Vaseline Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Products category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Vaseline analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Vaseline marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Vaseline Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Vaseline Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Vaseline marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Vaseline is one of the most globally well recognized skin care products. Vaseline has been used globally in variety of purposes like healing minor burns and cuts and as beauty skin care line of product. Vaseline line of product portfolio in its marketing mix come under following categories:

1. Vaseline Jelly: This is the original jelly which is being sold for last 140 years. It is used to heal dry skin from minor burns and cuts. It is a pure petroleum jelly made from base oil and waxes, the product is triple refined and till date it is the only product which is triple refined.

Vaseline is a fragrance free and hypoallergenic jelly.

2. Vaseline Intensive Care: This is the line of body care lotions. It comes in five different variants viz a viz Deep Restore lotion, Cocoa Glow lotion, Aloe Soothe lotion, Advance repair body lotion, cocoa radiant spray moisturizer and deep restore spray moisturizer.

3. Vaseline Lip Therapy: The line of product is marketed as instant softener and not just coaters of lips. Original, Cocoa glow, Rosy glow and Total moisturizer are the available variants

4. Vaseline Healthy White: The product is marketed as skin lightener and fairness lotion alongside dry skin healing capabilities of Vaseline. Lightening lotion, SPF 24++lotion and complete 10 lotions are the three available variants of product.


Image: flickr.com/photos/prateekbahl/


Vaseline Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Vaseline marketing strategy:

Vaseline is priced at reasonable rates given its target of low to middle income group. Vaseline line of products are among the cheapest body care products available across markets.

However, the company does follow product line based pricing keeping low price for original wonder jelly and charging modest premium for its other lines of product such as body lotion and lip care. By following this strategy, Vaseline targets low income homes for its petroleum jelly and middle-income group for its body lotion and lip care products. Thus it can be said that as a part of its marketing mix, Vaseline adopts a competitive pricing strategy. Within the product categories Vaseline follows optional-feature pricing. Every product category be it the body lotion or lip care has a basic standard product which is priced lower and taken as base. The other variants of Vaseline like cocoa glow lotion is available with a mark-up over base price of deep restore lotion.

Vaseline Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Vaseline marketing mix:

Vaseline products are available in more than 60 countries across 6 continents. Vaseline consumer products are available through any departmental store around the world. Vaseline body care products such as body lotion, lip care and skin lightening lotion are also available for purchase online through e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Vaseline petroleum jelly are sold in two forms regular and carbolated. The regular petroleum jelly can be purchased from any departmental store and anywhere, however, the carbolated form of jelly is only available through drug stores. Because of its healing properties, Vaseline petroleum jelly is used as a medicine (carbolated jelly) for tissue dehydration.

Carbolated petroleum jelly has never been advertised separately and the regular petroleum jelly accounts for about 85% of total petroleum jelly sales.


Vaseline Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Vaseline marketing strategy is as follows:

Vaseline over the years have used all the methods of promotion. It has used TV commercial Advertisement to create awareness among consumer. The brand has also used radio and newspaper to advertise its line of product. However, the focus of Vaseline has been on trade promotion to create brand equity. It has followed push strategy through trade discounts and promotions. Over the years Vaseline has become synonymous with petroleum jelly and this has become a challenge for the company as well, because many other private labels sell their petroleum jelly or skin care products in the name of Vaseline. Vaseline has also used digital marketing platform like YouTube and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook for promotional campaigns. To increase brand recall, Unilever has sponsored events under Vaseline’s brand name. Vaseline body lotion was sponsor for the Kenya Fashion Week 2013. Vaseline has also invested into CSR activity build brand equity through projects like “Healing Project for refugees”. Hence, this concludes the marketing mix of Vaseline brand.


About Vaseline:

Vaseline is a line of petroleum jelly based skin care product owned by Unilever. Vaseline was founded in 1870 by a British chemist, Sir Robert Chesebrough after about 11 years of research on the petroleum jelly. Initially the jelly was marketed as a product that heals dry skin. Use of petroleum jelly is versatile. Vaseline can be used to protect and dry skin as well as for beauty purposes like highlighting of cheekbones and softening of lips. In 1955 Chesebrough Manufacturing Co. the parent company of Vaseline merged with Pond’s extract company to form Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc. Unilever purchased it in 1987. Post the purchase by Unilever, Vaseline diversified into moisturizer products.

Vaseline has sold more than 470 million units in 2016. Nielsen in its 2016 report has termed Vaseline to be world’s number one brand in hand and body care.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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The names and other brand information used in the Marketing Strategy & Mix section are properties of their respective companies. The companies are not associated with MBA Skool in any way.

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