What Pork Chops on a Stick Can Teach Us About Word-of-Mouth Marketing

One of my favorite parts of traveling isn't just seeing new places. It's finding the businesses that somehow become part of the identity of those places.

My good friend Calvin and his wife Beth grew up in Minnesota, and for YEARS they had been telling me, "OOOOOOOOOH, you gotta go to the Minnesota State Fair."

After about five years, I finally gave in.

I asked them what I absolutely had to see, and one recommendation came up immediately: Peterson's Pork Chops.

Now, I'm from Florida. Down here, a pork chop isn't exactly something people travel across town to experience. So when I was told that a pork chop on a stick would "change my life," I took it with a pretty healthy grain of salt.

But it did get me thinking.

How does a business selling something as simple as a pork chop become one of the most recognizable food brands at the Minnesota State Fair?

So, naturally, I had to find out.

During my visit, I had the opportunity to interview the people behind Peterson's Pork Chops and learn more about the business, the product, and what it takes to serve enormous crowds while maintaining consistency year after year.

And what I found wasn't just a story about pork.

It was a pretty great lesson in word-of-mouth marketing, product design, and branding.

Create a Product People Can Recognize

The first thing that makes Peterson's so effective is the product itself.

• It's simple.
• It's portable.
• It's distinctive.

And you can see it from halfway across the fairgrounds.

At a place like the Minnesota State Fair, people are constantly moving, carrying food, checking out attractions, and deciding what they want to try next.

Peterson's created a product that fits naturally into that environment. A pork chop on a stick is easy to carry, easy to recognize, and when someone is walking around eating one, everyone else gets a visual reminder that it exists.

The customer isn't just consuming the product, they're displaying it.

That's a pretty powerful marketing advantage.

Let the Product Do Some of the Marketing

Think about how much work businesses and advertisers put into getting attention.

You can buy billboards, post on social media, make TikToks, send email campaigns - the list goes on and on. And all of those things can work.

But imagine creating something that naturally gets attention everywhere it goes.

That's what Peterson's has.

Every customer walking around the fair with a pork chop on a stick is another person showing everyone around them what the brand offers.

The product starts the conversation before the business ever has to.

Someone sees it. They get curious. They ask about it. And suddenly, Peterson's has another potential customer.

That's an important lesson for marketers.

Sometimes the best marketing asset isn't an advertisement. It's the thing you're selling.

Customers Become Part of Your Advertising

Here's the part that really got me. While I was at the fair, I started asking people a simple question:

"Have you tried the pork chop on the stick?"

The answer was almost always the same.

"You mean Peterson's?"

There were other vendors selling pork chops on a stick. But when people heard the product category, they immediately connected it to one particular brand.

That's branding. And it's also word-of-mouth marketing in its most literal form.

I wasn't asking fairgoers about a complicated marketing campaign. I was asking them about a product they'd experienced.

People remember experiences much more easily than they remember advertisements.

Final Thoughts

My friends were right. The pork chop on a stick was worth the trip.

But as a marketer, what interested me most wasn't the pork chop. It was what the pork chop represented.

Peterson's didn't just create something people could eat. They created something people could see, recognize, remember, and recommend.

That's a marketing lesson businesses in almost any industry can use.

What are you giving your customers that is worth talking about?

Not another sales pitch. Not another promotion. Not another ad.

Something real.

Something memorable.

Something they can experience and immediately explain to someone else.

Because when customers start telling your story for you, marketing gets a whole lot easier.

And sometimes, apparently, that story starts with a pork chop on a stick.