Businesses Should Stick to Business, Stay Out of Politics

Suppose you run a small business, maybe a diner, or a shop, or a repair service.

And suppose you hold strong political and social views. You hate this candidate and love his opponent. You hate — or love — gun laws. You love — or hate — Planned Parenthood. You think climate-change deniers are idiots — or heroes.

Question: Does it make business sense for you to ram your views down your customers’ throats?

This question is pertinent today. For large businesses it certainly is. Nike chooses to feature a rebel from the NFL in its ads. The guy who started the circus of kneeling during the national anthem.

Starbucks waded into the political and social fray. Certainly big media have also done so. Not just in their opinion pages and segments, but also their news coverage. The New York Times proclaimed that slanting its news was just fine in the last election campaign. Hundreds of newspapers have proclaimed, together, they are part of the political opposition to our current president.

Social-media companies inflict their political and social biases on customers. By skewing their search engines. (This morning I Googled a controversial subject that has dominated the news lately. Every article it served up was on the left side of the fence. I gave up after about 50 articles.)

Many publicly traded companies declare their political allegiances. They openly send big contributions to candidates who share their views. This is different than lobbying for laws that will favor them. This is virtually campaigning for a party or candidates.

Does this make good business sense? After all, the companies’ politicking will probably alienate a lot of their customers — or keep people from becoming such. Suddenly, many folks will never buy a Nike product again. Many already boycott companies that boast of views they cannot stomach. Remember the Chick-fil-A brouhaha? Remember how ratings have fallen for the Academy Awards gala?

You would think the guys who run the big companies have thought these policies through. I wonder if they have. Especially when it comes to shareholders. Many companies have angered millions of shareholders. The shareholders are saying, “Stick to business. Conduct your politics outside of this business. Instead of using our money to express your views.”

Big media companies have not thought this through. Not in the business sense. The older major networks took strong political stances on the left — in news and opinion segments. They catered to roughly half the American news-viewing market. This left huge opportunities in the other half of the market. Rupert Murdoch could hardly believe his eyes. He ordered his Fox News to step in and take advantage. This left several networks fighting each other for mere slices of the other half.

This was and is strange behavior by these companies. Their executives would not do this with products like toothpaste and cars. They would not ignore half a market that has no competitors — in favor of a half that is crowded with competitors.

Traditional marketers do not distinguish customers as left or right, Democrat or Republican. They reckon customers are customers. Their receipts do not show for whom people voted. They don’t segregate their bank accounts into left, right, and center money.

But maybe traditional marketing is out of vogue. If so, does the new marketing make good business sense? Thus far, it has not worked well for the NFL.

How would it come down in your favorite supermarket? Suppose it draped big political banners in all the aisles — Vote for Candidate A.

Would you frequent the restaurant that served up political brochures with its burgers? If you disagreed with the brochures, that is.

Call me a traditionalist. Views are views. Opinions are opinions. Free speech is free speech. And most business ought to be business. But what do I know?

From Tom…as in Morgan.       

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com and read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com.