Big Business Should Stick to… Business!

How to alienate your customers. This is Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas Airways. Big businesses, at least here in the Western world, are finding more and more ways to dismiss their customer base by supporting divisive political and social issues. Australian retail giant Woolworths, for example, have publicly shown their support for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, which Australians will be voting on later this year. Anheuser-Busch, you probably know them for their Budweiser brand, have made certain corporate decisions of late that have not sat well with their beer-drinking customer base. Who would have thought? Australian mega conglomerate Wesfarmers, owners of Kmart, Target, Officeworks, and Bunnings, just to name a few, are also publicly supporting and donating money towards the Indigenous Voice campaign. And of course, the previously mentioned Qantas, unsurprisingly, is also a public proponent of the Voice.

Unfortunately for these companies, recent polling suggests that most of their customers do not support the Voice. Actually, support for the Voice seems to be somewhat in free fall. Big W, who are owned by Woolworths, have actually ditched their in-store announcements that supported the Voice due to feedback from staff and customers.

So what benefit is there for these companies to support such divisive issues? I presume that they think that there are some political or social brownie points to be scored. By feigning interest in these issues, they hope to get more business. That has to be it, doesn’t it? But it’s failed! If your customer base don’t support your cause, then what benefit is there in promoting it? At best, you’ll keep the same number of customers, at worst, some of your customers will boycott your product as we’ve seen with Budweiser.

I don’t have much to say about this except for one suggestion to big business, and it’s not even that controversial. Big business should stick to... BUSINESS! It’s okay for a for-profit company to stay politically neutral. Actually, I would recommend it. Woolworths should stick to selling groceries. “At Woolworths, we believe in great food at great prices for ALL Australians.” Yes, great! That’s perfect. You don’t need to alienate your customers by supporting divisive political issues. Just stick to what you’re good at… Groceries! “At Budweiser, we make great-tasting beer for ALL Americans.” Great! You don’t need to stick a pride flag on it. Nobody’s going to get angry at you for just using plain old beer bottles. “At Qantas, we fly planes!” Great, thank you! Your message is perfectly clear. You don’t need to say anything else about non-flying topics.

Big business? Stick to business!

RECONCILIATION AT WOOLWORTHS GROUP
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/au/en/reconciliation/reconciliation-at-woolworths-group.html

BUD LIGHT CONTINUES TO EMPOWER LGBTQ+ OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES ACROSS AMERICA
https://www.anheuser-busch.com/newsroom/bud-light-and-the-nglcc-continue-to-empower-lgbtq-owned-small-businesses-across-america

INDIGENOUS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT: WESFARMERS DONATES $2 MILLION TO YES CAMPAIGN
https://thewest.com.au/politics/federal-politics/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-wesfarmers-donates-2-million-to-yes-campaign-c-11113223

VOICE TO PARLIAMENT POLLING RESULTS TRACKER
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/ng-interactive/2023/aug/07/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-poll-results-polling-referendum-tracker-newspoll-essential-yougov-news-polls-by-state-australia

BIG W DITCHES IN-STORE ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT SUPPORTED INDIGENOUS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/21/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-big-w-in-store-announcement

PRIME MINISTER’S RELATIONSHIP WITH QANTAS FAILS THE PUB TEST
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/mike-oconnor/opinion-albos-relationship-with-qantas-fails-the-pub-test/news-story/e5b9ac61f9122fa851c0090fc5c27edf

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