24 Jun Bridging The Divide: How corporate communications can help companies thrive in polarized times.
By BravoEcho
As corporations are increasingly expected to engage on social issues, we offer guidance to communications leaders charged with leading companies successfully through turbulent waters.
The Divided World We Live In.
If there was any doubt we’re living in polarized times, an Economist/YouGov poll from earlier this year put that to rest. While 45% of Americans believed “it’s a big, beautiful world mostly full of good people and we must find a way to embrace each other,” 42% believed “our lives are threatened by terrorists, criminals and illegal immigrants and our priority should be to protect ourselves.”
This persistent polarization of American life is proving a complication for business. It strikes without warning, attacking marketing campaigns, confronting corporate advocacy, threatening internal company culture, and eroding community loyalty.
Corporate Recalibration Or Retreat?
The decibel level of the election campaign may be rising but the progressive voices of corporate activism are trending to more of a whisper. An April BCG report showed that corporate mentions of ESG and DEI initiatives in 2023 were down more than two-thirds. “CEOs have lowered their voices,” said BCG’s CCO Russell Dubner. Is it a recalibrating pendulum swing away from the atmosphere in 2020-2022 or a full-fledged retreat? Staking out a strong position was demanded by the public and employees alike in response to #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, climate change, disagreements over Covid responses, and courts striking down LGBTQ+ barriers. Leading communications experts now make the case that the high-profile advocacy we saw in this period was actually never sustainable. And for some companies, taking action came at a price.
Caught In The Woke War Crossfire.
Last year, an online Bud Light ad featuring a transgender influencer led to a costly boycott. It’s difficult to discern how much consumers were initially offended by the ad, but ideologically motivated groups definitely weaponized the anger surrounding a polarized US consumer base by targeting Bud Light. When deep divisions exist over the question of lifestyles, lifestyle brands that embrace inclusion can end up with consumers who no longer feel a personal connection or sense of shared values with the brand. In Bud Light’s case the public response that led to a steep decline in market share caught the company off guard, and management’s contradictory steps to mitigate the situation only worsened the controversy.
Bud Light is not alone. Target, Disney, Nike, Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks, Amazon, Meta, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock have all been boycotted for their stance on race, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access or ESG leadership.
Bud Light has been running campaigns targeted at diverse groups for years. Among the changes making such initiatives higher risk, is the way the media has completely abandoned the middle ground. News outlets have become ideological brands that both fuel and are driven by polarized social media. Arguments over what is woke, gaslighting, micro-aggression, free speech and hate speech dominate news stories and create a storm of outrage companies can get caught in.
Meanwhile, business is more trusted as crises have pulled corporate leadership into the vacuum of an abandoned middle ground. Business has taken on the role of authoritative mediator for the mainstream on social issues because it has a strategic imperative to serve diverse stakeholder groups. Corporations can use their credibility to deliver messages of empowerment in the face of intractable problems. A long-resisted vocal advocacy has become a leadership imperative. But in an atmosphere of polarization the challenge is to respond to issues while ensuring employees and other stakeholders understand the connection to company values.
Walking A Strong But Conciliatory Path.
In the past, corporate America could observe political divisions from the safety of the sidelines. Today, corporations must step onto the field – it is a cost of doing business and an opportunity to make business count.
There’s a bold but necessary role for leadership in setting the tone for the discussion of fraught issues. Being transparent about official positions and being unafraid to set boundaries for open discussion can build employee confidence. Leaders can make clear that success depends on the common ground that makes tolerance and disagreement possible. Finally, lowering at times the volume of corporate advocacy needs to be explained as a defensive action against those who would weaponize external anger, not a weakening of commitment or resolve.
We have a number of specific recommendations for communications leaders.
1. Build strong, close partnerships with your CEO, CMO, and CHRO. Take shared ownership of any corporate stance taken.
2. Lead with your company values. They should determine the issues you take a stand on and how you approach them.
3. Have a clear sense of the company culture across the enterprise, and open, two-way communication channels. Know the issues important to employees, and how they impact their lives and communities.
4. Seek deep insights into your consumers and key stakeholders, and have active channels in place for listening to and understanding their views.
5. Support Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). These groups bind people over common interests and backgrounds, and foster mutual understanding.
6. Develop a filter to assess if the company should take a stand on an issue and how to enter the public conversation.
7. Align on and proactively share your stance through a core narrative with internal and external stakeholders. Make the benefits material and tangible rather than moral and abstract.
Understanding Rather Than Unity.
The takeaway here is to message with conviction, but resist the temptation to persuade and make agreement the goal. Polarization makes uniting opposing sides unlikely even for the best communicators. But thriving amidst disagreements builds a credible mutual understanding that can act as ballast and sail to enable business to navigate a steady course through turbulent waters.