What Makes a Successful Boycott?

by Gabriel Rodríguez

After the CEO of Goya Foods, Robert Unanue, praised polarizing figure US President Donald Trump at a White House event last July, a swift backlash was all but assured. Calls to boycott and “cancel” Goya spread through the Web almost immediately, with hashtags #BoycottGoya, #GoyaFoods, and #goyaway trending on Twitter. The boycott found widespread support amongst many politicians and personalities online, but so did a rival movement urging people to buy Goya products instead. A month later, the buzz around the event had died down, but the Goya brand remains affected.

Boycott movements today surface, encounter resistance, and dissipate at breakneck speeds, regardless of whether their demands are met or not. Dr. Allyson P. Brantley, who teaches about consumer society and politics and is the author of Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors & Remade American Consumer, told us: “When I think about some of the most prominent boycotts of the past decade (Chick-fil-A, Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, Koch-funded projects, and now SoulCycle or Goya), I’m struck by how quickly they emerge.” She added that this happens without coordinated leadership, and that because consumers are familiar with the boycott, they are quick to turn to it as a method for bringing about a change.

Successful Boycotts Throughout History

The Four Key Elements of a Successful Boycott

One thing we can learn from boycotts of the past is just how to build a successful narrative. Dr. Brantley singled out two effective campaigns: the boycotts of non-union produce by the United Farm Workers, and that of the Jim Crow transit systems in Montgomery and the rest of Alabama as examples of movements that not only did well, but have remained prominent in our cultural consciousness. Meanwhile, Dr. Paul S. Koku, Professor at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business who has researched and written about boycotts and boycott actions, mentioned the South Africa anti-apartheid movement as an example of what a sustained, focused, successful boycott can achieve.

Here’s what we learned about what’s necessary to pull off a successful boycott:

Establish credibility

To get a movement off the ground, people need to trust and believe in its message. Dr. Koku uses websites as an example of credibility. “Anybody can create a website,” he said, but “there must be an element of credibility behind the movement that somebody is organizing. […] A website by itself is not going to be effective because people don’t know who you are, and they don’t have a personal vendetta against the target.”

Organizers can go about establishing credibility in a number of ways. For one, they can consider recruiting big personalities or prominent politicians to their cause. This can help thrust the boycott’s message into the public eye and even into mainstream media, once it gains enough traction. For example, in 2019 George Clooney called for a boycott of Brunei-owned hotels in an Op-Ed to protest the country’s use of the death penalty for those convicted of having anal sex. The support of other celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John, helped further thrust the issue into the international stage.

Communicate succinctly

One reason why a number of boycotts deteriorate is a lack of proper organization regarding their message. If one day a movement is calling for a boycott on company X for reason A, and the next they are doing so for reasons B and C, people will inevitably lose interest. “If [the message] is diffused,” said Koku, “it’s going to lose potency. You have to be clear and succinct.”

Consumers want boycotts to be precise, to call out exactly what they are condemning, and stick by that. Otherwise, they risk fatiguing the people who are following the movement. To this end, it helps to keep a boycott’s goals and/or demands realistic. This doesn’t mean boycott movements should aim low, but they should keep in mind that, the loftier their objectives, the less likely people will believe them capable of achieving success. For example, the goal of a boycott may be to stop a large company from using materials in their manufacturing process that are harmful to the environment. The company might not abandon the use of harmful materials altogether, but they could acknowledge the problem and begin to depend less on these materials.

Keep people engaged

Another reason why some boycotts lose steam shortly after organizing is a lack of constant engagement. One day a hashtag is trending and the next day it isn’t. People participating in a boycott need to keep others in the loop; they need to remind them that the boycott is ongoing and why that is.

The best way to go about is by using as many social media platforms as possible. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat — so long as the message is kept uniform, the more the merrier. More importantly, boycotts organizers need to be creative. People will be more inclined to learn about a boycott and participate if they find out about it through ways they find entertaining. Consider how memes have become a powerful tool for young adults to express displeasure with brands: they’re funny, easily shared, and eye-catching.

Ultimately, it needs to be a sustained effort. “To organize a successful boycott, you must dig into your heels,” said Koku. “How long did it take South Africa to change the apartheid system? When people started boycotting South Africa, it took over fourteen years for the boycott to be effective. So, you have to be constantly working at it and have a long-term view. It’s not going to be a short drive.”

Focus on impact outside of revenue

Studies have shown that modern boycotts generally do not have a significant impact on their targets’ revenue. Their effect is felt more elsewhere, such as on a target’s reputation. The measure of success for boycotts cannot be solely measured by monetary impact. Years later, the target of a boycott may continue to operate, but its reputation may be forever besmirched in the eyes of many.

Speaking about the Coors boycott, Dr. Brantley told us that, as the Coors family’s conservative politics became the main motivation for the movement, boycotts in general began to experience a shift in focus. “Boycotts today build off of this legacy, in which boycotting one good (like Goya beans) is collectively understood to be about politics or bigger cultural conversations.” Brantley also suggested other measures for a boycott’s success. “I think there’s a compelling case to be made for the idea that a boycott’s success can be measured by their impact on activists and their communities. Long-term boycotts bring people together and ignite grassroots activism. They mean something to those who participate.”