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- [00:01]
Alex
Some social tools are too basic, while some are too bloated. Sched Social is the best of both worlds, built just right for fast moving teams who need power without the price traps. Get 20% off a full year with code millennials@skidsocial.com that's s k e d.
- [00:22]
Brittany
Social.Com what is up? Marketing besties?
- [00:29]
Alex
We are kicking off a brand new miniseries called Go to Marketplace where we break down one go to market. Move in under 10 minutes. Real tactics, zero fluff. Just the kind of stuff you actually use to launch smarter, grow faster, and win your market. And joining me for this whole series is someone who lives and breathes Go.
- [00:51]
Brittany
To Market, Tamara Graminski.
- [00:53]
Alex
She's an award winning product marketer, former VP of product marketing at Kajabi, and one of the sharpest minds in the game.
- [01:02]
Brittany
Let's get into it. Welcome back to another Go to Marketplace in 10 minutes or less. Today we're diving into a strategy that's all about growth through repositioning, specifically how rethinking your target audience can unlock massive new opportunities. And Tamara, what is this play we're unpacking today?
- [01:29]
Tamara Graminski
All right, thanks for having me. Often I find we get so focused on our target market and like, as we should because we always say focus on the target market. But sometimes that level of focus actually makes us miss really great opportunities that are right in front of us.
- [01:48]
David
Right.
- [01:49]
Tamara Graminski
Opportunities that might even be better than our current strategy. So I need to shout out actually Scotty from the PMM camp community because he helped me brainstorm today's play. And here it is. Reposition your existing product to appeal to a new, previously untapped audience and then align your branding messaging and channels to resonate with them. I want to be clear that this is not about changing the product.
- [02:14]
David
Right.
- [02:14]
Tamara Graminski
So this is something we can do as marketers without needing to build new product functionality, change product functionality, any of that. But it does go beyond just like slapping a new tagline on the homepage. It really is about realigning around a new ideal customer profile.
- [02:30]
David
Right.
- [02:30]
Tamara Graminski
It's a new Persona with new needs who maybe sees your product in a different light than you've been looking at it previously.
- [02:38]
Brittany
Yeah. And I think for some people this might sound very risky. So I think when do you know it's time to make a move like this and reposition your product?
- [02:50]
Tamara Graminski
Yeah, that's a great question because it does kind of go against a lot of feedback that we typically talk about in product marketing and in go to market. So here's A few signs though, that it might be time to reposition. The first one is growth has stalled, so you're seeing that your core audience isn't converting like they used to and your current messaging is like really starting to fall flat. The second one is that the market has shifted, so maybe a new competitor has entered, buyer priorities change or the channels that were working for you previously just aren't working anymore. And so that basically means you're not the obvious choice for your segment anymore. The third one is that you've actually just saturated your current market.
- [03:34]
David
Right.
- [03:35]
Tamara Graminski
This happens. Maybe you're winning with this segment, but the segment is smaller, you've fully penetrated that segment. And, and so you really need to unlock a new ICP in order to drive like that next wave of growth. And then the final one, which we're going to give an example of later today, is you're just starting to see unexpected traction from a new audience. Sometimes we don't go looking for the audience. The audience comes to us. And so it might not be someone who you maybe built it for, but they've shown up and they're, you know, showing interest and they're actually converting.
- [04:08]
Brittany
Yeah, I've actually seen this firsthand in one of the companies I work at where you, you do prior planning before you expect a segment to grow out a certain way. But either like there's audience fatigue on channel or there's no more growth left in that segment. So you have to go out and, and find that, but it's better to do this before it's too late. I've seen like sometimes people wait and wait to reposition. So. So instead of trying to just like force growth with your audience that's no longer moving, you can zoom out and just say, who else could this be for? Who else could use my product?
- [04:50]
Tamara Graminski
Exactly. And that's what Stanley did, which is the example for today's go to market play. We all know Stanley, the cups, the mugs. And what I love about Stanley is that they didn't reinvent the product at all. They just repositioned it for a totally different audience. Like we're not even talking adjacent audience here. Totally different audience. And it took off. You know, Stanley, this is not a new example. We've been talking about this in marketing for a few years now. But I think we don't talk enough about the exact play that they took. So if you don't know the story behind Stanley, originally their products were marketed to outdoorsmen. So people who are like going to outdoor jobs, it was very Rugged, These kind of like solid thermoses. But they saw an opportunity to reach this new demographic, which was Millennial and Gen Z women.
