Social Listening - OFFFIELD

 I chose to write about OFFFIELD, they make cbd gummies and drinks specifically for athletes. I usually think of cbd as something that makes you relax so marketing it as something to take prior to a workout caught me eye and I decided to write about the company. Their products usually contain a combination of cbd and Yerba Mate so you've got something that revs you up but also helps relax your muscles a bit. Sounds like a pretty remarkable idea to me. From the reviews I was able to find it seems like people who've tried it love it. 

OFFFIELD's Instagram's bio is "Movement Made Happy, Plant enhanced drinks and gummies to help you perform at your highest" Get it? Highest? Because weed? They're pretty punny if you ask me. Humor seems to be a big part of their marketing.

If I were to paraphrase their mission statement it'd be something along the lines of "Our products make working out suck less!".

OFFFIELD's Instagram feed is full of photos of gorgeous green tennis courts, photos of their products, and humorous comics.

These products are branded for all kinds of athletes but they also specifically target tennis fans. One of their recent Instagram posts shows a couple pretty tennis courts:

Their tennis related content usually gets some positive comments, @jessie.alaniz commented "I LOVE this" while @awaken_lompoc commented "This makes me wanna pick up a racket!" 

I find the tennis posts interesting because they're not directly advertising any of their products, they're just posting stuff that people who like tennis may comment on. They're just trying to generate positive feedback on their page and get some content out there. Even if they're not advertising any products in this post, they still want to get your attention and try to get you to start checking out their page.

Their Instagram is also full of humorous comics about their products:

This comic got some positive responses with @theweedtrainer commenting "Some of my best runs have been with devils lettuce lol" and @jackson.t.kelley saying "i want those shorts". This post is cleaver because it works two ways, it's funny so people are inclined to comment and respond to the joke and it also advertises their "Run High" shorts.

Not all their posts have all positive feedback though:

While @sai_beyond responded positively to this post, @du5tinthewind responded with three cricket emoji's. Sometimes their jokes are a little corny and not everyone thinks they're funny. Regardless of whether or not @du5tinthewind thought the post was funny or not, he cared enough to comment on the post which in turn draws more attention to the post. Regardless of how long or short the comment OFFFIELD gives almost every comment a reply, keeping their followers engaged. For example, @sai_beyond responded to this post saying "honestly hilarious". The comment doesn't give OFFFIELD much to go off of in regards to responding with a reply so they decided to respond with a quick emoji. Even though their response was short, they're still giving a potential customer positive feedback.

I find this company's social media interesting because instead of spam posting pictures of their products, they're posting funny comics and general tennis content to keep their fans interested. A challenge facing this brand is the negative stigma around marijuana, these humorous comics make people laugh and hopefully will encourage people to loosen up a bit and risk giving their attention to an idea that may not be conventional. 

To critique this company's marketing I want to start off by saying I think the funny posts are a great idea. Many companies that sell clothing or products related to weed come off as cringey, like they're trying too hard to make their brand seem hip. In my opinion and this company does a good job of staying clear of that kind of marketing with their posts. Though I don't quite understand the relevance of the tennis content, mainly in that they don't have their products present in any of those photos. Posting stuff about tennis is great if a significant portion of your customers respond well to that but I don't see why you can't throw in an OFFFIELD water bottle in there or something. 

In regards to the way they interact with people who comment on their post I think they do a good job overall though they do miss comments every now and then. They didn't end up responding to @du5tinthewind with his cricket emojis for example. If you're trying to gain positive rapport with your followers, it would be smart to reply to every comment whether positive or negative.