Joshua Saunders

All politics is about marketing.  Obama has done a fantastic job branding himself. But Hillary and others have a marketing strategy behind everything they do and every word they say.

It’s quite interesting when you actually think about it from a business standpoint. Who is their target market? For Hillary it has been women, lower-class blue collar workers and hispanics. For Obama it has been middle-class democrats, young people, and african-americans. You can see a differentiated marketing strategy in how each candidate markets to each segment.

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and what caught my attention and what is so interesting about political marketing is that you don’t only market yourself, you try to neutralize the opponent’s marketing. You don’t see this as much in business. For instance, Obama talks about change and a fresh face in Washington and Hillary talks about how Obama is a great speaker, but talk is cheap and we need someone who will take action. Hillary talks about how she has the experience (although she has little executive experience herself) and Obama counters saying we don’t need the same old experience in Washington, we need someone who can create the change.

It’s not just about branding (although it appears that way on the face). Obama is definately leading in branding. It’s also about segmentation, differentiated market strategies, knowing what each segment wants, and using an appropriate marketing mix (4P’s). In fact, political marketing is so exciting because the results are immediately measureable. In business, where results are measured in revenue, you get lagging results that may not be entireley dependent on your marketing strategy. In politics, you get near real-time results that are absolute and clearly measureable.