Hey Guys, So over the last year I've seen many companies offering field staff positions (especially through social media platforms). More so now than I have in the past. For those of you who are not familiar, a field staff member is one who usually helps promote the brand of the company. They will share posts, reviews, videos, and pictures encouraging to get followers and new customers. As a marketing graduate I see this for a company as genius! I see a lot of benefits for a company to have thousands of field staff. If you think about it, you are getting your field staff to promote your brand, and in return you give them discounts for products you sell. Also you have a thousand loyal customers who are buying up your product. If you filter through the correct individuals, you could have a powerful field staff promoting your brand. My question is having a field staff helping or hurting the hunting industry? Discuss!
These days, 99% of the time being on a field staff is retarded and just some dude that wants to feel special and chest pound because he thinks people will look up to them.
To me personally it is strictly dependent upon the screening process which the company does. Some, hand out the positions like candy to anyone or everyone...or they hand em out to "staff whores" which are some of the most annoying people ever on social media PERIOD. A solid company screens and to be honest has various levels within their field staff...which is precisely one of the reasons why after years and years of hesitating to officially broadcast I was going to pick a seed company (Monsterraxx toyed with it for a while and I utilized and shared but...) I this year decided to team up with Real World Wildlife Products. I've long respected Don Higgins (one of the owners) from times I've heard him personally discuss things, various articles he writes and or his opinions on tactics and plots and such. When I researched how Real World does their Pro Staff's I instantly knew I was more than willing to team up with them. I also believed in their products after quietly researching for years and reaching out to numerous known users of them. If you apply and they after researching your app and yourself or any entity you are connected to or run (my case Small Acre Hunting) pick you to be on their field staff you more or less start on the bottom rung. The first year is a feeler year to make sure you're committed and not just a product whore...and as you grow and prove your loyalty to the product and deliver on your promised promotion you will continue to get better discounts and perhaps them assisting you spread word about you or your entity as well. It is a slow process, which to me is the smartest way to go about it. So yes it can hurt the industry when you have naive idiots blasting products out there and switching to the next hot deal every year or every few...or you have obvious whitless hunters simply tacked onto a staff for sex appeal....just gonna leave it at that.
Yup, "staff whores" like I described are some of the most annoying people there are...yet are extremely obvious if they fit this case...ignoring them is wonderful.
I don't think any company has thousands of field staffers, I could be wrong. Doubt too many have hundreds. I think there's a thin line where too much can be detrimental to peoples overall perception of your brand. A company can be seen as trying too hard and flooding the market with too much marketing and propaganda. I feel like companies do much better with a smaller, but more focused field staff. People who know how to market through social media, who are talented hunters but also talented photographers, videographers and editors. Done right, a field staff can be a very effective way to promote a product at a very minimal expense. Done wrong, you can turn away potential customers. As far as the outdoor industry, there's no doubt it has helped companies grow their brands and profits. The problem is, it has actually worked too well. Lots of companies have pulled their sponsorship dollars or drastically decreased the amount they spend in advertising through hunting shows and television advertising. That can and will have a negative impact on the industry as well in my opinion.
Ty this is a fantastic response! There are so many points that you touch base on here. I totally agree that there are staff whores who are looking to get on as many as possible. I think it's crazy how quickly a person's loyalty can change. Today I'm on Staff A and they are the best thing since sliced bread! Tomorrow I'll join Staff B, wait now they are better!
Depends totally on how the company recruits and selects their "staff shooters. It can help them spread the word or it can hurt them. When anyone and their dog can be a staffer and everyone knows that, the brand dilutes itself and any gains can become losses.
I know a few for a fact that have over a 1000 field staff members. Not all contribute, but they can say they are staff. I think it's foolish to have that many. But that's my opinion.
I 100% agree....while I have only small connections to shows or entities which garner actual sponsorships...the amount of sponsorships have come down more than up from what I've gathered. Maybe JZ could comment (obviously not on specifics but %s)
That may be true, but I would say that's the exception and not the rule. I also think having every Tom, **** and Harry on your staff doesn't really help promote your brand.
I don't think it hurts the hunting industry, but I can see how it can hurt individual brands. Honestly speaking, when I see tons of ads or people preaching behind a specific brand or product, it really makes me want to look at its competitors rather than buying them.
It may to more incompetent people but definitely not to the typical hunting base being targeted...that said it makes sense for a company to have various staffers that get all different "types" I'll say for lack of a better way of putting it. However, once you have a few staffers that hit a certain target audience you are dead on it does nothing but begins discrediting you to just pour more on and dillutes the impact of staffer opinions.
It's very difficult for companies to determine the financial benefits of field staff, pro staff and even sponsorship's. Field staff ads nothing to the marketing budget for a company and only slightly erodes their profit margins. Because there's no real "Cost" involved with carrying a field staff, many companies have chosen to go that route as opposed to spending marketing dollars in advertisement through more traditional sources. This will certainly have a negative impact on the outdoor television industry.
No question. Most of the field staffers are just being used by the company to do their work for them.
Easiest job in the world since that **** sells itself without saying a word. The used buckeye Sitka gear discount is well worth it.
During the infancy of BH.c, JZ sent me a hoody with "Field Staff" printed on the left shoulder. I was so proud, I walked around practically sideways for days, so that the commoners could admire my "title" and congratulate me on my greatness! But then an epiphany happened; I realized that every Tom (Lester), **** (Tunes) & buckeye (I don't know a Harry) was strutting around like a love-stricken gobbler in the Same. Damn. Shirt. It was at that moment I knew that Zarr was a P.I.MP., and that I was staff-whored out for the low, low price of $35 (+ shipping). Field staffs suck... and I'm still bitter. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I really was on the bh.com staff then though... That was before Justin canned me for being to awesome and making the rest of the staff look bad though.
