I found this article pretty interesting...
Companies In The Crossfire
The politically passionate are taking aim at businesses they see as repugnant. Red or blue, they can be a PR nightmare
Slide Show >>When Martha E. Ture took a road trip from Indiana to California on I-80, she ate at Subway restaurants rather than Wendy's (WEN ) or McDonald's (MCD ). When she last flew to Las Vegas, she took United Airlines, not American or Continental. When she drinks beer, Ture, who describes herself as a "writer, singer, guitar picker, nature lover, [and] politico," eschews Coors (TAP ) for Sierra Nevada. She stays at Hyatt hotels (never Marriott), and, when she visits a big-box discount store, she always patronizes Costco (COST ), not Wal-Mart (WMT ).
Then there's Jennifer Giroux of Madeira, Ohio. The mother of nine, a registered nurse and Christian-bookstore owner, always gets her pizza at Domino's. She never takes the kids to Ben & Jerry's, opting instead for Cincinnati hometown favorite Graeter's Ice Cream. At the mall, she won't allow the family to walk anywhere near Abercrombie & Fitch, famous for its suggestive advertising. And when she does laundry, and she does a lot, she never buys Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent or Bounce fabric softener.
Ture and Giroux don't have much in common. But they do share a trait: Their product choices are driven not by low price or customer service, but by politics.
Like millions of Americans, these two consumers choose -- or avoid -- certain companies because of the political donations of their management or the controversial causes they support. Squeezing companies for political reasons is nothing new, from the Red Scare boycotts of 1950s TV advertisers to the anti-apartheid divestment drives of the '80s. But the movement has exploded in recent years, driven largely by the popularity of talk radio and the revolution in modern communications technology. Across cyberspace, dozens of Web sites, blogs, and listservs tell true believers which brands to buy or boycott.
DEFUSING REVOLTS
The rise of the ideological consumer has forced companies to reassess their marketing strategies and created a business boomlet for public-relations specialists whose expertise includes defusing politically based customer revolts. A boycott "distracts [companies] from their corporate strategy, it causes them unwanted publicity, and it takes them off-message," says Bob Witeck, CEO of a Washington (D.C.) strategic communications and marketing firm who has counseled Ford, American, and other companies.
Targeted businesses "have to tread this incredibly fine line," says corporate communications strategist Arthur C. "Bud" Liebler, former senior vice-president for communications and marketing at Chrysler Corp. "There used to be a tendency by companies to ignore all [the attacks] and hope they'll go away. Now you can't ignore them because of all the Web sites, talk radio, and alternative newspapers." In addition, Liebler warns, "when you get into these political or religious things, you're never going to please 100% of your customers. Your goal is to do the least damage."
BAD TO WORSE
Crisis communications strategists say some companies get it right. They cite P&G and Miller Brewing Co. for responding to incipient crises by reaching out to angry consumers and communicating a concise, consistent, nonpolitical response. But others only compound their woes. Ford (F ) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) changed positions in their attempts to appease critics, only to face an even stronger backlash from the other side.
What makes businesses so uncomfortable is the passion that activists, on both the Left and the Right, bring to their causes. Giroux says she'll spend more to patronize a socially conservative company and will abandon favorite brands if she dislikes the manufacturer's marketing or political choices. She gave up Tide because she received an e-mail from the American Family Assn. (AFA) in Tupelo, Miss., saying P&G had run ads showing men together in bed. "If they're not pro-family, we don't feel they deserve our dollars," says Giroux. "It's a sacrifice we're making to let them know that we don't agree morally with what they're doing."
Ture, like many liberal economic warriors, was jolted into action by President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection. "If everybody who voted Democratic in 2004 shifted just $100 from red to blue corporations, that would represent a shift of $5 billion in the economy," says Ture, 60. Wal-Mart, a big GOP contributor, is a major target of the Left because it provides its workers only limited health-care benefits. Wal-Mart declined comment.
Conservatives play the political game, too. They've targeted a range of companies -- including Ford, Microsoft, Target (TGT ), Walt Disney (DIS ), H.J. Heinz (HNZ ), Ben & Jerry's, and P&G -- for everything from backing gay-rights groups to banning the Salvation Army in front of their stores at Christmastime.
A network of 35 religious groups called Positive Christian Agenda is urging shareholders to dump the stocks of Microsoft, Nike (NKE ), and Boeing (BA ), all of which backed a Washington State law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and insurance. The group says it could cost Microsoft founder William H. Gates III around $200 million for each dollar the stock drops. Microsoft declined comment.
