Social Listening: Carpe

Today I will be analyzing the company Carpe! They are a deodorant company that focuses on making antiperspirant products that really, truly, work. I personally have been seeing their ads across Instagram and YouTube that show off a variety of reviews saying how well their products work and sometimes explaining why their products work so well. Carpe focuses on creating antiperspirant products that are amazingly effective while sidelining all of the unneeded, frilly aspects of deodorant. Seeing their ads across so many platforms is what has made me interested in analyzing this product-focused company! 

Many of the comments on Carpe's Instagram are just simple questions asking the company for product recommendations, claiming and promoting a product's effectiveness, or seeking clarifications on certain products. One person on Instagram asked Carpe to create a refillable version of their underarm deodorant in order for the company to reduce its plastic waste. 

Carpe mostly focuses on showing off the effectiveness of their products and why they work so well through their social media. They also like to showcase their latest products and create posts based on other recent trends. In many of their ads and reels on Instagram, you'll find many videos that share discount codes while also being entertaining! While being entertaining, these promotional videos are catching the attention of viewers through newsjacking. 

Many of their posts are based around the newest trends in music, film, and general meme culture. Carpe focuses on drawing in a younger audience who are most likely to see their ads through Instagram, YouTube, and other social media sites. Some of these sorts of posts include an image of one of their deodorant sticks but fully neon green with the company's name in black text across the front of it. This is of course in reference to Charlie XCX's BRAT album cover which has been making its rounds across the internet. 

Even though Carpe has over 90 thousand followers on Instagram, they seem to be trying to build brand recognition and expand their sales by using engaging videos and sharing many discount codes on their Instagram. Many of these exact posts seem to have lots of questions from customers for product recommendations and online shopping assistance. Carpe's account usually answers these questions quite professionally and directly. I find this sort of interaction between the company and the customer to be incredibly helpful! It shows that the company cares about its customers and their satisfaction. 

If I were the brand manager of Carpe, I think I would take a similar approach to social media as the brand is already doing. Their target market seems to be Gen Z and Millenials who struggle with sweatiness and oiliness. Using a variety of short-form content is how most young adults and teenagers gain their information so using Instagram reels would be my first way to catch people's attention, but I would take it one step further than what Carpe is currently doing and focus on making the general account layout look aesthetically pleasing. The variety of their posts look disjointed when looked at all together. I would use a set color palette for Instagram posts in order to make the account layout look more cohesive and pleasing to the eye. 

From analyzing Carpe, I've learned a lot about the importance of social media, how certain companies can use social media to their advantage, and what taking advantage of social media looks like.