How Did the Stanley Cup Get So Popular?

Have you heard of the Stanley Cup? I’m sure you have, but if not don’t worry you will after watching this video. Here Matt shares how he thinks the brand blew up in the past few years.

There are tons of people out on social media giving business advice. Some of it is good advice, but most of it isn’t good. In this series watch CapForge’s owner react to different advice videos. He’s an expert in all things business and has 20+ years of experience under his belt. Some of the things he reacts to might even surprise you!

Video Transcript: 

Business Advice Video: 

One of the fastest-growing consumer products right now is the 40-ounce Stanley Tumbler. This isn’t a water bottle, if you’ve seen one of them this is a behemoth. Interestingly it is the vessel of choice right now for Gen Z and millennials and baby boomers. So we had to know, how did Stanley become the “it” bottle of the moment? Let’s go back to 1913, that’s when William Stanley graduated from Yale University. He invented a steel vacuum container to keep hot things hot and cold things cold. And for 107 years that Stanley container only came in four working man colors. Let’s fast forward to 2020, Stanley added two new colors. They added cream and desert sage. The working men hated those colors, the rest of the world loved them! It’s conquered every generation. What was the strategy here? It was just a color change, but that simple “minovation” quadrupled sales and turned it into the No. 1 selling water bottle.

Matt’s Review: 

Okay, interesting theory. I think water bottles, drinking more water, being environmentally conscious, all those things also factored into people wanting to buy reusable water bottles instead of you know like the plastic disposable bottles that a lot of people were using for the last 20 years and then realize that probably wasn’t good. So I think they’re part of a bigger trend. I don’t think it was just adding two colors that turn Stanley into a hit thing. I also think there were some influencers along the way, people with large audiences, who promoted the cup or just even introduced the cup, not necessarily even promoting it directly at first. That for whatever reason kinda caught on. I think you know, sometimes a fad is just right place right timing and a lot of luck, and I think that’s probably what happened with the Stanley Cup. And I think if you come back in two years time you’re gonna see that Stanley Cups big spike in sales probably didn’t get sustained and they probably went back to something a lot closer to what they always have done. And there’ll be some other big hit item. The problem with this too is it’s not predictable and it’s not necessarily you can’t manufacture a fad around your product or even if you had influencers promoting, it you wouldn’t necessarily have it catch on the way this one did. So good for Stanley, it took him 107 years to get popular and that may only last for a couple years but I guess enjoy the ride while it’s happening.