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Featured in Marketing Brew: Customers are researching brand stances and voting with their dollar ahead of the midterms

October 01, 2022
Featured in Marketing Brew: Customers are researching brand stances and voting with their dollar ahead of the midterms

The article below appeared in Marketing Brew on September 30, 2022. Read it in its entirety here  and download the latest Current Events and Emerging Trends Report.

When Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced earlier this month that he was giving 98% of the company to a nonprofit and a trust with future profit directed toward helping the environment and combating the climate crisis, the move seemed to resonate with many customers.

Despite questions of potential tax motives, some implied that they would spend more with the retailer in the near future in response to the news.

A recent report from Horizon Media found that in addition to addressing pricing concerns amid inflation, brands can “gain a significant amount of favor by contributing to solutions” people are most concerned about, including the climate crisis.

With costs up and midterms on the horizon, experts said people are thinking critically not just about which politicians should get their vote, but which brands should get their business—based on where they stand and how they spend their money.

Practice what you post

In the wake of the Dobbs decision in June, Mark Hanis, co-founder of Progressive Shopper, told us he saw a bump in downloads of the web extension—which identifies the political parties of politicians that brands have donated to based on FEC data—from about 13,000 to 20,000 users.

“When Texas started with its more regressive legislation, we saw a pretty big bump,” Hanis said, referencing SB 8, which passed a year ago. He said Progressive Shopper also saw an increase in downloads after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.

According to Hanis, it’s all part of people paying more attention to where companies are donating politically and how well it matches up with their public statements or internal policies.