Americans to brands: look inward before weighing in on politics, per report

Jumpscare alert: It’s about time to start thinking about how the 2024 presidential election might play into brand strategy.

But for some brands, the answer might be not at all. According to Morning Consult’s “Election Playbook” for brands, the majority of American adults (53%) said corporations shouldn’t involve themselves in political and/or cultural issues, unchanged from 2020. However, that’s down from 61% who said corporations should sit on the sidelines in 2019.

There’s also a widening generational gap on the issue, suggesting that “it is still important to know your audience and how they feel about your corporate advocacy,” Joanna Piacenza, head of industry intelligence at Morning Consult, told Marketing Brew.

The playbook, based on annual surveys conducted from 2019 to 2023, outlines other ways marketers and executives may want to handle corporate activism (or lack thereof) in the coming year.

To engage…or not?

Most American adults don’t want corporations to get involved in politics, according to Morning Consult. While that’s been true for years, there are a couple of caveats.

First, as the 2024 election draws closer, Piacenza said she anticipates the share of Americans who say they think corporations should use their influence to impact politics and culture (currently 29%) to “grow a bit.”

“Trump, in so many ways, created this landscape where brands feel as though they do need to take stands…in a way that they haven’t had to before,” she said.

Second, Gen Z and millennials specifically are more evenly split in their opinions: 39% of that group said corporations shouldn’t get involved in political or cultural issues, down from half in 2019. A slightly larger share, 41%, said brands should “use their influence to impact political and/or cultural issues.” Brands targeting younger consumers might, therefore, be more inclined toward advocacy.

What’s the issue?

Marketers may want to think about specific issues before deciding to wade in, according to Piacenza—and respondents considered some topics more appropriate for brands to speak to than others, per Morning Consult.

Most Americans said support for the police was something that corporations should “issue public statements” about, with more than 60% agreeing. Diversity in the workforce, the environment and climate change, and gender equality followed.

“Those are all issues where you’re going to get the least amount of backlash,” Piacenza said.

Efforts to ban books and LGBTQ+ rights, on the other hand, were seen as less appropriate for brands to weigh in on. In other words, brands might be more likely to see pushback on “issues that are still really hot-button, or people have not really made up their minds about, or are very divisive,” Piacenza said.

The decision to speak out about an issue could change based on a brand’s target demographic. While less than 60% of all adults said companies should make statements about race and racism in the country, that share climbed to more than 70% among Gen Z.

Inside the house

All that being said, there was relatively little change in consumer attitudes about companies engaging with politics compared with the 2020 election cycle, which means that strategies from the last presidential election are likely still useful, Piacenza said. In fact, the most important thing a company can do in the eyes of American consumers is take care of its own employees.

More than half (56%) of respondents said that’s very important to them, the largest share of 11 options presented, while one in three (34%) said it’s somewhat important.

Of another 20 actions Morning Consult asked respondents to consider in terms of their impacts on brand favorability, seven of the top eight were internal actions, like paying employees well and equally. As a result, the report concludes that “internal actions are more important than external advocacy.”

“The most important thing that brands can do is not send that tweet about that issue,” Piacenza said. “It is to make sure you’re taking care of your employees.”