Jim Murray

7 years ago · 5 min. reading time · 0 ·

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The US Election In Marketing Terms, As Seen From The Relative Objectivity Of My Igloo In The Great White North.

The US Election In Marketing Terms, As Seen From The Relative Objectivity Of My Igloo In The Great White North.

Murray + Creative Director
Onwords & Upwords Inc. &
beBee Brand Ambassador
I am a communications professional,
arily a strategist & writer. I work with
small to mid sized businesses, designers,

art/creative directors & consultants to
ate results driven, strategically focused
mmunications in all on & offline media.

Iam also a communications mentor,
lyricist & prolific op/ed beBee blogger.
: 416 463-3475 + Bmail: onandup3@gmail com » Skype: jimbobmur6lUp to now, I have been anything but objective in any commentary that I may have created pertaining to the current US election.
This may have had a lot to do with the simple fact that I have always viewed Donald Trump with a bit of a jaundiced eye. I never bought into his brand I suppose. Mainly because it was one that has been built on a combination of hypocrisy and dishonesty, as evidenced by both his astounding number of business failures and the stories of his treatment of the people whom he hired to build his various palaces.
He was always, despite his masterful manipulation of the media, seen by me as a kind of ego-obsessed carpetbagger whose only real skill was figuring out how to make money by screwing people over.
On the other side of the coin, Hillary Clinton’s brand has, until recently, been seen as that of someone dedicated to public service. Both as first lady to one of the more successful presidents, then later as a senator for New York and then Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
The Marketing Perspective

So this election for me was one of dueling brands. And for better or worse both candidates’ brands were extremely well defined.
From a targeting perspective, Trump decided to build his base on marginalized, right wing leaning, working class white people. Which makes a lot of sense to a candidate who was prepared to make a lot of promises and never actually reveal a platform.

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Trump’s ride to power could almost be seen as a hostile takeover of the Republican party.
His currency was lies, pretty much based on hatred and racism. Just keep creating enemies (Mexicans, Hispanics, Muslims, Blacks, Gays and lesbians, gun control people, Obama) etc.
He tapped into the fundamental bigotry that a lot of these people carried around inside them, and gave them permission to let out.
What actually blew me away was just how easy it was for him to drag these otherwise ignorant/apathetic people into his camp.
It takes a certain type of genius to pull something like this off. Sadly, however, it very much akin to the kind of genius of Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini. And we all know where that led.
Once he has these people mobilized as part of his core, he had tons of ammo to start knocking over the other 18 Republican candidates. He did this by a combination of personal attacks, innuendo and name calling.
As his support among the more moderate Republicans grew because of the massive media coverage he was getting, the Republican party was essentially coerced into accepting him as their nominee.
The hypocrisy of this was off the charts. The Republicans, who had been so focused on obstructing Obama for the past eight years, had literally become so obsessed with forming the next government at any cost that they simply held their noses and raised their hands in favor of Trump.
And that was that. Trump Campaign Part 1 completed.
The Hillary Side

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, went through her primary season in a state of abject fear. Her main opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, and his ‘socialist’ leanings gave her a hell of a run for her money.
The tactical marketing error that the Bernie Sanders campaign made came down to the use of one simple word. ‘Socialist’.
Americans, a great many of them at least, have always viewed socialism as communism. And years and years of the Cold War after World War 2 have successfully burned that into the American psyche.
Sanders spent a lot of his primary campaign energy trying to correct this misconception but that was a huge row to hoe.
All Hillary had to do in the beginning was keep dropping the word here and there to create a mini explosion, taking out a piece of the Sanders brand each time she did it.
Despite that rather severe impediment, Bernie Sanders still managed to make it a very close race all the way to the convention. This says to me that if he had not added the world ‘socialist’ to his brand, he actually would have won. And that would have been amazing.
Why? Well, I’ll tell you. Because unlike Hillary whose brand, for better or worse i

e08d2ab0.jpgs seen as Wall Street friendly and the person to vote for if you want 4 more years of Obama in a pantsuit, Bernie Sanders was seen as someone who could take Trump apart in a debate, strip him bare and reveal all the corruption and hate that he carried around with him.
It’s called repositioning the competition, which was what Trump had been so successful at doing in the primaries.
The Fix Was In

Sadly, the Democratic National Committee, which is almost but not quite as corrupt as the Republican National Committee, had already decided that going forward with Hillary was the Democratic branding decision and so Bernie was sent packing.

