What Good Branding can do II: Sun Bum
When design and marketing lead
Upon first hearing about this brand, you think a sunscreen can’t be that cool… but when you look at their social presence, website, and products, you might be singing a different tune.
LIFESTYLE MARKETING
Sun Bum is a finely oiled machine when it comes to their brand presence.
What is Lifestyle Marketing? It’s a brand connecting their product or service with their self-determined values, interests, and aspirations.
*It is important to note that the brand determines the values and aspirations for itself, to be able to project those aspirations to its customer base. To be successful, they cannot rely on the customer to determine that for them.
Marketers are the ones creating the noise that inspires customers to buy or engage.
If done right, lifestyle marketing is an extension of the values and interests of the people in that company, and is a natural extension. If done wrong, it can read as insincere to the customer.
Now, back to Sun Bum
They master lifestyle marketing by projecting a lifestyle many people would be happy to participate in and know very well. They live in vacation mode and promote it.
Their values, interests, and aspirations are clear : The Sun Bum life is a life at the beach, surfing all the time, focusing on a good tan while maintaining your health, and caring for the planet, for families, and having fun.
And, it needs to be noted that this post analyzing their lifestyle marketing strategy is relatively simple to do - confirming how well they execute it. Their brand and marketing ideas are so front and center (in a positive way), you’re told what they stand for through every visual, every word, every image. That should be the goal for every brand and business.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Functionally, they blend trendy marketing tactics with authenticity and art on social media. This allows the brand to minimize the promotion of their sunscreen (a tired exercise) and allow their social presence to be a source of entertainment instead.
Some examples of this include:
Sonny’s Porch Series - a series highlighting musicians who make music that aligns with the Sun Bum brand.
Show Yourself Some Love post by Far Out Florals - they’re featuring art that aligns with their brand in the way of colors, art style, and voice.
Why it’s good: Posts like these are no accident. They allow space for brand development and story-telling through content. Everything they chose supports their brand and values which helps viewers to connect with it through content they
1. don’t usually see
2. is entertaining on its own
It’s not pushy, it’s not selling you something and it’s a part of living the Sun Bum life. It makes you want to buy into Sun Bum. Suddenly, their products are preferred over the other sunscreens because there’s a connection.
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
They run creative and thoughtful campaigns that work to do more than sell you their product. Here are a few examples:
Skin Cancer Awareness Campaign: The company also puts marketing efforts behind raising awareness for skin cancer: It runs a nonprofit, and once put banana suits on statues in all 50 states to make the point that, unlike bananas, people are not naturally covered in a protective layer.
May, the start of Sun Bum’s busy season and is also Skin Cancer Awareness Month, so during that time, the brand does not “push our product” but focuses more on education, Radebaugh said.
May 2023, Sun Bum created guides for sun protection and skin cancer screening, sponsored the Skin Cancer Foundation’s mobile skin cancer screening program, and hosted its own “block party” in California. They also created content with Lindsey Zubritsky, a dermatologist who has 1 million followers on TikTok.
Why it’s good: while they’re promoting themselves, they’re also promoting awareness of healthier habits and providing free education in the process. Through this, they’re promoting one of their values in an entertaining way that ties back to their mascot and yellow-infused brand.
Dropping a New Line of Kids’ Products: This campaign included an experiential component in the form of an art contest - asking kids to submit art after providing a prompt in the form of “Sonny’s Day Off” as well as digital, print, and out-of-home ads that show kids playing on the beach.
These campaigns were meant to raise awareness for the new product line, especially in target markets like the Sunbelt, but the creative collateral purposefully doesn’t feature much product imagery.
“We have an amazing kids’ product…but we didn’t want to just lean on that,” Radebaugh said. “What we wanted to bring to life was why we love the kids in our communities…What we wanted to drive through is the emotional connection, and then also be able to talk about the product where it’s appropriate.”
Why it’s good: It’s stated above ^. They formed the campaign around an emotional connection with the kids in the community and did not sell the products. It increases their connection to the community and beyond. Now, when you see SunBum on the store shelf, you’re emotionally inclined to buy them over the other brands.
EVENT ACTIVATIONS
Someone’s living room or an event activation?
Their event activations are thoughtful and community focused.
Good Days Daily Bodega: Over 750 New Yorkers who lined up down the block to attend the Good Days Daily Bodega hosted in New York. Riley, the brand’s executive marketing director was on-site serving complimentary 1:1 consultations and ample samples from the new SPF line.
Also present was the brand's newly appointed Disruption Associate, who shared curated guides to NYC spots to inspire guests to switch-up their schedules to better serve themselves.
