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Q for our brand mgmt experts - Delta faces boycott threats for stance on new Georgia voting law
GreenRiverGatorz
Member Posts: 10,165
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/03/29/delta-georgia-voting-law-boycott/
We're veering dangerously close to Tug territory here, so I urge everyone to stay on their best behavior. But this particular angle has less to do with the law itself, and more to do with Delta deciding to proactively sprint into such a hot political issue.
2020 was a year that saw corporate America act as a collective weathercock and put out countless statements with generic support for all of the hot-button cultural issues. My read is that most executives are generally loathe to wade into these waters and much prefer the business of old whereby money was the only politics that mattered. Hard to say if this moment is short lived or if the agnostic days of old are gone forever.
What's curious about this case is that Delta would seemingly choose to stick their neck out to voice support for an issue that they knew was going to buy them blowback from the Twitter crowd. What am I missing here? What the fuck does Delta have to gain for taking a stance here? I'm sure there's a business rationale buried in here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it.
We're veering dangerously close to Tug territory here, so I urge everyone to stay on their best behavior. But this particular angle has less to do with the law itself, and more to do with Delta deciding to proactively sprint into such a hot political issue.
2020 was a year that saw corporate America act as a collective weathercock and put out countless statements with generic support for all of the hot-button cultural issues. My read is that most executives are generally loathe to wade into these waters and much prefer the business of old whereby money was the only politics that mattered. Hard to say if this moment is short lived or if the agnostic days of old are gone forever.
What's curious about this case is that Delta would seemingly choose to stick their neck out to voice support for an issue that they knew was going to buy them blowback from the Twitter crowd. What am I missing here? What the fuck does Delta have to gain for taking a stance here? I'm sure there's a business rationale buried in here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it.
Comments
https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/news/2017/king-corporate-boycotts.html
Granted, this article was written in 2017, which was certainly a completely different world.
I agree that this made zero sense for Delta to do, but I also suspect they’ll weather any backlash.
To the authors point re: reputation suffering but not sales, it'll be interesting to see if these sorts of things have any long term impacts on the company's prospects due to an alleged reputation hit. I suspect not, but I'm also not sure that that's data we'll ever be able to get.
Plus, there are the loyalty programs. Once you've committed to one or two airlines, you tend to want to keep racking up rewards when you travel.
Yeah, there are those marginal folks who are all hopped up. But then again, the entire Aberdeen crowd was set to boycott "Fakebook" and about 40 other channels of entertainment. Like @RaceBannon , they haven't moved.
Mostly people are full of shit. Talk a big game online, but IRL they do what they want to do.
Bottom line: agree with your take, but with a twist. Nothing to gain, and really nothing to lose. NOC.
"Better fares, seats and upgrades for me!"
It is a pretty bizarre statement for DL to put out unless the GA legislature needed their back scratched by one of the most important GA companies, and DL is getting very favorable treatment elsewhere. Which.... would not shock me.
Maybe they lose a few ticket sales when price and schedule are the same against another airline by ticket purchasers with no airline loyalty, but airlines get boycotted all the time for one reason or another. Valujet is about the only one who ever met their demise this way and it was due to getting grounded by the FAA for a month.
Either way it won't be interesting and DL already has the data on whether they have been materially impacted or not.
That’s not to say outrage and protests aren’t a good thing...I do like to see shoe and clothing manufacturers held accountable for mistreating employees in their factories for example, but that can be dealt with by other means. Because of the threat of a boycott has become so disingenuous, all the Twitter posts really are just a bunch of grandstanding.
They should not be dragged through the mud for not supporting the liberal agenda. Is Patagonia or Columbia Sportswear vilified by conservatives who do not support climate change?
I don't think this is so much Delta sticking it's neck out as it is the liberal contingency flying off the handle.
The liberal mob you're ranting about is a well known given. Hence the head scratcher of Delta intentionally jumping into that pit of rats.
We have a meaningful, IRL frenship of the kind Bob really admires.
I don't find what Delta did much of a head scratcher. The fact that they openly supported a conservative viewpoint may be a beginning. Nobody questions a company supporting a progressive or liberal view. No cries for boycott. It's become acceptable. I am thinking Delta did this to show other companies it's okay to have a conservative viewpoint. Other than Chick-fil-A, not many if any mainstream companies have supported something conservative. It's not going to hurt Delta in my opinion. If other companies start to do similar things than maybe my opinion of what Delta is doing might be correct. If it's okay to be progressive, why can't it be okay to be conservative? I think this is what Delta is doing.