Sun Bum: Brand Positioning Case Study

A few weeks ago my family was on Spring Break and needed sunscreen. We now buy Sun Bum exclusively. Which is 2X as expensive as other leading brands. Yikes, I know.

But why? Is it because of the adorable monkey mascot? Is it because it smells like summer? Is it the beach hippie aesthetic I’m actually fond of?

I then realized it’s because of all of it. And it’s good for business. They were just acquired for $400M by SC Johnson.

Big bucks for a sunscreen brand, which means it’s time to get into this week’s breakdown…

💼 The Brand: Sun Bum

Sun Bum was born in 2010. The brain child of Tom Rinks — who also happens to be the creative genius by the “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” chihuahua.

Apparently Tom knows a thing or two about making brand mascots. Because Sun Bum’s Sonny might be the coolest (and only) sunscreen mascot I’ve ever seen.

💛 The Heart (Mission & Vision)

Sun Bum’s origin story is simple. The owners live on the beach and were tired of putting on sunscreen every day that smelled bad, felt sticky, and was a bad experience for them and the environment.

So they made their own.

And that’s how this simple mission was born: “We care about the planet. We care about the animals. We care about our families. So, we continue to look for ways to make our products without stuff that could hurt any of them.”

👤 The Head (Strategy & Positioning)

Sun Bum has a fun, laid back “beach hippie” brand personality that flows through every aspect of their product. So much so that it stands out easily in a sea of bottles stamped with generic palm trees and coconuts. This didn’t happen by accident either. 

Tom Rinks is a brand building wizard and shares about this strategy in a recent episode of How I Built This.

It’s wild to think that you can grow a sunscreen brand into a $400M behemoth, but if you can grow a water brand into the hundreds of millions, nothing is too crazy.

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✋ The Hands (Tactics)

Sun Bum has crafted an intentional brand experience using several different tactics…

One of the most unique is their “Bum Rush” tour where they travel to random public beaches, “judge” the surfers (who are unaware they’re being judged), and one is awarded a fat $1,000 check.

Sun Bum has fun infusing their website with personality too. Not only do they offer an air freshener that smells like summer, but they claim it helps eliminate “car stank — inlcuding but not limited to decaying burritos, wet bikinis, dog breath, grandmas' perfume, petrified french fries and whatever else you got living under your seat.”

And finally, as I was wrapping up my research on this last night at 10:30PM I clicked their chat bot expecting a bit of personality. I wasn’t disappointed as it informed me their team was busy “catchin the sunset” and would be back Monday.

How You Can Steal Their Strategy

Don’t Be Boring. That might sounds like simplistic advice, but it’s an overlooked and highly effective strategy. Sunscreen is boring… usually. But when you add in extreme levels of intentionality and infuse every aspect of your brand with personality — the look, the feel, the smell — you can even make sun screen fun. 

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