Survey: Brands Must Be Careful Supporting Causes

It’s about time to start thinking about how the 2024 presidential election might play into brand strategy.

But for some brands, the answer might be not at all. According to Morning Consult’s “Election Playbook” for brands, the majority of American adults (53%) said corporations shouldn’t involve themselves in political and/or cultural issues, unchanged from 2020. However, that’s down from 61% who said corporations should sit on the sidelines in 2019.

Marketing Brew reports there’s also a widening generational gap on the issue, suggesting that “it is still important to know your audience and how they feel about your corporate advocacy,” Joanna Piacenza, head of industry intelligence at Morning Consult, told Marketing Brew.

The playbook, based on annual surveys conducted from 2019 to 2023, outlines other ways marketers and executives may want to handle corporate activism (or lack thereof) in the coming year.

To engage…or not?

Most American adults don’t want corporations to get involved in politics, according to Morning Consult. While that’s been true for years, there are a couple of caveats.

First, as the 2024 election draws closer, Piacenza said she anticipates the share of Americans who say they think corporations should use their influence to impact politics and culture (currently 29%) to “grow a bit.”

“Trump, in so many ways, created this landscape where brands feel as though they do need to take stands…in a way that they haven’t had to before,” she said.

Second, Gen Z and millennials specifically are more evenly split in their opinions: 39% of that group said corporations shouldn’t get involved in political or cultural issues, down from half in 2019. A slightly larger share, 41%, said brands should “use their influence to impact political and/or cultural issues.” Brands targeting younger consumers might, therefore, be more inclined toward advocacy.

Marketers may want to think about specific issues before deciding to wade in, according to Piacenza—and respondents considered some topics more appropriate for brands to speak to than others, per Morning Consult.

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Most Americans said support for the police was something that corporations should “issue public statements” about, with more than 60% agreeing. Diversity in the workforce, the environment and climate change, and gender equality followed.