthering our commitment to The Greater Good.

You can keep counting on Burt’s Bees in the ways you always have. We will always stay steadfast behind our values and commitment to making the best natural personal care products with the most environmentally sensitive packaging and nature-safe manufacturing processes. And, above all, we’ll continue on with our social mission to make people’s lives better every day, naturally.

It’s your desire to improve your well-being and the world around you that has given us the support to take this next step. We thank you and ask for your continued support so we can keep the Burt’s Bees hive buzzing.

Felt a bit coerced and forced.  Sounded like corporate PR guy takes off his pin stripe suit, puts on khakis and Crocs and writes a release for the “greenies”. 

Burt’s products were built on a great story.  Founded in 1984 by Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz, Burt’s Bees grew from a roadside operation in Maine to a thriving business in the NC Tech Triangle.  Customers felt so good about putting a product as natural as bees wax on their bodies; and the environmental story the company crafted around it was just as strong.  It was all about setting the highest in natural standards, preserving our environment, and a commitment to to the health and well being of our earth and its people.  Contrast that with Clorox bleach, which is all about germ free and clean through harsh chemicals, wrapped of course in a warm and fuzzy white cotton blanket. 

I guess time will tell but it just disappoints me when these great little experiential brands sell out their souls and their stories for financial gain.  If you listen to the PR spin coming form Clorox I guess it all makes sense: 

“We plan to run the business semi-independently,” says Clorox spokesperson Dan Staublin. “We will be bringing our skills and strengths to the relationship, but we know that we have a lot to learn from Burt’s Bees about personal products, sustainability and the green platform.”

That approach will extend to marketing. “We will bring our expertise in brand building and building retail relationships, but Burt’s Bees will continue to work with the creative agencies it currently works with, and its overall marketing approach and direction will continue going forward,” Staublin says.

And full disclosure here, Burt’s Bees founders had already sold the business in 2003 to AEA Investors, a New York private equity group.  However that acquisition isn’t generating the type of visibility or scrutiny that the Clorox acquisition has.  And all branding aside, I guess it makes sense on the surface.  With the green movement beginning to hit its stride even in Main Street Wal*Marts across the country, it has kind of caught the big brands flat footed.  Rather than try and create products that meet these needs, they find it easier to line up these strategic acquisitions.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of this. 

I just hope that the great brand stories built by entrepreneurial visionaries aren’t lost as they become assimilated into the big CPG machines.  I just don’t want to see an on-pack promotion where they strap a free sample of Burt’s Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme to a gallon of Clorox Bleach to lessen the harsh effects on a woman’s tender hands.

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