6 Lessons from Donald Trump's Winning Marketing
Manual
Donald Trump's upset election
win offers six lessons for marketers looking to beat the odds and overcome
powerful competitors
Donald Trump's victory may be a surprise—but not to astute
marketers. Here are six important lessons from Trump's brand marketing
playbook:
Give consumers a job.
The best marketing campaigns always call on consumers to do
something. For example, United invites you to "Fly The Friendly
Skies." Nike insists that you "Just Do It." The most successful
brands also allow their consumers to co-create brand meaning. “Let's Make
America Great Again” is an inclusive call to arms with a powerful goal that
each voter can interpret for himself. It embraces passion and purpose.
Clinton's “Stronger Together” is also inclusive but it evokes process, not that
process isn't important, but the desired outcome is much less clear. Good
marketers know that, if you don't position your brand clearly, your competitors
will do it for you.
Show the past as prologue.
Offering consumers the adventure of voting for an uncertain
future never works with the majority, especially if your brand is new to the
game. Trump, the political neophyte, won by recalling a better yesterday and promising
to recreate it as the better tomorrow. The word "Again" is no
accidental addition to the Make America Great slogan. Remember the famous
Kellogg's Corn Flakes campaign to recover lost consumers: “Try Us Again for the
First Time.’ For millions of Americans in the rust belt, the good old days
really existed and they voted to bring them back.
Pursue forgotten consumers.
Most financial firms chase the same high net worth prospects,
ignoring or at best taking for granted millions of modestly prosperous people.
Trump turned the Democrats' commendable embrace of diversity on its head to
invoke the "Forgotten Man," winning over lunch-bucket Democrats
overlooked by their party as well as bringing in new voters and energizing
lapsed ones. At the same time, almost all Republicans came home to vote for
their nominee. Good marketers always know how to balance new customer
acquisition with customer retention.
Sizzle beats steak.
Clinton was always going to beat Trump on the steak of
experience and policy knowledge. A new brand can't afford to get lost in the
policy weeds. Hence, Trump's campaign persona and his contract with the
American voter offered more sizzle. Painted in broad brush strokes, the
contract emphasizes goals and outcomes, and is light on policy and
implementation details. Of course, having begun many a sentence with the words
"A Trump administration will..." he now has to deliver the steak.
Will Brand Trump deliver on its promises? If not, the consumer won't repurchase
four years from now.
Build enthusiasm.
Good marketers know the power of word-of-mouth recommendations.
In the era of social media, better organization (the old ground war) and
outspending on television advertising (the air war) weren't enough for Clinton.
Trump's determination and stamina--five speeches a day--and the size of his
crowds impressed ordinary voters watching on television much more than
Clinton's barrage of paid ads. The pundits questioned whether enthusiasm would
convert into votes. Good marketers know that brand enthusiasm rings the cash
register. It did for Trump, but not for Clinton.
Close the sale.
Political marketing requires you win a plurality of votes not
every day but on a single day once in four years. Timing is everything. Trump
learned what worked and what didn't work as the campaign progressed. He refined
his message, suppressed the ad hominem insults, and peaked at the right time,
confounding the pollsters and media pundits. In every recent speech, he
repeated the same messages, inviting voters to imagine the future if they
bought into the promises of a Trump administration. He confidently asserted
"we are going to win" this state, "we're leading in" that
state. Consumers not only want to back a winner, they want to back a brand that
sees itself as a winner. And they want to back a brand that other people
similar to themselves see as a winner. That's when a brand becomes a movement.
In the last week, brand Clinton promised a bright future but
looked like the candidate of yesterday, a little tired and overly reliant on a
supporting cast of Obamas and Bon Jovis. By contrast, Brand Trump promised a
future that looks like yesterday, Everyman's high-energy underdog and outsider,
disruptive yet decisive, standing alone at the podium, mane flowing, ready to
step up to Pride Rock.
Brand Trump is today's bright new thing. But new is easy. Good
is hard. Time will tell whether Brand Trump can deliver on its promises.
by John A. Quelch
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/donald-trump-s-winning-marketing-manual?cid=spmailing-13752826-WK%20Newsletter%2011-9-2016%20(1)-November%2009,%202016
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