The Post-Tariffs Toolkit: Bolstering Your Brand After “Liberation Day”

Sweeping tariff announcements aren’t just shaking the markets – they can be an earthquake for brands caught in the shifting sands of policymakers’ and consumers’ opinion. 

At a perilous economic and political moment, how can global companies tell an all-American story? How can brands redirect the blame for tariffs’ impact on their prices and products? How can importers, exporters and retailers create pressure for exemptions and policy relief? 

We’ve helped Fortune 100 companies redefine themselves under the harshest spotlights and developed public affairs campaigns for collections of independent small businesses that moved Congress to pass billions of dollars in special economic relief. Here’s a peek inside Precision’s playbook for protecting your brand’s reputation – and defending your bottom line – amid the collision of prices, policymaking, and public attention. 

Take Control of Your Narrative 

When Congress, the press and the public are looking for victims and villains, it’s more important than ever to tell your own story.  With the right narrative architecture, even global brands and multinational companies can build a deeper American identity. 

• Measure your reputation – Landscape analysis of your brand’s positioning in key social media conversations and influence networks as the tariff storylines advance can provide early warning before share of voice curdles to share of blame. 
• Package your proof points – When lawmakers hear about your brand they need to remember jobs supported, facilities operated, dollars invested, and consumers satisfied. Finding the right mix of data, anecdote and narrative is the difference between building favorability and being forgettable. 
• Pick your protagonists – Humanize your impact. Finding the right storytellers to drive your narrative can mean looking outside the C-suite or even outside your company entirely. Your best advocate could be a loyal consumer, a charismatic worker, or U.S. supply chain providers or retailers.
• Reach your audiences – Reshaping a reputation in the minds of policymakers takes a consistent, integrated approach with strategic communications, owned channels and marketing and government relations teams all working in concert. 

Channel Your Consumers 

Redirect the consumer pressure of rising prices into constituent pressure on Congressional offices. Effective messaging to customers, stakeholders and consumer media that tariffs are responsible for price hikes can both shift negativity away from your brand and create useful, nonpartisan political impact. 

• Leverage influencers to steer conversation — As audiences and consumers increasingly turn away from legacy media for their news, enlisting paid or unpaid influencers can provide vital third-party validation and amplification of your messages directly to key audience segments. 
• Create an outlet for advocacy — Consider standing up a page that allows consumers or stakeholders to express their concerns or displeasure with tariffs directly to their lawmakers. This advocacy may be coordinated via a separately branded coalition entity to create a layer of separation between your brand and any direct policy advocacy to lawmakers. 
• Assemble a coalition — A new, purpose-built 501(c)4 coalition entity coordinating like-minded stakeholders across your sector may be better equipped to advocate for your issues than an existing trade association. 

Find the Opportunity

The changing economic landscape and shifting perspectives of policymakers and the public create new windows to advance your brand and reputation with key audiences. 

• Identify persuadables – Within your priority audiences are segments that may be newly interested in messages around your brand’s impact or identity. Our Data & Analytics team’s message testing and audience analysis can develop a predictive model of the audience segments most likely to be persuaded by key messages and compelling creative. This data-driven optimization allows more effective and efficient deployment of paid media dollars. 
• Build reputation resilience – The foundation of an effective, proactive narrative can build measurable trust and favorability that inoculates against a wide range of reputational threats and misinformation. Turn the attention to your advantage, laying out a positive story to lawmakers, stakeholders and customers about your brand and your impact. Bank a cushion of good-will before you need it.  

In a dynamic and high-stakes environment, paralysis is the most dangerous option. This is no time to leave your brand blind and rudderless in the storm. 

With decades of experience at the highest levels of government and industry, our team of battle-tested strategists have successfully guided brands large and small through some of the most delicate political dynamics, the most troubled business environments, and the most combustible media moments. 

If you’re stuck in the crosswinds of politics, economics and culture, reach out to us now to learn how you can take back control.