If 2021 had a tagline, it would be known as “The Year Common-Sense Became the News.” The latest evidence of this comes from a business report released by Brunswick Insights which found that the majority of American consumers really do not care to hear CEOs’ or corporations’ banal platitudes on a variety of issues. Most customers simply want to hear about the product or service that is being produced.
As first reported by Axios, many corporate executives fall into what’s known as “The Talking Trap,” or “the danger of speaking out impulsively on issues that aren’t core to the business.”
Brunswick, a group that advises corporations and large businesses, conducted a survey of 301 U.S. corporate executives and 800 2020-voters from September 29 to October 7, 2021.
Here were the parameters for interviewees:
The corporate executives were defined as full time employees with an executive level or C-suite title working at companies with at least $50M in annual revenue. The voters were registered voters who voted in the 2020 Presidential election – with the sample balanced to reflect the 2020 split in the electorate.
The key findings of the report found that “Corporate executives are 2-to-1 ‘out of step’ with broader public sentiment related to engagement on social issues.”
Likewise, “only a minority of voters (36%) agree unequivocally that companies should speak out on social issues, compared to 63% of corporate executives.”
If it often seems like CEOs release condescending and haughty statements on a variety of topics — whether it be BLM, LGBTQ issues, or coronavirus — perhaps it is because executives “vastly overestimate” how much their opinion actually matters to their customers.
Brunswick notes that “nearly 3-in-4 corporate executives (74%) think that communication on [social issues] has been effective, only 39% of voters can say the same.”
The third key finding may be surprising to some. While the report notes that Trump voters obviously do not appreciate corporate messaging which tends to swing left, the average Biden voter is not a big fan of the virtue-signaling either.
“There is a 24-point gap between Biden voters and corporate executives on the effectiveness of corporate communication, and only 17% think corporate communication has been ‘very’ effective,” Brunswick notes.
Most of this seems like, well as the lede said, common-sense practice to companies. But, as The Daily Wire has extensively reported, corporations simply cannot seem to help themselves from weighing in on social issues. They seemingly always advance the Democratic agenda.
The report also advises companies to follow through on what they promise to do by putting action behind their words.
Could this mean that companies that speak out about “human rights” issues will suddenly stop doing business with China? That remains doubtful. Yet, perhaps with this new report, more CEOs will think twice before alienating the majority of voters by speaking out on social issues impacting America.