Companies In The Crossfire
The politically passionate are taking aim at businesses they see as repugnant. Red or blue, they can be a PR nightmare
Slide Show >>When Martha E. Ture took a road trip from Indiana to California on I-80, she ate at Subway restaurants rather than Wendy's (WEN ) or McDonald's (MCD ). When she last flew to Las Vegas, she took United Airlines, not American or Continental. When she drinks beer, Ture, who describes herself as a "writer, singer, guitar picker, nature lover, [and] politico," eschews Coors (TAP ) for Sierra Nevada. She stays at Hyatt hotels (never Marriott), and, when she visits a big-box discount store, she always patronizes Costco (COST ), not Wal-Mart (WMT ).
Then there's Jennifer Giroux of Madeira, Ohio. The mother of nine, a registered nurse and Christian-bookstore owner, always gets her pizza at Domino's. She never takes the kids to Ben & Jerry's, opting instead for Cincinnati hometown favorite Graeter's Ice Cream. At the mall, she won't allow the family to walk anywhere near Abercrombie & Fitch, famous for its suggestive advertising. And when she does laundry, and she does a lot, she never buys Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent or Bounce fabric softener.
Ture and Giroux don't have much in common. But they do share a trait: Their product choices are driven not by low price or customer service, but by politics.
Like millions of Americans, these two consumers choose -- or avoid -- certain companies because of the political donations of their management or the controversial causes they support. Squeezing companies for political reasons is nothing new, from the Red Scare boycotts of 1950s TV advertisers to the anti-apartheid divestment drives of the '80s. But the movement has exploded in recent years, driven largely by the popularity of talk radio and the revolution in modern communications technology. Across cyberspace, dozens of Web sites, blogs, and listservs tell true believers which brands to buy or boycott.
DEFUSING REVOLTS
The rise of the ideological consumer has forced companies to reassess their marketing strategies and created a business boomlet for public-relations specialists whose expertise includes defusing politically based customer revolts. A boycott "distracts [companies] from their corporate strategy, it causes them unwanted publicity, and it takes them off-message," says Bob Witeck, CEO of a Washington (D.C.) strategic communications and marketing firm who has counseled Ford, American, and other companies.
Targeted businesses "have to tread this incredibly fine line," says corporate communications strategist Arthur C. "Bud" Liebler, former senior vice-president for communications and marketing at Chrysler Corp. "There used to be a tendency by companies to ignore all [the attacks] and hope they'll go away. Now you can't ignore them because of all the Web sites, talk radio, and alternative newspapers." In addition, Liebler warns, "when you get into these political or religious things, you're never going to please 100% of your customers. Your goal is to do the least damage."
BAD TO WORSE
Crisis communications strategists say some companies get it right. They cite P&G and Miller Brewing Co. for responding to incipient crises by reaching out to angry consumers and communicating a concise, consistent, nonpolitical response. But others only compound their woes. Ford (F ) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) changed positions in their attempts to appease critics, only to face an even stronger backlash from the other side.
What makes businesses so uncomfortable is the passion that activists, on both the Left and the Right, bring to their causes. Giroux says she'll spend more to patronize a socially conservative company and will abandon favorite brands if she dislikes the manufacturer's marketing or political choices. She gave up Tide because she received an e-mail from the American Family Assn. (AFA) in Tupelo, Miss., saying P&G had run ads showing men together in bed. "If they're not pro-family, we don't feel they deserve our dollars," says Giroux. "It's a sacrifice we're making to let them know that we don't agree morally with what they're doing."
Ture, like many liberal economic warriors, was jolted into action by President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection. "If everybody who voted Democratic in 2004 shifted just $100 from red to blue corporations, that would represent a shift of $5 billion in the economy," says Ture, 60. Wal-Mart, a big GOP contributor, is a major target of the Left because it provides its workers only limited health-care benefits. Wal-Mart declined comment.
Conservatives play the political game, too. They've targeted a range of companies -- including Ford, Microsoft, Target (TGT ), Walt Disney (DIS ), H.J. Heinz (HNZ ), Ben & Jerry's, and P&G -- for everything from backing gay-rights groups to banning the Salvation Army in front of their stores at Christmastime.
A network of 35 religious groups called Positive Christian Agenda is urging shareholders to dump the stocks of Microsoft, Nike (NKE ), and Boeing (BA ), all of which backed a Washington State law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and insurance. The group says it could cost Microsoft founder William H. Gates III around $200 million for each dollar the stock drops. Microsoft declined comment.
