Thank Goodness It's Monday #437

THE LESSON OF THE LEFTOVERS

I apologize in advance if the thought of even more post-Thanksgiving turkey makes you groan.

Still, I hope you’ll read on because –

 

1. No matter how abundant your second-, third-, or even fourth-day surplus was, it’s miniscule compared to the “leftover” challenge Gerry Thomas successfully overcame.

And --

2. Although he died in 2005 at the age of 83, it’s particularly appropriate to revisit his claim to culinary fame on this Monday after a l-o-n-g weekend of coping with Thanksgiving leftovers since it supplies us with a seasonal TGIM TURKEY TAKEAWAY or two.

Here’s the story: During World War II, Thomas was a U.S. Army intelligence officer and was awarded the Bronze Star for his work in breaking Japanese codes. After the war he went to work as a salesman for C.A. Swanson & Sons.

 

In 1953, the company overbought turkey for Thanksgiving.

You think you had leftovers? Swanson had 260 tons of “left-over” turkey.

 

What to do? They had no room to store the excess, so they loaded the half a million+ pounds of poultry into ten refrigerated train cars that had to keep moving continuously so the electricity/refrigeration would stay on.

Clearly, this wasn’t the most efficient solution.

So, as Gourmet magazine reports it, the Swanson brothers challenged their employees to come up with an alternate use for the meat.

Although there is some dispute about the depth of his contribution, for years Gerry Thomas maintained he came up with –

The solution:

Package it as frozen dinners
 with side dishes
in aluminum trays.

Talkin’ turkey: Thomas said he designed the company's famous three-compartment aluminum tray (the dessert didn’t appear until 1960) after seeing a similar tray used by Pan Am Airways.

He also –

... said he coined the name "TV Dinner"

… brainstormed the idea of having the packaging resemble a 50’s-era TV set

and

… contributed the recipe for the cornbread stuffing.

In 1954 it was an immediate success: Swanson sold 10 million of the dinners -- at 98 cents each -- in part because they took "only" half an hour to heat up.

The company quickly expanded the line to other meals, which some say Thomas tested on his own family. In the late 1960s he reputedly helped adapt the meal to a new kitchen appliance -- the microwave oven -- which cut prep time to about 5 minutes.

Now, according to the American Frozen Food Institute, the average American eats 72 frozen meals a year and frozen foods are a $60 billion industry.

The Library of Congress says the history of the TV Dinner is murky, but notes that frozen dinners existed several years before Swanson made the idea famous. Pinnacle Foods, which currently owns Swanson, still credits Thomas with proposing the TV Dinner concept.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency Thomas recalled, “I think the name made all the difference in the world … It’s a pleasure being identified as the person who did this because it changed the way people live.”

Changed the way people lived? 

If you’re not old enough to recall, that’s actually pretty accurate. 

Due to Swanson’s brand notoriety, expansive advertising campaign, and catchy concept, the idea and availability of TV Dinner s altered the way people approached frozen food.
 

And that rippled out to have wider societal repercussions. 

The original “Mother’s little helper.” Even before the Rolling Stones popularized the phrase (and in a far different context) the TV Dinner was deemed “The Great Liberator” arguably giving women (who were predominantly the family cooks) more free time to pursue jobs and other activities while still providing a hot meal for their families.

TGIM TURKEY TAKEAWAY: Gerry Thomas was and is a great example of the EHFTB-FTWMIH credo I espouse -- “Everything Happens For The Best—For Those Who Make It Happen.”

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Confronted with a challenge, he drew on skills he had developed and observations he had made and applied them to the situation at hand. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: With a marketer’s “find-a-need-and-fill-it” mindset, he took apparently disparate information he had absorbed (perhaps even unconsciously) in his routine – air travel, kitchen skills (see the P.S.), awareness of trends in popular culture and emerging social developments – and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. 

Then he brought the elements together and applied the –

Useful Rule of a Successful Product or Service:

Be first, best or different.

Can you do the same?

 

Of course you can. The EHFTB-FTWMIH concept argues simply that you must take action for anything to turn out “For The Best.” You must be ever alert for opportunities to triumph in the face of adversity.

It’s not easy. You can’t be a passive bystander. You must be always preparing for the future. And, when challenges arise, you must rally that preparation and confront them. It isn’t enough to want the best. Continually challenge yourself to know what you’re going to do to get to where you want to be. Effort makes achievement.

Talkin’ Turkey—and makin’ the effort to make it happen.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. Historical sidebar: Gerry Thomas abstained from the quickie frozen meals. According to the BBC, Thomas’ wife admitted that he was a gourmet cook (lucky for her) who never ate the dinners.

 

Thomas later said he was uncomfortable with being called the "father" of the TV Dinner, because he felt he just built upon existing ideas. In 1999 he also observed, “If it were today, we'd probably call it the 'digital dinner'."