Everyone loves Trader Joe’s… podcast

Trader Joe’s new podcast is currently a big hit. Who would’ve thought?

I think several things are at play here:

• When consumers love your brand, they want to know and experience everything about it.
• Trader Joe’s has so many stories to tell beyond what appears in its weekly flyers. Employees taste test the dog biscuits; it donates 70 million lbs. of food a year; and much more. The company’s communications team smartly recognizes it shouldn’t let any of these nuggets go to waste.
• Yes, everyone is starting a podcast these days. I think it speaks to information overload and Tweet fatigue. When we have time, people want more than one sentence, and in a channel that’s not so high stakes. Podcasts can be like conversations with friends.
• Somewhere out in the world, there’s an audience for every story. With technology, we’re becoming better every day at connecting the story to its audience.

It’s hard to say whether Trader Joe’s podcast will live beyond its initial five episodes. But I do think it’s another sign that we will continue to move away from the written word for public relations efforts and closer to visual, aural and other interactive forms of communication to tell stories.