Taking ‘Get Woke Go Broke’ to New Lows – Spice Company Rejecting Republicans Is Not Paying Off – Opinion

That is to say, the spice company that demonizes Republicans did not receive a financial windfall.!

Far be it from you to decide how your company runs. You are the one who invested your capital and sweat equity in your venture. This gives you full control. I won’t dictate your business practices but I might question them, especially in light of market reactions which seem to indicate your tactics are costing you, rather than paying off. When the market teaches the lesson, I don’t need to be a lecturer.

We know all too well the dangers of corporate “Get Woke” temptation. This is the case with Penzey’s SpicesBut it is not a Wisconsin restaurant. It’s a completely different entity as its head seems to be incredibly obsessed with politics. In an age when many companies struggle in the pandemic marketplace, Bill Penzey seems perfectly at ease driving out a small segment of his customers. 

Rather than tipping his hand at virtue signaling causes, or grandstanding on particular issues like Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream does routinely, Penzey’s has a distinctly novel stance. According to Penzey’s, Republicans do not need to click PURCHASE. This is an unusual move, however it does not make the company rich. Smart. He now acknowledges a substantial loss in business.

The CEO, who has been vocal for many years, took matters to an extreme level last month. Bill changed the name of Martin Luther King Jr. to promote a sales promotion. Republicans Are Racists Weekend! Lest you think this was a gag or even unreal, let me assure you – it was totally real.

It is hard to believe that this clever marketing strategy did not work for the company.
A large segment of customers are being driven away in an inflation-ravaged and post-pandemic economy. They need people to purchase the goods to recover their lost customer orders. pic.twitter.com/9HD07elyyW

— Brad Slager – Aluminum Medalist 12oz Curling Team (@MartiniShark) February 7, 2022

For the promotion, Mr. Penzey A promotional screed was deliveredIt was only too long in terms of syntax but very short on factual information. Here’s just a sample of his impressions behind his marketing genius. 

If you’re a part of a party that does everything it can to make it harder for Black people to vote, gerrymanders the value of minority votes down into a small fraction of the value of white votes in state houses and in the US House of Representatives, and are willing to vote for candidates of the party that nominated a man for president who explained why he was launching his campaign by saying: “Mexicans are rapists and murderers,” the Racist label is one you will deservingly wear every day you stand with them. It’s okay to get used it. Or maybe you can become a better person. You have the option to choose. For you to choose love, we will always be there.

Bill appears to be confused about many things when it comes down to MLK or racism generally. The famous Dr. King said that we should not judge people based upon their skin colour. Bill Penzey starts from this exact position. In that Penzey displays the common theme of only Republicans using gerrymandering, the gerrymandering accusation is amusing. Check out Bill’s efforts in New York, California. Even his anti-racism is grounded in ignorance. Bill is announcing that racism is prejudicial. AllRepublicans will be considered racist. 

So, how did Bill’s outreach — or out-Push, as it were – work out for him? About as well as anyone outside of the Penzey’s company might expect. He has been able to drive thousands of customers away in just two weeks, prompting him to scramble to find a solution.

And where a couple times a year we’ve offered $50 Gift Cards for $35, this time we are doing 2-$25 Gift Cards for $35 instead, with the hope this might make it a bit easier for you to share some and possibly get a few good new customers to replace the ones we’ve lost.

Starting the year by pretending Republican nonsense wasn’t nonsense, has resulted in 40,005 unsubscribes (roughly 3%) from Voice Of Cooking emails. Your word-of mouth has brought in 30,000 new faces so far, although we still have about 10,000.

I’m not sure about that percentage. If that three percent factor is accurate it means he has a spice email list of near 1.4 million, which means more than double the amount of their FaceBook page — where the tendency to click “Like” is far less involved than subscribing to an email list. If true, his worry over losing 10,000 subscribers means that he’s running a loss leader promotion of -30% in revenue to less than one percent. His math skills look as poor as his civic abilities.