Yeti

The Ask:
Develop a long-term strategy for Yeti coolers moving into the future.

Key Drivers:
When envisioning the future of the Yeti brand, we came up with key drivers that our team thought would most influence the direction that the company would have to take to stay relevant. Our key drivers were “Leaving Cities” vs “City Living” and the prevalence of “Single Use Plastics” vs “Multi-Use Plastics.”

After doing some research, we recognized that there was a growing trend in people moving away from city centers as the cost of living continues to rise. The other current trend is that cities all across the world are banning the use of single use plastics such as bags, straws, bottles and styrofoam containers.

As a result, our team decided that for the Yeti brand to stay relevant in the future, the company needed to focus on targeting people who were both leaving cities and using multi-use plastics. We named this segment the “Socially-Conscious Suburbanites.”

The Insight:
Insulation technology isn’t changing, but what people are putting inside the cooler is. This is ultimately going to be the deciding factor that determines how Yeti as a company needs to move forward.

Yeti is brand that’s about pushing the limits of what people can do and we need to evolve to meet where people are going not just physically, but culturally.

The Strategy:
Insulating the fuel of adventure.

The Marketing:

1) Licensing - Yeti technology and name (2020)
By licensing the Yeti name and technology to watercraft companies, Yeti can insert themselves directly into the outdoor space while providing boaters and fisherman with upgraded cooler technology for drinks and fish.

2) Product Innovation - Creation of the styrofoam cooler 2.0 (2030)
With styrofoam bans occurring across the world, Yeti can capitalize on its name for overbuilt coolers and create a cheaper overbuilt disposable cooler out of recycled materials (wool and wood pallets). With wool, only 30% is used to make clothing while 70% is thrown away. Similarly with wood pallets, about 54% of pallets are discarded after one time use. Yeti can source these materials to create a more effective cooler than the current styrofoam coolers sold at local gas stations and replace them as bans begin to occur more regularly in the US. 

3) B to B - Yeti Laboratories (2040)
As various companies begin to catch up with Yeti’s rotomold technique for overbuilding coolers, Yeti can move away from the cooler industry and move towards the general insulation industry. Yeti can invest in creating insulation tech that can be sold to other businesses moving Yeti away from a B to C company and more towards a B to B.

Team:
Mason Shuck (Creative Brand Management), Lee Kuykendall (Creative Brand Management), Davis Rhodes (Strategy)