Avoiding the political crowd

Successful Crowd Surfers don’t simply follow the whims and prejudices of the crowd – they have a clear point of view or set of fundamental beliefs, that they are not afraid to express, even if it risks alienating some of their potential supporters.  Businesses such as Patagonia, Method, Innocent and Lush are willing to take a stand on issues or principles and in doing so are able to attract a crowd of like-minded individuals.  Where things can get tricky is when a business or business leader decides to step out of their immediate area of interest and get involved directly in a political debate, as John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, has recently discovered.

Mackay is a journalist’s dream – a successful eco-warrior who pays himself a salary of £1 a year and gives away most of his earnings to charity.  His Whole Foods business, although struggling in the UK, has been amazingly successful in the US among the left-leaning, Obama-supporting crowd.  He has attracted a loyal army of passionate brand advocates, who endorse his belief in the importance of locally-sourced, sustainably farmed, organic produce, primary through the use of PR and social media.  The business had over 550,000 Twitter followers at last count. 

Unfortunately, Mackay has decided to become involved in the highly controversial healthcare debate in the US, criticising Obama’s efforts to introduce a government-run healthcare scheme.  This has inevitably outraged many of his core customers – the liberal-minded, who don’t mind paying high prices for Whole Foods products.  They regard Mackay’s views as a betrayal of the Whole Foods philosopy and values. In the words of one customer, “Whole Foods is expensive but people shop here because they identify with the social conscience of the company – now it turns out that ethos was just a marketing exercise.”  Another commented, “There are a lot of people out there who really invested in the Whole Foods brand, emotionally and financially. We are feeling really betrayed.”

Mackay’s personal story and declared values have always been a core part of the Whole Foods brand, so his claim that the views he has expressed as his alone and that Whole Foods “has no official position on the issue” is naive in the extreme.  Protest movements have started, stores have been picketed and boycotts are threatened. 

Mackay has alienated his most important crowd by venturing outside his core territory – food – and by appearing to contradict many of the core principles that attracted people to the brand in the first place.   At a time when many Whole Foods customers are questioning whether they can afford to pay the company’s premium prices, Mackay’s apparent betrayal of his and their core values could do irreperable harm to the business.