I recently read an article of a Colorado sports apparel store, Prime Time Sports, forced to close its doors FIVE MONTHS after a Colin Kaepernick-related Nike boycott. I gotta tell you readers, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You take a stand without understanding all the facts. Even worse you take a stand without even understanding the brand values of the product you carry as well as your own brand values. He carries Nike products because they sell and his clients want it and then stops selling it in his store thinking he’ll still be around?! SMH
People I’m going to say this clearly, you cannot run your business the way you want to. Your process is entirely based on how your target wants to do business with you. The owner, Stephen Martin, a former armed service veteran did not like what Nike did and decided to take a personal stance that cost him his business. His store’s brand is about providing the apparel his clients wants which has nothing to do with how he personally feels. What upsets me is not the stand in itself. It’s that it was a selfish stance without taking everything into account which both Nike and Kaepernick did.
First let’s discuss Kaepernick. He saw injustice happening and understood his notoriety and decided to leverage it with his personal values, which in his case ARE his brand values. He consulted others especially veterans and it was a veteran that said he should take a knee. So, you mean to tell me your own brother-in-arms tells him to do something that shows both a stand and sign of respect and you can’t deal with that? On top of that, Kaepernick isn’t the only one both through time and today that has taken a neutral stance against an issue. There are religious groups that don’t salute the flag. Are you banning them from your store, or do you still take their cash because they are small time people and Kaepernick is a celebrity?
Next we have Nike. They made a clearly vetted stance that was 100% in line with their brand values. This isn’t the fist time they’ve done something like this. Further, in our modern time with social media backlash you can bet the farm that such a campaign was vetted all the way to the top. But at the end of the day it was true to their core values and they understood the risk like Kaepernick did. They then took a stand, which again, wasn’t their first time doing so, because it was true to the brand not the person. Martin took a stand to stay true to himself and not his brand and suffered a devastating consequence.
In the case of Nike, their stance was true to their brand and authentic and THEY GREW marketshare. Yes, some, like Prime Time Sports boycotted the product, but way more gravitated to it because they identified with it. What makes matters worse is that the store-owner, Martin, didn’t learn from his previous mistake. He cancelled an in-store autographing with Broncos player, Brandon Marshall, because of the same issue. There was backlash from that and that was a year before he boycotted Kaepernick. Can you afford to do the same thing on a bigger scale twice? To add fuel to the fire his store was in a mall which we all know are on the decline. It’s like his business was smoldering and he threw gasoline on the fire and torched the place.
This a major lesson for you business owners out there. Take stances on things true to your brand values, but be prepared to pay the cost for it. In most cases, when you’re true to your brand values you will win in the end. But only take risks you can afford to take. Martin didn’t and admitted that, “being in a sports store without Nike is kind of like being a milk store with no milk.” You knew this and still chose to take such a stance? Did you even review your business numbers to see what Nike sales were in your store? Let’s say based on what Martin said that Nike was the monopoly. That means that it probably accounted for 35-60% of his sales. In such a case I always account for the high number and ask myself can I afford to lose 60% of my sales? If so for how long? What’s my strategy to keep my business afloat while I make this personal decision that will piss off my clients?
I had a client that kept asking for things that were not true to my brand values. I fired him. But, be sure I counted the cost. He made up for 9% of my total revenue, he wasn’t being reasonable and had a habit of being very difficult. Continuing with him would not have been good for business so I took a stance and fired him. When no one could do what I did for him because, again, I stayed true to my brand values he came back on my terms.
Martin said that the store has been his baby for 21 years. Our businesses are very much our babies. If you take that analogy literally, do you starve your baby just because they spit up on you? That’s what babies and businesses do. They have issues and challenges, but none of those challenges should ever stem from our personal beliefs otherwise you could pay a hefty cost.
Now there is nothing wrong with his stance. However, there are other places where you can share your personal beliefs. Your business is not and should never be a platform for your personal beliefs. The only exception to this rule is if those beliefs are your brands’ beliefs. A service-based business can do that, a product-based business cannot. You can only do so IF you can afford to pay the price.
Nike and Kaepernick could afford to make a decision like that. As small business owners we cannot. Now granted Prime Time Sports is not the only business whose owner has taken a bold stance based on personal values. Chick-Fil-A is one example. However, they could afford to do so. What’s more is that majority of its stores are in red states where their clients’ personal values align with the owners. So, in a way, it was still true to the brands values and they are actually one of the most profitable chains in the country. On top of that, Chick-Fil-A’s owner took a stance on something while understanding the core part of his business wouldn’t be in jeopardy. That was, “People gotta eat and what I make tastes good. So if people want what I got then they gotta deal with what I say.” And they did.
Thus, Prime Time Sports chose to stop selling what his primary target wants because of a personal decision. As a result it cost him dearly. What’s worse, and this is what really gets me, is that we forget how our decisions have far reaching consequences both seen and unseen. I don’t know if Martin is married, has a house or kids, but all of them, his vendors and others who depended on his business are affected by his errant decision. In an interview Martin said that the store has been his baby for 21 years. Our businesses are very much our babies. If you take that analogy literally, do you starve your baby just because they spit up on you? That’s what babies and businesses do. They have issues and challenges, but none of those challenges should ever stem from our personal beliefs otherwise you could pay a hefty cost. If you can’t afford to pay that cost, then don’t make a personal decision that will kill your brand.
