imagine going back to 1994 and asking people what a hot product would look like in 2024 chances are it wouldn't resemble a Stanley Cup yet here we are the reusable water bottles are one of the most sought-after forms of Beverage containment largely thanks to Tik Tok Stanley's Revenue jumped from $74 million in 2019 to $750 million in 2023 but look behind the massive sales and there's a deeper case study in effective product marketing and leveraging cultural momentum I think with the Stanley Cup brand you're not really buying into Stanley you're buying into the community of all the other girls who have one in their hand and it's very similar in my opinion to Jolie the showerhead company that's gotten pretty popular through customers who post about it and you know on one hand it's it's something to brag about right you have this amazing piece of Hardware in your home it's that with the Stanley Cups as well but it's also it's this sense of community like everybody's got their Stanley Cup you know everybody's staying hydrated it's it's something that signals you know only good things Stanley Cups marketing has been successful in the diversity by which it's gone to Market so mean sany cup is a 110 year old company right and the products aren't terribly novel since its conception 110 years ago like the only new product it's had as far as a new actual product was think in 2016 2017 the Quinter Tumblr right they have different colorways since but the product has been by and large very much the same but the marketing savviness of Stanley Cup is its ability to not only do the traditional marketing means but also leverage other vehicles by which the message is not only reaching new people but done in new contexts right this uh this diversity of of communication derivative Works provides new opportunities to bring new people into the brand into the idea so they've partnered with content creators throughout Tik Tok that have taken the brand taking its products and reworked it through their own cultural frames for people who self-identify or subscribe to a similar culture as that Creator the success of Stanley's marketing is mainly credited to its company's president Terrence Riley this is the same man who made Crocs cool during his 5-year stint as the Footwear company's Chief marketing officer after Riley saw the now famous Tik Tok of a woman's Stanley Cup surviving a carfire and still containing ice he said it showed the product is quote built for life and offered the woman free Stanley and a new car when I saw that he was at the H of all this you go oh of course because it is a very similar Playbook not in its executions but in its ethos in that brands are not owned by the company they are stewarded by the company but they are co-created their meanings are co-created by the people and if you invite people in to to co-create you to co-author The Narrative you share the pin with these people to be a part of the mythology and the folklore they'll do things that you could never do they'll take you in places that you can never be they'll provide a level of media creates that you can never buy because people trust people more than any form of marketing Communications Stanley the top All Steel Thermos bottle that's completely defendable Stanley has always been kind of a blue collar utilitarian masculine product right it had an efficacy it had a utility and not unlike what Yeti has done with coolers and and probably their own tumblers and a portfolio of things they've they've really found a way to expand appeal to invite new users in to capture a higher margin by redefining the brand for a new generation and new audiences but it's all rooted in the product quality we see the absolute power of scarcity the absolute appeal of limited editions and and importantly what we also see is desire um and demand on full display right social commerce hasn't just um kind of catalyzed this it's created Community around it which is yet another thing we see here which is the power of community and ultimately identity naturally Stanley's warp speed rise in popularity has not been obstacle free there were the uncivilized situations at Target the woman who was arrested for allegedly stealing $2,500 worth of Cups and customer concerns over potential lead content the company responded to the concern saying it does use lead containing sealing material during the manufacturing process but that the lead containing parts are covered with stainless steel making the cup safe that prompted competitors like Hydro Flask and aala to take shots at Stanley in social media posts and promote the safety of their own products but none of the appears to be slowing Stanley down they have a much better grasp on who their customer is and who's buying and why they're buying than probably most of the players in their category that sell through retail if you look at Stanley as a company it's not a company that was venture-backed and forced to grow over a couple years after launch it's a brand that took its time to grow and mature and build brand affinity and I think that's a great lesson because a lot of people who start a brand today they want it to blow up tomorrow tomorrow and they want you know millions of fans who are Die Hard fans of their brand to be you know really excited about what they're doing but that takes a lot of time and consistency and continuity over the years the other one I think is figuring out how you turn your brand or your marketing engine into you know instead of a megaphone more sort of a a peer marketing engine I mean it's interesting because Yeti Hydro flas like these folks were sort of Main stays in in the category and again I I've never seen an ad for hydro FL you know I've only seen content for Yeti particularly around the coolers on online but never seen an ad for it but it's the cultural contagion of Stanley that has created such a gravitational pull and I haven't seen the other brand sort of been able to leverage its power in in this way which says to me there's probably a a lot of folks looking at this case study their competitors saying how do we if not do our version of this but how do we in a more Savvy way of looking at it how do we ignite our own version of cultural contagion in ways that are very unique to us and the people who know us and love us there's no question this isn't just net positive it's NE incredibly positive right and you know Mayhem at Target which is what we saw when they released a limited edition color right you know first of all people are going to people and that's not Stanley's fault that's not Target's fault right you know idiots are going to be idiots but again what it does is it shows it shows demand it illustrates desire it puts it on full display we are all desperate right to connect to belong to express who we are to have a means of identification that is culturally relevant and that's just that's just humans being humans like we were the same way with we were in The Capes the architecture of our brains is unchanged and I don't think it's that bad to have what is a relatively affordable quote unquote luxury an accessible aspirational vehicle you know if it makes you happy do it as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else
