Don’t be the brand that unveils a rainbow logo every Pride Month, with nothing behind it. From more equitable health benefits in a hyper competitive job market, to language choices that encompass an ever-broadening scope of gender and sexual identities, this hub provides ideas for how you can support of your LGBTQ+ employees, consumers, and community at large.
Navigate the resources below by moving through each of the 4 tabs, from “Get Started” to “Take More Action.”
This 5 minute assessment will help you determine if it’s right for your brand to speak up and take action around LGBTQ+ issues.
This checklist outlines 5 things you should do before making any public statements.
These facts & figures can help get internal buy-in from other company decision makers.
Apple has scored a perfect 100 on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index every year. The company’s track record supporting LGBTQ+ policies is comprehensive and long-lasting. Even 20 years ago, Apple was one of the first companies to offer health benefits to employees’ same sex partners. Since then, they have expanded LGTBQ+ family benefits to include parental leave for same-sex parents after birth or adoption of a child.
Apple also provides a vibrant diaspora of Employee Resource Groups, allowing employees to find support and community among one another and a method to provide feedback to the corporation. The company regularly donates money and products to LGBTQ+ organizations. In 2014, Tim Cook became Apple’s CEO and the first openly LBGTQ+ chief executive at a Fortune 500 company.
The Apple case study shows that being a true brand leader in social impact requires comprehensive and expanding 360° commitments over time.
Stolichnaya Vodka built a brand off an association with Russians' love of vodka. But in 2013, when Vladimir Putin signed into law anti-gay legislation, a #DumpStoli boycott campaign took off in the United States. In reality, the Stoli founder was a staunch critic of Putin and had left Russia when he came to power in 2000, moving Stoli’s manufacturing to Latvia.
That wasn’t known to the American public, who assumed that brand profits were flowing back to anti-LGBTQ+ Russia. Stoli spent millions rushing to rehabilitate their image by releasing a public letter, hiring a crisis PR firm, donating to LGBTQ+ organizations, and incorporating pro-LGBTQ+ messages into its marketing.
The Stoli case study proves that brand associations run deep, and crisis can occur in an instant if something or someone you’re associated with becomes a bad actor. The best chance at preventing this is to keep a close eye on evolving situations, and have Plans A, B and C already in place so you are prepared to react immediately.
In 2016, North Carolina created a new law to restrict where transgender people could use the restroom in public and in schools. HB2 was filed, passed and signed into law in a single day.
Corporations that did business in North Carolina began to speak out. More than 100 CEOs from companies including Williams-Sonoma, Levi Strauss, Airbnb and Warby Parker signed an open letter to Governor McCrory condemning the discriminatory legislation, citing it as bad for business and economic development. In the year that HB2 remained a law, the state lost $630 million in canceled sports events, performances and conventions as those businesses and their patrons took their dollars out of state. The law was repealed in 2017 after the ripple effect their withdrawals had on the local economy and negative public perceptions of the state.
This case study proves that business can influence policy, and the power of the collective: joining a business coalition is an effective way for your company to make impact without a large lift or individual risk.
Book a private 1:1 consulting session with a Brands Take Action expert to review your messaging, or help you overcome any challenges you’re facing on how to successfully speak up and take action.
