In the world of global brand building, product-market fit isn’t just a startup concept — it’s the difference between viral success and silent failure. While most marketers think of data, surveys, or focus groups as their north star, Aseem Puri, CEO of Unilever International, stumbled upon an unlikely teacher: a counterfeit product.
In a conversation on the Pepper Content podcast, Aseem shared how Unilever International discovered a massive underground demand for a delisted Vaseline product — not through research reports, but through TikTok chatter and fake supply chains. What followed was a masterclass in how to uncover real product-market fit in today’s fragmented, consumer-driven world.
This story isn’t just about body oil - it’s about the future of product innovation, marketing humility, and how brands must listen, not assume.
The World Is Your Focus Group, If You’re Willing to Listen
It started with a strange insight: a sudden surge in social media content featuring Vaseline Body Oil, a product no one at Unilever remembered approving. The influencers were raving. Consumers were glowing. But no one in-house had touched that SKU in years. Turns out, the product wasn’t real — at least not anymore. It was a counterfeit recreation of a delisted Vaseline formula, brought back to life by demand so strong, black-market suppliers stepped in to meet it.
Instead of shutting it down and moving on, Aseem’s team did the opposite. They studied the conversations. They dug into the comments. They examined what people loved - the texture, the glow, the ritual. And then they rebuilt it, this time for real. It was a turning point in how the brand viewed product creation. This lesson reframed consumer chatter as a rich source of truth.
“The world has flipped on its head. Today, it’s about making things people want. It’s not about the communication — it’s about the product, its benefits, and living true to your promise.”
This wasn’t product development. It was product rediscovery — powered by organic consumer demand, not internal roadmaps. The Vaseline body oil relaunch went on to outperform projections by 1000x. The takeaway? Your most valuable consumer insights may not come from structured research. They may come from the comments section.
Your Product Is the Marketing
For decades, marketing teams have spent months crafting perfect campaigns, focus-grouped taglines, and celebrity endorsements. But Aseem’s story flips the script: the most important investment isn’t your ad - it’s your actual offering. What made the fake Vaseline body oil so popular wasn’t a clever jingle or an ad spend. It was the product experience. The look. The feel. The glow. Consumers didn’t care if it was fake, they cared that it worked.
Aseem's response wasn’t to launch a campaign. It was to launch a better product — fast. And once it was in the market, Unilever International paired it with educational content: how to use it, where it fits in your routine, what skin types it’s for. The experience of using a product has become its own form of media. The better the product works, the less explanation it needs.
“Energy needs to go completely into what you're selling — the core offering and how good it is. Brands that win today don’t just deliver great products, they also educate consumers around them.”
This approach challenges conventional brand building. Instead of pushing a message, the brand pulled consumers in with performance and reinforced it with utility. The lesson for marketing leaders? Make your product the hero and your content its manual.
Assume You Know Nothing and Build from There
Perhaps the most radical idea in Aseem’s approach is one many marketers secretly resist: you don’t know what’s going to work. The Vaseline story could’ve easily been dismissed as an outlier. A blip. Something beneath a global giant’s radar. But it became a success because Aseem’s team assumed they were wrong — and tested anyway.
Unilever International now operates with a "default yes" mindset. If someone has a hypothesis, the answer isn't a long debate. It's "try it, learn fast, and scale if it works." It’s a process built on experimentation, not certainty. In a time when even the best instincts can fail, building systems to learn from failure becomes critical.
“If someone says, ‘I know what’s going to work,’ I know they’re wrong. Because nobody knows. The only way to learn is to experiment.”
This mindset doesn’t just apply to new products. It’s how Unilever International builds diaspora brands, repurposes excess inventory into hotel deals, and tests hyper-agile innovation cycles that aim to go from social signal to shelf in seven days. In a world that changes weekly, the only strategy that works is one that adapts. Fast.
Product-Market Fit Isn’t a Department, It’s a Discipline
The counterfeit Vaseline wasn’t just a fluke. It was a moment of clarity for a legacy brand operating at global scale. It reminded Aseem and his team that demand is always speaking, the question is whether you’re listening.
In today’s fragmented world of media and product influence, product-market fit is no longer found in conference rooms but in comments, reviews, and reactions. It’s time for marketers to listen closer, act faster, and let demand lead.
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