Substance and Style

    Should your Business Back A Specific Candidate?

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    It’s that time again when political signs are everywhere. The stakes are incredibly high; few Americans alive today remember a more politically divided time. It’s important to fight for what you believe in, but, like it or not, you must also watch the bottom line, especially if your business is small. Here are some things to consider:

    1. How exhausted are your customers, and how exhausted are you? With everything happening right now, it’s absolutely not the time to back down, especially in your personal life. However, your customers may be at the point where they really need a break. You might be there as well. Take this into consideration when deciding whether to publicly endorse a candidate. If your business provides a break from the world, that’s absolutely an essential service.
    2. How political are your customers, and do they expect you to be at that same level? You always want to be thinking about where your customers are coming from. Whether they want you to be political will come down to what kind of work you do, and what kind of people they are. It’s a generalization, but not a useless one, to say that younger customers care more about the political leanings of the businesses they support. For more discussion on this, see this blog post: https://substance-and-style.com/2021/06/13/394/, which also makes good points about our next consideration.
    3. Are you going to offend your target market by supporting or not supporting a candidate? This post (https://substance-and-style.com/2021/06/13/394/) on cause marketing delves into this issue, and makes this excellent point: “It’s likely that your ideal target market has values that align with yours. If they don’t, perhaps they should. Think about why you’re in business for yourself in the first place. I’m guessing it’s not so you can tiptoe around and try to please everyone. The main payoff of having your own business is in getting to live your authentic life and make your own rules. You obviously have to please your customers, but you don’t have to be overly concerned about what everyone thinks.”
    4. Are you running a nonprofit? If so, you have additional legal considerations that must be taken seriously. For a discussion of these, see this post: https://substance-and-style.com/2021/11/14/politics-and-nonprofit-marketing/