How to elect a president — or get a client.
by Bruce W. Marcus
If, as a marketer, you’ve ever been involved in a political campaign, then you know that a political campaign is simply another form of marketing.
An analysis of the first Clinton campaign for the presidency, with James Carville’s core message of “It’s the economy, stupid,” made that point very clearly. It was a classic case of positioning. But even that battle was merely a prelude to the campaign that elected Barack Obama, which was, as well, an inspiring use of positioning. The campaign’s message, based on a carefully devised position, was supported by a number of highly focused elements.
It’s in four areas that the successful political campaign best informs the professional services marketing campaign:
1. Research. Political campaigns are sensitive to attitudes that can change daily. For marketing, research, when done well, can fathom a market’s needs, concerns, opportunities, and more specifically, a firm’s reputation and the market’s perception of the firm and its capabilities. This allows a message to be crafted that addresses the needs of the professional’s prospective clientele. While many factors may enter into a market’s perception of a firm, and alter it, there is a greater opportunity to tune that perception than there is for a political candidate. Still, the market’s perception of a firm is not to be underrated. The unknown or little known firm has a much harder job in selling itself than does the better known firm.
2. The firm (candidate). The political candidate demands trust in many more areas than does the professional firm. Nevertheless, just as the political candidate must persuade a constituency of a great many capabilities and characteristics, so too must the professional firm project understanding of a prospect’s industry and business, and the particular nature of its legal or accounting needs and the ability to serve them. Being a good and competent firm, and not projecting that fact in terms of the needs of the prospective clientele, will gain few clients. The days when competence alone built a practice are long since gone, in the new competitive environment.
3. The message. The message, which informs, persuades, convinces, and conveys all of the factors that ultimately win or lose the vote – of the client. When the message is amorphous, confused, or not relevant to the needs of its audience, there is little likelihood that the candidate – or the firm – will win. The cardinal error, for both the candidate and the firm, is selling what you want to sell, and not what the target audience wants to buy. This mistake, as well as many others, is what defeated Senator McCain.
4. The strategy, which is the plan that defines the market – for both the vote and the service – fathoms its needs, wants and opportunities, and determines the tools that best convey to the target the ability to serve those needs.
At the same time, the success of both the political and professional services marketing campaign relies not merely on the mechanics of marketing, but on the strategy. No political campaign, nor any marketing campaign, is successful solely on the basis of a mere conglomeration of activities. The mechanics — the tools of marketing “succeed only when used in strategic concert with one another.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bruce’s post has already drawn the praise of uber-guru Gerry Riskin, who says: “Thank you Bruce Marcus for relating the successful campaign of the President Elect to attracting clients. “It’s a stimulating and catalytic read!” See Riskin here. Read the full Marcus article at The Marcus Letter…
One Response to “Bruce W. Marcus: What Barack Obama Can Teach CPAs about Marketing”
Chad Bordeaux
Another important thing to note here is the extensive use of Social Media by the Obama campaign. Another area that more accountants need to get on board with from a marketing perspective.
The ability to reach a large market of people at virtually no cost!