Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced that it is shuffling some of its most iconic consumer health brands, including Band-Aid and Tylenol, to a stand-alone company named “Kenvue.”
This is part of J&J’s plan to “separate its consumer-health business from its prescription-drug and medical-devices units” in 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal. The drugs and devices product lines will continue to be sold under the Johnson & Johnson corporate banner.
As these different sides of the business diverged, especially during the pandemic, the company decided to separate them completely.
The products and brand names will remain the same, but the packaging will be updated with the Kenvue corporate name.
The recently-appointed CEO of Kenvue, Thibaut Mongon, stated that “unveiling the Kenvue brand is a defining moment for our stakeholders and an important part of the planned separation.”
Other products in the Kenvue line will include Listerine mouthwash, Johnson’s baby powder, and Neutrogena skin products, which, in 2021, generated almost $15 billion in profit.
Johnson & Johnson has recently faced heightened consumer scrutiny after lawsuits were filed against the company, alleging that its talc-based baby powder causes cancer.
Just last month, J&J decided to stop selling talc baby powder globally after having already stopped selling it in the U.S. and Canada due to a drop in consumer demand. The company is transitioning to an all-cornstarch-based baby powder product.
Johnson & Johnson worked with a naming agency, screening thousands of names, to select a name for the new company that would instill consumer confidence. The name Kenvue is from the word “ken,” a Scottish word for knowledge, and “vue,” which references sight.
J&J stated that the name reflects the company’s “rich knowledge of human needs and deep consumer insights.” The company hoped to create an easily pronounceable name that could be understood across dialects and marketed globally.
Phil Davis, president of Tungsten Branding, stated that the corporate brand will most likely “sit in the background a little bit” and that “the ‘brand children’ will continue to get most of the love.”
The Kenvue logo features white lettering against a green background, with the arms of the “K” appearing as a heart.