Lessons any growing business can learn from the Stanley quencher

Even the most well-established brands can find it challenging to grow in competitive markets. The massive popularity of Stanley Cup’s Quencher tumbler is a fascinating case study that demonstrates the power of letting your audience’s passion for your product guide your growth strategy—even if it’s an audience you didn’t know you had.

This blog will explain why the Stanley Cup Quencher is so popular, how Stanley used the cup to expand into a totally new target market, and our top takeaways from the Stanley Cup marketing strategy.

Stanley Cup Marketing History: The Quencher Launch

More than a century old, Stanley was founded by William Stanley Jr. in 1913, who invented the steel vacuum insulated bottle technology that maintains hot or cold temperatures for hours. The brand has been popular with outdoor enthusiasts and the construction industry thanks to its durability and practicality, the focus of Stanley Cup marketing for decades.

The Quencher was launched in 2016 but didn’t find much success with Stanley’s mostly male audience, so it was close to being discontinued forever. However, that changed when a different type of consumer discovered the product — and loved it.

What Is the Target Market for Stanley Cups?

When a co-founder of shopping blog The Buy Guide discovered the Stanley Quencher, she found it offered several features that made it a better choice than any other cup she had. She recommended the cup on the site and included it in promotional curated boxes sent to influencers. When a Stanley employee saw Bachelorette star Emily Maynard promoting the cup on social media, she was surprised that the cup appealed to a market completely different from the outdoorsy males Stanley Cup marketing typically targeted.

Stanley executives began leaning into and embracing this new target market, creating cups with different color ways and finishes that consumers could coordinate with their outfit or mood. For the first time, Stanley wasn’t just useful — it became a trending status symbol. Paired with Stanley’s incredible durability and effectiveness, the Quencher is one trend that’s likely to stand the test of time.

Why Is the Stanley Quencher Cup So Popular?

What makes the story of the Stanley Quencher cup so unique is the way the brand was guided by consumers to tap into their desire for a sustainable, stylish, and practical travel cup option. This alignment with customer values didn’t happen by accident. It was the result of Stanley’s willingness to listen to its users and make updates to its product based on direct feedback. Here are some lessons growing businesses can take away from Stanley Cup marketing.

1. Listen to Your Customers
The first step in creating a product that resonates with your market is understanding where the true value lies for your customers. This goes beyond surface-level desires or the initial feedback loop and involves deep dives into customer behavior, preferences, and unmet needs. Stanley’s success with the Quencher was largely due to their ability to discern not just what customers said they wanted but to understand the underlying needs and preferences that drove those statements.

2. Test and Learn
Adopting a lean startup approach, characterized by the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) concept, is crucial. This method emphasizes the importance of rapid prototyping, testing, and iterating based on real user feedback. It’s about being agile enough to pivot when certain aspects of the product don’t meet customer expectations and doubling down on the features that do. For Stanley, this meant continuously refining the Quencher’s design, usability, and marketing approach to better align with consumer demands.

3. Devote Resources Wisely
When you hit on a product or service that gains traction, it’s essential to devote significant resources to scaling it. This doesn’t just mean financial investment but also dedicating time, talent, and technology to ensure that the product can grow without losing the quality or essence that made it popular. Recognizing the Quencher’s potential meant ramping up production, enhancing Stanley Cup marketing efforts, and ensuring supply chains were robust enough to meet the surging demand.

What Is the Stanley Cup Marketing Strategy Today?

Today, the Quencher story is more than just a tale of a product becoming a hit; it’s a blueprint for Stanley’s growth in the modern business landscape. By listening to customers, embracing a test-and-learn philosophy, and strategically allocating resources, companies can navigate the complexities of market demands and consumer preferences. As the Founder & CEO of a marketing agency, I see these principles as fundamental to guiding businesses through pivots and scaling efforts. The Quencher’s journey underscores the importance of agility, customer-centricity, and strategic investment in innovation.

A critical component of being able to pivot as quickly and effectively as Stanley has is the agility and open-mindedness of the members of the C-Suite. Stanley’s President through this successful blitz was recruited from Crocs, where he was the CMO, so had a marketing mind. While not all companies need a full-time CMO at the helm, it’s crucial to have one to turn to for marketing leadership and strategy.

A fractional CMO can help you choose the best strategies to grow your business. Download our overview to learn more about our fCMO services, our deep bench of specialized CMOs, and our unique matching process!

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About the Author

As the Founder & CEO of &Marketing (www.and-marketing.com), Raj and his team strive to provide growing businesses unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj has more than two decades of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, sales, & strategy. He has led nearly 100 high-profile marketing strategy projects for Global 100, mid-sized clients, and SMBs, plus over a decade with General Electric and General Mills. He is a sought-after advisor and facilitator, with experience across five continents. He is known for bringing the best of ‘big company’ marketing and strategy to smaller companies without the baggage, his bias for practical implementation, and his unrelenting customer focus.