Willow’s 3-hour pumping insight is now a brand strategy

Willow built the wearable breast pump. Now it is trying to stop being known as a device maker. On Tuesday it announced the acquisition of Swehl, a breastfeeding education and community platform, and Momtech, maker of Mõmi bottles whose nipples are designed to mimic breastfeeding. The deals follow last year’s purchase of Elvie, one of Willow’s biggest rivals.

CEO Carolin Archibald, who took the top job this month after leadership roles at Medela and Ameda, framed the aim simply: “to become a powerhouse maternal care brand.”

The product was never the whole job

The insight sits inside a number: new mothers can spend up to three hours a day pumping. That is not a minor chore; it is a recurring ritual competing with work, sleep and identity. Willow’s first win was removing the wall plug, tubes and loud motor. But the strategic shift is bigger.

The first in-bra pumps landed 20 months apart—Willow’s in 2017, Elvie’s in 2018—with a smooth, teardrop-shaped design and no external cords, bottles or tubes. Mothers were, in Archibald’s telling, no longer tethered to a cord or a wall.

A market shaped by policy

The pump itself has a long arc. The first U.S. breast pump patent was filed in 1854, but for decades these were mostly hospital machines. Medela’s 1991 electric pump for home use made pumping a practical option for office life. Then came the big unlock: the U.S. Affordable Care Act’s 2012 requirement that insurance plans cover breast pumps at no cost. Archibald says it opened up a pump for every pregnant mom, and the data show pumping becoming routine.

Once the device was ubiquitous, differentiation had to move beyond hardware. That is exactly the opening Willow is closing now.

From device to journey

The new acquisitions show a classic brand expansion. Swehl brings education and community. Momtech adds bottles designed to mimic breastfeeding. Elvie brought a rival’s hardware and user base. Willow is not just selling more products; it is buying its way into the surrounding moments of the breastfeeding journey.

The psychology: own the ritual

This is a Jobs to Be Done move. A mother’s job is not “use a pump.” The job is “feed my baby without putting life on hold.” The pump, the bottle, the community and the education are all hired for that same job. By owning more of the job, a brand becomes harder to substitute.

• Map the full ritual: find every touchpoint around your product before rivals do.
• Acquire adjacent trust: education and community feel less like selling and more like support.
• Shift the story from specs to progress: freedom, not fewer cords, is the real value.

For founders and brand managers, Willow’s move is a reminder that a product category earns loyalty at the edges. The next growth phase is rarely another gadget; it is the rest of the routine. Maternal care is consolidating, and the brands that own the daily ritual will set the terms.

Source: Fast Company