In 2022, retailer Best Buy announced that for the 17th year, the brand had been named a ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQIA+ Equality’ from the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.
In the press release announcing the designation, Best Buy included some of the initiatives they had implemented that contributed to their inclusive environment for the LGBTQIA+ community. Some of those initiatives included growing and nurturing employee resource groups (ERGs), and a $25,000 donation to The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention program for LGBTQIA+ young people.
That background adds some additional context to recent news that the brand will now screen donations made by it’s ERGs to external organizations. This stance came in response to correspondence inserted in the brand’s SEC filing, which included a months-long email chain between the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), and Best Buy attorneys.
In late 2023, NCPPR sent correspondence to Best Buy demanding the electronics retailer provide a report that explained to shareholders how partnerships with LGBTQ+ charities were benefiting the business.
Here’s an excerpt from that demand: “Best Buy has partnerships with and contributes to organizations and activists that promote the practice of gender transition surgeries on minors and evangelize gender theory to minors. Why are Best Buy shareholders funding the proliferation of an ideology seeking to mutilate the reproductive organs of children before they finish puberty?”
The emails also included NCPPRs intention to make “a splash” unless the consumer electronics retailer complied with the organizations demands, which included no longer funding eight LGBTQIA+ organizations, including The Trevor Project and Our Gay History in 50 States.
Towards the end of the communication chain, Best Buy attorney Marina Rizzo clarified that the brand had never contributed to six of the organizations on NCPPR’s list, and that no donations had been made to The Trevor Project or Our Gay History in 50 States in “quite some time.”
Rizzo went on to add that Best Buy ERGs do have discretion to donate funds to organizations they choose. She did add however, that “any such contributions would be screened to ensure they do not advocate or support the causes or agendas you have identified as concerning.” She followed that statement with, “I hope that addresses your concerns.”
Consumer responses to news of Best Buy screening donations highlights their distaste for the brand’s actions.
Brand Values Are Important To Both NCPPR And Consumers
NCPPR centered it’s complaint on not understanding the value of charitable contributions, and specifically to those named organizations, to Best Buy’s sales.
Here’s specifically what was written in the correspondence on the matter, “This contentious and vast disagreement between radical gender theory activists and the general public has nothing to do with Best Buy selling electronics.”
It is clear that NCPPR has a very strong stance on the issue of transgender rights. And while the complaint sent to Best Buy took the approach of questioning the donations to a connection to sales, I would argue that NCPPR doesn’t care about all of Best Buy’s charitable contributions. Rather NCPPRs complaint is only about the contributions that are misaligned with its own values.
Charitable contributions are common for many brands. It’s one of the ways they support the communities in which they live and work.
Supporting charitable organizations that focus on specific communities are also a common way brands do their part to uplift marginalized communities, and remove barriers to their success.
So while charitable contributions aren’t tied to commercial success, charitable contributions have an indirect impact on commercial success.
Increasingly, consumers want to give their attention to and buy from brands that share their values. One study on “wantedness” showed that 79% of consumers say that brands must actively demonstrate that they “understand and care about me” before they will consider making a purchase decision. That same study showed that 89% of consumers are loyal to brands that share their values. And another study showed that 82% of consumers want to buy from brands with values that align with theirs.
When you see a brand supporting causes and organizations that serve historically underrepresented and underserved, it is often doing the work of living its values while demonstrating to consumers from these communities that the brand sees and supports them.
While many brands often refrain from entering into debates about topics happening in the social arena, that does not mean you shouldn’t make your stance known when it comes to those issues. That is especially true when those issues are connected to your employees and or your customers.
Where a brand stands on an issue, should be independent of what any external party thinks about it.
That’s why brand values are so critical. They are what you as a brand have declared you stand for. That declaration should stand firm, even in the face of threats from external parties who take issue with the way you live your values.
If consumers want to buy from brands that share their values, the only way they are going to know a brand’s values is by what it communicates and how it lives those values.
If consumers want to buy from brands that demonstrate they care about them, part of that caring means supporting the communities consumers are part of.
Being effective at inclusive marketing is about more than just the marketing. It isn’t just about your product, or being representative in your visual imagery, or even using lingo that speaks to a specific community in your campaigns.
Consumers from marginalized communities don’t want brands to just start targeting them with their marketing campaigns just so they can get their credit cards.
Your brand needs to build relationships with communities you want to serve. Your brand also needs to demonstrate commitment to the people they serve.
People and organizations are going to have opinions about your brand values. But the opinion of others should have no merit on how you live your values.
That may mean that you’ll lose some people and partners whose values are misaligned to yours. It may sting, but know that at the same time, you’ll also gain people and partners whose values are aligned.
