Reuters
Students who walked out of their Montgomery County, Maryland, schools protest against gun violence in front of the White House in Washington, February 21, 2018.
- A growing number of American consumers are pressuring companies to ditch their ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA), following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
- Activists have planned a 24-hour boycott of Amazon, Apple, and FedEx - three companies that have not distanced themselves from the NRA - on March 1.
- Companies are likely making careful calculations on how the boycotts and customer anger could affect their bottom lines, according to a brand reputation advisor.
In the two weeks since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, nearly two dozen companies - from Delta Airlines to Hertz - have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA). Immediately after the massacre, American consumers began pressuring brands to cancel their discount programs for NRA members.
But three huge corporations - FedEx, Amazon, and Apple - have either stayed silent or said they are continuing their NRA partnerships. Amazon and Apple have come under fire from gun-control activists because the two tech giants offer the NRA's TV channel as part of their streaming services. FedEx, meanwhile, has a discount program for NRA members.
In response, some consumers have begun cancelling their Amazon Prime accounts, stopping their use of FedEx to ship items, and boycotting Amazon and Apple products. Several activists and celebrities have also organized a 24-hour boycott of the three companies on March 1.
As politically charged boycotts become more frequent, it's worth exploring how they could affect each company's bottom line.
Anti-NRA boycotts could hurt the sales and reputations of companies that don't cut ties - but not always
Eric Schiffer, a consultant who advises Fortune 500 companies on how to improve their reputations, told Business Insider that the 24-hour boycott could lead to a sales decline, especially for Amazon.
"A large portion of [Amazon's] revenue is through e-commerce, which could impact them quite significantly if enough people participate [on March 1]," said Schiffer, who is the chairman of Reputation Management Consultants.
The companies that have cut ties with the NRA likely made those decisions based on a number of factors: knowing what their customers care about, where they stand politically, what they do with their discretionary income, the organizations they support, and their core beliefs.
This explains why many life-insurance companies are continuing their NRA discount programs. According to surveys, Americans who buy life insurance tend to be older, and those who are older tend to have more conservative political beliefs, like supporting the Second Amendment. Companies that sell hunting and camping gear are also more likely to keep their NRA partnerships, Schiffer said.
The American public has a short attention span for boycotts, and brands have taken advantage of that before. While Dick's Sporting Goods has now seemingly made permanent changes to ban assault weapons from its stores post-Parkland, it has flip-flopped in the past. Dick's made the same move to stop offering this type of weapon after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. But just eight months later later, it began selling semiautomatic rifles at a new hunting and fishing chain called Field & Stream (assault rifles are now banned from that chain as well).
This shift in Dick's stance on gun accessibility hints at another roadblock for the NRA boycott.
The American public can quickly forget about mass shootings
While many shootings fade from the public consciousness quickly, the student survivors of the Parkland shooting have not relented in their push for tighter gun regulation and anti-NRA efforts.
But Schiffer believes that it will be hard for the anti-NRA boycott to ultimately hurt these companies' sales and reputations.
"Most politically charged events, that in this case is heartbreaking, have short lifespans, because the public's memory fades pretty quickly. That's why many policymakers are rushing to get something done [on gun control]," Schiffer said. "When we look back on this six months from now, it won't surprise me to see that many brands will have made their way back, in some fashion, to the NRA."
Historically, few political boycotts have affected company sales in the long-term. When Hobby Lobby refused to provide contraception to employees, when Chick-fil-a revealed it gave money to anti-LGBT organizations, and when H&M released a racially insensitive hoodie ad, activists called for boycotts. Yet none of these companies have recently closed locations or shown signs that their sales are hurting from the boycotts.
There are exceptions. According to The Cut, sales of Ivanka Trump-brand clothing have been steadily declining since 2016, the same year a boycott against Trump merchandise began. And after consumers found out Nike used child labor in the 1990s, the subsequent boycott was a huge blow to the company's reputation. Nike performed 600 factory audits, and was the first in the industry to publish a complete list of the facilities making its products.
But boycotting tech giants like Apple and Amazon is not as easy.
Tech companies on the boycott list are far-reaching in scale and influence
Boycotting Amazon is not as simple as cancelling a Prime account or giving up online shopping. People would need to stop watching Amazon's TV shows, buying food from Whole Foods, and using Goodreads and Audible. In addition, Amazon Web Service (AWS) provides cloud-computing services to governments and major companies, including Netflix, GE, and Kellogg's, making the company's influence even larger. If you live in a city or state with an Amazon warehouse or office, chances are your local government is also awarding the company subsidies through taxpayer dollars.
All of this makes it harder to fully avoid Amazon and other tech companies with NRA ties.
Shannon Coulter, a brand and digital strategist who is helping promote the March 1 boycott, realizes these challenges. But she said her team will not back down.
"A number of companies have already dropped their ties to the NRA in a short period of time, which is great, but there's still a lot more work to do," Coulter said. "We won't stop."