By Vicky Sidler | Published 7 July 2025 at 12:00 GMT+2

If you've ever wondered whether your customers are paying attention to your values, ask Target. After years of loud support for Pride Month and diversity causes, the retail giant pulled back. The result? Lost trust, lost sponsorships—and, some say, lost sales.

You might not run a national chain. But if you’re a small business trying to build trust and loyalty, this matters more than you think.

TL;DR

Yes, this was about Pride. But more than that—it was about consistency.
Here's the cheat sheet:

• Nearly 40% of brands are reducing Pride support

• Target lost a long-time local sponsorship and faced declining store traffic

• Costco stayed the course and gained brand advocates

• The lesson? Consistency beats trend-chasing. Values-based branding only works when it’s authentic

When Values Become a Business Strategy:

According to Gravity Research, nearly 40% of companies planned to scale back Pride activity this year. The reasoning? Political pressure. But here’s the kicker—no one planned to do more. That tells you the real fear: backlash.

Target, once a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ causes, tried to find middle ground. It didn’t work. Their quiet retreat from previous diversity initiatives cost them a $50,000 local sponsorship with Twin Cities Pride. The group raised double that amount from other sources. But the bigger loss? Trust.

As Twin Cities Pride’s director put it, “There were just some things that we were not comfortable with… [Target] couldn’t explain it to me.” That sentence should make any business owner pause.

StoryBrand principle: If you confuse, you lose. That applies to your values as much as your message.

Mixed Messages Erode Trust:

Here’s where it gets tactical. Your message to customers—whether it’s on your website, in a campaign, or at the till—has to line up with what you do. Inconsistent messaging doesn’t just look bad; it creates distrust.

One analyst said, “We are most mad when we feel our loyalty is betrayed.” Customers don’t expect perfection—but they do expect integrity. The issue with Target wasn’t the shift in strategy. It was the lack of clarity, the silence, and the corporate double-speak.

If your business has strong community values (and most small businesses do), your customers notice when you drift. And unlike big brands, you don’t have billions in brand equity to fall back on.

Lean Marketing Lesson—Don’t Waste Loyalty:

Lean Marketing teaches us to maximise impact by focusing on what already works. You know what works better than a discount code? Loyalty. Not just from customers, but from communities and causes you’ve supported.

Costco didn’t back down when challenged on its diversity efforts. Instead, it doubled down, called the claims “misleading,” and made its stance clear. The result? More loyalty. One former Target shopper summed it up: “I used to be in Target four times a week. Now I’m at Costco.”

That’s not politics. That’s customer churn.

Marketing Is More Than Messaging:

As a Duct Tape Marketing consultant, I help business owners build systems that work long-term. And that includes how you show up—internally and externally. If you’re just doing what feels safe this quarter, you’ll be rebuilding trust next quarter.

Here’s the takeaway:

• Your brand isn’t just your logo. It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

• Values-driven marketing only works if it’s real. If you’re going to talk about supporting a group, be ready to follow through—even when it’s inconvenient.

• Clarity isn’t optional. When you shift direction, say why. If you can’t explain it simply, you’re not ready to explain it at all.

Start Where You Are:

You don’t need a Pride campaign or a political stance to build trust. You need a clear message that reflects what your business actually stands for. You need a consistent experience from first click to final invoice. And you need to sound like a human being.

If your current messaging feels fuzzy or forced, start small.

Grab my free 5-Minute Marketing Fix—it’s a quick tool that helps you write a one-liner your customers will understand (and trust). No fluff. Just clarity.

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