Given the term’s political salience, sentiment toward “woke” has the potential to shift over the remainder of the 2024 election cycle. However, for that same reason, it’s unlikely a strong consensus will ever build around the meaning, legitimacy and aptness of it as a business adjective.
A notable through line across every major demographic grouping is the relatively large share of respondents who are unsure about their feelings regarding “woke” companies. These figures are highest among women (38%) and moderates (35%) — the same groups with the lowest overall awareness of the term.
In a separate open-ended question, respondents were asked to name specific companies they considered to be “woke.” Many replied without naming a company, instead taking the space to note that they feel the phrase, when applied to brands, is unclear, politically motivated or even fabricated.
As long as “woke” remains nebulous in this context, brands have an opportunity to infuse the term with their own meaning. The first step in doing so is articulating specific values and sticking by them.
“If there’s one learning that has been reiterated these past several months, it’s that when brands take a position and then backtrack on it in the face of scrutiny from a small group of consumers, they risk appearing disingenuous and angering all parties, including larger consumer groups and employees,” said Lauren Gray, senior vice president of crisis and reputation risk at Edelman.
Additional survey findings echo this point: When asked how a brand should respond if criticized by a politician or political candidate for being “woke,” a plurality of U.S. adults (32%) said brands should speak out and defend their stance. This is considerably higher than the shares that said brands should “accept the criticism and change their policies” (19%) or “ignore the criticism and do nothing” (21%).
To be most resilient, any public position taken by a brand should possess a clear alignment with both its business objectives and with the values held by its consumer base. Of course, smaller brands will have an easier time identifying these areas of overlap than extremely large brands with diverse customer bases. These companies may consider additional investment in nuanced segmentation research or daily sentiment tracking to monitor where consumers sit on relevant issues. Insights from this work will let internal teams predict reactions to potential creative or communications campaigns, ultimately allowing them to better match any message with a particular moment.
Inclusive marketing initiatives drive associations with “woke”
Many respondents also replied to the open-ended question about companies they consider to be “woke” with legitimate brand names. Target, Disney and Bud Light were most frequently mentioned — all companies that have recently made conservative media headlines for supporting LGBTQ+ issues in some capacity.
Among the 12 actions asked about in the survey, U.S. adults ranked celebrating the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month and using LGBTQ+ influencers or spokespeople in ad campaigns as the behaviors most likely to mark a brand as being “woke.”
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