Do Companies That Go “Woke“ Actually Go Broke?

Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off Blinkist Annual Premium by clicking here: Join my newsletter for daily updates and get every video a day early - ----- Edited By: Andrew Gonzales Music Courtesy of: Epidemic Sound Select Footage Courtesy of: Getty Images For sponsorship inquiries, please contact sponsors@ Sign up for my newsletter 👈 All materials in these videos are for educational purposes only and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. This video does not provide investment or financial advice of any kind. #marketing #business #investing ----- If companies that go woke actually do go broke it could be a billion-dollar investment opportunity that all the biggest hedge funds in the world are ignoring. Companies going woke is the trend of their communications, products and advertising materials aligning their brand with progressive or liberal values and ideas. People who have noticed this trend have also noticed that companies perform worse financially after these branding changes. As a brand manager alienating a share of your customer base with advertising materials and tweets that contradict their beliefs is not a good move especially when they are highly invested in the issues. It’s now common to see customer backlash and product boycotts over ideological issues like Anheuser-Bush’s now infamous Bud Light partnership with Dylan Mulvaney. The paid Instagram and TikTok posts from the activist promoting the beer sparked backlash from conservatives who boycotted the brand in protest. In a desperate attempt to win those customers back Anheuser-Busch’s CEO in an earnings call meeting said this… “We will need to continue to clarify the fact that this was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign, and repeat this message for some time”. This attempt to distance themselves from the controversial marketing campaign backfired when progressive customers also started boycotting the product. This was a rare case where a brand was too woke and simultaneously not woke enough, but it did show that customers could be lost from both sides of the political aisle so this video should really be called “do brands that pick sides on divisive issues lose market share” but that doesn’t rhyme so I am sticking with my choice. Since the post was first made Bud Light sales slumped 23% in May compared to sales the year before costing Anheuser-Bush roughly sixty million dollars in just thirty-one days. Bud lost those sales to competitors like Miller Lite, Coors Light and Modelo Especial which overtook Bud Light as Americas best selling beer in the very same month. Customers are also becoming more aware of social messaging from companies, so even if advertising is in line with your beliefs, you can still respond negatively to it because it comes off as pandering by a company that only wants your money. But If companies do actually exist exclusively to maximise returns for their shareholders and ideologically aligned decisions like this can have such enormous financial consequences, then why don’t brands just shut up and stop making their products a political statement? Well, there are three reasons why companies seem to be making this terrible mistake and three reasons why investing based on wokeness is a terrible idea. So it’s time to learn How Money Works, to find out if companies that go woke, actually do go broke and why they insist on doing it anyway.