Jell-O and energy marketing.
What can we, as energy marketers, learn from this infamous dessert?
You may have heard this story before.
But we thought the best stories deserve retelling and that reminding ourselves of the virtues of great content marketing would be a sweet way to kickoff the holiday weekend.
So here it goes:
At the turn of the 20th century, a little product named Jell-O was launched. And despite a marketing campaign that touted all the product’s attributes (something we see often in energy product marketing): “No cook-book necessary!”, “No baking!”, “Simply add boiling water!” the new product never achieved anything above lackluster sales.
So, what did Jell-O do? They shifted strategies and developed a cookbook filled with easy Jell-O recipes and then they delivered it door-to-door across the country.
Sales skyrocketed.
What Jell-O did over a hundred years ago is what we strive to do with our content marketing in the 21st century: create a valuable piece of content, make it relevant to our target audience, deliver it to them in a way that is convenient, and in turn earn trusted advisor status and a higher conversion rate.
And that’s why Jell-O is still deploying a similar strategy more than 100 years later.
So with this marketing history lesson put to bed, go forth, enjoy your holiday, and perhaps a big slice of “Wave your flag cake.”
And when you get back next week, think about how your content marketing strategy could be as valuable as an easy-to-use cookbook delivered door-to-door to stressed home cooks.
