SUMMARY: I keep reading that consumers want their brands to be socially responsible. That is 100% pure bullshit. Consumers could care less about what their brands do or say as long as they meet their wants and needs.
Let’s look at a couple of examples..
Via Bob Hoffman’s newsletter “this week, The Wall Street Journal took the scumbags, liars, squids, and creeps at Facebook apart piece by piece. In a multi-part series entitled “The Facebook Files,”the Journal took internal emails they obtained from a whistleblower at Facebook and demonstrated without any question how Facebook has been continuously lying to legislators, regulators, and the public about the damage their business is doing to society”.
Yet, despite Facebook’s lies and criminal activity, there hasn’t been any great exodus of users because too many people are addicted to it. In addition, media buyers continue to lavish money on Facebook regardless of their past lies.
Then there is Apple. People love Apple so much they’ll buy a rock if it had an Apple logo. Yet Apple has hidden profits overseas and is fighting the proposed tax increase on corporations even though they have billions in their bank accounts. On top of this, it’s come out this week that over 500 Apple employees are posting horror stories of life working for them. In short, they complain about poor managers and a culture where employees who drink the Kool-Aid are promoted while employees who raise red flags are often left to rot in their current positions.
Somehow business publications love to run stories about the need for socially responsible brands. That’s garbage and they know it. The owner of Home Depot, as another example, is a huge Trump supporter and is against paying employees more money but customers continue to flock to the store.
What does all this tell me? It tells me that if you make a good product people could care less about what you do or say. Apple customers want their new toys every year because Apple has them addicted. The iPhone 13 is such a colossal disappointment that many carriers offer them at no cost with a trade-in.
Make a great product and establish a significant base of customers, and people won’t give a damn what you do or say.
