Crispy Onions, Cream of Mushroom Soup & AI

What do crispy onions and cream of mushroom soup have to do with tech and innovation?

I often write about what’s old, what’s new, and what holds true over the decades.

After all, I’ve been on this earth for 70 years.

I’ve seen products and services (both digital and analog) scale, crash and burn, and fizzle out.

Love it or despise it, green bean casserole has withstood the test of time.

Invented by a young woman and her team, it still shows up at many Thanksgiving feasts. Its ingredients feed the bottom lines of consumer packaged goods companies.

Just like AI and new technology, the dish is polarizing.

Nationwide polls (such as a Harris Poll survey for Instacart) show that about 24% to 25% of people rank green bean casserole as their least favorite Thanksgiving food, with many noting they only eat it out of holiday tradition. Consumers sometimes take to Reddit to share their views.

Marketers (whether they’re working in tech or in canned goods) have learned:

• Distribution: The recipe didn’t take off until Campbell’s printed it on the can in 1960. That’s like putting your product where people already scroll.

• Data: Campbell’s didn’t know it had a hit until 1995, when sales data showed the fall spike. Pay attention to the stats!

• Platform: Cream of mushroom launched in 1934 as both a soup and a sauce. Today, people buy it to cook with, and that’s the growing part of the business; buying it to eat as soup is shrinking. One product, many uses.

• Seasonality: You can sometimes influence consumer behavior, but consider how much you should invest in shifting brand preferences or buying patterns. Most people buy crispy onions once a year, and French’s spent millions in 2010 trying to get people to use them year-round.

So, even if you pass on the dish this holiday season, you can still respect the lessons it teaches us about invention, marketing, and longevity!