Posted on 03/11/2012 4:06:57 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
One week agao, on Saturday night, March 3, 2012, Carbonite announced its decision to break off relations with its key radio endorser. It appears to have been a fateful decision.
From Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch, Don’t ‘rush’ to Carbonite shares (h/t commenter Eliot Ness):
When Carbonite Inc. stock took a quick plunge this week, there was an obvious consensus about what caused the move: The company pulled advertising from Rush Limbaugh’s talk-radio program after the controversial host made inflammatory remarks about a Georgetown University law student.
Yes, the market could have feared that Limbaugh’s fans would cancel Carbonite’s service, an online back-up solution for consumers and businesses, or mount their own boycott. Or maybe investors assumed Carbonite will suffer because it will no longer have access to Limbaugh’s audience.
Jaffe goes on to point out that Carbonite has underlying business problems which are driving the long term decline in the stock price, but quotes another analyst as pointing out that the result drop likely is attributable to the Rush controversy:
“There is no way Carbonite’s underlying business is changing as much as the stock trading says it is on a daily basis,” said David Trainer, president of New Constructs Inc., a research firm based in Nashville. “That says there is a lot of excessive trading going on; maybe it’s the Rush thing or maybe not. … For the average investor, a stock this young being pushed around by like this traders is a wing and a prayer.”
Reader Zane makes a related point at his blog:
However, the reality is, with the exception of a zealous few, there will be likely little customers to be had amongst the activists – certainly not the amount of customers that were reached by the Limbaugh show. By the time next Valentines day rolls around will the money spent by the activist come close to money spent by listeners of Rush- likely not even close.That being said,
One more thing : I don’t know if boycotting Limbaugh was a good business choice and I think, no one else knows either. What I do know is: making decisions based on the loudest screamers of the moment, does not usually bring about good business results.
That was my first reaction when Carbonite dropped Rush. How many of the DailyKos and Media Matters screamers actually used or were considering using Carbonite. Probably few.
Why did Carbonite make such a precipitous decision?
There are few things that cannot wait for Monday morning, yet Carbonite issued its statement on a Saturday night, in what appears to be a matter of executives’ personal and political opinions outweighing shareholder interests.
Shareholder are getting massacred as a result.
Rush is smarter than the Carbonite CEO. He made business decisions. They did not.
The only direct experience with that type of lib ‘social engineering’ was minimal in effect. in the late 90s/early 2000s I was involved with an off-road motorsports publication that was regularly attacked by the greenies and threatened (to ZERO effect) with boycotts and threats to advertizes. But that was SOP for green groups then and now.
The thing you are getting at is only counterable IMO, by a clean split. ‘Our side’ has to do business all but exclusively with our side, and that goes for hiring/employment as well as other economic decisions. Not all businesses would survive that, but the left will ‘end them’ eventually anyway. The recent Rush flap is proof positive.
As for FB/Social Media, same thing. we either unite and work together with each other and blacklist the left/leftists from all aspects of our lives or we lose. And yes I understand the deeper implications that has on friends/family. But it’s more obvious by the day that there’s no compromise with evil people and evil philosophy. It simply cannot happen and to accommodate it in business or personal issues is to give in to that evil.
IMO/FWIW.
Incorrect. While it is true that Limbaugh is not the majority reason for Carbonite's imminent demise, the addition of the Limbaugh factor DOES make a difference.
My favorite line:
making decisions based on the loudest screamers of the moment, does not usually bring about good business results.
A day or two after they pulled out of Rush’s show, I heard them prominently proclaimed on NPR. NPR really doesn’t need taxpayer money to operate, does it?
Absolutely. Plus one must consider the fallout going forward...fallout that has yet to ‘chart’.
I also back up the real important stuff on a flash drive. Also, I have a separate backup for the applications I’ve purchased along the way (along with a spreadsheet of their registration numbers). I have a number of contingency plans.
