Comment on “Frontiers: Spilling the Beans on Political Consumerism: Do Social Media Boycotts and Buycotts Translate to Real Sales Impact?”

Bart J. Bronnenberg () and Jean-Pierre Dubé ()
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Bart J. Bronnenberg: Department of Marketing, Tilburg School of Economics and Management/CentER, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, Netherlands; Centre for Economic Policy Research, London EC1V 0DX, United Kingdom
Jean-Pierre Dubé: Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637; National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Marketing Science, 2023, vol. 42, issue 1, 28-31

Abstract: We discuss a fascinating new case study of the boycott and buycott of Goya products in 2020. The authors use detailed consumer-level shopping panel data to document two surprising and striking findings. First, social media calls to boycott had almost no effects, especially among the core Goya consumer group: democratic-leaning Latinos. Second, the authors document an unintended consequence: Goya’s supporters reacted by initiating a call for a “buycott.” The boycott and buycott combination ultimately increased Goya sales, especially among nontraditional Republican-leaning buyers, albeit only for a few weeks. We hope this paper will stimulate more work to determine which aspects of these findings generalizes to other instances of political consumerism. In our discussion, we offer thoughts on some of the potentially exceptional circumstances of the Goya case study and some directions for deeper testing of the underlying mechanisms driving the consumer responses.

Keywords: political consumerism; consumer behavior; history; events; and cases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:42:y:2023:i:1:p:28-31

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