The 30 second candidate

Marketing expenses of US President hopefuls are rising by the day. The 2008 election campaign may well see ad spends crossing $5 billion. There’s a lesson in it for Indian political candidates

“Change we can believe in” or “Yes we can” are popular slogans in America today. They are not punch lines of a popular shoe brand or apparel manufacturer, but of a political candidate. The political campaign in America has been the most exciting and as Election Day nears, it gets more and more intoxicating. Obama, Hillary or McCain? The verdict stands suspended. The aura, the election fever has been most dramatic, more exhilarating than even the best suspense thriller you can think of. The campaigns of the three candidates are lessons in advertising and marketing. The three products (candidates) have used all the rules & principles available in the book. However, the most interesting product and my personal favourite is Barack Obama. The man has shown the world the power of advertising & promotions. Surprising but true, today a political candidate can be marketed like a box of cereals! With a name like Barack Hussain Obama, the man could have been a loser from the word go. A name almost rhyming with Osama, he could have been a lost case, especially after the 9/11 attacks. Yet, today he is fast becoming the blue-eyed boy of America. He was a total misfit – a black, young and inexperienced and half Muslim. Intelligent campaigning turned it all in his favour. According to Time magazine, Obama’s campaign turned out voters 25 years of age and younger, in record numbers. It was not just sheer charisma that helped him do it, but also sophisticated marketing techniques like Micromarketing. Here, by layering typical demographic data with psychographic data, they found new voters. With the help of indicators, like which TV shows you watch, which magazines you subscribe to, which car you own, which club you belong to, et al, with near certainty they found out potential voters (something similar was done by Bush). Once the voters were identified, they were called up by people like them. So veterans called veterans, high school students called up high school students and convinced them in their own unique ways to come and vote.Obama knew old party loyalists would be difficult to convince. It was those who had yet to form strong opinions that were easy to swing in his favour. A shrewd move; something similar to what Howard Dean had done in 2004, when he campaigned intensely on college campuses. It is these first-time voters who turned out in record numbers and gave him most of his margin of victory. This under-25 set – the most elusive of all voters everywhere – gave Obama a net gain of 17,000 votes and helped him defeat Hillary at Iowa. “

The Marketing of a President
Obama’s campaign is unfolding with clockwork precision. There is a systematic branding effort behind everything. No wonder it’s working. Every Presidential candidate of America has been marketed to the people, however in Obama’s case, for the first time, it’s being done in a manner similar to the marketing effort of any high-end consumer brand.Brand Obama has a cool logo, cooler t-shirts for supporters. His viral video “Yes we can” received 6 million hits. It became so popular that it was soon developed into an on-line community where you could post your own version of “Yes we can.” A successful brand is one, which connects with the people. In Obama’s case, the focus was not ‘Obama’ but the idea, the idea of change... of hope. It worked. Every part of the campaign focused on this. So much so, that to drive home the point, a website hopeactchange.com was created. The logo, with a blue circle and red & white stripes, stood out most distinctly. Every single banner had the same font type – something even corporate clients find difficult doing with their campaigns! According to Michael Bierut, a leading graphic designer, Barack’s campaigns are flawless. He is the only candidate to have a coherent, top to bottom, 360 degree system at work. His campaign scores as high in designs & quality as any of America’s best brands like Target or Apple or Volkswagen.

Assassinations, not ads
Back in India, the situation is totally lackluster. Campaigns only have a limited impact on elections. Print campaigns are read by only the educated few. Around 80% of rural households can still not afford black & white TV sets.Back in 1980’s, a man whose smile made you skip a heart-beat did use a professional agency for his political campaigns. Rajiv Gandhi & Congress spent Rs.40 crore in 1989 on advertising. However, his sales pitch, “My heart beats for India” failed to move the voters. In 2004, BJP spent almost Rs.100 crore on the ‘India Shining’ campaign but lost, while Congress which hardly spent much, won. In fact its been the two assassinations (in 1984 & 1991) that actually made a whole nation cry together and vote with their hearts. The Congress saw a landslide victory in 1984 and a decent win in 1991. No planned ad campaigns have ever been able to generate such fervour. No party has approached elections with proper thought & planning, and created campaigns powerful enough to move people.

Copyright ©:-Rajita chaudhuri and Planman Media

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

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