And don’t forget, every inch of the Bodega was designed to a T.
Bum Rush Tour: “Back in the day, we didn’t have the cash to sponsor a bunch of pro surfers. But instead of letting that get in the way of a good time, we grabbed some of our friends, called ‘em “judges” and posted up at some of our favorite beaches to watch the locals tear up their home breaks. No applications. No qualifiers. No entry fees. 30 minutes after the horn sounds, somebody walks away with a fat check. We dubbed it Bum Rush Tour, our ambush surf contest series that celebrates ordinary surfers everywhere.”
Snowed In Film Fest: For Encinitas locals, Sun Bum hosted a film fest made up of a pre-party and art show at Sun Bum HQ, film screening of 3 movies at the historic La Paloma theatre, and an after party at one of Encinitas’s favorite bars.
Why it’s good: These events are strengthening the brand. They’re not pushing attendees to buy sun screen or even talking about their products. They’re hosting events that align with the brand’s interests and building community at the same time.
Website
We have hit the end of the “marketing experience” if you will. The website, especially for an ecommerce and product-forward brand has to be a space that truly communicates brand intent. Brand imagery, colors, and voice is consistent throughout the site. Unlike many of the other channels, this is where we get to see the products.
However, if you look at their menu it reads as such: shop, discover, sun education. They still hold high the aspects of their brand that do not sell their products. In Discover, you can find most of what was analyzed above ^. Sonny’s porch to listen to local musicians, Bum Rush surf competition information, Finder’s Keeper’s (find the product in the wild, keep it.), and Beach People (featuring people doing inspiring things that relate to the beach).
So one tab is product/sales oriented, the next is entertainment oriented, and the next is education oriented and all are placed on the menu, communicating equal importance.
They are making their priorities as a brand clear through small design choices.
HOW DO WE APPLY THESE SAME TACTICS?
The fun part! How does this apply to us (designers, marketers, consumers)?
If you’re looking to build a brand, lifestyle marketing can be such a rich tactic. Create a brand that connects your company with self-determined values, interests, and aspirations. Tell the customer who you are. Make the brand so rich, your customer could explain your brand as a person. There is no discussion or thought as to how your product / service is involved yet.
And, scream your values, interests and aspirations over and over in different ways. Saying it once or in one way is not enough.
What does this look like?
Determine your brand’s values, interests and identity
Visualize the person that they are, physical appearance and all
What activities are extensions of your product, service, or brand personality? (Sun bum = Sun screen which is used on the beach… they care about surfing events)
What can people learn from following your brand? You’re in the biz for a reason… and if you’re offering a service or product then you probably know more about it than the rest of us… so give the people education! It’s the easiest way to warm people up and to allow them to buy in.
If you’re looking to improve your social media: blend trendy marketing tactics with authenticity and art on social media. This is your place to shine. Have fun. Show the people beautiful things. Ads are in our face every three taps now (on instagram at least), don’t let your account contribute to it too. Entertain people, promote community, teach people something new. Use creativity for connection. EVEN IF your product or service is not inherently creative or entertaining - there is still a way to tell a story. (it’s hard though, I get it)
What does this look like?
Determine a few “content pillars”. These are building blocks for content creation and what you go back to when planning content. They’re typically Entertainment, Education, Community, Inspiration, and Promotion.
Community
Behind the Scenes
Get to Know You
Customer Reviews/Testimonials
Before/Afters
Education
How-to Guides or Tutorials
Tips & Tricks
FAQs
Address Specific Challenges
Inspiration
Share what your Co. is going through, positive and negative
Quotes
Memes
Encouragement
Entertainment
Quizzes, Polls, Q&A
Community news / info
Art
Music
Share creators expressing similar values
Promotion
New Releases
Product Demo
Seasonal Promotions
Sales
CTAs
All of these content pillars should funnel back to your brand’s personality, enhancing it. They should also be created through quality production and visuals that stem from your brand.
Marketing Campaigns: Create campaigns that promote healthier habits, education, and an emotional connection. All of these campaigns should be oriented toward specific communities that your brand speaks to.
Event Activations: Sun Bum is proof that investing in activations pays off. Creating an experience is key. The goal is to create experiences that serve your brand, message, and lifestyle.
Website: This is a living space that works to serve your brand and message while being that space where people can finally invest in you. Sell your product or service, but still make it a consistent and unique experience through and through.
Sources
https://www.empathymarketing.co/blog/sun-bum-brand-positioning-case-study
https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2023/07/31/for-sun-bum-marketing-is-a-vibe
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/good-days-daily-sun-bum-transforms-nyc-bodega-to-celebrate-new-daily-50-spf-line-302107692.html
