{"id":132615,"date":"2020-10-07T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T12:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=132615"},"modified":"2020-10-07T14:30:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T13:30:54","slug":"from-sports-stars-and-shirts-to-supermarkets-when-brands-take-a-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/from-sports-stars-and-shirts-to-supermarkets-when-brands-take-a-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"From sports stars and shirts to supermarkets: when brands take a stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Go woke, go broke,\u2019 is how a spokesperson from the Laurence Fox-launched Reclaim Party<\/a> chose to summarise the social media dust-up that followed Sainsbury\u2019s tweet<\/a> on inclusivity last week. With the reminder to shoppers of their opportunity to shop elsewhere if they so wish, the #BoycottSainsburys hashtag got a lot of use by those happy (though, many don\u2019t sound particularly happy\u2026<\/a>) to take the store up on its offer. But will the company\u2019s stand on diversity really result in fewer sales? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether taking a stand on politics, social justice or who you welcome as customers is too risky a choice, or a good investment for longer-term loyalty, is a decision every brand, big or small, has to make in 2020. While brands wading in on politics may be a step too far for some \u2013 56% of consumers prefer their brands not to, according to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer<\/a> \u2013 accountability is increasingly being demanded from businesses and politicians, just as it is from family and friends. Accenture\u2019s 2018 Global Consumer Pulse Research<\/a> tells us that 62% want companies to take a stand on issues they are passionate about. Edelman\u2019s 2018 Earned Brand Study<\/a> also found that 64% of consumers choose to avoid or boycott brands based on their stance on societal issues that are important to them.<\/p>\n

In this climate of accountability, big brands are taking the gamble of going beyond cause-related marketing mainstays like teaming up with favoured charities, and making major business decisions centred on ethics. The Fred Perry clothing brand recently made it very clear<\/a> that its \u2018association\u2019 with the far-right Proud Boys group in the US is a \u2018frustrating\u2019 one, asserting that its laurel wreath instead represents \u2018inclusivity, diversity and independence\u2019. Ben & Jerry\u2019s has been successfully taking public stances on political and social issues for years, well-known for its long history of social activism<\/a> and ice-cream flavour launches with celebrity<\/a> (and, on film, a superhero<\/a>) namesakes for charitable causes.<\/p>\n

Even brands not known for their politics or moral stances are taking the step towards matters of social justice \u2013 Gillette\u2019s The Best Men Can Be advert took the harms of toxic masculinity as its focus instead of the effectiveness of its blades, and went viral<\/a> at the start of the year. Nike\u2019s gamble on its \u2018Believe in something\u2019 ad campaign with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick reportedly made the company $6 billion<\/a> since its launch in 2018.<\/p>\n

For Nike co-founder Phil Knight, the threats of boycott that followed the advert from certain sections of the public wasn\u2019t enough for the company to rethink \u2013 taking a stand is more important than that: \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter how many people hate your brand as long as enough people love it. You can\u2019t be afraid of offending people. You can\u2019t try and go down the middle of the road. You have to take a stand on something.\u2019<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no going back now \u2013 brands making their stance on politics and societal issues is more and more important for consumers, particularly among younger demographics. 83% of Millennials (who, arguably, maybe aren\u2019t so young anymore\u2026) say it\u2019s important for the companies they buy from to align with their beliefs and values, according to the 5WPR 2020 Consumer Culture Report<\/a>. And 76% of actual young people answering the DoSomething Strategic\u2019s 2018 Survey of Young People and Social Change<\/a> said they have purchased or would consider purchasing a brand or product to show support for the issues it aligns itself with.<\/p>\n

Wherever you\u2019ll be choosing to shop for the foreseeable, the ice-cream, shirts, razors and sports stuff you buy have certain values assigned to them now. So, which values do you want your brand to be known for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether taking a stand on politics, social justice or who you welcome as customers is too risky a choice is a decision every brand has to make in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":132617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7401,7272,3531,3725],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132615"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132625,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132615\/revisions\/132625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}