- [05:43]
Alex
Most social tools make you choose between simplicity and power, while sched social gives you both. Plan fast, loop in your team and show real results without perceived pricing or shady upgrade traps. It's everything you need. Nothing you don't get 20 off for a full year with code. Millennials@skidsocial.com that's s k e d social.com.
- [06:12]
Brittany
And I mean if you've been living on the rock, you, you don't know what Stanley is. I mean I've, I've seen them all over TikTok, I've seen them all over Instagram. You see now people are even making.
- [06:25]
Tamara Graminski
Little charms and accessories, right?
- [06:28]
Brittany
Yeah, charms and accessories for.
- [06:31]
Alex
It's a personality piece.
- [06:32]
Brittany
Now, I think most people don't realize that Stanley is a hundred year old company. If you would know, think about Stanley. They really just came up five years ago to a new market, which is kind of crazy to think about.
- [06:47]
Tamara Graminski
It's so wild. And if we think back to like the people who started the company who are running these like growth projections a hundred years ago, I guarantee you they weren't sitting around being like, we're going to have a pink Stanley and there's going to be little charms.
- [07:00]
David
Right.
- [07:00]
Tamara Graminski
Like they couldn't have even imagined this icp. And what I think is really cool about this repositioning is that they didn't change the product's functionality. It's still a thermos, it's still a tumbler. Right. But they rebranded it as a stylish must have accessory. As you said, it's a personality piece. People literally have Stanleys of different colors. Right. And so what did Stanley do? They didn't just like change the marketing message. They introduced new colors, the pastel colors that we talked about. They collaborated with influencers, so they unlocked new channels and they embrace platforms like TikTok, right. Where they knew that this new audience was hanging out. I guarantee you they were not selling these thermoses to the outdoorsman on TikTok previously. Right. So if you haven't been following the Stanley kind of repositioning, I want to break down a little bit more about exactly what they did. So the story goes that they started to notice that their quencher, Tumblr in particular was really gaining popularity among women, even though they hadn't done any marketing campaigns for this. And they realized that it actually was because this website called the Buy Guide was starting to promote it. And so because of that, they then decided to actively go after this segment. So they made that decision. Great. Wow. This segment is now coming to us. It was that fourth category earlier. Let's actually play the game a bit more with them. So they expanded their color palette. They had those pastels, the trendy colors, the seasonal colors, which is what resonated even more with that target audience. They partnered with lifestyle influencers and created limited edition tumblers with those influencers. And they were selling out really quickly. And then they leveraged those new platforms. Right. To showcase the Tumblr. Showcase the, like, lifestyle around the Tumblr. So it's like, oh, I'm driving and dropping my kids off at school. Oh, I'm going to Pilates. And I thought we had to talk about today, what happened on TikTok. Do you remember when that lady's car caught on fire and the only thing that survived was her Stanley tumbler and it literally had ice still inside.
- [09:03]
Brittany
Yeah. It was so crazy. And I also remember that I think the CEO of the company center, like, did like a really good play on TikTok and center. Another.
- [09:13]
Tamara Graminski
I think they bought her a car.
- [09:14]
Brittany
Yeah. Bought her a car. Yeah. That's what they did. Yeah. Which is even the way, like, listening to your audience, listening to the feedback, knowing this is a viral moment and acting on it not. You only get few chances like this in marketing, so capitalizing on that is such a great way. Yeah. The car. That's what they bother.
- [09:34]
Tamara Graminski
Yeah.
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Brittany
That's crazy.
- [09:35]
Tamara Graminski
And this wasn't just a marketing play though. Like, this work.
- [09:38]
David
Right.
- [09:38]
Tamara Graminski
So this massive change in ICP led to a significant increase in sales, pulled up some numbers, and Stanley's annual revenue was 70 million in 2019. So still respectable, let's be clear. But it jumped to 750 million by 2023. So that's pretty impressive just by unlocking a new market.
- [10:02]
David
Right.
