Anyone could have invented Reese’s peanut butter cups.

Think about it:

Chocolate + peanut butter = millions of dollars in annual sales?

Someone, somewhere, at some time was destined to stumble upon that winning formula and ride that toasty, sugary, salty, nutty combo straight to the bank.

But that taste bud-tingling combo wasn’t discovered by just anyone.

And it wasn’t discovered by Hershey’s Chocolate (despite the gaps your brain might be trying to fill in right now…ignore your brain in this moment, it’s lying to you 😉).

It was discovered by a few random candy makers. Who happened to influence some random other candy maker. Whose name happened to be H.B. Reese. (Are you seeing where this is going yet? Because the story is really about to take off…)

Who happened to have 10 kids

And happened to:
be broke
have been laid off from Hershey’s Chocolate Factory
make candy just to pay the bills
discover that people absolutely foamed at the mouth for his peanut butter-chocolate combo
So… happened to make more of it
Then happened to die

Did that last line kinda surprise you?

If so, it’s because no one ever really talks about H.B. Reese.

His name gets repeated at trivia nights held in bars with sticky floors (Q: Who was the original inventor of the Reese’s cup? A: H.B. Reese). And besides that 5 seconds of fame, he’s relegated to the bottom of the candy-making history books.

Which is a little…er…strange, considering that he’s largely responsible for inventing one of the highest grossing candy bar of all ever-loving time!!!

But if you’re reading this email right now (morning latte in hand ☕), thinking “okay, but when do we get to the marketing part???”), then you’re in more luck than a leprechaun.

Because this is where Ogilvy & Mather enter the scene.

An old school advertising power duo (that you might not have heard of, but definitely have had your buying habits influenced by)…

Tasked by Hershey’s (who swiped H.B. Reese’s company up as soon as he died, but that’s another story…) into turning Reese’s into a prize candy champion able to wrestle competitors down from their top-selling spot.

What followed was nothing short of advertising genius:

A campaign that saw two hip and boppity-bopping teenagers walking down the street. One holding chocolate. One holding peanut butter.

Then, a collision.

“Hey!” one exclaims.“You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!”

“Hey!” the other exclaims. “You got your peanut butter on my chocolate!”

Somewhat cautiously, they give the new combo a taste.

And that’s when the 💥💥🍫💥🥜💥💥 tastebud-tingling fireworks go off.

Turns out? Peanut butter + chocolate = the delicious candy combo that teenage dreams are made of.

Also as it turns out?

All it took for Hershey’s to cement itself as THE name that gets repeated when chocolate and peanut butter enter the convo together is one cleverly-made advertising campaign, delivered at the right time.

Now, what are the takeaways here for you, dear marketer or business owner person?

Really, it comes down to this:

Products sell. But stories sell more.

Because while H.B. Reese is lucky to have his name mentioned in bars full of $3 cans of beer and sticky floors…

Thanks to one cleverly-implemented ad campaign, Hershey’s gets to go down in chocolate-making history as THE people who brought the combo of salty-PB, sweet-chocolate to the world.

Which is pretty sweet for them…and their bank account 😉

Cheers,
Regan

P.S: Ready to tell your own sweet-selling story? Let’s brainstorm together. Click here to see how we can work together. (Because stories are my jam, and my brain is itching to hear yours.)