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Yes. It was rigged. But politics is a rigged game. And no matter what you decide your brand is as a politician, it had better synch up with what your party thinks your brand should be or you’re fucked.
Trump was the huge exception to this rule. He happened mainly because the Republican party was is such a state of disarray (19 candidates, really?) that Trump just kind of slithered in with the largest core of supporters.
It didn’t matter that the majority of these people were racist, sexist, politically ignorant, pissed off desperados. All the mattered was the numbers. And that was the big branding error they made.
They mistook quantity for quality.
The Final Lap

Now that Trump had the nomination, he had to make some changes in his approach.
No longer was he positioning himself against a rag tag bunch of puny Republicans, but he was up against someone who, for better or worse, knew what they were doing.
Someone who knew how to wait Trump out while he ranted. Who knew how to defend her brand, despite some pretty horrendous allegations that had been made against her during the course of the campaign.
Someone who knew how to attack, based on reality as opposed to Trump’s endless stream of obfuscation, lies and pronouncements of doom for America.
And someone who knew how to do all this without falling apart, knowing that majority of the entire voting public watching.

The One Trick Pony Syndrome

Sadly, Mr. Trump was not able to make these adjustments.
He tried valiantly for the first 20 minutes or so of the first debate. But as his lizard brain slowly started to realize that this was going to to be a lot harder than he thought, he managed, and quite successfully, to revert to form. To use lies, innuendo, accusations and hate mongering, which were, in point of fact the only innate tools he actually had.
This is perfectly understandable for someone who has built their business on bullshitting investors, cheating suppliers, underpaying employees to fatten his own profit margins, leveraging debt, and as was most recently discovered, paying no taxes for the past 18 years.
This One-Trick-Pony syndrome made is extremely easy to Hillary to argue that Trump had neither subtle management skills nor the temperament to run the country.
And she has been leveraging the hell out of that ever since.

Unbelievably, It’s Still Up In The Air

Still, in all, nobody really knows how this election will actually turn out.
The candidates, despite what any sane, logical person might conclude from all everything I have just written, have both actually, at least to this point, managed their brands fairly well.
The key deciding factor is whether Trump will actually be able to step up and compete one on one with Hillary in the next two debates.
The importance of this cannot be understated, because this is where all the undecided, and there are a lot of them (about 40%) voters will be watching closely.
If nothing else, at least it will be interesting from a marketing perspective. And perhaps, totally insane from any other perspective.
PS: I have really kept this piece focused on the candidates, their brands and marketing tactics. I deliberately avoided discussing the news media's role in all this because every time I do, I throw up in my mouth bit, and I would rather avoid that unpleasantness. I have also done a post on this aspect already.
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/the-news-media-give-them-an-inch-they-ll-take-a-mile

Live From The Igloo In Toronto
Jim

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All content copyright 2016 Jim Murray. All rights reserved.



Comments

Jim Murray

7 years ago #14

#24
Yeah I do that deliberately to see if people are actually reading or just skimming.

Jim Murray

7 years ago #13

#25
You know what, Don they have been coming at me for the last year. And it's always the same drivel. Most of them feel it's none of our business and don't believe that we could be as well informed about their affairs as they are. But we are because we have access to the same information and we probably look at it more objectively because we haven't had our minds polluted with partisan dogma like they have. It's a sad state of affairs down there but they have brought it on themselves. If they think Donald Trump is capable or even interested in changing the lives of anyone but the Trumps, they have been drinking some pretty strong KoolAid.

don kerr

7 years ago #12

Good luck with this one Jim Murray...it's well written (no surprise there), reasonable (ditto), objective (kind of odd for you!), and on point (again, not surprising). I especially love "I deliberately avoided discussing the news media's role in all this because every time I do, I throw up in my mouth bit" - right on point. Now, I hope you have your anti-troll cup on 'cause I suspect the Alt-Right Bees will be coming straight for your cojones.

Jim Murray

7 years ago #11

#18
Anybody but Trump. Because at the end of the day I find it impossible to believe that he gives a rat's ass about the American people that aren't named Trump. Also, he owes the Russians half a billion and needs the secret service protection. If he loses he'll probably end up sleepin' with the fishes.

Jim Murray

7 years ago #10

#19
David Grinberg...it's all degrees of regret. I feel terrible that your country is in such a pickle. But the simple fact is that country is being run by an obstructionist congress. I don't know what the solution is but I know for sure that it's not called Trump. Re baseball. This gave should be good. It's anybody's guess who will win. I'm hoping home field advantage works for us.

David B. Grinberg

7 years ago #9

...in other words, Jim Murray, American voters must choose the best of the two major party bad options, cast a protest vote for the Libertarian Party or Green Party, or just stay home. Again, all bad options. What a shame. On a side note, good luck to the Blue Jays. I take it you may have guessed I'm an Orioles fan, having lived in Maryland for sometime now. I also visit the Baltimore area, which isn't too far away. May the best team triumph, my friend.