- [10:03]
Tamara Graminski
And what I love about this, like, I'm a product gal, so I love product, but I have so much respect for, like, they did not create a better thermos. The thermos is the same. It's literally just came from a better understanding of who this might also be for.
- [10:19]
Brittany
And like, how, like little moments like the viral TikTok help position, that's like a positioning tip. Like, hey, this could even survive stay cold in a fire. That's a huge. A whole new positioning tip right there. But I know viral moments don't happen to a lot of brands like this. I know that Stanley is a Great case study. But I know marketers are going to wonder, how could I replicate this playbook for myself? And I know you have a playbook for that, so let's dive into that.
- [10:52]
Tamara Graminski
All right? First, you need to find the signals. This isn't something you can force. You can't just, like, sit in a boardroom and be like, I want millennial women to be my next segment, right? So I always recommend start by looking at what's already happening around you, not what you hope will happen. So some questions to ask yourself is, are you seeing unexpected traction from a new segment? Maybe this is like, oh, more people in that segment signing up for your email list, more people in that segment engaging with you on social. It doesn't necessarily have to be sales. Then you're looking for are certain types of users converting faster or sticking around longer? This is obviously, you know, less relevant for products, consumer products like Stanley, more relevant for the space that we're often in, which is like SaaS. And then I always also say, look out for. Are you starting to get more press or more conversation from, like, creators or influencers who are talking about this product organically or naturally? That's usually a clue. So then you really want to follow that usage. Look at who's showing up without you asking them to. That's the clue. Next, once you've kind of identified that audience based on those patterns, you need to realign the entire experience, right? You need to meet that new audience where they are. Like, your old channels and strategy are not going to work, as we saw with Stanley. So this means adjusting a few things. First, your messaging, right? Really understand their jobs to be done, their pains and gains, and then make sure that you're speaking to their goals, not your original audiences. And this can be hard because, like, you are biased towards knowing what does work in your company today. And you almost need to, like, step back from that and imagine you're like a whole new company altogether. But you also need to update your visuals, right? So Stanley didn't just change, like, their homepage messaging, they changed their entire color palette. And you might need to do drastic design changes as well. And then, of course, your channels, this new audience probably is going to show up and hang out on different channels than your old audience. And so don't be afraid to, you know, test new channels. I do think it's worth mentioning, like, you don't need to abandon that core customer. You just need to expand who that customer is, who your product is for, and kind of build a bridge to this new customer. And then finally, the last thing you need to do is kind of relaunch your product with intention. So you want to treat this repositioning exercise like a launch. People think launches are just new products, but they're not. A launch could be new messaging, it could be new products, it could be a new segment, all of that. And so it's not something you kind of want to just like subtly bring out. So create a dedicated campaign that actually reintroduces your product to this new group partner with the creators, influencers, voices who already have credibility in that space. That's going to get you instant credibility faster than building your brand slowly. And we kind of talked about, like, visuals and stuff. You might need to also consider tweaking packaging, naming, pricing, depending on who this new customer is as well. But really, all of that market research is going to like, help dictate some of this.
- [14:02]
Brittany
And I also like what you just said. I think a lot of people think that a launch has to be a brand new product, A product launches and brand new product. But you could be taking the existing product and just repackaging it for a new audience, a new segment, a new channel. Like if you're launching a new channel, which I think that is an important point because I think a lot of people mistake product launches for just being, hey, we're launching a new feature. No, it could be that we found this new audience that works for us. We, we're going to go after this new audience that works for us. And this is our biggest growth potential we have based on what we're seeing in the market, just like Stanley did. So thank you everybody for listening. If your growth has stalled or the market's changed, or you're just beating your head against the wall with your current audience, it might be a time to just zoom out and ask, like, who else could this product serve? So you don't always need a new product. Like I said, you just need to have a new lens, a new position, a new way of launching something that you already had. And thank you, Tamara, for joining us for another go to MarketPlay until next week.
- [15:23]
Evelyn
Thanks so much for listening. Keep tuning in to hear more great insights from the coolest marketers from around the world. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe and follow the Marketing Millennials podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. And if you like what you hear, I would greatly appreciate you giving us a five star rating. It helps bring more marketers into our community.