221BC’s Social Influence Options
221BC embraces the culture of social media as a way to spread its mission of kombucha as a gateway to a healthy lifestyle. As Aneta said, “When I started doing this, I knew it would be big business. I want to make the world a more beautiful, healthier place. The people I hire for our sales team have the same mission and the same principles. [And] we use a lot of social media [to spread the message]” (Denton, 2016).
When it comes to social communities and influencers, 221BC has a world of options. In terms of social objects, 221BC has focused on photos and videos on Instagram. But many other social objects may fit its mission and target market such as recipes, tips, motivational quotes, and coupons. Those objects and where its target audience is active on social media will determine the social network sites 221BC should leverage in its social media marketing campaign.
In addition to social objects, 221BC may want to jump on the influencer marketing bandwagon. According to CreatorIQ, a data company that tracks campaigns of more than 5 million creators worldwide, influencer marketing campaigns have doubled in the past year (Bloom, 2019). Instagram was the social network of choice for 93% of those campaigns.
Of course, 221BC won’t be the first kombucha brand to use influencers. Health-Ade Kombucha partnered with health and fitness duo Tone-It-Up for a popular co-branded flavor, Bubbly Rosé (Bloom, 2019). Health-Ade partners with an influencer platform called Trend to help identify influencers and manage its influencer campaigns. Health-Ade’s CEO, Daina Slekys Trout, said, “Trend allows us to always have a fresh stack of creative content to use across our website, social accounts, and ads. The influencers are a pleasure to work with and always find ways to surprise us with what they can create” (Trend, n.d.). Another kombucha brand, Dr. Brew, took a slightly different approach to influencer marketing. It has a student ambassador program (for students with more than 500 Instagram followers) across many university campuses. In exchange for two social promotion posts per week, Dr. Brew student ambassadors get free kombucha and Dr. Brew swag. GT’s Living Foods leveraged a meme and organic influencer support! Magician influencer Zach King published a video of himself creatively unscrewing a GT’s Kombucha bottle as part of the bottle cap challenge meme. GT’s quickly scooped it up and re-posted with hearty praise. This was not a paid influencer sponsorship, but GT’s recognized the value of King’s following and made the most of the organic endorsement.
221BC will need to identify influencers that may fit with its target market (identified in Chapter 2) and facilitate meeting its objectives. How do marketers go about selecting influencers? While metrics like engagement rate certainly matter, the most important quality companies look for when evaluating influencers is the quality of their content. This suggests that strong creative content will be a key differentiator for effective influencer marketing. The second most important factor is influencer alignment with the company’s target audience, which highlights the increasing

importance of granular audience demographics data for influencer campaigns. 221BC must keep in mind that the influencer characteristics must align with its brand identity and its target audience. For instance, a female yoga influencer is a more natural partner for a kombucha drink than a male mindfulness expert, even if their audiences are very similar.
Discussion Questions
1. What social objects should 221BC share to engage its target market ?
2. How can 221BC leverage word-of-mouth communication?
3. What memes could 221BC use to help the virality of its message?
4. What influencer characteristics should 221BC seek out to choose possible influencers to use in its campaign?
5. Who might be the influencer that you may recommend to 221 BC and why?