PHOENIX — You can thank an Arizona mom and two of her cousins for that pastel Stanley Quencher. In fact, if the three women hadn't stepped in-- the Quencher may not even exist today.
Here's how a more than 100-year-old company's product, that was originally discontinued, became one of the most sought-after items in the U.S.
RELATED: Starbucks' special Stanley cup sells out in minutes, hits resale sites for hundreds of dollars
Old product, new life
William Stanley Jr. forever changed the way hot drinks were consumed.
"In 1913, he fused vacuum insulation and the strength of steel in one portable bottle, inventing the all-steel vacuum bottle we know and love today," the company says on its website.
For a majority of the last 100+ years, the products were marketed toward working and outdoorsy men, with its classic hammertone green coloring and rugged advertising. A holiday ad from 1975 says "Be blunt. Tell the lady what you want," and refers to passing the tumbler "along to your son."
A television ad from 1978 centers around men working at a construction site using the "tough" cups. Stanley today refers to its original products as "grandad’s thermos that supported pilots in World War II."
Before 2020, Stanley was making a comfortable $70 million in annual sales, according to CNBC. Then, with the help of some influencer moms, it released a new version of its thermos, called "The Quencher," with sales expected to reach $750 million in 2023.
What was behind the resurgence in popularity?
When three women who run a product review site called The Buy Guide stumbled upon the Stanley 40 ounce Quencher, they knew right away the company was marketing toward the wrong audience.
"Large enough to keep up with our busy days, a handle to carry it wherever we go, dishwasher safe, fits into our car cupholders, keeps ice cold for 12+ hours, and a straw," The Buy Guide review says. "It’s everything we want in a daily cup."
Arizona native Linley Hutchinson is a co-founder of The Buy Guide. Hutchinson, along with co-owners Ashlee LeSueur and Taylor Cannon, would review their favorite products. The Stanley cups were one of their original finds.
"Ashley had bought it fell in love with it, started gifting it to a ton of people and gifted it to Taylor and I, and it was so hard to tell people about it because when we wanted to link it on Bed Bath and Beyond, it would sell out, and we wanted to link it on REI, it would sell out and so we were like 'where's Stanley?'" Hutchinson told 12News.
Shortly after discovering the life-changing product, it was gone. Stanley, which introduced their Quenchers in 2016, stopped restocking or marketing the product in 2019 due to low sales.
"Stanley discontinued it. We were shocked, confused and devastated. Many of our first followers were, too. We knew it was a good product and that nothing exactly like it existed," the trio said on their website.
So, the women took matters into their own hands.
"We saw it as an everyday item instead of a camping item," The Buy Guide's website says. "It had always been sold with the rest of Stanley’s line in camping sections. We knew that if women could sell this cup to women, it would be a winner."
As a part of their business, the women would send curated boxes of their favorite items to well-known Instagram accounts. One of those boxes, which included a Stanley Quencher, went to Emily Maynard, a former Bachelor contestant. Maynard just had a baby and, "You know, there is no thirst like a nursing mom," Hutchinson said.
An employee at Stanley was following Maynard on Instagram and watched her unboxing video featuring the cup.
"(She) was like, 'wait a minute, how did this outdoor brand that I work for get in the hands of this mom in North Carolina that I follow?'" Hutchinson said.
The Stanley employee, Lauren Solomon, reached out to The Buy Guide after seeing the post.
"We told her, 'we want more of this cup, like tell Stanley, they're marketing to the wrong people,'" Hutchinson said. "If you market to moms and women, it's gonna go insane."
Stanley wasn't convinced. So, The Buy Guide bought the entire inventory of Stanley Quenchers.
"We made a purchase order for 5,000 cups," Hutchinson said. "And it took about five days to sell out of those cups."
They then bought 7,500 more cups. Those were gone in a day.
"And by that time Stanley was like, 'OK, I think I think you've got something going here,'" Hutchinson said.
Getting Stanley to pivot from its usual color and marketing strategy was not easy.
"You have this 100-year-old company, that hammertone green was what they lived in died by because, you know, your grandpa loves Stanley and the hammertone green... and so color was scary," Hutchinson said. "But eventually, they adapted, they pivoted, they recognize the audience that they had, and kudos to them."
The three women pushed Stanley to update their colors and the rest is history.
"It is a representation of not only what a color can do, and what a movement can do, like women selling to women," Hutchinson said. "We always say that if you're not marketing to women, you are not marketing to the people who buy for your households, right? Like, I buy for my kids, I buy for my husband, I buy for my house, I buy for my friends, I buy for my family, right? So if you're not marketing to me, that is a heck of a lot of people that will never see or engage with your product."
In June 2020, Stanley launched its new marketing campaign for the Quenchers, which crashed its website.
"The Stanley site was cumbersome and over 20,000 of you had a difficult time checking out. Frankly, the website had just never seen that amount of traffic," The Buy Guide website says. "In spite of that, the first 3 days of cup sales exceeded everyone’s expectations."
Several outlets have written about how the story is an important lesson in marketing.
"I think (it's) recognizing the power of influencer marketing," Hutchinson said. "Like, I don't know specific numbers, but everyone shops while they're scrolling through Instagram, like, it is huge."
And the story of the Stanley Quenchers proves that.
Watch the full interview with Hutchinson in the above video.
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