Social Listening: The Houston Astros and Their Incompetent Social Media Strategy – Still Carrying the Cheater's Stigma

 

Astros vs. all y'all...🤷‍♂️

Well *sigh* the Houston Astros carved out a seemingly legit season where they hoisted the World Series Commissioner’s Trophy, only 5 years after being found guilty of a major sign-stealing scandal. The team used advanced video relay technology to steal signs from the opposing team’s catcher and then relayed that sign back to the batter by using a trashcan as percussive communication. They had real-time video streams onto screens in their dugouts. They were fined $5 Million dollars by the League Office. No players lost any playing time. Imagine being a diehard Yankees fan and having to stomach the 4-3 ALCS loss in 2017, only to find out later that your opponent had an unfair advantage. The amount of malice and loathing would possibly be insurmountable. I am entranced at how the Astros managed to not only win it all last year, but to not give a fuck while doing it. Watching a game from the Astros broadcast booth helps put a voice to the brand identity. Former 1999-2012 infielder Geoff Blum who does play-by-play comes across as arrogant and smug.

As Rob pointed out during our class last Wednesday, this year’s All Star Game was in Seattle and he mentioned the booing that occurred when Outfielder (Air) Yordan Alvarez, Left-Handed Pitcher Framber Valdez and Outfielder Kyle Tucker walked the red carpet. It was not the typical booing that occurs but rather a RESOUNDING boo of malevolent ire. The fans of Seattle let themselves be heard that they certainly haven’t forgotten about the cheating. But what is being said on Social Media about the matter? Is the Astros organization saying anything back? 

My personal experience related to the matter is that my boss who is a HUGE Dodgers fan said that he and his friend could actually hear the banging on the trash cans when his team was playing the Astros in Los Angeles. He looked me in the eyes and said, “We heard them.” I believe him.

YouTube yields many results related to interviews with pitchers who figured out that there was something amiss. Also, there is quite a bit of videos of Astros batters getting hit by pitches. The entire league was so bereft with the 2017 scandal, that pitchers from all teams hit the Astros batters again and again during the 2018 season. It got worse in the season with Joe Kelley where it became an outright display of unsportsmanlike conduct and testosterone-fueled animosity. I do think the team was lucky that the pandemic happened which may have slightly saved them from additional on-field violent behavior just due to sheer amount of time.

 This type of punitive actions that are largely televised paint a picture of the hatred and disrespect that not only the non-Astros players have for the Astros but of the fan bases and the organization’s as a whole. This fuels quite a bit of malice between fan bases.

The product that the Houston Astros organization is trying to sell is an exciting on-field fan experience for the whole family. The social media manager only posts game scores when the Astros win. Kind of strange but it helps solidify my larger point – the Houston Astros are like an Ostrich. Lets just bury our head in the sand, keep doing what we are doing, and hopefully it will all go away. The brand is promoting a win-first mentality and makes no acknowledgment of their past transgressions.

This brand is trying to do something quite remarkable, is to change the public perception of the team, which is an incredibly difficult task. The marketing challenge facing the brand is that this team was found guilty of cheating and there was very little grey area left up to interpretation. The large H with the star is quite a recognizable brand in the world of baseball, and not necessarily a positive one.

I personally believe that the marketing of the brand is a complicated duality to their objective. They have lost so much respect for what the players and management have done. Is there even any kind of attempt to repair this divide? Or do they embrace the polarizing effect? I believe that in the same vein of politics, the base is loyal no matter what, and they thrive on the attention. Some may say that is like drinking the tears of the haters to hydrate their success.

In my examples the Astros social media team did not respond to any comments on Instagram.

If I were the Brand Manger for the Houston Astros I would respond to customers when there is messaging and opinions related to the 2017 sign-stealing scandal being posted. My reply would come across heartfelt and customized – not corporate or canned in tone. Just acknowledge the wrongdoing! None of them acknowledge it! Some players like Carlos Correa have moved onto different teams but many such as Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve are still on the team!

I would specifically come up with an apology and mean it. I think that there would be a ton of respect that could be gained from the other fan bases and I think that some positive media could be generated from this as well. I certainly don’t agree with how things have been handled, and I am sure if I dug back into 2019 -2020 era of IG comments when things were still much more fresh, I would find quite to be concerned about as brand manager.

All in all, I learned that the organization is doing very little to engage with customers over social media, to which I was disappointed. I also learned that there is room for improvement when it comes to PR and the Astros, which will only work if they are willing to be honest.