The Marketing Doctor Says:
Packaged Goods Marketing Is Key To This Election!

Forget the pundits, the Marketing Doctor says that this election is going to be less about politics as usual and more about politics as branding and marketing.

That’s right.  Party line affiliations are not enough to predict who is going to vote for Obama and who is going to vote for McCain in November.  In fact, what we’re talking about here in marketing terms is the battle between packaged goods.  Take Raisin Bran.  Raisin Bran is made by two different companies: Post and Kellogs.  But people don’t buy Kellogs Raisin Bran because they like Kellogs or Post Raisin Bran because they like Post.  They buy these respective brands because they like the taste, texture and other qualities of the products.

It might sound like the New York heat wave has gotten to me, but fact is we can learn more about this campaign is going to go from how Raisin Bran is marketed (and packaged goods in general) than we can from traditional, non-marketing ways of looking at presidential politics.  People have to like the person they’re going to vote for just like they have to like the breakfast cereal they choose to eat –but the marketing  principles go well beyond this!

I’m going to be talking a lot more about these principles in the weeks and months to come and applying them to the presidential contest, but for now let me make a brief point from today’s news.

One way that packaged goods cultivate and establish their brands is through their related features and one major related feature is packaging.  What does the outside of the box tell us about the contents of the box? 
Well, I can tell you this: packaging is going to be critical in this campaign fight.  And if you thought the flag pin was big, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  Today, we got the photos of Obama riding a bicycle through Chicago over the weekend.  The reaction has been interesting with the LA Times noting that the goofy look seemed to hurt the candidate in some quarters and help him in others (see that take here).  And let’s not forget that Obama watched Hillary’s final speech as a primary candidate on his computer rather than on a TV –a fact that probably played well with young voters but might have been misunderstood by the old!

Similarly, talk of McCain’s age can cut both ways either as testament to his experience or as a liability. And, of course, there has been some recent speculation of botox use (which would really go against brand in my opinion).  My advice would be to take a page from Reagan who dyed his hair but put the age as a liability question to rest with this famous retort: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

All of this is packaging and each campaign had better tightly moderate and deftly shape the image they want their brand to project.

One direct lesson from packaged goods then is that those related product features have got to be calibrated, thought out well in advance and consistently deployed.  If the Obama team doesn’t want to alienate people who won’t “get” the goofiness on the bicycle then they have to prevent that kind of photo op from happening.  If the McCain team wants to stress that his age (and, yes, his wrinkles) are an asset to the candidate then they have to find ways to emphasize this and make sure there aren’t any botox rumor crosscurrents which would make the candidate seem to be going the opposite direction.  Stay tuned.

And, remember, it’s always easier when you keep branding in mind!