Randy Keho

7 years ago #8

The city I grew up in, and have returned to live due to family obligations, was just ranked as the most dangerous city in the country, based on a population of 200,000 or less. The population, which is decreasing by the month, sits at 150,000. Once the industrial capital of the Midwest, it now features dozens of abandoned factories, the once-thriving companies having, and continuing, to close or move to other states and countries due to the ever-increasing tax burden. Three of our recent governors have, or continue, to serve prison terms. One for trying to sell Obama's senate seat, after declaring his candidacy for president. It's just a guess, but I'll bet the actual unemployment rate is 25 percent, with the same percentage of residents living on various forms of government assistance and, of course, Obamacare. A large number of unemployed workers are no longer "counted," having given up their job search, and falling off the unemployment roles. That is what left the door open, not only for Donald Trump, but for Obama, too. But, instead of generating the economy, he extended more handouts. Now, Hillary is promising to conduct business as usual. Who would you vote for? Jim Murray

Jim Murray

7 years ago #7

#9
This situation didn't happen overnight. Companies started moving their plants out America years ago. It's not political. It's business. Corporations won't be controlled by governments. Even when the governments try, they get tied up for years in court. My issue is not with the principles and facts you have outlined, which are probably all pretty accurate and all. My issue is with the faith that people have in Trump to deliver change. Right message...way wrong messenger.

Harvey Lloyd

7 years ago #6

#7
You said it with less words and thank you. I believe, in America, we are asking all the wrong questions and voters are being asked to answer those questions. Give me control of the question and i will lead you anywhere.

Neil Smith

7 years ago #5

#6
You make an excellent point Harvey Loyd. Positive legislative progress comes about through bi-partisan effort and compromise across the aisle. When both sides retreat to the barricades and see compromise as an evil rather than the logical outcome of the structure of US government then progress becomes difficult to the point of impossible.

Harvey Lloyd

7 years ago #4

I am not sure if Canada is experiencing the specialization of the human dynamic as we are in America. It seems that some deserve a higher level of freedoms than others. Trump has opened up the door for folks to discuss these topics of special interest. His ability to communicate this has been somewhat comic, but the issues he raises are of a concern for part of the voting populous. I am not a bigot or racist by any means of the definition. But also realize that the last 30 years have not advanced our society in the areas that remove these definitions. Your assessment of the political climate is accurate but leaves out the fact that a large percentage of voters are not happy with the current status flow. Just as quite a few want more of the same as the last eight years. In a democracy this is how it all works. Recently (and would like to hear your opinion) we have begun a campaign on both sides of the isle of slandering. Democrats call republicans bigots, racist or some other name that implies their neanderthal heritage while republicans cast shadows of doubt on democrats Americanism or imply directly that they are socialists. ARe all republicans racist? Are all democrats followers of Stalin? Yes i know some folks actually choose their candidate based on these adjectives. I also know quite a few who are deeply concerned about race relations in our community. All this is good for a writing topic and we can expand on the negative for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile back at the ranch, race relations are deteriorating, authority is being challenged and our economy is entering the new normal (Whatever that means.) So although i agree with your assessment of the campaigns and brands, i would offer up that Trump only opened up buried issues that i sense is real and misunderstood. (Specifically by each side when attacking the other)

Neil Smith

7 years ago #3

. . . Continued sorry. Sanders, for me has been a class act post primary. He has been around long enough to know that politics is a hard, sometimes dirty game. He publicly supported the winning candidate and defends the way the primaries were run. He sees the bigger picture. Contrast that with the splintering and in-fighting amongst the Republican candidates. The Republican party has an easy, slow moving target to aim for here and unbelievably it looks like they are going to miss and possibly miss badly. Interesting times indeed.

Neil Smith

7 years ago #2

As you have previously stated Jim Murray the political animals of all hues will undoubtedly have something to say about this article and so it really should be. This has been a very strange election for the external observer. The GOP primaries were a mess. You mentioned 19 candidates but with so few of them dissenting from the Tea Party orthodoxy the nett result was an awful lot of same old same old which just served to dilute the impact of any given individual and made it hard to make policy positions and stand out. The upshot is that the RNC have ended up backing an amateur politician who can't seem to focus on campaign issues and has spent much of his time setting up a personality based battle with his opponent whilst sniping at GOP grandees sitting on the sidelines. Clinton is eminently beatable in this contest. She is the least popular Democrat to run since pollsters started measuring popularity. It takes some effort to be even less popular with the electorate but Donald Trump has managed it. Fighting against the candidate in front of him would yield better results than trying to set Clinton up as a pantomime villain. If you spend all your time calling out your opponent as a political Antichrist you alienate a lot of moderates without setting out any reason to support you. It also means that during the debates if Clinton doesn't look like she eats children and tortures small, furry animals it reduces the impact of future character attacks.

Jim Murray

7 years ago #1

#1
This is the patented response that comes from all right leaning Americans. My opinion doesn't matter to you, obviously. But I have a lot of Canadian friends and associates who are scratching their heads and thinking that our country's largest trading partner is showing signs of insanity and they don't know why. Pleased to know, however, that I have a literary reputation. I honestly never thought of it that way. So thanks for that.

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