Will Ivanka’s retail line unravel?
Infamous 2005 Trump tape could be affecting sales of daughter’s namesake goods
WASHINGTON— Donald Trump’s presidential campaign hasn’t exactly enhanced his brand.
Over the past year, bookings for Trump hotels in New York, Las Vegas and Chicago plummeted 58 per cent. Foot traffic to Trump properties fell 17 per cent year-over-year in March, April and June. The National Hispanic Media Coalition asked businesses in July to cut ties with the Republican presidential nominee. Protesters cried “boycott” outside the Wednesday grand opening of the new Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
But his eldest daughter’s retail ventures appeared to dodge the ire — until the conversation shifted to his treatment of women. Now thousands of social media users are urging others to avoid stores that carry her namesake goods. Even some shoppers who haven’t seen the hashtags — #GrabYourWallet, #Boycot- tIvanka — say they’re spurning her office wear.
“I just don’t want that name in my closet,” explained 31-year-old graphic designer Jessie Newman, as she shopped at T.J. Maxx in Washington.
Ivanka Trump, 34, has painted herself a champion of breadwinning mothers and harnessed Trump’s White House bid to buoy that image. As she rallied to close the gender pay gap during her speech at the Republican National Convention in July, she sported one of her own designs, a $157 (U.S.) pink dress. The next morning, she linked to the look on Twitter. This pairing of business and politics seemed to initially pay off. Google searches for her clothing brand spiked in the hours after her RNC debut and soared again following a September stump speech, in which she helped unveil the GOP nominee’s child-care plan.
Then the Washington Post published a 2005 tape on Oct. 7, showing Trump bragging about kissing and grabbing women without their permission. Ivanka continued to support her dad after the White House labelled such behaviour sexual assault, after 11 women accused the candidate of making unwanted advances on them, and after Trump suggested the accusers weren’t attractive enough for him to pursue.
“My father’s comments were clearly inappropriate and offensive,” she said of the 2005 tape in an interview with Fast Company magazine.
That wasn’t good enough for Shannon Coulter, 45, who runs a marketing firm near San Francisco. A male boss had groped her once. Trump’s remarks reminded her of the pain. “She puts women’s empowerment at the centre of her brand,” she said, “and is still campaigning for someone who is an alleged serial assaulter.”
Coulter shared her thoughts with the Internet and they sparked a trend that, by Wednesday, had reached the feeds of more than two million Twitter accounts: Boycott Ivanka.
Surveys suggest consumers have mixed feelings. A Brand Keys survey of 950 millennial women, taken a week after the 2005 video was released, found that 51 per cent of respondents were “extremely” or “very” willing to buy her office wear.
But in a national survey of 1,983 voters, conducted last week by polling firm Morning Consult, 57 per cent of women said they would not purchase clothing from Ivanka’s namesake line, while less than a quarter said they would.
The mogul’s presidential run made 35 per cent of the survey respon- dents “much less likely” to buy or use a Trump-related product.
Another 4 per cent are “somewhat less likely.”
Seventeen per cent, meanwhile, said they are “much more or “somewhat more” likely to buy or use Trump products in light of the campaign.