Why are Consumers Going Crazy For The Stanley Cup?

Over the last few years, there seems to be a new trend that comes around each holiday season. One trend I recall was VSCO girls, hydro flasks, and hair scrunchies for young teens to popularize them in social friend groups. Or when I was a teen, it was Ugg boots and jeans with holes around the knees and collecting rubber bands shaped like animals. All of it boils down to marketing -- and with the added pressure to consistently have one's cellphone out to capture the everyday, the thralls of going viral persist with each new item that reveals itself to the market.

This week's topic of interest focuses on the Stanley brand's strategy switch, where originally the company's target audience was for regular campers or hikers, so they had a tumbler that was durable and self-sufficiant. Most reviews would cheer its long-lasting properties in keeping the ice cold.

A central selling point in the tumbler's durability was when a viral video posted onto TikTok revealed that the cup was the only thing that survived a car fire, and to respond to the message, the owner of the Stanley brand, Terence Reilly, offered to give the user free Stanley's and to replace her car.

So how did we get from here to flocks of people going to Target and Starbucks and waiting outside for hours, sometimes all night, only for a cup on a shelf?

It's the psychology of marketing at work. Want versus need. The desire to fit in because everyone else is doing the same thing. Social media plays a massive role in this sort of thing, adding hashtags, trends, and search engines. At the end of the day, the only person who's winning in this scenario is the company - Stanley. Their prices are going up, so are their sales and income, whereas in the beginning of their original sales strategy, nobody seemed interested in buying a green tumbler, so the brand understandably changed colors. (Think: remember Barbenheimer?)

The most recent brand collaboration was around Valentine's Day of 2023. The 111-year-old Stanley brand partnered with Target, making it exclusive. The 40-inch cup went onto the shelves and soon enough, it was empty after a crowd wiped them all out. This happens each time an item gets popularized. The likelihood after this craze is over, is that folks will become bored of seeing the brand and their massive collections (some users on TikTok posted their tumbler cups of every color), would end up in Goodwill or the trash.

It's important to recognize that we, as consumers, need to prioritize not that we need this particular item but reflect on whether it's something we can afford. Does it truly boost the social hierarchy of our inner circles if we buy name-branded things, even if it's at the price of our income?

Before reading this article, have you heard of the Stanley cup? Is is something you're still interested in buying? Or if you have any other recommendations for tumblers of that nature, I'd be happy to know about them.