Social Listening: Tillamook Cheese

My husband grew up in Tillamook (cheese country as he calls it) on one of the largest dairy farms and is a top contributor to the Tillamook Creamery. My family goes to the creamery every time we are in Tillamook and love the experiences and food we have there. People are saying the same thing. 

The Tillamook Creamery creates value in their best-in-class, locally-owned products focused on protecting the environment and their local community in every action. 

Tillamook Creamery is a destination and an icon of the northern Oregon Coast. Their recent redesignation as a B Corp shows their commitment to sustainability with the dairy industry. Here is what Jen Jackson said on LinkedIn: 

Others talk about history. Their history. The history of the creamery/cooperative. Their history with the creamery. Heck… even I started this post out by mentioning my history with it. Below, David Lawson mentions his history and the impact that the creamery has had on him:  

Finally, the Tillamook Creamery is a destination. There are many social media posts about families and friends coming to Tillamook Creamery. For example, on Instagram, lovedwellshereblog shared their recent visit: 

The creamery is all about creating the farm-to-table feel complimented by history. The feel-good factor in all of their marketing creates memories… memories of family farms and history… memories of new families coming to the creamery for the first time and a goal for future memories as they are promoting their climate action plan. 

The creamery uses storytelling to get their message across. From their social media outlets to the walls that line the inside of their new building, the storytelling continues. They do a fairly good job of targeting the market they believe is on each social media outlet individually. For example, their pinterest page shows receipts while their instagram page shows how their products fit into families. The issue with each type of social media approach is that the customer is not getting a consistent message across all media sources.  

The company does engage with their customers, but not consistently. The customers could have great ownership and feel like they are a part of the brand if the company were to share their stories and posts as part of their own social media. Not sharing more of the customer’s stories consistently feels like a missed opportunity to show the commitment to their larger community they talk about on their website. 

If I were the brand manager, I would do two things. The first is to create a consistent message throughout the social media outlets. For example, show families making the recipes on Pinterest and Instagram. Second, I would make sure to respond to all customers. The community and memories/history are very prominent throughout the brand’s website; it would be easy to use what customers are saying in real time to extend those memories and that community beyond the city limits of Tillamook, Oregon. 

 

Social listening is just as important for the company to do as the customers. The customers share valuable insight as to what part of the brand they feel drawn to. Customers also create amazing, free content that brands can use to further promote their brand to new customers. 

Citations: 

David Lawson. LinkedIn. April 18, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?datePosted=%22past-week%22&keywords=tillamook%20creamery&sid=0cc

Jen Jackson. LinkedIn. April 18, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?datePosted=%22past-week%22&keywords=tillamook%20creamery&sid=0cc

Lovedwellshereblog. Instagram. June 3, 2023 https://www.instagram.com/p/CQALhUdB3oG/

Tillamook Creamery, 2024. https://www.tillamook.com/

Tillamook Creamery. Instagram. April 21, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/tillamook

Tillamook Creamery. Pinterest. April 21, 2024. https://www.pinterest.com/tillamook/tillamook-recipes/