New Tool Helps Businesses Take a Stand

The political polarization in America has come to affect even the one area of society that used to unify us: shopping. Ingraticorp, a consumer market-research and development company, has launched an innovative product to help businesses navigate the newly tempestuous reality in the wake of the 2020 election.

The new Take a Stand™ is a large digital display that owners of all sorts of retail businesses can place in their shops to show that they agree with their customers’ politics—whatever those politics might be.

Take a Stand™ uses facial recognition to identify customers and then searches social media and other publicly available information, such as voter registration data, to determine an individual customer’s likely affiliation with various political movements. It then displays slogans that the shopper is likely to agree with. 

“In the wake of the presidential election, people are feeling very strongly about politics,” said Amanda Skintz, the CEO of Ingraticorp. “They see the future of democracy at stake or the survival of their communities. They see themselves as fighting to save those things they care about, and they want every aspect of their lives to align with those incredible passions. They won’t tolerate it if they think your business is against them or, worse perhaps, sitting on the sidelines.”

Each Take a Stand™ unit can display individualized messages along a number of what Ingraticorp calls axes—these include Trump/Biden, diversity/oppression, gun control/gun liberty, nurturing the needy/engorging the rich. For instance, if the unit identifies someone who scores high on the Trump axis and the religious axis, it might display a photorealistic image of Trump ascending into Heaven with the words, “The only way He leaves office.” A high score on Trump and oppression could produce an image of Trump in full military-style riot gear, holding an AR-15, with the text, “I got your ballot box right here.” A voter with strong affinity for Biden and diversity, on the other hand, would see Uncle Joe with a troop of children from painstakingly selected and balanced ethnic backgrounds. If the unit can’t identify political affiliation for any particular customer, it will fall back to locating them on the dog-person/cat-person axis and display pictures of either puppies or kittens with inspirational sayings.

Studies conducted by Ingraticorp have found that the use of just one Take a Stand™ unit increases in-store sales by 27% and leads to stronger customer loyalty. The company says the product identifies customer preferences with 98% reliability.

“It’s amazing,” said Walt Pittsalee, the owner of a high-end bathroom fixture franchise, who recently installed two Take a Stand units in his establishment. “Sales are way up, but more important, I can feel that customers are happy when I walk around the sales floor. We did have to institute some training for our employees, so they know to just smile and say, ‘When you’re right, you’re right,’ no matter what a customer says about the screens. And we put new insulation in the break room, so salespeople can just go in there and scream for a few minutes, anytime.”

Martine Loëll, a business professor at Upland Downs University, says that Take a Stand™ is a critical new tool for retailers. “You can’t be nonpolitical or principled anymore,” said Loëll. “Every business has to take a stand—oh, that’s the name, isn’t it? I just got it. Customers won’t tolerate anemic corporate-speak, they want clear, strong declarations of ethical and political commitment from companies before they open their wallets. Take a Stand™ delivers that.”

What happens when a Take a Stand™ unit gets it wrong and thinks, for example, that a gun-liberty person is instead a universal-basic-income person? Joe Hides, the VP for product development at Ingraticorp, explained that the risks are very low. “Customers usually just walk out,” he said. “But that hardly ever happens, and the loss is more than made up for by the greater loyalty in all your other customers. Sure, there’s the occasional firebombing when a right-wing evangelical is told that taxes actually help educate special-needs children, but if you’re a responsible business owner, you’re well insured for that sort of thing.”

Ingraticorp has a long and successful history in market research and development. Company lore credits Ingraticorp with suggesting “Lick Satiers” change its name to “Life Savers” and manufacture its candy with a hole to improve consumer physio-engagement with the product. It invented “Dust/omers,” ceiling-mounted sprayer/misters that spritz dopamine into store air to improve customer mood and increase reward-motivated spending. Ingraticorp also made the radical overture that Pepto Bismol change its color from “Bile Black” to “Cotton-Candy Pink.”  

“We live by the old adage, ‘The customer’s always right,’” said CEO Skintz. “But in today’s climate, you have to take it one step further. Today, businesses have to tell customers they’re right, show customers they’re right, and then make customers smell that they’re right—no matter what crazy shit they think. That’s what Take a Stand™ does. It’s moral conviction for everyone.”

Images

“Get In Here,” Photo by duncan c, FlickrCC https://tinyurl.com/y2hp2yky“

“indecision dice,” Photo by Anne-Lise Heinrichs, FlickrCC https://tinyurl.com/y4ovast6

business diagram,” Photo by Steve Wilson, FlickrCC https://tinyurl.com/y3op8nc5