[Cache #258]

Imagine working for a $3-billion company for 30 years, and being the CEO for two, and not knowing the ingredients of your product.

That was precisely the position of Steve Brass, until 2024, when he was finally shown the secret formula for WD-40.

It is written in a notebook that is locked in a safety deposit box in San Diego. Brass described the reveal as “like getting into Fort Knox.”

WD-40 has made protection of the formula a fundamental brand attribute, declining to patent it (which would have required public disclosure) and rationing knowledge to an estimated two to four WD-40 employees at any one time.

Why did I find myself grinning in this video conversation about the story? The short is above; the full conversation is here.

Because there is something charming about it. We all like the idea of a secret (if it’s a secret, it must be great), and the tension of not knowing something, which counterintuitively in some cases makes us trust and enjoy the product even more. Think about Coca-Cola’s secret recipe, or the mysterious 11 herbs and spices of KFC, or the Caramilk Secret. We don’t know. And we don’t want to know, because that would ruin everything.

I was also grinning because I enjoy the fact that WD-40 has taken an almost unimaginably mundane product – a canned liquid that does a bunch of mundane things like stop squeaks and loosen bolts – and somehow given it an emotional, human, quality.

And that is a monumental achievement, one which underlines the fact that we can always find a way to differentiate a product, service, organization or person, if we are deliberate about the positioning process.

PS Here is a great story about the secrecy around the formula. Fun fact: “WD” stands for “Water Displacement,” and “40” refers to the 40th attempt at creating the product, the one that finally worked.