Social Listening- MeatEater

 

The other night I asked the family to suggest a brand, product or company.  I didn't give a ton of information as to why.  Some of the names that were suggested included Scentsy, Nike, M&M's, Vans, and MeatEater.  I thought about it and decided MeatEater would be great.  This is a great choice for many reasons, but to list a few:  We like to hunt, we enjoy listening to their Pod Casts while in the car, we like to watch the TV show, and we like to eat what we hunt.  As you can see, Meateater has a conglomerate of things going on.  Clothing line, hunting gear, TV series, Pod Casts, and books to name a few.

    As I dug a bit, I found that MeatEater's value proposition states, "Founded with the belief that a deeper understanding of the natural world enriches all of our lives, MeatEater, Inc. brings together leading influencers in the outdoor space to create premium content experiences and unique apparel and equipment” Over the years, MeatEater has been successful in what they do, and that is why they have been able to expand their product lines.  Below are a few things they offer or are involved in:

 

 

One of the posts I looked into became a bit controversial.  This post refers to the term "huntress", and how many people feel it is overused.  I have included the main post below, as well as some comments from the post.  All of this data below was found on Facebook, directly on the MeatEater Facebook page:

 

 

 

 Below are a few comments regarding this read.  The very first post I agree with to a great degree.  My daughter is currently nine years old, has a rifle, shows an interest in hunting, and has been antelope hunting with us.  In fact, she helped clean/gut the antelope, as well as helped process the meat.  My sixteen-year-old stepdaughter just completed making a Freedom/European mount.  This Facebook post hits home, and I feel hunting for girls is a great learning experience.  With my stepdaughter, she has an opportunity to take a taxidermy class soon, so by her pulling the fur, removing the eye sockets, etc., gave her a preliminary experience to help her decide if it is a class she wants to pursue or not.

 

 

Switching gears, also on the MeatEater Facebook page, they are currently taking pre-orders of a book written by MeatEater founder, Steven Rinella.  A total of 261 comments so far has been posted.   Please note that on the post below, not only does it reference family engagement, as well as promotes the show found on Netflix. I have included a few comments on the post.  The one by Gail I love as she mentions her kids memorizing the MeatEater episodes, references recipes as well as clothing she has purchased.  For Christmas, MeatEater was running a promotional offering, where if you bought anything from them, you got a free calendar.  Let’s just say, we have a MeatEater calendar hanging on our wall!

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a snip it from the MeatEater’s Facebook page.  This image is what greets you as soon as you visit their page:

This is just one other example of them promoting that they offer a MeatEater YouTube channel.  Very eye-catching way to do subliminal messaging.

 

 

My fiancé and I have been following Steve Rinella for about three years now. We follow him on Facebook, listen to his Podcasts, have some of his clothing, watch him on cable and Netflix, as well as have a cookbook of his.  During all the MeatEater podcasts, they are marketing something!  Sometimes it’s boots, sometimes its talking about their conservation efforts and how you as a listener can help, other times its it may be First Lite hunting gear in which MeatEater is also tied into.  Below is the “about us” section directly from https://www.themeateater.com/about-us.  Their marketing focus is to continue to engage customers by offering different methods to engage them.  From TV, podcasts, books, audiobooks, and clothing, they are hitting just about every marketing option available.  They continue to excel by building brand recognition, and as I mentioned earlier, they are very successful in what they are doing.

 

 

I did notice as I was reviewing their Facebook comments, MeatEater or Steven Rinella doesn’t appear to comment or respond on the comments.  I didn’t look deeper on Instagram as I have forgotten my login information, oops!  I think on the post regarding the pre-order of books, it would have been helpful if they would have responded to a couple of the comments/questions.  One person asked if the books would be autographed, especially to anyone who pre-ordered.  As far as I could see, there was no engagement.

 

If I were to be the brand manager for MeatEater, I would engage more on social media with my consumers.  I don’t feel that it would have to be often, but enough to show I appreciate my customers, respond here and there to basic questions, etc.  I have no doubt that they are aware of the comments, but honestly, may be too busy to comment.  Being brand manager, I would continue to engage with my customers, and possibly (if not already out there) make the podcasts available in different languages to include and engage other demographic areas.

This assignment taught me how important it is to do things you enjoy.  It reminded me how many brands and products MeatEater is involved in.  They truly have their hands in many pots. I’ve also learned by doing this assignment, that sometimes to be successful, you have to be willing to take risks, branch out, and include many different walks of life.