Marketing: lessons from the US elections (according to Seth Godin)

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There is already a winner. The Obama phenomenon has managed to win the US elections with a new branding and marketing model that now is the time to analyze (down to the smallest detail). This is what guru Steh Godin proposes in his post Marketing lessons from the US election. The starting point is that there are three types of agents that arouse emotions (and hatred) and that deserve detailed study: politics, organized religion and their own organizations. election votes Godin focuses on the concept of story, the element with which the media works. The  media  are those agents who write and spread stories to make their audiences listen to them and believe them. The New York Times (as always) has summarized it very accurately in a great infographic. Also in these elections there has been the entry of a new agent: the dominance of television has been broken in the hands of YouTube. What's the score? Only if people are interested in certain content or stories will they watch them. Your own time takes on another dimension.

Also the virality: «You can’t email a TV commercial to a friend, but you can definitely spread a YouTube video. The cycle of ads got shorter and shorter, and the most important ads were made for the web, not for TV. Your challenge isn’t to scrape up enough money to buy TV time. Your challenge is to make video interesting enough that we’ll choose to watch it and choose to share it». Furthermore, the concept of 'permission' emerges strongly. Enough of massive and indiscriminate marketing says Godin. According to his analysis, Democrats tried to put an end to digital spam and built a relentless list. Then they Industry Email List tracked the list with metrics to track trends, to anticipate, to send personal messages... This strategy has proven to be very successful, especially since the traditional base of the Democratic party was not enough for John Kerry to be elected. Obama needed more: the center, the younger voters, the internationalists, the black voters, the new voters... Seth Godin on Tribes «In McCain’s case, it failed.



His choice cost him the economically-concerned middle (which went to Obama’s carefully woven tribe). And it clearly cost him the mostly female Clinton tribe. Yes, he energized the conservative base, but he lost the election. If he had chosen Mike Huckabee, one could wonder what would have happened. Would this less polarizing figure been able to collect a bigger tribe for him? This is a real question for every marketer with an idea to sell. Do you find an existing tribe (Harley drivers, Manalo shoe buyers, frequent high-end restaurant diners) and try to co-opt them? Or do you try the more expensive and risky effort of building a brand new tribe? The good news is that if you succeed, you get a lot for your efforts. The bad news is that you’re likely to fail. Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted. The unheralded success factor of Obama’s campaign is the get out the vote effort. Every marketer can learn from this.