Vaseline co-creates scents with retailers to gain strong launch support, which can mean extra shelf space in store and more backing online, says Kate Godbout, Head of Vaseline North America.

Retailer-exclusive strategies have moved to the forefront of strategy discussions between retailers and supplier brands in the last five to 10 years, said Kate Godbout, Head of Vaseline North America.

A retailer exclusive, such as on a new scent or product, hasn’t been something that has been a core part of Vaseline’s strategy in the past. But as more mass merchants want them, Vaseline now launches exclusives and sees the benefit for both the brand and retailer.

“What we’ve seen is when you go deep with a retailer and co-create a collection, it affords you disproportionate amounts of support from that retailer,” Godbout said. “They’re going to lean in with you in a fundamentally different way than if you’re launching something national. In terms of how they’re supporting it in store, how they’re supporting it online, and supporting you at the shelf in terms of the space that you garner, you can sometimes get incremental space as a result of doing those things.”

Vaseline saw this support firsthand on its most recent lotion launch in November. It launched its Vaseline Vanilla Comfort Collection exclusively at Target and the Vaseline Cherry Aura Collection exclusively at Walmart.

How Vaseline Co-Creates Scents With Target and Walmart

How these exclusives come about depends on the merchant, Godbout said. Target, for example, has wanted to launch a vanilla-scented Vaseline lotion for a while and had a strong point of view, she said.

“Certain merchants deeply immerse themselves in the world of beauty,” Godbout said. “They’re studying fragrance trends, they’re keeping a pulse on what’s happening across channels. If a merchant has a point of view in one direction, you want to be a good partner and support them, but figure out a way to do it distinctively.”

In contrast, Walmart expects Vaseline to come to a meeting with a strategy that showcases fragrance and consumer trends and a product that fits well with the Walmart consumer, Godbout said.

“It’s my responsibility as the brand steward to do that category landscape look at what are the trends out there,” she said.

Vaseline noticed consumers talking about cherry on social media and prestige brands debuting cherry-scented beauty products. However, the brand saw that not many mass brands had this of-the-moment scent. Vaseline showcased the trend search, category landscape and naming conventions to Walmart, which decided to lean in, Godbout said.

“That, to me, is one of the most fun parts of the job is, how do you co-create something with your partners that they can equally be as proud of as you are as the brand lead,” she said. “And have it manifest into amazing programs that they have the ability to create that optimal consumer experience from an omnichannel perspective and win alongside you as you’re building the national plan to help support the launch.”

Vaseline Will Expand Scents to Other Retailers in 2027

Eventually, Vaseline will expand these scents to its other retailers in 2027. But at launch, Target, Walmart and Vaseline can have “strong wins” with the collections because of the exclusivity, Godbout said.

For consumers, an exclusive with a retailer may introduce some mild friction if a preferred scent is not available at the shopper’s usual retailer. However, now that consumers can buy online without visiting stores, it’s not that much of a disadvantage, Godbout said.

Vaseline Debuts Collections at NYC Pop-Up

Beyond the in-store launch, Vaseline debuted these two collections at an in-person pop-up event Nov. 7 in New York City. Consumers could “trade in” a lotion that wasn’t meeting their needs for a new full-size Vaseline lotion. The brand also gave attendees a $10 Visa gift card as a way of buying back the product they traded in.

The idea is that consumers may buy a new product because they are interested in the scent, but then the product doesn’t perform as they expected, Godbout said. Many of the trade-ins were the “usual suspects” from its competitors, but consumers also traded in some prestige brands, which was a surprise, she said.

More than 2,000 consumers came to the event, which was more than Vaseline had expected. For the event, Vaseline posted its own social content, and creators, including influencer Kristy Sarah, also posted.

Beyond the event attendance and online storytelling, Vaseline will measure the success of the pop-up by whether sales increase in the greater New York City area, she said. A 2% bump in New York City compared with other markets would be a realistic increase, she said. The brand did not do any formal email capture or consumer tracking at the event, so it will just look at overall geographic sales. Because the brand gave away full-size products, it expects the increase to occur in a few months, after consumers finish their current lotions.

After getting consumers to use a full-size product, the goal is to turn them into regular users, she said. That’s especially important as consumers head into winter, when shoppers use and buy the most lotion.

Vaseline Aims for Consumers to Reappraise the Brand for Its Lotion Products

The brand does not typically do consumer-facing pop-ups, as its in-real-life events have been more focused on content creators and media and are not open to the public.

Vaseline decided to do a consumer-facing event for these scent launches because part of its aim was to get consumers to “reappraise” Vaseline. Most consumers view Vaseline as a petroleum jelly brand and don’t consider the brand for its lotions, Godbout said.

“Vaseline is a brand that people are familiar with, but it isn’t necessarily always the very first choice when they’re making that decision at the moment of truth at the shelf,” she said.

The vanilla and cherry scents are aimed at consumers who want both a high-performing lotion and fragrance, she said.

“In the lotions category, there’s an incredible amount of dynamism right now happening in mass body care,” Godbout said. “While we’ve been a brand that has done well for an extended period of time, with new category entrants coming on the scene and having aggressive acceleration, it’s always a moment to remind consumers that you’re there, but that you also have more to offer and a bigger story to tell.”

CPG giant Unilever owns Vaseline.