Solo Stove Marketing Analysis

Solo Stove's Smokeless Snoop Dogg Campaign

By: Jacob Smith

 
This topic in marketing interested me because I had heard about it throughout social media when it was all happening. The “Giving up smoke” tweet from Snoop Dogg was everywhere, and peaked my interest. I got to witness the full campaign, from the first tweet to the reveal of a smokeless outdoor stove, and I thought it was quite the clever idea. When I found an article detailing the results of this campaign by MarketDive, I decided to write this article on this campaign.

    Solo Stove went public in 2021, and showed positive results and growth up until the second half of 2023, where some marketing decisions did not work out for them. In a new campaign to try and gather media attention and new customers, Solo Stove set up a collaboration with Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg put out a tweet that he would be “giving up smoke” from out of the blue, gathering a lot of media attention speculating what this could mean. Soon afterwards, Solo Stove and Snoop Dogg put out a video of Snoop endorsing a smokeless outdoor stove. The video gained a lot of attention online, however, it fell short in terms of lasting impact and profit. 

    Solo Stove has a value proposition of allowing families to enjoy time together and make memories in the backyard together while enjoying a high quality stove. This new campaign was an attempt to expand their brand to a new audience of customers, with this being its first national marketing campaign. They wanted this campaign to be the lift off point for the company to get into the bigger scene.

    The campaign involving Snoop Dogg “Giving up smoke” made waves online. I saw several posts about the tweet Snoop put online and I am not in an audience that would be keeping up with news on him. They then revealed in an ad they released that Snoop meant giving up smoke in his outdoor fireplace using a smokeless firepit by Solo Stove. This campaign did not appeal to Solo Stoves normal buyer persona. They were instead trying to make waves amongst the whole internet, and attempt to reach new buyers. This approach of faking out the audience by having a celebrity who’s brand involves smoking advertise a smokeless stove was a unique and effective way to stir up interest in the campaign.

    I think the marketing strategy was interesting and innovative, however it seems to have not worked out quite how the company would have liked. The ploy to grab audiences attention with a disguised marketing tweet from Snoop Dogg was very effective, and got eyes where the brand wanted so they could launch their campaign with all eyes on where they were doing it. It got the name of the brand out there in front of the public. However, after the initial launch, things seemed to fizzle out, with Solo Stove not meeting their expectations. This is likely due to who they were targeting. Solo Stove marketed smokeless outdoor firepits, a very specific product. Snoop Dogg has a lot of reach but the audiences for the product and the celebrity head of the campaign do not line up. Solo Stoves products usually are marketed to families looking for backyard fun, and this campaign did not lean into that idea.

    If I were the brand manager, I think I would have taken a different approach to this marketing campaign. The initial attention grabber was quite effective, but it is clear it did not have the impact in terms of customer increase the company wanted. I would look for a celebrity who fits more in line with the brand already in place along with the product. Someone who might be thought of as being more of an outdoorsman. I might go with a popular male country singer, as a smokeless fire pit stove would fit well with sitting outside with friends drinking beer and having a good time, and country music tends to fit that activity and is a topic in some songs. The key purpose of this campaign is to try and find people who would actually use this product and appeal strongly to them.

    This is a perfect example of how important it is to know your brand and your target audience. If you lose sight of either of those in your campaign, it is likely that you will fall short of your goals. This is also a good example of just having a big name celebrity back your product is not enough for things to grow and for a campaign to be successful.

Links:

Original article - https://www.marketingdive.com/news/solo-stove-viral-snoop-dogg-stunt-marketing-fail/705029/

Solo Stove's Website: https://www.solostove.com/en-us