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John Tantillo's Brand Winner... And Loser: Fox News and The Global Warming Movement
Posted by The Marketing Doctor at 10/26/2009 11:44 PM 
Categories: Marketing
Tags: global warming brand Fox News Obama marketing Pew Research Center Tantillo Keith Olbermann Type 2 errors New York Times branding Type 1 errors White House Glenn Beck
Categories: Marketing
Tags: global warming brand Fox News Obama marketing Pew Research Center Tantillo Keith Olbermann Type 2 errors New York Times branding Type 1 errors White House Glenn Beck
Brand Winner… | And Loser |
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John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week:
Winner: Fox News
Loser: The Global Warming Movement
Folks, without further ado:
The Winner
A disclaimer to start: I regularly appear on Fox Forum and write a column for their website… However, I have searched my soul and decided that I would have chosen Fox News as a winner this week even if I didn’t have affection for the good folks over there.
Why? It’s simple.
There are moments in the life of a brand when the brand’s core characteristics and its position in the marketplace put it in opposition to certain trends. Rather than hurting the brand, this opposition underscores the brand’s strengths.
This is exactly what has happened to Fox News over the past week. The much-publicized “war” between Fox News and the White House centers around the White House decision to treat Fox News as a hostile agent rather than a legitimate news organization.
Instead of discrediting Fox News, the antagonism from the White House has provided critics of the administration with more ammunition. And even firmer ground for criticism.
Why should the opinions of Glenn Beck discredit Fox News, if the opinions of Keith Olbermann and the editorial board of the New York Times are considered solid journalism?
This battle has served the Fox News brand well:
1) Fox News has become a symbol among other news organizations, representing the journalistic duty to oppose the prevailing government winds (or at least to not just be carried away by them).
2) Fox News has taken the lead among these other news organizations, reminding them of their basic duties to the People. Some other news organizations have resisted Fox News exclusion from White House media events (sometimes openly, as an ABC News reporter recently did when he called Fox a “sister news organization”).
3) Fox News has reminded its Target Market of why they watch the network: While some of its commentators have a rightward lean (just like the majority of Americans), its commentary is distinct from its straight-up news, which includes stories that other networks aren’t pursuing. (In the past two months, the big talk in many news rooms has been “Why have we been missing or late on the stories that Fox News has covered?”)
The Fox News brand is also being proven in the ratings. Just released are the latest figures. (See those here.) CNN has come in dead last, while Fox News is powering along.
Bottom line: Thanks to its core brand strengths, Fox News has arrived at a breakout position.
Loser
Last week the results of a Pew Research Center poll on global warming were released.
It showed a marked decline in the number of Americans (both Democrat and Republican) who believe in anthropogenic climate change —that is, the Al Gore-popularized position that man is creating an approaching cataclysm by burning fossil fuels.
This decline surprised many in the media, but it didn’t surprise me —Not because the Marketing Doctor knows everything (fuggedaboutit!) but because, like the proverbial hedgehog, I know one big thing very well.
That big thing is to use the lens of real marketing. I look through this lens at everything from politics to business to personal brands, and in the case of the global warming movement, this is what I see: a movement, a philosophy, even —dare I say it, an environmental religion that has been crowned before it has actually become king.
What do I mean?
In the case of the global warming movement, my marketing lens is supplemented by my training as a behavioral scientist. That training holds skepticism sacred. In science, there are two basic errors you can make when analyzing a phenomenon, and one error is far worse than the other.
Not to get too technical, but I’m talking about Type 1 errors and Type 2 errors. A Type 1 error is when you reject something as false when it is in fact true. A Type 2 error is when you accept something as true when it is in fact false.
From a scientific perspective, a Type 2 error is far worse because it is built on fraudulent method. It is the flat earth hypothesis, or the sun rotating around our planet. It is about letting ideology, superstition, or just lazy, untested conviction rule the day. The danger is letting emotion get ahead of the data.
Unlike the arrogant talking heads who, along with their United Nations friends, want to lay the blame for the global warming movement’s struggle at the feet of American educational failure, I think the opposite is at work.
Americans, natural individualists and independent thinkers, are actually remembering their scientific method. Yes, they’re remembering what many scientists have unfortunately forgotten: you have to start doubting a hypothesis when facts don’t square, or when the methods of some of the proponents of the hypothesis seem shaky, no matter how much you want a certain hypothesis to be true (or how much your research money depends on it being true).
It’s not that the majority of Americans can tell you why man-made global warming might not be happening, but they are smart enough to know that the prudent place to start with a hypothesis is to doubt it. They’re also savvy enough to smell a rat and sense when they’re being pressured to accept something before they need to. They’re also rightfully skeptical of the dire predictions that go beyond standard scientific protocol and ring with hysteria.
Some people might say: so what if man-made global warming isn’t happening? After all, the global warming movement has made everyone more aware of the environment, and that’s good.
Not so fast. The problem with treating man-made global warming as true, if it is not true, is this: we will make major changes (like cap and trade) that aren’t actually necessary and that aren’t responding to reality. One significant downside of this approach could be to kill entrepreneurialism and economic expansion with huge government regulation. Instead of innovating our way into a green future, we might condemn the world to a static regime of carbon-counters —the modern-day equivalent of the flat-earthers who would have discouraged the Age of Discovery.
Bottom line: the poll numbers show that the wisdom of the American people is still alive and well. Prove a hypothesis beyond doubt and America will be the first on board, but insist that the evidence is there, demand that we must all accept it, and that dire consequences await if we question it, all without providing actual proof —now that’s a different story.
And remember, the business of any company and the business of life is always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
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