President Trump has the power to rock markets and drive a company’s stock price up or down. He may not intend to upset a company’s apple cart, but the outcome of his erratic actions is the same. When the man drops a Tweet Bomb from his Samsung, things are bound to explode.
Melanie McShane, head of strategy at Wolff Olins believes activism is a business imperative today. “With the rise of political authoritarianism, brands will face fundamental choices about whether to take a stand on issues that offend them and their users, risking the wrath of politicians and their acolytes. Or stay quiet and seem complicit.”
In other words, you better define yourself (and your company’s brand) before someone with a big stick does it for you.
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
Norstrom is a Seattle-based department store, known for its attentive customer service. The company has deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, and loyal customers around the country. They listen, and this willingness to learn and adapt led them to remove Ivanka Trump’s clothing line from their stores.
“Sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now,” the Nordstrom spokesperson said in a statement, adding that it had “personally informed” Ivanka of the decision early this year.
According to Fortune, Nordstrom’s stock ended the day up more than 4% following the tweet from POTUS. In yet another new twist in the political landscape, some members of the resistance prefer cashmere.
