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Blog posts tagged General election
The last few words
May 06, 2010
One of our business writers, Kate Horstead, is standing as a candidate in a local election today. Here, she draws on her own experience of campaiging to offer some nuggets of advice for businesses who are trying to win over customers.
As the election campaign rolled into its final days and hours, the political parties geared up to speak to many of their voters for the last time before they voted, whether through a speech, direct mail, on their Twitter feed or website, on the doorsteps or in a party broadcast on TV. The last week is crucial, because however early the campaigners started, it is often the last few words people hear that will stick in their minds. Many of the postal votes have already been cast by this stage, but nerve-wrackingly, 90 per cent of the electorate is still to make its judgement.
But for the local campaign volunteers on the ground, many of whom started out their campaign many months ago, sticking leaflets through doors on drizzly winter nights, talking to voters on the doorsteps and responding to email queries, how do they organise themselves in the final days to make it really count?
As a local council candidate myself, I had established the people who were most likely to vote for us, and those who were leaning our way or yet to decide, as well as hard supporters for the other parties. In business-speak, I did my market research. I had also distributed several batches of information about what my policies are for the local area, and what my party has done so far to help local people. With just days left to win, my team and I needed to prioritise where that time should be spent to get the maximum return for our tireless efforts, or much of that groundwork could well be wasted.
Over the bank holiday weekend we distributed several different types of letters, targeted carefully at different groups. One was a tabloid to be distributed to all the houses in the constituency, while a separate letter was aimed specifically at people who said they would vote for the other main party in the constituency, as a last attempt to sway them towards us. Finally, there were personal letters addressed (handwritten) to all our non-postal voters, a friendly reminder of what we have done and what we plan to do if they vote us in.
Lastly, I fitted in a bit of last-minute face-to-face and phone canvassing, reminding voters that we were there and gathering data for polling day. My last words to them were often something direct and personal, along the lines of “A vote for us in this constituency really does count” or “Thank you for your support, it’s much appreciated”. My personal view is that however often I have knocked on their door or posted a leaflet through, and however firm they think their convictions are, people forget all too easily and those last few words can really mean a lot.
For those who sat through the leaders’ debates, your concentration is likely to have wandered at some point during the programme, but most people will have tuned in for each of the leaders’ short speeches at the end. No doubt it was the way they presented their final argument that will stick in your memory, at least until today, and the manner in which they said it might make you think twice.
But what can you learn from this as a business marketer? Obviously, as a small firm you don’t just have a week to target the right customers and sell to them, but perhaps you should try viewing every week of your marketing campaign with the same urgency as the politicians view this final week of the election campaign. Whether it is a call to action at the end of an email or a summary of what your product can offer them, make sure your last few words stick in your customers’ minds. You never know, it might help you to grasp those last few crucial sales that put you ahead of your competition.
Internet election? #fail
May 06, 2010
In the middle of the most important day in UK politics for five years, I have a simple question: what happened to the “Internet election” we were promised?
I have no idea how many people involved in the Obama campaign were hired to look after social media, but at the beginning of this election each party was trying to outdo the other with grand claims about hiring the brains behind the Obama Internet election strategy. Now, I don’t really know what that means, especially as the brains behind Obama’s campaign were the grassroots activists, but whatever the three main parties hoped for it hasn’t happened.
Instead, of using the internet to empower, the parties have got it the wrong way around by taking bloggers and Twitterati out of digital realm and giving them a real life platform. I am no political strategist, but this is not a good idea.
Labour started it by giving the cringeworthy Ellie Gellard (aka Bevanite Ellie) a lectern and some tissues so she can cry when Gordon speaks; Dave continued to cosy up with Mumsnet whenever there was a TV camera and a packet of Hobnobs around; and Nick − well I spent 30 seconds on his website before my eyes melted.
To summarise, the three parties took something that looked like a digital strategy and applied it to the old world. The very pre-requisite of an Internet election is − you got it − it uses the Internet. And all three parties failed, badly.
Got to dash, I have hired the guy that proofread the blog posts for the Obama campaign popping over in a moment. He’ll like this one.
Editor’s round-up: It’s a madcap scheme, but it might just work
April 23, 2010
Here’s an insight into how things work on the Marketing Donut:
Simon: What are we doing on election day, James?
James: I was thinking we should set up the live blog.
Simon: And tweet?
James: And tweet, yes.
Simon: Are we going to do anything in the evening? Or the next morning?
James: Yes, sure, though a lot of the results will be coming through quite late. And if it’s a hung Parliament it’s likely to go on for a bit.
Pause.
Simon: How would you feel about working late? I mean, really late?
Pause.
Simon: And then quite early?
Pause.
James: Are you asking me to work all night?
Simon: Sort of, yeah.
James: You mean a blogathon?
Simon: And a Twitterthon. A TWITTERBLOGATHON. What do you think?
Pause.
James: Ok. But only if you do it, too.
Simon (shrugs): All right then.
And so it was decided. Between Thursday 6 and Friday 7 May, James and I will be doing a marathon round-the-clock, hour-by-hour, all-night-and-into-the-next-day never-before-attempted 24-hour general election Twitterblogathon. Just for you. It’s a madcap scheme, but it might just work.
The thing is, we’ve got a touch of election fever here on the Donuts. This week the second leadership debate was held in Bristol (where one half of the Donut lives) and we were there, shouting at the big screen and enjoying the heckling by assorted special interest groups.
