| richardhutnik said: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/02/chick-fil-a-appreciation-day-sets-record-restaurant-chain-says/?hpt=hp_t3 What is seen with activists is the belief that they can boycott a company and cause it to change its way. They operate under the assumption that prople outraged at a company will cause the company to be hurt so badly, it changes its views. However, what happens when you have a situation where an issue is divisive and polarizes? Apparently with the whole Chik-Fil-A bruhaha, calls to boycott and protest lead people on the other side to do the opposite, to get people to shop at the place. End result? Well, the company apparently set sales records on Appreciation Day. So, I would have a question: In case of polarizing issues, can a boycott really be effective, or does it just make a company a stronger niche brand and improves its bottom line by creating a stronger identity for itself? I would ask to focus on the effect of a boycott here, rather than have this turn into a discussion over gay marriage. I say this request because there is another thread on that subject. Also, it doesn't help any regarding the issue if people on one side or another are spun as spawns of evil. |
Honestly, I would say it really depends on how closely the supporters of an issue match up to the base of a company ...
Johnson and Johnson makes sure to advertise itself as a "family company" because mothers buy a large portion of the products and generally hold a series of similar values. When the company does anything that is seen as being against these values it acts quickly to prevent (or respond to) a boycot because a small portion of these customers acting against them can have a huge impact.
While I don't have any evidence of this, I suspect that a fried-meat based fast food restaurant would generally have customers that were disproportionately in favour of traditional forms of marriage; and the loss of a handful of customers who probably weren't going to eat there anyways was tiny compared to the customers who wanted to show support for one of their favourite restaurants because they stood for the same cause.
