Popchips, established in 2005, may not be the best known
snack food, but the company has done a great job developing a social media
presence that rivals its better known competitors. In fact, when the company
started it relied on word-of-mouth and grass roots marketing, which included
social media, rather than mass media (Hong, 2013). The content included
endorsements from high profile celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry,
and P-Diddy. “That strategy helped it secure distribution in 30,000 retailers
across the country, as well as private-equity firm infusions, along the way”
(Lukovitz, 2014).
As of today, Popchips has:
- 408,634 “likes” on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/popchips)
- 42,000 followers on Twitter (@popchips)
- 1,497 followers on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/popchips/)
- Upwards of 2 million views on a single video on YouTube
Let’s compare this to Lays, the number one selling potato
chip in the US. As of today, Lays has:
- 7,285,164 “likes” on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/lays)
- 322,000 followers on Twitter (@LAYS)
- 1,581 followers on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/lays/)
- Upwards of 12 million views on a single video on YouTube
If you just look at the numbers, you may think that Lays is
doing a much better job with their social media efforts than Popchips, but I would
argue that. Popchips annual revenue is approximately $93 million (Popchips,
2013) whereas Lays is approximately $11.3 billion (Frito-Lay, 2014). Further,
Popchips employs only 90 associates (Popchips, 2013) while Frito lay employs
over 50,000 (Our Vision, n.d.). With all of this in mind, I think Popchips has
been quite successful. The company’s videos have gained a huge audience. I would
recommend Popchips builds on its success and continues to post quirky videos featuring
celebrity endorsements throughout its social media channels.
While an article in PracticalEcommerce mentions “The only
way to capture and quantify how often social media influenced purchases…is to
ask visitors and customers” (Wilson, 2012), I would argue in Popchip’s case,
they could equate product awareness and sales to social media since the company
doesn’t focus on other, mainstream media.
Frito-Lay (2014) Forbes.
Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/companies/frito-lay/
Hong, Nicole. (2013, February 20). New Kind of Chip Pops on
the Scene. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved
from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323764804578314071686763506
Lukovitz, Karlene. (2015, September 25). Popchips' Next
Stage Includes TV, Redesigned Site. Media
Post. Retrieved from: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/234886/popchips-next-stage-includes-tv-redesigned-site.html
Our Vision (n.d.) Frito
Lay. Retrieved from: http://www.fritolay.com/company
Popchips (2013) Forbes.
Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/companies/popchips/
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ReplyDeleteI have tried these addicting snacks and am happy to see that they are now non-gmo verified. It’s exciting to see a company start to have success, especially considering that there is so much competition in this product category. I really admire the fact that they started by relying on word-of-mouth and grass roots marketing. It’s definitely a gutsy move for a company that may have had a restrictive marketing budget to take. It proves that the founders must have really believed in their product. Social media is such a great way to gain traction for a new company. On blissfullydomestic.com, author Shana Albert provides a list of why small businesses should use social media. Number 8 explains how small businesses can use social media to compete with larger companies by using the right type of viral social media to gain greater amounts of traffic with quickly-growing natural links to keep traffic coming. (Albert, NA) She also mentions, as we have learned in previous courses, word-of-mouth marketing is powerful as most people trust individuals they know for product reviews and recommendations. I think it’s interesting that this company moved towards celebrity endorsements, which must have been pricey. Celebrity product endorsements are extremely common because companies know that people want to be associated with brands that are connected to high-profile people whom we recognize and admire. (Apfelberg, 2014) The increased use of social media will only make the influence of celebrity endorsements greater where a simple tweet or post has the ability to bring thousands of consumers to a brand’s website in a matter of minutes. (Apfelberg, 2014) I took the chance to look at the company’s main site along with their Facebook and Twitter accounts. I really like how they highlight the product variety and how they seem to have a sense of humor, which would appeal to so many people.
Do you think these endorsements were the key to leading the company to an increase in sales and success? Do you think the company will eventually move towards traditional and mainstream media to advertise?
References
Apfelberg, A. (2014, January 6) Building Your Brand: Leveraging the Power of Celebrity Endorsement. Retrieved at:http://www.bulldogreporter.com/dailydog/article/thought-leaders/building-your-brand-leveraging-the-power-of-celebrity-endorsement
Albert, S. (NA) 20 Reasons Your Small Business should Use Social Media. Retrieved at:http://blissfullydomestic.com/life-bliss/20-reasons-small-businesses-should-use-social-media/7414/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Sabrina! Thank you for an excellent example in social media analytics. I enjoyed reading this post because you showed that it is possible to succeed with social media even if you’re a smaller company, which often goes against the grain of public sentiment that only larger companies succeed with social media efforts. In your example you illustrate that Frito-Lay is a much larger company than Popchips. In support of your findings, Frito-Lay has 555 employees for every one Popchips employee. In your post you stated, “Popchips annual revenue is approximately $93 million (Popchips, 2013) whereas Lays is approximately $11.3 billion (Frito-Lay, 2014).” In other words, the annual revenue of Popchips makes up around 1% of the annual revenue of Frito-Lay. I agree with your assessment that even though there are substantial differences in numbers (employees, revenue, etc.), Popchips is performing quite well for a company their size. Again, I really enjoyed reading your post and thank you for such an interesting example.
ReplyDelete- Joe
References:
Frito-Lay (2014) Forbes. Retrieved from:http://www.forbes.com/companies/frito-lay/
Popchips (2013) Forbes. Retrieved from:http://www.forbes.com/companies/popchips/
Hi Sabrina, well done! Nice post and content. How could popchips use SEO, social media, and content to increase its prevalence and become better known to consumers? In what ways is it already using social media, and how can it improve from its current position?
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