Solo Stove and Snoop Dogg: A Once Lauded Partnership Now Up in Smoke
Hello my fellow readers! As this is my first blog post on a marketing assessment, I've chosen to focus on something really current as of November 2023. Since the beginning of time in the seventies, Snoop Dogg has been known for smoking cannabis day and night. So, when I saw this ground-breaking message shared on instagram by the one and only Snoop Dogg, my jaw dropped. The message wrote, "After much consideration and conversation with my family, I've decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time." Everyone was confused, sad, angry, happy, all of the emotions were being spread across all social medias. Many were skeptical if it was real or not including myself, and that is why I was so interested. This was a great tactic to involve nontraditional consumers because Snoop Dogg’s tease of not smoking was not related to weed, but the smokeless outdoor fire pit called Solo Stove. Because Snoop Dogg is such an A-list celebrity who many people follow including myself, I never would have looked into buying a smokeless fire pit until I saw that Snoop Dogg was an ambassador.
Initially, the "bait-and-switch strategy" was a success, bringing a ton of social media engagement. In fact, the viral marketing ad as Ad Age listed it as #18 on its Top 40 Ads of 2023. "In the days after the campaign went live, the brand gained more than 60 thousand Instagram followers, the posts received more than 30 million engagements and they also generated billions in earned media impressions and got coverage from mainstream media outlets like CNN." However, celebrity snoop dog did not bring in the intended sales lift as The Martin Agency thought it would. Because of the decrease in sales, the company who created Solo Stove, ended their first national marketing campaign as it followed with the resignation of their previous CEO.
The innovative outdoor lifestyle products that Solo Stove and its parent company, Solo Brands, offer are what make them unique and enjoyable for customers participating in outdoor activities. As I read through the articles the company emphasizes the unique function, superior quality, and specialized design of its products, positioning them as being associated with family and friends. Targeting customers who relate to or want to partake in outdoor activities, Solo Brands seeks to establish a link between its brand and outdoor experiences.
Solo Stove faced challenges after their campaign with the one and only Snoop Dogg failed to generate sales, highlighting misalignment between celebrity ambassador and target audience. As I assessed Solo Brands, it showed their plans to reassess marketing strategies and rebuild brand awareness, launching new campaigns to expand reach, attract new customers, and sustain long-term growth. The brand was very unique as it used a cannabis-friendly celebrity, Snoop Dogg, which aimed to generate buzz but failed to resonate with outdoor enthusiasts' core customer base. While this was a great attempt, the marketing strategy failed to effectively target Solo Stove's core customer base, and catered more to Snoop Dogg fans rather than outdoor enthusiasts. Although initially I thought this Ad was going to be a big hit, I now realize that I would change the ambassador to someone more in the outdoor marketing scene, showing unique features, and using data-driven marketing to capture attention and loyalty.
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/solo-stove-viral-snoop-dogg-stunt-marketing-fail/705029/
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