Hello Reader,

I've been seeing those videos of women running to grab a red Stanley Cup (Quencher) at Target.

​I bought mine in June 2022 after I saw influencers and podcasters Megan and Wendy tout it. I thought, "It's huge and it fits my cup holder in my car. Perfect!" For me, that was a pain point - my favroite awesome Hydroflasks didn't fit my car's cup holders. They'd roll from the seat to the floor and roll all day while I'm driving. My Stanley Cup solved this issue. My other pain point was capacity and lack of a handle. Also solved by my Stanley Cup.

Here's the rub: By the time the local news has a segment on it, it's probably on its way out.

In business school, you'll learn about the Rogers Bell Curve. In real life, you'll just know it as the product adoption cycle. The important thing to remember is the psychology of the adoption stages.

This curve below tells us who is buying and when they're buying.

In 2019, Stanley's annual revenue was $73M. In 2023, it was $750M. I think the reason why we didn't see the tipping point closer to late 2019 or 2020 is because of the pandemic and people staying home. Where were they going to take their mega cup? People were more concerned about toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and face masks. In 2021, we started to go outside. In 2022, we are full-on back to our ridiculous lives, and that's the Tipping Point. I believe we are in the end of Early Majority or beginning of Late Majority for the Stanley Cup.

This NBC News article and Retail Dive article and The Hustle article are great resources and good reads about the phenomenon. (If you want to know the next water bottle that'll be popular - it's the Owala bottles. Those have been gaining momentum for about 3 years on my radar.)

Putting your hat on, how does this work with your brand?

Where is your brand in the product adoption cycle? Where are your customers in this cycle?

1. Innovators have money to burn. They're willing to take risks; they don’t even care if the product is complete, as long as they have a new toy they can play with and can establish their status as being ahead of the crowd.
2. Early Adopters may know about your product for some time but they’ll wait a while before they jump onboard and convert. They’re typically looking to solve problem they have. Note: Rogers said these individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the adopter categories. (Think about influencers who really influence a niche: mom bloggers of 2000-2015), beauty vloggers of 2009/2010, Gen Z TikTokers.)
3. Early Majority are the wait-and-see folks. Your product has proven itself to the market and other customers get the chance to see the Early Adopters being successful. They are seeking products that are already popular with a substantial number of users.
4. Late Majority are averse to change and they don’t have the budgets to try new products that they won’t end up using. They want it to be proven that a product works before they will even consider using it.
5. Laggards are the last consumers (but still consumers!!) to adopt new products and usually trend towards being older.

Many of you are just starting out. There is A LOT of runway for you before you get to Late Majority.

Using this bell curve to think about product or service launches could be useful for marketing. You have to know your customer and what their pain points are. You have to meet them where they're at. If you end up hiring influencers or creators to get you going, more power to you!

• ​#SilentReviews are trending. Cool. I don't want to hear a fake voice anyway.
• Speaking of fake voices, here's the Loudermilk reference.
• I was chatting with Lia Haberman on her Slack Channel and I had told her that my husband's GenZ coworker recommended I look at Drumstick's Tiktok for "unhinged" content. And.. that is the word of the year: unhinged.
• Chris Galaviz is an artist whom I commissioned a piece of art a long time ago. This is the correct way to use "new year, new me." Please follow suit.

If you've been following on IG, personally or professionally, you'll know I got accepted into the my city's Waste Warriors program. It was formerly known as the master recycler program, but this gives it more legs and it's more dynamic. Follow along on my personal IG if you'd like. There are 8 classes total and a Slack channel. Plus volunteer hours to be completed. What better way to help market this program than to document my journey?

Til next time, stay warm!

Chris

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