Just sell me the product, please
Lead Summary
By
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By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist
Sometime, along about the late 1960s, early 1970s, manufacturing and service companies decided they needed to become socially involved. Suddenly, they started giving money to all sorts of causes and promoting these causes internally and with their customer base.
Since corporations, by their very nature, are not human and have no feelings, these initiatives had to be adopted and promoted by certain departments within the companies.
Sometimes, I suspect, the leadership or the board of directors may have initiated these alignments. Other times, perhaps it was the marketing department that promoted these ideas.
I have a request for all the corporations out there. Unless the cause is poverty or clean water – stop it. Just tell us you are complying with all laws and regulations, certify this if necessary, but otherwise stay out of society’s cause du jour.
The money you are spending is mine. I gave it to you in exchange for your product or service. I expect you to use the money I give you to purchase raw materials (within all government regulations), manage your facilities (within all government regulations), employ people (within all government regulations), perform reasonable research and development to make your product perform better at lower costs and make a reasonable profit.
There is no place in the money I give you for anything else, except perhaps poverty alleviation and clean water programs for Third World countries.
My wife feels the same way. There is a chain of stores that are owned by a spice company. My wife was a great patron of these stores until the CEO came out with a political statement and said they were putting money toward the causes he personally supports. She is back to buying spices at the grocery store.
I patronized one of the online shaving clubs until they revealed a product promotion whose profits are going to a certain cause. I have now quit patronizing them and gone to another.
Johnny Carson was asked one time why he did not tell political jokes. His response? “Why risk upsetting half my audience?”
I have not watched a late night “comedian” (I prefer to call them “propagandists”) since Jay Leno retired. My age may have something to do with it, but I am not motivated to adjust my sleeping habits to listen to the bunch that is on now.
I prefer to give to causes of my choice, I resent giving to causes others choose for me. It is bad enough that tax dollars are spent on issues I don’t agree with. The fortunate thing with purchasing goods and services is that we have choices and can vote with our wallets.
An example of what I am talking about was a recent posting on LinkedIn (the business social network) by a director of one of the top three electrical equipment manufacturers in the world. They were touting the latest U.N. climate change report and how buying from her company will help solve this problem.
Now, I don’t care if they want to make sound business decisions based on any report in the world. But justify them to us as economically sensible business decisions, not something tied emotionally to a third-party report. What they have done is the lazy way out of doing a solid marketing job. Tell us why we should buy your new thingamabob, based on its merits as compared to your competitors’ and your own previous products. By the statement she made, she led me to believe that their new products are not necessarily the best from an economy and performance standpoint; we are to allow them some latitude in efficiency and value for emotional reasons. No.
It is the same with the shaving club I left. They were promoting a certain lifestyle. As a citizen of this country, I can fall in line socially and tolerate certain lifestyles, lifestyles that I might have not looked at so favorably in the past. However, toleration is a long way from “championing” a cause.
I’ll give you an example where I have changed. Tattoos. Ten or 15 years ago, I would not have hired a person with a tattoo. I used to give seminars for young people entering the workforce where I told them I would not hire a person with a tattoo, and they would never know that that was the reason. Today, I am a bit more tolerant – but not a champion of – those who wish to drown themselves in ink. I just hope I live long enough to see some of those strategically placed soaring eagles when they “sag in” for a landing in a decade or two.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.
HCP columnist
Sometime, along about the late 1960s, early 1970s, manufacturing and service companies decided they needed to become socially involved. Suddenly, they started giving money to all sorts of causes and promoting these causes internally and with their customer base.
Since corporations, by their very nature, are not human and have no feelings, these initiatives had to be adopted and promoted by certain departments within the companies.
Sometimes, I suspect, the leadership or the board of directors may have initiated these alignments. Other times, perhaps it was the marketing department that promoted these ideas.
I have a request for all the corporations out there. Unless the cause is poverty or clean water – stop it. Just tell us you are complying with all laws and regulations, certify this if necessary, but otherwise stay out of society’s cause du jour.
The money you are spending is mine. I gave it to you in exchange for your product or service. I expect you to use the money I give you to purchase raw materials (within all government regulations), manage your facilities (within all government regulations), employ people (within all government regulations), perform reasonable research and development to make your product perform better at lower costs and make a reasonable profit.
There is no place in the money I give you for anything else, except perhaps poverty alleviation and clean water programs for Third World countries.
My wife feels the same way. There is a chain of stores that are owned by a spice company. My wife was a great patron of these stores until the CEO came out with a political statement and said they were putting money toward the causes he personally supports. She is back to buying spices at the grocery store.
I patronized one of the online shaving clubs until they revealed a product promotion whose profits are going to a certain cause. I have now quit patronizing them and gone to another.
Johnny Carson was asked one time why he did not tell political jokes. His response? “Why risk upsetting half my audience?”
I have not watched a late night “comedian” (I prefer to call them “propagandists”) since Jay Leno retired. My age may have something to do with it, but I am not motivated to adjust my sleeping habits to listen to the bunch that is on now.
I prefer to give to causes of my choice, I resent giving to causes others choose for me. It is bad enough that tax dollars are spent on issues I don’t agree with. The fortunate thing with purchasing goods and services is that we have choices and can vote with our wallets.
An example of what I am talking about was a recent posting on LinkedIn (the business social network) by a director of one of the top three electrical equipment manufacturers in the world. They were touting the latest U.N. climate change report and how buying from her company will help solve this problem.
Now, I don’t care if they want to make sound business decisions based on any report in the world. But justify them to us as economically sensible business decisions, not something tied emotionally to a third-party report. What they have done is the lazy way out of doing a solid marketing job. Tell us why we should buy your new thingamabob, based on its merits as compared to your competitors’ and your own previous products. By the statement she made, she led me to believe that their new products are not necessarily the best from an economy and performance standpoint; we are to allow them some latitude in efficiency and value for emotional reasons. No.
It is the same with the shaving club I left. They were promoting a certain lifestyle. As a citizen of this country, I can fall in line socially and tolerate certain lifestyles, lifestyles that I might have not looked at so favorably in the past. However, toleration is a long way from “championing” a cause.
I’ll give you an example where I have changed. Tattoos. Ten or 15 years ago, I would not have hired a person with a tattoo. I used to give seminars for young people entering the workforce where I told them I would not hire a person with a tattoo, and they would never know that that was the reason. Today, I am a bit more tolerant – but not a champion of – those who wish to drown themselves in ink. I just hope I live long enough to see some of those strategically placed soaring eagles when they “sag in” for a landing in a decade or two.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.