More than lip service

FRANKLIN, Wis. — For nearly 70 years, loyal, chapped-lipped users have dabbed on Carmex lip balm from its classic yellow package. Customer devotion made it the third-largest selling lip balm in the country despite a lack of advertising, sales campaigns or product updates.

Now, the little yellow-capped jars found next to cash registers of nearly every pharmacy and convenience store are going Madison Avenue. The family-run Carma Laboratories Inc. has hired a new sales manager — a former employee of rival Blistex — to oversee the company’s sales and growth. Carmex has started advertising, is launching new lines and even adding flavors such as cherry and strawberry in the fall.

Paul Woelbing, Carma Lab’s controller and grandson of product founder Alfred Woelbing, said after so many years it’s finally time to give the company a face.

“We’ve had our own little world where we come in, make Carmex and ship it out every day. But we have not gone out to meet the buyers,” said Woelbing, who works with father Don, the company’s president, and brother Eric, the vice president.

Paul Woelbing and other company officials plan to meet officials from retailers who already carry the product, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and CVS Corp., and find out from consumers what they want in a lip balm. But Carma Labs will still be the laid-back, cool-as-menthol business it has always been, he said.

And the trademark yellow packaging? That’s not going anywhere.

“People sort of think it’s like blue jeans or something else,” Woelbing said. “It’s almost like an iconic product.”

Still, the company is evolving. Its first ad campaign this winter took Carmex officials to New York and Chicago, where they hung billboards, bright yellow, of course, handed out magnets and blitzed areas with yellow posters proclaiming: “It tingles” and “It heals.” More campaigns will follow, they say.

The most obvious change will be the new flavors. Competitors ChapStick and Blistex have had flavors for years and even expanded their offerings, tailoring products to kids and adding premium and herbal lines, while Carmex for the most part has stayed the same. It began offering a mint variety of its Clickstick in 2002 and that’s been slow to sell, Woelbing said.

This fall, the makers plan to roll out two new flavors, most likely cherry and a berry variety, such as strawberry.