After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that it would no longer sell semiautomatic rifles in its hunting and fishing stores (it had already stopped selling them at its main stores after the December 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting). The company has gone on to destroy the guns it pulled from its shelves, rather than selling them back to the manufacturers. CEO Ed Stack told The New York Times, “We’re going to take a stand and step up and tell people our view and, hopefully, bring people along into the conversation.” While some consumers threatened to boycott the retailer, the company’s stock is up, and public perception of the brand is more positive overall.
How Liberals and Conservatives Shop Differently
The charged political atmosphere is increasingly influencing the marketplace. Consumers are putting more pressure on companies to choose sides. But new research suggests consumers’ brand preferences are shaped not only by where companies stand on politically polarizing issues, but also by consumers’ own political affiliations and subtle brand associations. A series of surveys suggests that people who identify as conservative are more likely to want to do this by buying products marketed as “better,” while liberals are more drawn to messaging that emphasizes that the product is “different.” For example, in one experiment, conservatives were 2.2 times more likely than liberals to choose the mug that signaled superiority (“Just Better”) over the one that signaled uniqueness (“Just Different”).