Should brands use their platform to speak out about politics and take a stand, or should they stay far away and keep the two separated?
Whether brands should post about politics has always been a hotly debated topic. But with a global pandemic and historical Black Lives Matter movement changing the world, it seems brands are being forced into making a stand or being ostracised for staying silent.
It’s a complex topic. To help shine a light on the subject, Adzooma has investigated what people think about brands posting about politics online and how this affected their opinion of them. In addition, it also questioned whether users saw the statements as genuine, or saw through them as thinly-veiled attempts to promote their own products.
Overall, the research found that customers are 63% of people are more likely to buy from a brand that speaks out about politics – but only if they agree with the statement. If a brand posts about something that goes against customers’ values, 67.5% of people will be unlikely to buy from that brand again.
In addition, most customers view political statements as ingenuine. 43.5% of customers stated that they saw political statements as a way to jump on the bandwagon and 23% of people saw them as purely promotional. Only 7.8% of people saw statements as well-thought-out and relevant, showing a real distrust in brand political statements.
You can see the full data here.
