Issue #10: A Lip Case Study
Looking at rhode skin's new product.
Hi! I missed last week’s edition, and I originally had big plans to do a recap of the best Super Bowl ads this week, but when I sat down to write this, it kind of felt… done. Like the Super Bowl was four whole days ago, we’ve seen the recaps by now, and we’re good to keep moving.
Ok wait… The one thing I will say about the Super Bowl? SO cool to see CeraVe showing up. I didn’t even think that their Michael Cera campaign would extend all the way to the big game, so I was really impressed by the long-term, multichannel campaign that they executed in the lead up to the Super Bowl. The campaign was already incredibly successful and buzzy without the Super Bowl, so that ad spot was just the cherry on top to solidify their brand after people had already been talking about them for weeks.
So let’s talk about something else, shall we? In the same realm of skincare as last week’s issue, Hailey Bieber’s rhode skin launched a new product last week, and it’s not skincare. It’s an iPhone case with a lip balm holder on the back.
This product launch reminds me of the limited-edition Chipotle napkin holder that I talked about wayyy back here. I love to see brands launch products that are slightly adjacent or in support of their main product line. Sometimes, those products spark more conversation than their regular product launches because it’s so unexpected. Plus, they’re actually filling a real need of their customers. Chipotle listened to their social audiences who were stealing napkins to keep in their car and created a solution, just like rhode is solving the classic ‘I don’t want to bring a bag because I’m just carrying my phone and lip balm, but I don’t want to actually hold my lip balm’ problem.
It’s actually really smart. The case itself is $35 (it better be able to actually protect your phone for $35, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t) and the lip treatment is $16 a pop, so the total rhode Lip Case ExperienceTM comes out to a total of $51. However, the genius detail in this product is, of course, that it isn’t compatible with just any lip balm. It specifically fits the rhode skin Peptide Lip Treatment or Tint, which drives product sales. So yes, you’re going to have to shell out $51 for this thing, because you can’t use it with your $4 stick of Burt’s Bees. Chipotle has something to learn here, like maybe next time they should create a custom cup holder that fits a Chipotle-sized burrito or something…
And there’s so much social conversation around this damn phone case. Much of rhode’s success can be attributed to Hailey Bieber, and the launch of the Lip Case is no different. Over the past week or so, rhode and Hailey posted a bunch of shots of her holding or using the Lip Case, including this one of her at the Super Bowl touching up her lip gloss. The product isn’t even available yet, but the social teasers are building so much excitement and anticipation that people are overwhelming the waitlist and commenting with requests for more phone case sizes already.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
I’ve never purchased anything from rhode, but now I’m even considering trying their lip treatment, just because there’s such excitement around the launch of a product that supports and complements the lip treatment. The overwhelmingly positive response to the Lip Case teasers serves as an endorsement of the lip treatments, which are some of their best-selling existing products. As a potential customer, if I was previously considering purchasing their lip treatment, the buzz that I’ve seen around the Lip Case might finally push me (and other prospects) to click purchase.