{"id":136219,"date":"2021-08-11T13:40:57","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T12:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=136219"},"modified":"2021-12-02T13:11:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T12:11:20","slug":"do-your-customers-care-about-your-political-affiliations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/do-your-customers-care-about-your-political-affiliations\/","title":{"rendered":"Do your customers care about your political affiliations?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While your product in the hand of the right person can do great things for your brand<\/a>, the grasp of someone you\u2019d rather not be affiliated with can do great harm<\/a>. In a time where ethics are demanded of companies just as much as they are of our politicians, is the combination of business and politics a good idea? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether political affiliations are welcomed or not, it\u2019s very likely to happen at some point in the lifespan of a big brand. Remember \u2018Milkshaking\u2019? Since its inception in May 2019, throwing food and drink stuffs to make a political point has earned its own entry on Wikipedia<\/a> as well as lots of laughs over social media, and it\u2019s now unavoidably connected with particular makers of milkshake. As a police request to McDonald\u2019s to stop selling the drinks during Nigel Farage\u2019s visit to Scotland that year went viral on Twitter, Burger King countered with a reminder tweet to their Scottish fans that milkshakes would be sold in their stores all weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reaction towards each of the fast-food giants in relation to the Milkshaking phenomenon was very different. While the signage in McDonald\u2019s was met with \u2018urine it is, then\u2019 joke tweets from the public, Burger King\u2019s tweet was branded \u2018irresponsible\u2019 by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) and criticised by political figures including Tony Blair. It had also, however, cannily positioned Burger King as politically engaged with the younger portion of its consumer base\u2026 and, very importantly, as a restaurant reliably stocked with milkshakes.<\/p>\n

Reactions to political movements, campaigns and protest have the potential to lock consumer loyalties in, but we see it go wrong regularly, too. In the US in the 70s, there was the gay community\u2019s boycott of orange juice in reaction to the homophobic stance of Anita Bryant, a figurehead for the Florida Citrus Commission. At the time, Bryant herself claimed that \u2018sales are up 15 percent over last year\u2019 due to retaliation from the \u2018mothers of America\u2019<\/a>, but the commission\u2019s PR spokesperson called for her resignation, and the impact of the boycott was felt for years (it also inspired some fantastic OJ-alternative Screwdriver cocktails).<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2019, and a US brand looking to make a new home in the UK, Chick-Fil-A, was rejected by its new target consumer base due to its political affiliations. The Oracle shopping centre in Reading announced the closure of Chick-Fil-A\u2019s first UK-based branch eight days after its debut following media outrage over the restaurant\u2019s history of donating to anti-LGBTQ organisations, calling it \u2018the right thing to do<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Chick-Fil-A brand is unavoidably entangled in right-wing politics to this day \u2013 as of July this year, Senate member Lindsey Graham even vowed to \u2018go to war\u2019 for the chicken restaurant<\/a> as University of Notre Dame students protested the opening of a branch on their campus. Whether support from those who vote Graham\u2019s way will bring good fortune to the brand, or further protests will cause a dent in its profits, it will be useful to note for brands who have not yet had to tackle unplanned-for political connections.<\/p>\n

Just as brands hop on political bandwagons to make their ethics clear to consumers, politicians have been quick to align themselves with certain products to tap into new bases, too. Brands don\u2019t get a choice in this; so is it better to accept it or distance from it? Fred Perry famously backed themselves away from the Proud Boys, and Nintendo updated its guidelines following the pull of Animal Crossing New Horizon\u2019s into the US presidential race<\/a> with a request to \u2018please refrain from bringing politics into the game\u2019 in November of last year.<\/p>\n

One thing brands can\u2019t do is ignore their connection to politics when it happens \u2013 in 2018, 64% of consumers chose to avoid or boycott brands if their stance on societal issues didn\u2019t match their own<\/a>, and there\u2019s no doubt that number will be much higher following the last 18 months or so of increased accountability, questioning of big business and ethical consumer decisions.<\/p>\n

If your brand becomes connected to a political moment and you\u2019re preparing to lean in closer or break away, ask yourself first – will your customers, and future customers, want to be aligned with you?<\/p>\n

Read more about finding the right connections for your brand in our previous piece on picking the right ambassadors<\/a> and taking an ethical stance<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And make sure your PR strategy is aligned with your public affairs to understand the whole issue. Vuelio provides both in its platform<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Develop your relationships with stakeholders, regulators and government agencies using Vuelio Stakeholder Management<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While your product in the hand of the right person can do great things for your brand, the grasp of someone you\u2019d rather not be affiliated with can do great harm. In a time where …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":136222,"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":[7365,7383,7272,3531,3695,3725,7271],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136219"}],"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=136219"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137251,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136219\/revisions\/137251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}