We’ve been watching how both Bud Light and Target seem to have committed brand suicide with their “go woke, go broke” moves.
As I reported on Tuesday, Bud Light has taken a tremendous hit, losing almost 30 percent in sales volume as well as 25.7 percent in sales revenue through May 20, and it’s still spiraling out of control. The numbers from the weekend are by all reports going to be bad and will not save them as they might have hoped. On top of that, this has sparked a lot of buying of competitor brands, and they’re in danger of not only losing all that money but losing their spot as the number one beer brand.
Target didn’t learn anything from what was happening to Bud Light with their Pride clothing and books aimed at children controversy. Their Pride collection was also linked to a controversial designer who pushed messages like “Satan respects pronouns” on other non-Target clothing. They were also given more than $2 million to a group that encourages K-12 school districts to adopt policies that will keep parents in the dark about their child’s in-school gender change, provides sexually explicit books to schools for free, and encourages integrating gender ideology at all grade levels and in all subjects in the school.
Target CEO Brian Cornell has doubled down, saying it was “adding value” to their bottom line. “I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand,” Cornell said. He claimed it was “building greater engagement” with their customers. But they’ve so offended the public they’re even getting called out in a rap song that’s now topping the charts.
So how is that working out for Target? The last time we checked about six days ago, they’d dropped more than $9 billion in market cap. Not only hasn’t it gotten any better, but it’s also gotten even worse. At the close of business on Tuesday, they were down $12.4 billion.
Shares fell another 3.66% Tuesday, marking the eighth straight decline and lopping off another $2.4 billion in market cap, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group.
Since the backlash, Target’s market value has fallen over $12 billion to $61.77 billion as of Tuesday’s closing price. Mid-month the market value was over $74 billion.
It put the stock on its longest losing streak since November 2018, leaving shares at a fresh 52-week low of $133.88 per share.
It’s still hanging right around 134 when I checked it after the opening this morning, so it’s not recovering so far.
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) May 31, 2023
But it’s been on a complete dive since the middle of the month. Imagine losing that much in less than two weeks. And this is not as easy a boycott to take on as Bud Light, as our Susie Moore explained. A lot of folks do all their shopping at Target from groceries to clothing, and often there may not be an equivalent place in their areas. So what does that say to have this much of a slide this fast? The folks who want to embrace the woke narrative need to be paying attention because this has awoken the sleeping giant, now that the American people realize that they can be heard and make a significant impact.
So how’s that looking now, Brian Cornell? I’m thinking it’s not looking so good for that bottom line, despite what he’s claiming. Of course, I think he means his ESG bottom line, not his sales or stock bottom line. Target seems intent on sticking by their bad takes even as they seem to be sinking like a stone. Is there a bottom? We may find out between Bud Light and Target: how low can they go?
