Is It Ever a Good Idea to Mix Politics and Marketing?
Everybody is talking about the merits and disadvantages of mixing politics and marketing, and by “everybody” I mean two people in particular.
On Google+ Travis Campbell asks:
Are you willing to put your brand at risk to stand for what you believe in? Aaron Wall does great work, and is someone I’ve learned a lot from. How do you react to this? Is this something you’d consider?
When I saw Travis’s question and the accompanying image, I was immediately reminded of a post I wrote three and a half years ago. In that post, I asked Does Transparency Hurt Business?
Of course, there are many opinions on the answer to this question. My opinion? Transparency is a good thing — even if that means talking about your own mistakes or issues that polarize people.
Taxes, Government & Fraud… Oh, My!
In case you hadn’t noticed, I intentionally talk about things I support and things I disagree with, including bad government policies, excessive taxation, and fraudulent marketing practices.
So a small banner stating “I Support the Occupy Movement” is fairly innocuous, especially compared to some of the things I’ve written about.
For proof I haven’t shied away from “hot button” topics, you can peruse these posts (if you haven’t already):
- How Taxes Kill Business
- Internet Marketing on Life Support
- Why the Government Hates Small Business
- Internet Sales Taxes and Government Fairness
My business seems to be doing fine in spite of my views on business, marketing, and politics.
Actually, that’s not quite correct. I know for a fact I’ve attracted new clients because of my views. And potential clients I may have offended probably would not have been a good fit for me anyway.
“A Narrow Focus on Marketing Stunts Your Thinking”
As luck would have it, Drayton Bird wrote about politics and marketing on Sunday, November 6th, a few short days after Travis had posted his question on Google+.
Apparently, Drayton received some criticism from a fellow speaker a couple weeks ago. This person advised Drayton to stop writing about politics and focus solely on writing about marketing.
Drayton responded by writing a blog post. He titled it “Politics and marketing: why I won’t shut up no matter how much it bores you”.
He writes:
Two weeks ago one of the speakers at EADIM took me aside and made some helpful suggestions. One was that I should stop writing about politics – “I find it infuriating” he said.
He said I should stick to marketing, because that’s what I’m known for and what people want to hear about from me.
I respect his views so I listened, said nothing and thought about it.
He may be right but I don’t think so.
I believe a narrow focus on marketing stunts your thinking. We live in a wider world; everything we do is affected by what politicians do. If you doubt it, consider the current chaos and ask who is responsible.
[…]Maybe this sort of thing doesn’t interest you and you don’t think it is worth learning from. I disagree. As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island”. Nor is our trade.
As Drayton points out, marketing is not practiced in a vacuum. Rather, it is connected with many other areas of life. We can learn volumes by observing and analyzing what is happening in other fields.
You see, marketing requires you to understand the world in a way most people never will. It requires you to understand human behavior in a way most people never will.
The depth of your understanding of the world and human behavior is based largely on your study of complicated topics like history and government and politics and (dare I say it?)… religion.
What I Didn’t Tell Travis
When I replied to Travis, I never explained why I write about controversial topics. It’s simple: I like to write about things that I get emotional about. That includes subjects most people avoid for fear of its effect on their business.
But I’m not too concerned about the potential impacts on my business. That’s because I feel that writing and publishing ought to be more about changing minds than making a buck.
Sure, you gotta have some money to get by. That’s why I work. But one of my primary motives in blogging is to persuade readers to see things differently than they do now. The money is secondary.
What do you think? Is it ever a good idea to discuss your political or religious views in a business context? Leave a comment and let me know.
-Ryan M. Healy
