What Happened to Crumbl Cookies? — Marketing, Growth, and the Product Life Cycle

This 50-minute marketing and entrepreneurship lesson uses Michael Girdley’s “What Happened to Crumbl Cookies?” video as a real-world business case study. Students examine how Crumbl grew rapidly through A/B testing, distinctive branding, social media, rotating flavors, artificial scarcity, FOMO, word-of-mouth marketing, and franchising. They then explore the challenges created by rapid expansion, including operational complexity, market saturation, franchisee pressures, changing customer demand, and store closures. Using the NBEA product life cycle framework, students analyze Crumbl’s movement through introduction, growth, maturity, and possible decline. Activities include guided video analysis, group discussion, product life cycle classification, a strategic turnaround challenge, and an exit ticket. The lesson includes an Instructor Edition, Learner Edition, vocabulary, assessments, and teacher answer key.