November 2024
The elections are over. What now?
It’s difficult to predict what the months leading up to inauguration and the first 90 days of a new administration might hold, so it’s important to keep moving your brand and business forward. Our Reputation and Issues Management team shares some thoughts on where your focus should be as we move into the post-election period.
Uncertainty, fear and even anger will have many Americans craving stability. As we saw during the pandemic, corporate America could once again be looked at as a steadying influence. Americans have a less favorable view of corporations weighing in on cultural or political issues than they did four years ago. However, knowing that business is stable (especially for employees) and that the economy will continue uninterrupted will be vital. It’s important to remain politically neutral and to focus on what you do best – your business. Don’t react to or engage with external pressures, misinformation or disinformation in a way that could bring scrutiny for your brand. Instead, focus on providing stability and calm within and outside your walls.
In the run-up to the election, high profile brands have been targeted on issues like DEI and sustainability, which stoked a lot of fear about being seen as “woke” or being cancelled, with some dialing back their previous commitments. At the end of the day, what proved true is a lot of the news and negative engagement around the brands appeared to be bigger, broader and scarier than it was due to the prevalence of bots and foreign actors. What matters to consumers is not necessarily what you say, but how you make them feel.
Think about how your initiatives might make your stakeholders feel instead of worrying about how to tell them about what you’re doing. Are you making a positive impact in their lives, are you doing something that will make the world a better place for generations, are you solving a problem that keeps them up at night? Do your words and actions align? Show them you care through your actions.
It’s hard not to go down the rabbit hole in this world of 24/7 content and distractions. Our brains have been completely rewired by the little electronic devices we all have in our hands. While it’s tempting to embrace or shift with every new fad or trend that comes at us, the most critical thing, especially in times of upheaval, is to stay the course (to dig deeper, this article by our friends at Axios is a good read on “just-stay-calm”). And no, that doesn’t mean don’t make any changes. It means, keep the main thing, the main thing. Your company was founded with its own unique set of values, a vision and mission, and those are all the reasons your employees work there, and your customers do business with you. Stick to those. Don’t deviate.
Your company values remain the yardstick against which every interaction is measured and should always be the first step in determining where and when to engage, how your teams work throughout their day and how your brand interacts with your customers. When in doubt, check in on your values by asking:
If you answered yes to the last question, and your brand is one that engages in certain issues because of your values, consider how you might scale your engagement during this politicized transition. Perhaps it’s more appropriate to act locally than globally until things settle a bit, or to engage a smaller group of stakeholders (your employees, for example) in making traction on a smaller issue during this time. Think this through now to understand how broad or narrow engagement may impact your brand perception once the new administration is in place in 2025.
It’s been a tumultuous and tense time for all of us, and in many ways, the best thing you can do as a brand is to help consumers find small moments of joy. In what way can your brand bring more joy to the world, its employees, its customers and stakeholders one person at a time?
Would you like to discuss your brands’ statements, actions or inactions with a member of our Reputation and Issues Management team? Let’s connect and strategize together.
Reference our pre-election resource here for more tips on how to protect your brand in times of polarizing political and social conversations.
