The Sherbet Stand at the Edge of the Rockies

In 1875, folks told Myrtle Nichols she would never be able to make a go of her sherbet stand at the Rocky Mountains’ Front Range. Today’s image of the Old West is of men in saloons playing faro and downing shots of whisky, but Myrtle knew they took their frozen desserts seriously. She had watched them line up from Albuquerque to Tucson for a slice of lemon with almonds. Arch-enemies would set aside their differences and check their guns at the door of what was then called Ice Cream Saloons (the industry would introduce Ice Cream Parlor during prohibition).  

Myrtle knew her customer, and she marketed explicitly to that customer. She didn’t make assumptions or play games of wishing who her customer was – there was no point to that. She knew that men like Johnny Ringo, Wyatt Earp, and the Canadian pistoleer-turned-sportswriter, Bat Masterson, enjoyed their ice cream and sherbet, frozen custard, and yogurt.

From the short story, Soon We Will Leave This Country: 

“Finney stepped behind the counter, put on his apron, and drew the ice cream from the chest. The ice cream was made in a tall steel drum and allowed to freeze. The saloon keeper warmed the canister’s outside with a cup of cool water and slid the treat out as a cylinder about 12 inches long and eight inches in diameter, which Finney cut into four-inch-deep cakes then sliced into triangles like pie and served on plates. He had vanilla, chocolate, lemon, and strawberry, and he had several toppings from chocolate sauce to fruit preserves to almonds. Finney had learned his latest trade-in Denver when he went home a few years back after his brother’s suicide and, without money or prospects, took a job at an ice cream saloon on Larimer Street. In Tombstone, as with the other places he had lived, he was beginning anew. Wyatt pointed to another case. ‘And mix in some of those taffy candies,’ he said.”

I had a problematic marketing challenge; a car dealer wanted to sell Cadillacs to Millennial and GenX women. Of course, Cadillac’s core market was Boomer white men, and traditional media is where the client felt most comfortable. Conventional wisdom pointed to a digital campaign: content marketing and social media marketing. Everyone says we find Millennial and GenX women in a digital space. Traditional marketing, they say, is a waste. Well, everyone was wrong.

We convened a focus group and found our assumptions were correct. They did not listen to the radio or watch broadcast TV. But we probed deeper into habits, “Describe your morning routine?” we asked. In our deeper investigations, we discovered that they did watch broadcast TV through a streaming service, and they did listen to morning radio on their smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home. It makes sense when you consider that they’re multitasking.

Next, we produced a series of radio commercials and used his leverage in traditional market buying to get good deals on the buy. Our goal was to push awareness and drive the target demo to the website. The campaign itself bucked trends; it turned Cadillac, the brand of white male dominance, into a symbol of women’s empowerment. Once there, digital advertising strategies could take over, and we could sift through to find potential buyers. The dealer had enhanced finance options and hired young, professional women to pitch directly to customers. Overall, the whole marketing effort was a success. Cadillac has not had success selling to Millennial and GenX women. 

Open your minds. Abandon your preconceptions of who and what your market is. There is a difference between defining your market, targeting your ideal market, and knowing your active market and their values, lifestyles, and habits. A good advertising/marketing agency will align all three into an effective campaign.