Listening to Hydro Flask

       At some point in the past 5 years it seems like you have owned at least one hydro flask or even multiple. If you were lucky enough to not lose yours, you could probably use it for years on end or the fact that these things will keep water cold or hot for hours. According to hydro flask's FAQ website, people say,"Simple and reliable". Now this is where my interest is sparked. Is it enough for Hydro Flasks to just be simple and reliable? With trending brands like Yeti and Stanley who have skyrocketed in the past years, what is hydro flask doing for their customers to not become a relic of the past?

    Full Circle

Hydro Flask states, "We do it because we believe reusable, refillable and reliable products are key to reducing single-use waste. #RefillForGood is our rally cry to raise awareness and encourage people to make the switch to reduce single-use plastics". All over there page they have articles and blogs that talk about their goal to eliminate single-use plastics. They believe that the key to sustainability is in there water bottles.

Comments

    After Browsing Comments on Hydro flasks social media pages it is apparent that everyone has mainly

good things to say about Hydro flask. A comment by Sarah, "I'm a college student, may I just have one please lol". This was followed by a comment from Cath or Maxima that wrote, "If you buy one, you are set for life, they have a lifetime warranty". I found this very interesting as I further read down the comments and learned that if your Hydro flask gets destroyed or damaged in anyway they will replace it on there claim portion of there website. 

    Its apparent that Hydro flask is open to customer feedback according to one comment from Mostlyihatepeople, "Your coffee cup lid has wrecked me with its leaking. Please design a new lid". Hydro Flask then responded with, "Hey, there! Send us a DM, we'd be happy to help you." Although the comment is negative, Hydro Flask addresses this and shows there openness to customer feedback to improve. 

    Hydro Flask may try to get around to commenting back to everyone, they leave some in the dark. At the bottom of the comment section I found, by Connor, "No way a new 50$ cup in a slightly different color??!". Connor commented on Hydro's new Phantom drop featuring all purple items for halloween season. Comments like these are good for Hydro flask as a company because they can look and at this and maybe adjust what there next holiday drop is for customer satisfaction. 

     

                       

    Overall I think Hydro Flask has good intentions of responding to their customers. On there social media they tend to respond back to the first 20 or so comments then leave the rest. Im split between this tactic because as a consumer of their product I look at this and get the idea that they are just doing the bare minimum to look like they are engaging with their customers. Furthermore, I dove into more comments and noticed a trend. If you payed attention to what they commented back you noticed that sometimes there replies to people were the exact same. This made it seem like the comments are generated through a computer and not an actual person. From the consumer point of very this is a very bad look on the company and gives you a sense of feeling like this company has no intention on caring for their customers. 

Hydro Flask Marketing

As Hydro Flask is known for there very durable water bottles, I have concluded that there marketing is good at best which according to Seth Godin," being good is risky", meaning to try and be remarkable which is something Hydro flask really doesn't show. They post on social media things that you would see from any other company. They have sales for special holidays and come out with new color themes all the time. Now, besides the criticism I may be reflecting on their marketing, they do have a proactive way to approach there value proposition of eliminating single use plastic with there water bottles. In March of 2023, Hydro flask released their new program, "Launched our Trade-In program". This is a great way for consumers to see Hydro Flask taking action on the issue of one use water bottles. Lastly, Hydro Flask tries to bring the marketing tactic of being first. In the industry they are in, being first to innovate new items which is key to brand success. For example the brand Stanley innovated a unique water bottle by having a smaller bottom with a large top that can hold lots of ounces but at the same time has a flashy new top that brings the moderness to them. Stanley really started to see their company explode when a lady videoed her entire car had been in flames and her stanley was sitting in the cup holder, still holding paint and untouched. The owner of Stanley responded to this event awarding the lady a couple new stanleys and a new car. From this Stanley over doubled there revenue in just a couple months. This right here could be one of the leading challenges Hydro Flask is facing. The Look of Stanley's already caught the eye of the newer generation more than Hydro Flasks ever did and the durability was proven when there water bottle could survive a car fire. From this we have seen a improvement in the new items that get revealed from Hydro Flask. They are attempting to be first in the next new and improved design for a water bottle following all the latest trends and customer feedback. From what there social media is conveying in the post I get the understanding that they are taking initiative on greeting all the newest designs of cups. Now, whether these are actually working who knows, but I do know they are showing there audience there is a sense of creativity in the company and motive to be the first on the latest and greatest niche market. 

    

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        Stanley Survived Car Fire                                                Different Models of Hydro Flask

What If I Was The Brand Manager?

    If I was the Brand Manager at Hydro Flask I would first start by expanding my client base to a greater variety of customers. The probably with Hydro Flask right now is there isolation they have created in there company from the rest of the world. Hydro Flask is based out of a small town about 40 minutes from my hometown. Knowing the community they are trying to reach I think it would be best for them to try and collab with celebrities and bring awareness to their product. This will be extremely effective because there social media does not reach the amount of people it needs to. By collaborating with celebrities or people that lead different cultures, Hydro Flask will find a larger customer base with more variety of what they want to see as customers which might lead to sales in water bottles they never thought would sale and create that next new trending item. 

   

    After researching into Hydro Flask I learned that even if it seems like a company is interacting with their customer, they can be using automated messages or a messaging system that just gives the idea of them communicating person-to-person. I found this extremely interesting because people like me that notice that get a nasty taste in my mouth about the company because in my eyes its almost better to not respond to comments than try and make people think you are responding by faking the method you are using.