A consumer boycott is a deliberate effort to stop individuals buying or using a company or brand’s products in order to achieve a certain objective.[1] They can be sparked due to disapproval of its policies or stances on social, economic, or political issues and are unique in that they are not usually started by any specific activist organization.[2] Consumer boycotts have become more widespread across social media platforms such at Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, and have been criticized as serving as a means to share personal views and stances but being generally inconsequential toward the company in question in the long run.[3][4][5]
Impact
editConsumer boycotts are effective at damaging a brand's reputation, however, and often result in short term dips in a company's stock prices.[6] While these dips may be forgettable in terms of the company's overall revenue, especially when the company may be among the top global brands, these boycotts can quickly gain attention and cause fast mobilization due to the rapid pace of information spreading across the internet and even be successful in seeing through policy change or restructure in leadership if the boycott represents a major societal issue or movement instead of an isolated, independent effort.[5][6] They are known to be successful when the issue the boycott is targeting is simple and easy to understand, with low cost of mobilization and many alternatives for consumers to turn toward.[7] Consumer boycotts function under the model that a consumer's money serves as a vote of support for the business from which they bought something, a model which adds a higher degree of social responsibility for the consumer as they must be knowledgeable in a company and it's competition's policies and stances in order to make the most informed decisions each time they make a purchase.[5]
Examples
editSome consumer boycotts that have gained widespread attention from the 2010's include the Starbucks holiday cup controversy in 2015, the #grabyourwallet campaign urging consumers to avoid companies that supported Donald Trump during his Presidential campaign before the elections in 2016, and the #DeleteUber movement in 2017 which resulted in Uber's CEO stepping down from the company as well as from his seat in President Trump's business advisement council.[5][8][9] It may be noted that consumer boycotts are not more commonly slanted toward any specific political party in the United States as there are many boycott efforts that champion both conservative and liberal stances.[7][10]
 | This is a user sandbox of Devinasen. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
- ^ Friedman, Friedman (1999). Consumer Boycotts: Effecting Change Through the Marketplace and Media. Routledge.
- ^ Times, Los Angeles. "Chick-fil-A at center of controversy". latimes.com. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ "Five Ways Boycotts Have Been Transformed In The Trump Era | Fast Company". Fast Company. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ Mitchell, Tasha (2014-12-17). "Top 10 Social Activism Hashtags of 2014". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ a b c d "When Do Consumer Boycotts Work?". Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ a b "Rethinking Consumer Boycotts". MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ a b "When Do Company Boycotts Work?". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ Whitten, Sarah (2015-11-13). "Brands take advantage of SBUX red cup controversy". CNBC. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ "Upset with Trump the president, consumers boycott Trump the brand". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- ^ "Target still facing backlash from transgender bathroom policy". LifeSiteNews. Retrieved 2017-10-13.