Guest Speaker: Julia Talbot, Burt's Bees

Some people are addicted to shopping, some are addicted to exercising and even some people are addicted to food. So what’s my addiction? The answer is Chap Stick, especially to Burt’s Bees Lip Balm. Everywhere I go I always have my Burt’s Bees with me, I can’t live without it. So I must admit I couldn’t have been more ecstatic to find out Julia Talbot, the Global Brand Manager for Burt’s Bees Lip Category, was coming to speak to our class!

Julia Talbot was Marketing major here at Virginia Tech, she graduated in 2003.Talbot also earned an MBA at Rutgers University. Before she started working for Burt’s Bees Talbot was an Associate Marketing Manager at Godiva Chocolates in NYC. She was responsible for leading development, implementation, and launch of Godiva’s seasonal collections. She loved her job at Godiva but wanted something more. In 2008 Talbot joined the Burt’s Bees team and in 2010 she was promoted to her current position as Global Brand Manager for lip products. Talbot responsibilities as the Global Brand Manager comprises of handling all aspects related to the product lifecycle, from idea generation all the way through product discontinuation. The Burt’s Bees Lip Category, which includes lip balms, glosses, and shimmers, is considered to be worth more than $100 million dollars.

Burt’s Bees is commonly described as a “natural personal care company” meaning they make products for personal care, health, beauty, and hygiene with all natural ingredients. They manufacture around 200 different types of personal care products, the most popular being lip balm. Consumers highly identify with the natural ingredients used in all of Burt’s Bees products and are willing to play high prices for these “green” products. People also identify Burt’s Bees as a company whom is committed to corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. They are recognized for their volunteer work and for giving back to the community.

I have been a loyal customer of Burt’s Bees for years now and I never realized, until I was doing research for this blog post, that Burt’s Bees produces many other products besides lip balms. I think a lot of Burt’s Bees products are forgotten about because consumers do not realize they make a variety of other products, not just lip balm. It’s a problem is that the Burt’s Bees brand is primarily recognized for only their lip balm. Burt’s Bees needs to raise awareness and get the word out about their other products.

Questions:

      1.  Burt’s Bees describes themselves as a “green” company, what kind of sustainable practices does Burt’s Bees have in place?

      2. What charities and non-profits is Burt’s Bees involved with? Is there any reason why you align yourself with these organizations?