Christopher J. Tennyson

Major Retailers Drop MyPillow

Mike Lindell’s Political Pillow Talk Puts the Future of His Business at Risk              

1/25/21 – – Viewers of prime time cable news programming are well acquainted with Mike Lindell, aka the MyPillow Guy. The folksy self-made entrepreneur has for years unapologetically pushed his bedding products, evangelical religious beliefs and conservative political positions. Despite his outspokenness, company sales have soared — until last week, when major retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s and Wayfair, began pulling his pillows from their shelves.

What happened?

Ignoring the super-charged post-election environment, he doubled down on politics.  

Remaining fiercely loyal to President Trump — he was one of the last visitors to the White House before the Trumps flew off to Florida — Lindell jumped into the controversy regarding voter fraud in the presidential election and hinted that he may run for governor in his home state of Minnesota. Mike Lindell has never been everybody’s cup of tea. But he destroyed whatever delicate balance he had struck between business and politics.

Mike Lindell’s experience offers a cautionary tale — I guess you could call it an excellent bedtime story — for business leaders feeling pressured to weigh in on political issues. Proceed with caution, understanding that the world is evenly, bitterly divided between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. Enter this minefield and you will offend as many people as you impress.

A 2016 Weber Shandwick survey of American consumers found 40% of respondents more likely to purchase from a company when they agreed with the CEO’s position, but 45% less likely to be buyers when they disagreed. A 2018 Stanford Graduate School of Business study (“The Double-Edged Sword of CEO Activism”) confirmed this important reality:

The most surprising result of the survey is that, while Americans claim to change their purchasing behavior depending on their agreement with an activist CEO’s position, respondents are significantly more likely to remember products they stopped using or use less because of the position the CEO took than products they started using or use more. Specifically, 35 percent of the public could think of a product or service they use less, while only 20 percent could think of a product they use more.

The Stanford researchers concluded:

CEOs who take public positions might build loyalty with employees, customers, or constituents, but these same positions can inadvertently alienate important segments of those populations.

Who are you more upset with . . . Mike Lindell or Bed Bath & Beyond? Are your delighted that the ubiquitous MyPillow Guy is finally getting what he deserves, or furious that major retailers would cave to pressure from the cancel culture?  Are you more likely to buy from Wayfair because the company shares your views, or have you pledged to never visit the online furniture store again because they abandoned a patriotic U.S. manufacturer?

In the end, these self-inflicted storms are destructive for everyone. CEOs who avoid being dragged into politics can still do a lot of good, support important business-related causes, and get a good night’s sleep.   

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stores-drop-mypillow-ceo-pushes-175625964.html

Published by Christopher J. Tennyson

Christopher Tennyson brings more than 35 years of experience in major agency and corporate environments to his work as a senior communications and crisis management consultant. He has advised a broad range of high-profile companies, institutions and individuals in diverse industries, including real estate, retailing, consumer products, energy, education, art, sports and finance. Tennyson served as senior vice president and senior partner at the international public relations firm FleishmanHillard (FH), heading the New York Corporate and Public Affairs Group. His FH crisis team won the 2008 Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil for best crisis communications program, supporting a major food product recall. Prior to joining FH, Tennyson was a principal in the Michigan-based public relations firm Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson, and served as senior vice president, corporate affairs, for The Taubman Company, whose interests included the international art auction house Sotheby’s (NYSE:BID), the Woodward and Lothrop and John Wanamaker department store chains, A&W Restaurants, the Michigan Panthers of the U.S. Football League and Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO), a leading retail real estate developer and manager. Tennyson began his communications counseling career with the international public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, advancing from copywriter to vice president and director of the agency’s Issues and Corporate Advertising Unit in the New York office. A graduate of Syracuse University, Tennyson has been a visiting lecturer on leadership and crisis communications at the Wharton School and an adjunct professor at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. He is co-author of “Driving Crisis Communications in a 24/7 Digital World,” featured in the PR News Crisis Management Guidebook, Vol. 3. Tennyson also co-authored entrepreneur Alfred Taubman’s New York Times best-selling memoir, “Threshold Resistance – The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer,” published in 2007 by Harper Collins.

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