Let me get this out of the way first: I was wrong. I was wrong, because I thought that McCain would pull off a come-from-behind, skin-of-his-teeth victory, and keep the country from going over to the way of the far Left. Consider this my mea culpa. 

There were some interesting insights that we can gleen from the election, however, as marketers.

Marketing is some powerful stuff. Obama’s guys ran a really tight, well-disciplined campaign. His message seldom wavered – “CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN” – he kept it simple, hammering home his point in virtually everything he did. There were things that the McCain camp did that knocked Obama off-point from time to time (specifically Sarah Palin’s nomination and the Joe the Plumber dust-up) but every time, Obama was able to come back and get his campaign focused on his message. That’s huge. His constant leitmotif of CHANGE was, I think, instrumental in his success. 

Marketing also shows us that the more compelling, resonant, simple story beats a less-focused, tired one that is not well-articulated (ie: the John McCain “Maverick” mantra). We can also see that most people (especially those in the center) find it easier to vote FOR someone than AGAINST someone. The centerpiece of McCain’s message was “I’ll fight against what the other guys want to do, to do what’s right.” That essentially put McCain at odds with everybody. That also kept him talking about fighting rather than what he specifically wanted to do. Obama, by contrast, talked about where he wanted to go (vaguely) rather than spending all his time talking about how he would fight the status quo. 

Marketing, no matter how compelling the story, is an expensive proposition. Obama raised almost twice as much money as McCain – and spent it. No matter how good your story is, unless you can repeat it ad nauseum over the air, nobody will buy it. Obama proved that public financing for Presidential campaigns is a joke. And he used the medium better than any candidate did in recent memory. 

Marketing is much easier when you have the media on your side. Save for FoxNews, Obama had virtually every other major media outlet fawning all over him for the last two years. Ironically, McCain went from “the Only Republican The Left Respects and Likes” to “McBush the Third” in record time, making his job all the more difficult. The combination of Obama’s simpler, more compelling story and the media’s willingness to cut him all the slack he could get made it impossible for someone like McCain (who lacked a winning story to tell) to beat him. 

Marketing also tells us that your story has to resonate – no false notes allowed. Frankly, Obama’s inexperience and lack of a record helped – rather than hurt him. It left those on the right flailing. If it hadn’t been for Obama’s tendency to hang out with people of VERY questionable character (Wright, Ayers, Rezko, et all), McCain wouldn’t have had anything of substance to hit on. In contrast, Obama did a masterful job tarring McCain with the “Bush” brush. 

Lastly, think back to 2004. The Democrats were all but marginalized. The GOP had it all – control of the Presidency, both houses of Congress, the good will of the people. Fast forward four short years, and the GOP is in a blue funk, and the Democrats are once again ascendant. Why? Because the GOP forgot their story. The GOP was supposed to stand for smaller government, lower taxes, balanced budgets, and honesty and openess in government. They lost their way. And when you no longer resemble your brand image, the people remember the story – and find you to be liars for not living up to it. If the Republicans want to take power again in the future, they’d best rethink their mistakes and come up with a way to tell a unique, resonant story – and then stick to it.

So there. In many ways, marketing was the key to Obama’s election – and McCain’s defeat. I think that says volumes about the power of marketing, and serves as a cautionary tale for all of us in the marketing biz. We should treat the powers that we wield with respect, for playing with marketing is a lot like playing with fire – without a healthy respect for that power, somebody’s gonna get burned.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 8:20 am and is filed under advertising, marketing, media.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.