Week 3 - BA 223 - Social Listening Blog - Black Rifle Coffee Company

Black Rifle Coffee Company is a veteran owned company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that employ almost 50% of their staff from former veterans. The company has always shown its support for America, the military, law enforcement and guns. Unfortunately, some of these things are not supported by many in America, which unfortunately can cause many to not support a business whose value proposition is based on those things. To that the company has always stayed tried and true to their vision and have grown off those who support the reason they are in business. I appreciate this about the company and if I were their brand manager, I would also support the vision of the company, because this is the basis for which they were founded.

The founders of Black Rifle Coffee are former Green Baret Evan Hafer and former Army Ranger Mat Best. Other top management in the company are also former military. Hafer knew he loved coffee and wanted to roast it while he was in the military and teamed up with his friends at Article15 Clothing to sell his Freedom Roast on their website. He ended up selling 500 pounds of coffee and as a result he was motivated to start his company Black Rifle company in 2014.

With every purchase they give back and their coffee profiles represent various aspects of military and law enforcement related terms such as AK-47 Espresso, Gunship Roast, Supply Drop, Thin Blue Line, Freedom Fuel, and Silencer Smooth. The company also provides discounts on their products to military and veterans.

The company gained notoriety in 2017 when it pledged to hire 10,000 veterans the same year that Starbucks stated in their campaign that they would hire 10,000 refuges. In 2019 they launched a campaign to donate a bag of coffee to a police officer for every bag of coffee that they sold. They did this in response to Starbucks asking six Tempe Arizona officers to leave their store. Black Rifle Coffee Company has also participated in other campaigns where they partnered with non-profits such as Soldiers’ Angels and Operation Supply Drop to help deliver over 30,000 bags of coffee to American troops that are serving overseas.

In March 2020, the company launched a coffee-donation program that supported medical and emergency workers, as well as quarantined military personnel and their families. Additionally, the company launched Coffee & Die Magazine which reports stories on veterans, military, law enforcement and coffee.

In November 2020, the company set a Guinness Book of World Record title for having the most people in a coffee tasting video conference meeting.

In February 2021, the company donated $150,000 to support the Barstool Fund, to save veteran owned businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19. The company also encouraged customers to donate money during the checkout of their purchases on the company’s website.

What interested me about this company is their patriotism and their support of the military. My father is a former 9-year Marine, my grandfather a former Navy man, I have a cousin who is in the military, an uncle who served in Desert Storm in the Army, and many friends who are veterans. My dad was an amorist for the Marine Corps and the Department of Homeland Security, so supporting the military is something I stand behind. This is a company that I really have a desire to work for some day because of their support of their fellow man and the amount that they give back to others. I have also watched a lot of their marketing videos on YouTube, kept track of their progress as a company over the years, and just appreciate their love for their products and the vision of what they do as an organization. Many Americans also appreciate the company for these reasons as well. There are a lot of people on social media that are former military or have friends/family who served in the military, so they appreciate the stories that Black Rifle Coffee Company posts on its Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages. Below are just some of the things that people are saying about Black Rifle Coffee Company.

In 2020, Black Rifle went to the media, social media and video to counteract negative publicity as a result of a photo of the shooter in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that was posted wearing a Black Rifle Coffee Company shirt. The company wanted to make sure that the public knew they did not sponsor nor have a relationship with the 17-year-old who faced charges in Kenosha. I think that the company response was needed, and that they acted quickly to counteract any negative press or publicity that they might have gotten from the post. Evan Hafer stated that the company’s core value is to support the many veterans who have served our nation and that the company would not waver from that mission and that the company advocates for individual liberties and personal responsibility but do not support legal advocacy efforts and was in no way connected to the shooter in Wisconsin.

I feel that this assignment helped me learn a lot more about a company which I already respected and some of the positive marketing and business campaigns that they support.