Dick's Sporting Goods Case Study

In February of 2018, Dick’s Sporting Goods made its long-awaited entrance into the politically divisive and highly contentious debate of gun rights and gun law reform. America’s largest sports retail company announced it would be haulting the sale of assault-style weapons, removing high-capacity magazines from its stores, and banning the sale of firearms to those under the age of 21 (Miller, 2019). These changes came just weeks after the school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and injured 17 more (Andone, 2020). A year later, in March 2019, Dick’s announced it would halt all gun sales at 125 stores and sell off its subsidiary, Field & Stream. Rather than selling or returning the in-stock firearms to their manufacturers, Dick’s made a costly, but bold statement by choosing to destroy all $5 million worth of rifles. In March 2020, Dick’s announced its plan to remove weapons from an additional 440 stores, bringing the number to 575 gun-free stores and leaving only 20% to continue to sell firearms (Novy-Williams, 2020).

The Dick's Sporting Goods case serves as an example of how consumers have raised the stakes on corporate social responsibility (CSR), expecting companies to take a public stand and advocate for the issues they care about. It also proves a company can still succeed while taking a stand and balancing stakeholder interests as long as they implement correct and effective strategies. In this case analysis, the R-A-C-E public relations model is used to evaluate Dick's communication strategies following the Parkland shooting. While the company's response and subsequent actions were satisfactory, Dick's lack of core values and beliefs going into the situation made these actions seem less sincere. However, this created the opportunity for Dick's to revise its corporate playbook to take a united approach to CSR in a way that would build credibility for the company and benefit its key stakeholders and society as a whole.

BACKGROUND

Dick’s is a leading omnichannel sports retailer with over 700 stores nationwide. According to Dick’s website, the company strives to serve and inspire “athletes and outdoor enthusiasts to achieve their personal best” (Dick’s Sporting Goods, n.d.). Strategically located in “second cities and suburban areas,” Dick’s strives to appeal to a broad audience, however, according to Simmons Research, it is most popular among conservative shoppers (Chinni, 2015). The company states that its purpose is to “Create confidence and excitement by personally equipping athletes to achieve their dreams” (Dick’s Sporting Goods, 2019). Further, Dick’s core values include commitment, drive, skill, and passion. According to the Cone Communications 2017 CSR Study, corporate social responsibility is a foremost differentiator in consumers’ minds, and most view a company’s values as equally important to its business practices (Cone, 2017). Absent this value, Dick’s historically had not been a highly value-driven company.

Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults in 2012, there have been over 230 school shootings nationwide, with over 430 people shot (Patel, 2018). After the Parkland shooting in February 2018, Dick’s CEO, Ed Stack, a consistent donor to the Republican party and an activist of the Second Amendment, decided a change needed to be made, and it could begin with his organization.

CASE EVALUATION

Dick’s Sporting Goods response to the Parkland Shooting and its corrective actions can be critically examined through the four-step R-A-C-E public relations process. First introduced by communications professor John Marston, the R-A-C-E approach consist of: 1) research, (2) action, (3) communication, and (4) evaluation (Seitel, 2020, 1.1). Dick’s should be applauded for aligning its communication strategies with this model; however, effective communication can always be improved.

The first step of the R-A-C-E model is research, in which the company researches public attitudes. Before exiting the gun business, Dick’s leadership identified four key stakeholders they must take into account: employees, customers, stockholders, and the community. The company was not expecting the decision to be well-received by all its customers and prepared itself for a negative sales impact. But, according to the 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study, 87% of Americans “will purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about and 76% will refuse to purchase a company’s products or services upon learning it supported an issue contrary to their beliefs” (Cone, 2017). In the end, Dick’s decided the loss of profit was not enough to continue gun sales while the gun violence pandemic rages the nation, taking many lives.

The second step, and arguably the most important, is action. In this step, public relations practitioners must identify the action in the public interest, which in this case is the removal of firearms from Dick’s stores. According to Fraser Seitel in his book The Practice of Public Relations, “You can’t have effective communication or positive publicity without proper action.” He goes on to stress the importance of acting first and communicating second (Seitel, 2020). Dick’s leadership knew it had the moral responsibility to not only say it would shift from being a firearms dealer to a gun reform advocate but to actually do so. In September 2019, Stack, along with 145 other CEOs, signed a letter to Congress asking for a universal background check, which according to Gallup in 2017, was supported by 96% of Americans. Today, the company continues to act on its word, removing firearms from more stores each year, with 80% now gun-free and growing.

The third step is communication. This step requires public relations professionals to “communicate [the] action to gain understanding, acceptance, and support (Seitel, 2020). After the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, Dick’s bypassed the public announcement and quietly suspended the sale of all modern sporting rifles from its stores. This move was met with criticism on social media and boycotts from gun enthusiasts and activists and required Dick’s to make a statement days later. Fast forward to 2018, and Dick’s bolstered its decision and actions with a proactive and comprehensive communication strategy that included an open letter, national talk show program appearances, a Washington Post editorial, and its first corporate social responsibility report (Revising the Playbook, 2019).

The fourth and final step of the R-A-C-E model is evaluation. Public relations practitioners must evaluate the communications to determine if they were successful. Although Dick’s faced backlash and boycotts from gun enthusiasts and manufacturers, the public response was overwhelmingly positive and supportive of the company’s decision. The announcement garnered widespread attention and sparked a public conversation on gun law reform. Upon analysis of the 10,000 Tweets related to Dick’s announcement, the overall sentiment of Twitter users was positive as “around 70% of the tweets exptressed gratitude or positive expressed (Gaither, Austin, & Collins, 2019, p. 188). Although Dick’s new stance would require the company to redefine its brand story and values, the move undeniably brought Dick’s increased credibility and admiration from values-driven consumers. The decision to remove firearms paid off as sales quickly recovered in 2019. Dick’s reframed its company values, gained credibility and positioned itself as an advocate for political action on the polarizing gun violence issue.

PROPOSED SOLUTION/CHANGES

There is no denying that Dick’s was successful in its 2018 communications. If it had not been, then it is likely Dick’s would not still be removing guns from its stores today. Moreover, the company should be applauded for its resistance to reverse course when receiving pushback from consumers. However, Dick’s could have taken its communications a step further from an open letter, editorial, and talk show appearances. Dick’s should have considered employing a cross-platform and cross-channel communication campaign advocating for gun law reform to better relate its redefined brand story with its recent exit from the gun sales business. The company garnered positive results from its initial announcements, so launching a campaign would likely do the same. For Dick’s to fully build its credibility as a socially responsible corporation, it must fully embrace its position as an activist for gun law reform.

RECOMMENDATIONS

For the proposed communication campaign to succeed, Dick’s must consistently position itself as a values-driven activist organization. Because the company was not led by values in the past, an attention garnering communication campaign is the best strategy to take a stand, embrace a position, and influence public opinion. Utilizing paid, earned, and shared media as well as TV, radio, and social media advertising, Dick’s can use the power of advertising to move the gun reform debate forward. The 2017 Cone Study concluded that consumers view their wallets as the most effective way to drive change (Cone, 2017). Dick’s should take advantage of consumers feeling of empowerment that comes with money by implementing informative nationwide fundraisers to advocate for gun law reform. If done well, a multi-faceted campaign like this would increase brand visibility and credibility and spark much-needed conversations on gun law reform. By using these platforms to take advocate for reform, Dick’s will not only remain profitable, but will embrace its role as a socially responsible and successful corporation.