Keeping Politics Out Of Business
Over the last 10 years of social media growth, businesses are rerouting their presence and influence to these platforms. Advertising has changed because of these platforms and the use of influencers. Politics have always had polarizing viewpoints. Usually it is the famous people, influential people, and politicians that are known for melding their professions with their political beliefs. Businesses have always revealed their political standings, but usually it was in a background capacity such as donations. As of late we have seen an increase in businesses going public with this through their advertising. In many cases it comes across as totally unrelated connections trying to be forced.
When a company is first created, it has a few routes to choose from in regards to the client base that they are wanting to serve. It might be women for feminine hygiene products, it might be kids for toys, it could be the wealthy for custom boat builds. A lot of businesses succeed by strategically focusing on their particular group of clients. Other businesses cast a wider net. Their products or services may not need to be limited to just a very particular group of people. This could be mechanics, grocery stores, electronics sales, lawn care or plumbers. These businesses are well set up to catch all of the categories of people. When advertising for these kinds of businesses, there is a lot of freedom in the approach. They can focus on their product and how it can add value to the large majority of people. Within the last several years of politics, things have strayed even farther to the outer edges. What was normal, is now looked at as being bad and suppressive.
Even though an idea is presented loudly and in-your-face, it doesn’t mean it is an accurate representation of the majority of people. When a company takes the latest trend of pushed agenda, and tries to make it apply it to their wide net of customers, they think they are being bold and inclusive. What they don’t realize is that because the majority of people are not at the outer edges of extreme beliefs and behavior, they are getting the opposite result. There are many companies that were once thought of as neutral and not politically manipulated, that are now being boycotted and avoided because they went somewhere they didn’t need to go.
America is a melting pot of ideas, beliefs, and styles. Instead of doing our job and providing products and services to Americans as a whole, companies are trying to be more relevant and inclusive of a small minority of people. When a person drives down the road and looks at the different businesses, they should be seeing the integrity, quality, and uniqueness of that company’s product or service. People don’t care who the staff or owners in a company vote for. But, if it’s in their face when they drive by a business with a Trump or Harris sign hanging up, then it will naturally send them a message. Before they were just buying a product or service, now they are being associated with supporting that political agenda by where they spend their money.
Companies are losing so many current and potential customers just by blending these two worlds. When we take politics off the table, it allows customers to build relationships and alliances with a company through their integrity, character and quality of products/services they provide. It is one thing to have a customer say, “I stopped buying from ________ because their quality went downhill”, instead of them saying “Well, I loved their product, but now I don’t feel right buying it anymore because of what they are pushing and supporting.” When a business keeps the focus where it should be, it helps bring products and services to those who want and need them. And isn’t that the beauty of capitalism that America was built on?