Six Lessons to Learn from American Political Marketing

Political marketing in the United States is nothing other than marketing the candidate more than the political party. It entails studying the market and positioning the candidate based on the results. In itself, it is similar to traditional marketing, which focuses on a particular brand. Here are 6 lessons to learn from the latest American presidential campaign.

This past July 2, I clicked on a tweet from Hillary Clinton. It promised a “Dinner with Hillary“. The link took me to the Democratic candidate’s website where all I had to do was enter my email and postal code. Curious, I checked the entry conditions and signed up for this rather unique lottery to win an all-expenses paid dinner for two with the Democratic presidential candidate. This is what inspired me to write this blog post about political marketing in the United States.

In 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was in a way revolutionary, as it automatically integrated the new media into his communication strategy. This resulted in his supremacy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Hillary Clinton may not be from the same generation as Obama, but her campaign is no less professional. How does political marketing work in the United States? What could European SMEs learn from this to help sell their products?

Six Lessons to Learn from American Political Marketing

Lesson #1: Have a significant budget
The United States is about 15 times larger than France and has a population five times greater. National coverage requires a substantial budget, and the 2012 presidential campaign had a $2.6 billion price tag. In the United States, a candidate’s chances are measured by the size of his (or “her” in this case!) budget, which unlike France or Germany, is not capped by legislation.

Lesson #2: Have a good grasp of the techniques
Budget size also translates into access to all the current marketing techniques. The most widely known are quantitative and qualitative opinion analyses, multimedia campaigns and media relations, to name a few. In 2008, Barack Obama’s team was already using information technologies to create a giant database and to implement campaign performance indicators.

Lesson #3: Use increasingly specialized professionals
Managing a budget and marketing techniques requires the involvement of high-level experts and increasingly specialized professionals. The marketing teams are surrounded by consultants and communication agencies, each one an expert in a specific area.

Lesson #4: Have in-depth knowledge of the market
In 2012, compiling data in a mega-file helped Obama better target his voters, both when recruiting volunteers and when developing communications.

Lesson #5: Personalize the messages
Anyone travelling through the United States won’t help but notice the hyper saturation of advertising on television, in retail stores, on billboards, on the internet, through sponsorship and at events, etc. The candidate’s personality has become an important aspect upon which campaigns are developed. The more a brand can be experienced individually, the better its chances of success.

Lesson #6: The new media is pervasive
The new media are an integral part in the lives of 320 million Americans in 2015. Obama understood this in 2008. In 2012, the campaign involved no less than 26 different emails and generated more than 24 million conversations on the social networks. Reminder texts and special campaign apps were some of the other tools used. In 2015, the new media are an indispensible component for any campaign in the United States.

The 2012 campaign in numbers *

– $6 billion
The total cost (in dollars) of the Obama and Romney campaigns for the presidential election, as well as for the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
– 1.1 million
The number of messages broadcast on radio and television during the campaign. This is a 40% increase over 2008.
– 10.3 million
The number of tweets exchanged in a 90-minute period during the first debate between Romney and Obama on October 4, 2012.
– 901
The number of employees on Barack Obama’s campaign team in August 2012, according to the Los Angeles Times. By comparison, Mitt Romney had 403.
– 8,000
The number of kilometers Barack Obama travelled in less than 20 hours during the last weekend of the campaign, with priority given to five key States. Mitt Romney travelled 3000 kilometers at the end of this campaign.

Once I had finished registering for the contest on www.hillaryclinton.com, I was redirected to a campaign fundraising page. As a European, I felt that this request was a little aggressive. But this is not the case for Americans, for whom political donations are a form of political expression.

A few minutes later I received this email encouraging me to make a financial commitment to Clinton. Two days later, I got a reminder email.

And another two days later, I got yet another email. Not from Hillary Clinton this time, but from Robert Russo, her Director of Correspondence and Briefings. I would like to share its content with you because it is an amazing example of how professionally Clinton’s team is running this email campaign…which isn’t so surprising considering the funds raised…

This email is a good example of how it works. Direct Marketing and Online Marketing experts are working together in order to:
– collect specific data from the recipient for better targeting
– collect emails for the database
– vary the messages and not bore the recipient

All together, they have succeeded in issuing information about Clinton to make her more approachable. I am very thrilled to get more emails from her and I have decided to put all of her email correspondence on a special page of this blog. If you are interested, then keep in touch and visit my blog again in a few days.

A little more than a year before the American presidential elections, Hillary Clinton’s political marketing machine is well oiled. She is using the new media (Twitter and a website), direct marketing (an email campaign) and provides a genuine message from the candidate. Whether you like her or not, it’s certainly effective.