Years ago, when I lived in Topanga, there was a stevia plant in the garden. My roommates and I would chew on the leaves and joke about putting it in our coffee. A friend of mine who was hypoglycemic finally tried it, and predicted that some day paper sachets of stevia would be the norm in every Starbucks.

 

This was back when our internet connections were dial-up, and Topanga is a remote community (if that’s possible in Los Angeles!) so maybe we were missing some of the news.

 

Yesterday morning I didn’t miss the news. I woke up to hear a commentator on the radio talking about Cargill’s “First Taste Moment” in the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, to officially unveil Truvia(TM), their branded stevia extract. And, you guessed it, he predicted that soon every Starbucks will have green sachets of the natural sweetener.

 

So what does this mean for you?

 

You’ve probably known about Stevia for years, maybe even put it in your products. But there’s a big wall around the nutraceutical realm, and it’s sometimes hard to leap over that wall into the mainstream. Even when you make it to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, you’re still not in the mainstream.

 

But yesterday stevia made that leap.

 

The first reaction is “Duh.” If you’ve got the size and budget of a Cargill, it’s easy to make headlines by renting out the Rockefeller Center and deploying a full staff of media experts. Especially when you’re touting a healthy solution for the sugar-addicted masses.

 

But there’s a lot in the Cargill strategy that could work for less romantic products, even if your budget is smaller.

 

In a nutshell, they built a funnel. They cast a broad net with messages that appealed to different people with scientific, consumer, health, or professional interests in stevia. Then they focused their catch on a single, big event meant to draw attention to one new product.

 

You don’t need the Rockefeller Center to repeat this performance. If you’re giving a talk or workshop at a convention, this could be your venue.

 

The key is to start building buzz in advance. Cargill started courting media attention for stevia as far back as 2005. Since late spring, they’ve averaged at least one press release a month, each one building on the others.

 

On May 15th they simultaneously issued two releases–one announcing the birth of Truvia(TM) and the other with new scientific evidence for the safety of rebiana, the part of the plant that makes up the sweetener.

 

This constant contact approach by itself has tremendous marketing and PR implications. People are busy, and they might miss or overlook your first communique. If that’s all you’ve got, you’ll lose the lead.

 

Think about your schedule the week before a trade show. How many postcards do you receive that week, inviting you to “visit our booth”? How many will you remember to visit?

 

But if you got an interesting announcement two months before the event, and a series of reminders in the weeks leading up to it, would you be more likely to make time to check it out?

 

There are numerous studies on this, done by organizations from the Direct Marketing Association to the U.S. Postal Service. They indicate that your message won’t even register with most people until they’ve heard from you 5-7 times.

 

When you direct these multiple hits to a single concept, a new product, or an event, you multiply and magnify the power of all your efforts. Each new email, letter, or media mention has the impact of everything that came before it.

 

Whenever you introduce something new into the world, there’s a wall of knowledge that separates a handful of experts in the know, from the unenlightened masses. By promoting your new ingredients in waves along multiple channels, you can quickly build up the momentum to carry you over the wall.