AMA Visits YETI HQ

Texas State's Chapter of American Marketing Association recently took a field trip to the YETI Headquarters to witness their behind-the-scenes action. YETI is an Austin-based company that has grown over the past 10 years, and not many people get the opportunity to visit their main office. This is our story.

Everyone arrived at the YETI HQ decently early. The visitors building was a very hospitable and welcoming area. It has a bakery and coffee shop downstairs that kept us comfortable prior to our tour. The Headquarters also has a breathtaking view of the Austin Hill Country, along with a modern patio that overlooks it.

We were sweetly greeted in the lobby by our host Savannah who walked us to a conference room. We learned that all the conference rooms at YETI are named after a person, place, or thing that has significantly impacted the company's journey. Everyone's spot was marked with a complementary navy-blue YETI hat and Magazine.

We were given a couple of presentations, first by Haley, who showed us a couple of YETI's videos explaining who they are and their story from the ground up. These were truly inspiring and can be found on their company’s website, yeti.com. We also learned what type of positions are at YETI and what they entail, all of the different departments and how they are all so close to each other. We learned how critical it is to everyone that they stick to their core values. In fact, their core values are the first thing employees see when they walk into work each day. It taught us to be authentic and always remember and act upon our core values, just like AMA reminds us.

Our second presentation was given by two associates, April and Chris, who told us about how they got to where they are with the company and how it has positively affected their lives. They also showed us some behind-the-scenes views of the company's Salesforce, which was very interesting to all of us since we are primarily business majors who will likely deal with that program in the future. Chris had recently created a survey and they were getting a lot of response from it, giving them a new look into their customer base and what they can do to improve their standings. They opened the floor up to Q&A at the end, which was engaging and exciting; we all learned a lot!

After the presentations we got to tour their back office where most of the operations happen. This was the confidential area. Needless to say, it was truly a special experience witnessing their open culture and family-like atmosphere. The headquarters may be large in size, but it is tight in community.

They had also recently opened a shop that was open to the public and gave us 30% off for doing the tour! The shop is extremely cute and we took our group picture in front of the YETI wall with lights bordering the letters. Some people bought cups, some people bought coolers, and we saw a lot of cool gear. YETI has released a variety of products in this past year, some I did not previously know existed. We were so happy to get this opportunity, and it did not disappoint.