Control Your Political Passions!
It’s easy to understand political passions running high in a polarized country, but one thing every company needs to keep in mind is that you don’t want to alienate half of your customer base with an intemperate remark.
You don’t have to look far to find several instances of this following the somewhat unexpected outcome of this year’s presidential election. Some corporate person goes too far in declaring their unhappiness (or excessive happiness) with the results, insults everyone who voted for the other candidate, and then that person and his or her company suffers the bad PR as a result. That always means a loss of some business, and in the worst cases, an organized boycott.
Unfortunately, politics and business don’t mix very well anymore. Anyone in business needs to keep the importance of their brand in mind before speaking or writing anything that might get wide distribution.
Note that this does not mean we all have to avoid sharing our views or keep our politics a deep, dark secret. But from what we’ve seen, the vast majority of people won’t take it out on your company if you just happen to support the other candidate. But if one of your executives hurls insults or call names, you have every reason to expect the trouble that will follow.
It’s a headache that marketers and brand builders, and their companies, don’t need. Our advice: avoid self-inflicted wounds.