Social media case study written for graduate school program.

1. Renée Clare-Kovacs
UNIVERSITYOF KANSAS |JOUR 866
Stainless Steel
A SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDY

2. Stainless Steel: a social media case study
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Stainless Steel: a social media case study
It’s wild in the outdoor living industry. Two of the titans of the terrain are Ozark Trail and YETI.
The way the two brands are managed in social media are vastly different. Ozark Trail is a brand
carried at big-box, discount retailer and YETI is almost an anti-Ozark Trail company, “built for
the serious outdoor enthusiast rather than for the mass-discount retailers” (yeti.com/our-
story).
A Better Brand
YETI was started by two brothers in 2006 in response to “these cheaply built, ordinary ice
chests [which were] limiting our good times” (yeti.com/our-story). This almost direct insult to
mass-discount retailer Walmart is completely unanswered online. The only information that can
be found on Ozark Trail is that it is a brand used for outdoor equipment, named for the Ozark
mountain region where the Walmart Home Office is located, and even this brief description is
uncited on the crowdsourced encyclopedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Walmart_brands).
YETI has created a strong social media presence. They use their Twitter account to inform their
88.8k users about YETI giveaways, brand-sponsored events, and to post planned content
around holidays, outdoor activities, and pop culture events. The company’s Facebook page has
nearly 570k likes and in a similar fashion to Twitter, they post curated brand content that links
to their other social media platforms. It is YETI’s YouTube page that truly stands out. With over
17, 500 subscribers, YETI has 15 playlists, not including their favorites and liked videos (YETI
YouTube channel). The channel houses videos related to outdoor activities such as hunting and

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fishing, how-to videos, and an engaging “YETI Versus” channel which features a bear and a 500
lb. man trying to destroy a YETI cooler and holiday videos with a pumpkin or fruitcake being
dropped on the cooler from a significant height (spoiler alert: the YETI always wins).
Unlike YETI, neither Ozark Trail nor Walmart have taken online ownership of the Ozark Trail
brand outside of random placement of Ozark Trail items on the 72 boards Walmart maintains
on Pinterest for subjects including spring, Made in the USA, and Travel Must Haves
(www.pinterest.com/walmart/).
Not a Better Product
The YETI stainless steel tumbler became an extremely popular holiday gift for the 2015
shopping season. The tumblers were sold out across the country even at the $40 price point
which many considered to be inflated for a “cup” (AJC.com, December 15, 2015). In March
2016, videos began to be posted on YouTube comparing the YETI tumbler to the $10 Ozark Trail
stainless steel tumblers. The earliest video on YouTube was posted by Fentertainment on
March 25, 2016. The videos tested how well each brand’s stainless steel tumbler would hold ice
for 30 hours by measuring how much ice had melted to water in the 30 hours. The comparison
showed that the tumblers performed equally well despite the implied performance
improvement in the more expensive tumbler. YouTube began to be flooded with user-
generated content showing more comparisons between the two brands’ cups. In response to
the results and cost savings, Walmart began selling out of the Ozark Trail tumblers. YETI, as
would be expected, did not give Ozark Trail tumblers any attention other than to file a lawsuit
against the company for patent infringements.

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As personalized stainless steel tumblers became popular, pins to Pinterest linking to etsy shops
selling the tumblers or how-to make your own videos increased. With Ozark Trail being proven
to provide the same performance as the more expensive competitor, cottage-industry artists
began using them as a base product for customization to drive cost down and profit up.
YETI states on their website that they are more interested in building quality products for
outdoor enthusiasts despite cost. With their significant online presence, YETI had the
opportunity to demonstrate that by taking ownership of the message and talking about why
their tumblers are worth the 300% difference in cost. Conversely, the online conversations
about the comparable performance of Ozark Trail’s $10 tumbler was an opportunity for Ozark
Trail and/or Walmart to emphasize the value of their products against rival outdoor products,
especially ones who have been founded on the claimthat they create quality products which
prevent spending time and money replacing inferior products.
The way YETI and Ozark Trail choose to own their brand of outdoor products is wild. YETI
downplayed a situation which was unfavorable for them. The brand’s wise use of their
successful and wisely managed social media assets could have provided them a voice in the
conversation. By not having an online presence, Ozark Trail and Walmart itself gave away the
chance to curate user generated content from social media, insert themselves into the
conversation, and help drive sales through the social media conversation that favored their
stainless-steel tumbler.

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Reference
YETI. (2016). Our story. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from YETI Our Story,
http://yeti.com/our-story
Coolers, (2009, May 13). YETI coolers on Twitter. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from Twitter,
https://twitter.com/YETICoolers
Facebook, (2016). Facebook. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from YETI Facebook Page,
https://www.facebook.com/Yeti/
Fentertainment (2016, March 28). YETI vs OZARK TRAIL ICE TEST 30 HOUR RESULTS Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfOPdAQQvLU
Kempner, M. (2015, December 15). $40 cups? Yeti Rambler shortage makes for hot holiday gift
craze. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from AJC.com, http://www.myajc.com/news/business/a-
40-yeti-cup-why-people-go-wild-for-the-latest-gi/npj8r/?icmp=KempnerYetiBurst1218
List of Walmart brands (2016). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Walmart_brands
Pinterest. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from Personalized Stainless Steel Tumbler,
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=stainless%20steel%20tumbler&rs=typed&term_m
eta[]=stainless%7Ctyped&term_meta[]=steel%7Ctyped&term_meta[]=tumbler%7Ctyped
Pinterest, Walmart (walmart). Retrieved November 11, 2016, from Walmart Pinterest,
https://www.pinterest.com/walmart/
YouTube, YouTube. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from YETI YouTube,
https://www.youtube.com/user/YetiVideos