“Why would anyone trust them....”
Why would you store your files on the internet anyway. A 2 gigabyte external hard drive costs under $200. And you can carry it away! Wait for the law suits about missing or stolen files. That one is coming soon! n/s
You think the guys who made this decision aren’t getting much eye contact or lunch invitations in the office right now?
They are advertising on Fox News channel. First ad I have seen for them last night. Still wanting the conservative leaning audience...wonder why? ;)
That’s funny. No back up for the back uppers.
Does anyone know of a competitor for Carbonite?
I have been using carbonite for a year or two and functionally, have had no problems. Based on their actions and their future trends, they won’t be around much longer.
“When an executive hangs around with and supports extremist causes they are subject to those causes.”
Fish don’t know water is wet.
Those execs don’t know anyone who thinks differently than they think, so it seems obvious the country will be all fired up when they dump Limbaugh.
Spending way more in ads for a ‘way less’ audience already miffed over the prior decision....another top shelf business move ;)
But I suppose they gotta go somewhere until the doors (perhaps) close.
Many businesses in the last 15 years or so have been ‘programmed’ into paying attention to their social images. That is something you blog post misses.
I recall the rollout of ISO 14001 and how that was marketed to business executives as showing environmental responsibility. Sure there were some key items that temporarily improved the bottom-line financially and while being among the first to achieve certification, the glossiness soon wore off. All those energy savings disappeared and any profits are being demanded to go to “the cause,” in the form of taxes on those savings now turned profits.
And the activists won again as they still don't purchase products from these companies that “showed good faith.”
Because it was an emotional decision, it was most likely made at the very top of the pecking order.
One thing I haven’t seen discussed (much) - I’m sure it’s been discussed some, however.
Did all these businesses (exactly how many depends on whose numbers you believe) just all of a sudden “decide” to cancel advertising with Rush.
Or
Were they pressured?
And if so...
Then by whom?
And by what means?
I agree that back in the 90’s and early 2000’s it was ineffective.
But the advent of social media I believe is changing that. If you read the link in post 34 at the bottom it discusses things to do when your brand goes “viral.”
Carbonite and the other companies that pulled their ads, they did so based on the ‘viral’ response to Rush. When advertising your business brand and image go hand-in-hand with demographics.
Media Matters launched the attack and pressure.
Remember that Ad/PR guys by and large are ‘plugged in’ to the so called ‘mainstream’. So they often go with prevailing winds. Those winds often ‘say’ that the genpub is PC and so PC decisions by Co’s translates to increased revenue.
Long ago I worked with a ‘professional’ person like that. She based her ad/PR decisions on “Friends” the tv showand what was ‘popular/trendy’ there.
Company failed.
But in this case, I imagine there was some lib effort at coordination.
Let’s play “WHAT IF” for a moment....
What if Rush used some of his fortune to start a News Empire. One that would own local newspapers and a local TV news channel in each big city, one that would vet it’s advertisers and tout them to the local listeners/readers as “safe to buy from ‘ because these advertisers support conservative causes not radical liberal ones. What if conservatives buying habits caused these advertisers’ businesses to soar. And what if there finally being a newspaper and TV news program that people could depend to give them the real truth (no more of this fair and balanced BS.... but real truth), these enterprises soared as well, making Rush the well deserved richest man in the USA.
I know that Rush has his radio show that gets out the “truth” and his newsletter and all.... but in both he is preaching to the choir. People want local news outlets with local stories and if real, then conservatives WILL support them.
What if these local news outlets grew beyond the big cities and spread eventually even to smaller towns across the (as Rush says) Fruited Plain opening up thousands of jobs for conservative-minded journalists. What if that led to the founding of a great university dedicated to producing more conservative journalists. And what if that led to the demand in other universities to offer journalism programs for the conservative-minded.... and what if one day the liberals didn’t own the media because we conservatives learned to play the game.
Just thinking..........
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