There has been a lot of pressure put upon businesses to make a social-political statement recently. The pressure has mounted against those who have resisted or have wanted to remain neutral. We live in a polarized society right now – it seems to be one side or the other – a new civil war of sorts. I am a big promoter of free speech, but I am also a proponent of commerce. From a marketing perspective, before you make a strong social statement, you need to examine the values and attitudes of your customers.

Marketing is all about making big messages that catch the attention of your customers. In my last article, I mentioned how baseball started the use of brands in sports marketing. This led to customer loyalty and developed into a massive marketing juggernaut. With the huge platform that professional sports can offer, let me explain the problem facing major sports leagues and their marketing efforts right now. There has been a lot of pressure to make a unified political statement across these leagues, especially during the pregame ceremonies. However, their customers (a.k.a. fans), despite their political leanings, are tuning out major sports for these demonstrations. It is not why they purchased the product – a ticket to the game - or are watching the game remotely on TV. They want to watch the sport, not a political demonstration. It is the wrong time and place. That is being counted as a reason major sports are losing their customers. There are other places where fans of sports may be open to a political message by an athlete, but certainly not before and during a game. In his article, Boycotting Themselves Out of Business? author Steven Malanga states, "Up until recently, sports united people of different political persuasions. Now, we have whole leagues embracing questionable political messages designed to offend and alienate large segments of the target audience.”¹ When you step on the values of your customer, you lose them. Attitudes change with popularity, but values do not.

Before you determine the right time and place to market to your customers, you also need to examine the message you are planning to convey upon them. Does it violate the values of your target audience? Values are deeply held beliefs that are not likely to change in a person throughout their adult life. They are different than attitudes, which will change with societal popularity. Several years ago, I was meeting with a business advocacy group that had grown to be one of the largest of its kind in North America. They had been extraordinarily successful at growing with a lot of small businesses, but they were getting pressure from some of the largest employers in their region to take a political stance. I suggested they not do so. Why? Because not all their customers were of one political persuasion. Just as soon as they chose a side, they would step on the values of the other side. They did not heed this advice and instead proceeded to take a strong political position, endorsing specific candidates more for their social leanings than their business friendliness. The results? They lost over half of their membership. Why? They did not understand that what united their customers was the business connection, not a social-political connection.

It is a truth that hits you in the pocketbook, as the NBA found out this summer. It has caused Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, to say recently that social-political statements that were on the basketball floors and on jerseys will not be there next season. There was pushback in terms of lost viewership of the sport during that same time. Silver said, "I understand those people who are saying ‘I’m on your side, but I want to watch a basketball game.’”²

All of this means you have to know your customers well enough to understand what they value and what current attitudes they are holding, but will discard as soon as they go out of vogue. Do this little experiment: ask your sales staff to list the unchanging beliefs of your top customers. What could you do and not lose them and what would cost you their business? Using your marketing to catch someone’s attention with a popular attitude has some short-term marketing traction. Getting in line with your customers’ values has long term marketing implications. However, if you cross the line with your customers’ values, you will not get them back. Be smart about your marketing.

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1. Boycotting Themselves Out of Business? By Steven Malanga, City Journal, August 28, 2020

2. Silver Making Changes "Those [political] messages will be left off the court" by Filip Trivic, www.basketballnetwork.net, October 5, 2020