Whole Foods Boycott

September 11, 2009 by Colby · Comments
Filed under: Corporate Case Studies, Nutrition 2.0 

Social media can quickly bring a brand to the limelight with the power of information spreading tools like Twitter and Facebook, but it can bring one down just the same.  Rarely do we see a case like the recent Whole Foods boycott, which gives us some unique insight into group human behavior.

Whole Foods Market, founded in 1980, is a large natural and organic food corporation with over 275 stores around the world.  Unique compared to its competitors, however, is how the company has leveraged social media to amass quite a following on the web.  It has nearly 1.3 million followers to its main Twitter account (and over 150 local accounts), among the top 40 for highest follower count.  On Facebook, it boasts over 130,000 fans, and a number of stores have individual pages as well.  It’s homepage maintains an active blog, and a forum, which recently has become very active in the Health Care Reform subforum.  Why is this?

On August 11th when CEO John Mackey published this short piece (full article here) in the Wall Street Journal criticizing Obama’s healthcare reform plans.  His opinions started quite a backlash in the following days, as disgruntled loyal shoppers revolted on Facebook with a boycott group of over 32,000 members and even a dedicated website.  It should be noted that some have spoken out praising Mackey and encouraging conservatives to increase their spending at Whole Foods, but the negative reactions have far overpowered the positive.

The topic was further publicized by the popular social media site Mashable, which has a series of posts covering the company’s perspectives on social media, the revolt, and the resulting drop in brand image.

If this will influence their long term image is uncertain.  So far, they have not attempted to censor any of the material and in fact are encouraging discussions on the website, even though the opinions were not representative of the company itself.

The lessons: be bold in exploring social media use, but use foresight when mixing personal opinions (especially political) with your business.  Interact and engage your followers, and understand that if they are following you they likely share a passion with your company’s ideals and that selective radical opinions may alienate many of them.

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