Under pressure: An analysis of the perceived positioning pressure on socio-political issues and its influence on the external communication of German companies

Abstract

Today, more and more companies tend to position themselves with public statements on socio-political issues such as racism or discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community represented through popular movements like Black Lives Matter or the Pride Month. According to surveys, most consumers expect companies to take a stand on such polarizing topics. Despite this apparent relevance in society, there is only little research on companies taking public stances, yet. Moreover, the existing studies addressing the topic predominantly focus on the influence of corporate positioning on customer attitudes and only a few studies examine the impact of companies speaking out on socio-political issues, their communication and decision-making processes, and their attitudes. In order to close this research gap, 19 semistructured interviews with communicators of internationally operating German B2C companies were conducted. As the results show, the interviewed companies are all perceiving societal pressure, but up to different degrees. Equally different is the associated impact of positioning on external communications and strategic planning. In general, three initial patterns can be identified on how companies deal with positioning pressure: The skeptics, who do none or almost no positioning, the adapters, who speak out on specific issues and closely observe the current debates, and the pioneers, who feel less pressure and are the first companies to speak out and even initiate debates themselves. It remains to be seen if these patterns will be established in future research and if uniform strategies in corporate communications will develop when it comes to the topic of socio-political positioning.