No matter what your politics may be, most of us are united in relief that election season is finally over! Debates, constant media hysteria, a seemingly interminable number of campaign ads… it’s all behind us now.
But before we turn the page, let’s take a moment to evaluate the campaign and look at the possible implications that campaign strategy may have for your business. After all, when you think about it, a presidential election is basically the largest, highest-stakes marketing and branding campaign that exists.
Below are three lessons that may be applicable to your business:
Micro-targeting is the new mass media: The 2012 election conclusively demonstrated that the days of “one size fits all” marketing messages are over. While both campaigns participated heavily in traditional mass media, “micro targeting” played a crucial role as well. Both campaigns identified specific fragments of the electorate and crafted a message targeted precisely at them. Caucasian women played a key role in Pennsylvania, male auto workers were highly sought-after in Ohio, and Puerto Rican immigrants in Central Florida were a key demographic for the Obama campaign. Both campaigns were able to craft specific messages for each of these groups and deliver them precisely to each target group using social media and internet marketing. The lesson: You don’t have the cash to run a mass media campaign? That’s okay—social media and the internet offers a much more affordable and more effective way to precisely reach your target market.
Define yourself—or the competition will do it for you: Many analysts believe that the key to the President’s reelection was his campaign’s efforts to define Mitt Romney before he could do so himself. During the spring and summer, while Romney was battling through a bruising primary race, the Obama campaign launched a massive effort to define him as an out-of-touch “corporate raider.” Whatever you may think about the fairness or the accuracy of this portrayal, experts on both sides of the political spectrum agree that it was successful. And as a result, Romney was never able to “introduce himself” to the electorate in the way he would have like to. The lesson: If you don’t create and define your brand, the competition in your marketplace will do it for you. Define your brand and stake out your position in the market before someone else beats you to it.
Word-of-mouth marketing is still incredibly powerful: It’s interesting that, even in a campaign season that featured billions of dollars in being spent on advertising, most analysts believe that it was the Obama “ground game” that made the difference. Whether it was volunteers making phone calls and having one-on-one conversations with voters, going door-to-door through neighborhoods, or hosting community events, both campaigns invested tremendous time and energy into this form of “personal” campaigning. Because the Obama campaign had a significant head start, their efforts were more successful—and arguably made the difference in a close campaign. The lesson: Nothing beats word-of-mouth marketing. Creating “raving fans” is almost always the best way to grow a healthy business over the long run. Most consumers will pay considerably more attention to a recommendation from a friend or a family member than they will to even the most well-crafted advertisement.
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