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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Dan brand

Chris Stephens works to bring the dry dip and dressing company his father started nearly 50 years ago into the digital age

Dan Stephens couldn’t conceive of an online video series in 1966, when his marketing strategy consisted of in-store demonstrations and handshakes followed up with free samples.

His product doubled as his business card.

Now, with his son at the helm, it’s the company website that’s doing double duty.

Since he took over the operation two and a half years ago, Chris Stephens has been working on branding Uncle Dan’s dry dip and dressing mixes in the digital age and gearing up for the family-owned company’s 50th anniversary next spring.

He’s increased the company’s Web presence with a video series that spotlights local chefs and home cooks preparing dishes with Uncle Dan’s products. Recipes use Uncle Dan’s seasonings to flavor meat, fish and egg dishes – even popcorn.

“It’s not just for salads anymore,” said Chris Stephens, who is working to encourage potential customers to GOTB, or Get Off The Bottle, and opt for Uncle Dan’s envelopes instead of bottled dressings and marinades.

It’s part of his grass-roots, largely online marketing strategy as well as the philosophy upon which his father founded the company: KISS, or Keep It Super Simple.

“We’re a small company. We don’t have a million-dollar marketing budget,” said Chris Stephens, president of Uncle Dan’s. “Do you know how many $2.50 packets of salad dressing I’d have to sell to cover a $3,000 ad spot?”

Uncle Dan’s, headquartered in Spokane, has two employees and contracts for the manufacturing and distribution of its dips and dressings as well as some its Web and social media management. Chris Stephens began to focus on those areas in fall 2012 after his father approached him about running the family business.

The company started its Twitter account that October. The following summer, Uncle Dan’s debuted its “An Afternoon with Uncle Dan” video series.

Now, there are nearly 50 videos on its YouTube channel as well as its website. The Pan Sautéed Calamari recipe, posted six months ago, has nearly 700 views on YouTube. Its Loaded Baked Potato Salad recipe, posted a year ago, has more than 900.

“It’s our own little cooking show,” Chris Stephens said.

Uncle Dan’s pays for the ingredients and gives chefs a stipend for their time. Shows are often shot in the kitchen at the family home on the shores of Hayden Lake. Father and son invite friends over, making video shoots into dinner parties.

The idea for Uncle Dan’s goes back to a dinner party. It was the fall of 1964, and friends of Dan Stephens served something novel: powdered, mail-order salad dressing, shipped from California.

It wasn’t until spring 1966 – after he read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill – that he thought: “This kind of product needs to be in grocery stores.”

First published in 1937, the book lists 13 principles for personal achievement including desire, faith, persistence and organized planning. It’s sold more than 70 million copies worldwide, and it changed Dan Stephens’ life.

On May 8, 1966, based on the motivational, self-help book which he bought from a door-to-door salesman, Dan Stephens wrote himself a letter, promising he’d make his first million within five years. In elegant cursive, he began, “By the 8th day of May, 1971, I will have in my possession an accumulated net worth of one million dollars, $1,000,000, which will come to me in varoius amounts from time to time during the interim. … My faith is so strong that I can see now this money before my eyes. I can touch it with my hands.”

And that’s how the 25-year-old, self-described “lonely Maytag repair man in Yakima” and young husband with a newborn got into the food business.

Dan Stephens spent $28 on ingredients and plastic bags for his first batch of dry, garlic-flavored buttermilk and mayonnaise dressing mix that shoppers could buy in stores instead of through the mail. Two weeks later, on May 21, 1966, he did his first in-store demonstration of his just-developed product and struck “powdered gold.”

Within a year, Uncle Dan’s had distribution in three main markets: Seattle, Spokane and Portland.

“I’d never been in the food business, but I could do simple math. It cost a nickel to make it and we’d sell it for 25 cents,” said Dan Stephens, now 74. “Making up something like this is a no-brainer. The marketing is where everything comes into play.”

He called his first flavor Uncle Dan’s Original Southern Dressing Mix.

“I was afraid to call it ranch because of the trademark” by Hidden Valley Ranch, which opened in 1954 near Santa Barbara, California, and began selling its popular dressing in packets as well as finished product. “I didn’t want to infringe on anything that would cause a problem.”

As promised, Dan Stephens made his first million by 1971. Neither he nor his son will say how many times over he’s surpassed that goal since then. “We kinda hold that pretty close to the chest,” said Chris Stephens, 49.

“This brand was built on word-of-mouth,” Chris Stephens said. “My dad’s form of advertising was a handshake and handing out packages of Uncle Dan’s. … He built it from there.”

In 1972, Uncle Dan’s was introduced in Vancouver, British Columbia. It can still can be found in Canada’s four western provinces. It’s also available in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Utah.

Eventually, “We want to expand our market, branch out into other states,” Chris Stephens said. “We want to be able to be competitive.

“The brand is out there,” he said. “I just want to keep it in front of you. If I can show you different ways to use the product, you use it more regularly.”

Today, there are eight kinds of Uncle Dan’s: Original Southern Dressing, Creamy Ranch, California Country Dill, Bleu Cheese, Zesty Ranch, Chipotle Ranch, Mediterranean Garlic and Italian.

Throughout the years, the mixes have been made in California, Seattle and now Kent, Washington, where it’s been made for about 20 years.

Other than that first batch, it’s never been made in Yakima, where the company started and where Dan Stephens grew up. His own father had owned an appliance and TV store before opening a pawnshop in Wapato in the Yakima Valley.

After high school, Dan Stephens moved for a short time to Seattle, where he met his wife, Deanna. They have two sons: Chris and Jeff.

When Chris Stephens took the over, he didn’t write himself a note. “I’m more of a from-the-hip kind of person,” he said. “What I to try to bring to the company is freshness.”

As bottled dressing gained popularity, “Things became more about convenience. We got lost in the convenience world because it took extra steps to make Uncle Dan’s,” Chris Stephens said. “Our big heyday was in the ’60s, ’70s and midway into the ’80s.”

Still, the company enjoys a loyal customer base, he said. Many customers grew up on Uncle Dan’s as children and have returned to the product as adults. The logo has changed a few times, but people still recognize the Uncle Dan character on the packet. They’re usually happy to learn there really is an Uncle Dan.

“Those are hard shoes to fill,” his son said. But if he needs Dad – aka Uncle Dan and the chairman of the board – “He’s always there if I need him, just a phone call away.”

Find a couple of recipes that feature Uncle Dan’s dip and dressing mixes on the Too Many Cooks blog at www.spokesman.com/ blogs/too-many-cooks.