We’re trying not to go overboard, but we’ve created Election central, your guide to all things election on the Donut websites. It’s got blogs, news, features, a poll - you name it. On the Marketing Donut, we’re keeping an eye on the way the election campaigns are being run; on the Start Up Donut, we’re looking at the issues from a small business point of view. I reckon we’ve got some good stuff going on, and I especially recommend our MD Rory MccGwire’s series of blogs on key election issues for small firms and our straightforward breakdown of what each of the parties is promising small firms.
UPDATE 28 April: We're now going to make it a sponsored Twitterblogathon on behalf of The Children's Trust, which is holing its annual National Doughnut Week from 8-15 May. Please sponsor us!
Jam leg emails?
After having lots of fun on Twitter in James’s absence last week, I twisted his arm to let me have the Marketing Donut Twitter account every Wednesday. This week, I posed the question: “What’s the collective noun for people who work in marketing?”. The responses, as you can imagine, ranged from the satirical to the downright insulting. Here are the printable ones.
I also posted a picture of my to-do list and asked you to do the same. We got some great responses, including James’s own roundabout request for a lighter workload, Jake Johnson’s amusing guide to avoiding work, a Spanish to-do list from Venezuelan journalist Mito Dona Cruces and a description of a day in the life of an African rodent from our special friend the Meerkating Donut.
But my favourite response came from Ben Park at BJS Productions. Having looked at my to-do list, he asked me if it really said “Jam leg emails” in the top right. Of course, I said yes (in fact, it says “Jane Lee emails” – hi Jane). Within minutes, Ben came back with this brilliant spoof:
Ben, thank you. You’ve just earned a Donut voucher:
Well done! Just send a tweet to @marketingdonut to claim it.
"Trust me, I'm a politician"
April 15, 2010
Whenever there’s a general election, the political parties go into marketing overdrive. They bludgeon us with large full-mix marketing campaigns that incorporate market research, customer targeting, branding, straplines, press and PR, direct marketing through leaflets, doorstep selling, outdoor advertising and now, of course, online marketing and social media.
They leave no stone unturned to reach us, get us in their vice-like handshake and persuade us to “Vote for me!”. At the same time, there’s all sorts of underhand guerrilla campaigning going on, supported nowadays by an army of bloggers and viral marketeers.
What we’ve seen in the past few weeks is the political juggernauts firing up, heavy boots pressing down on the accelerator and the great unwieldy vehicles steadily building up speed. Soon, they will overwhelm us.
Some of these political campaigns are an object lesson in how to create and execute a corporate marketing campaign, driven by the zest and evangelical beliefs of thousands of volunteers - or as I like to call the party activists, “unpaid marketing interns”.
But does it work? Is it actually going to make us vote? At the last two general elections, just 59 per cent and 61 per cent respectively of the electorate turned out to put a cross next to their favoured candidate’s name. That’s pretty low.
As any fule no, no brand is worth diddleysquat unless we believe in it. Frequently we see an enormous “reality gap” between a claim made about a brand and our real experience of it. A big reality gap can be profoundly destructive to a company’s reputation. Some survive by tackling the issue head on. Others never really recover and slip out of our consumer consciousness.
In the case of the political parties, there’s a massive reality gap which presents a serious challenge to the people charged with marketing them. Politicians operate on the basis of trust, yet they have been hurt by a succession of scandals that undermine our trust in them. So how do deal with that as a marketer?
Our Twitter followers had plenty to say on the issue of political marketing campaigns and how we would run them. Below is just a representative selection. It’s interesting that not one person had something positive to say about our politicians:
@brightwomenare 1. Focus on positive messages. 2. Stop fudging and be clear - even if bad news. 3. Stop personalising.
@debutmarketing They should stop telling us what's wrong with the other lot and start telling us what they're going to do.
@debutmarketing Politicians should stop knocking the competition and start telling us the benefits of voting for them.
@Web_D Stop bickering like a bunch of kids when they get together. #actyourage #childish #notfittorunthecountry
@clairedowdall I’d make politicians sign something that binds them into delivering what they promise - or else! Plus easy manifesto comparison.
@jakepjohnson I’d make my campaign about my party’s positives and not just about the opposition's negatives.
It seems pretty clear to me. The big focus of any political marketing campaign should be the restoration of trust:
- We would not make promises we can’t or don’t intend to keep
- We would stress the positive aspects of our own brand or product and not knock the negative aspects of our rivals’.
- We would be unafraid to deliver tough news honestly.
Is this a recipe for electoral success? Or just the start of a long, hard slog back to credibility? I suspect the politicians will have a lot more marketing to do before we’re comfortable about buying into their brands again.
What do you think?
Who's got the best election slogan?
April 12, 2010
Each of the three major political parties has now unveiled the election slogan that will underpin its campaign. This is a vital piece of their election toolkit – it’s the platform on which the rest of their messaging will be built. In marketing terms, it’s their USP. But do they work? And what makes a good election slogan anyway?
I’ve done some thinking of my own and I asked your opinions, too, via the Marketing Donut Twitter account.
Labour: A future fair for all
The Labour Party slogan recalls its great founding principle, equality - presumably because they feel it’s the key distinction arch rivals, the Conservatives. The phrase itself has a poetic, but archaic quality. Rather than looking forward to a progressive future, it seems almost a requiem for an ideal that has never been achieved.
This is what you thought:
@the_shopkeeper Surely this should be “A fair future for all”? Rolls easier off the tongue, in my humble opinion.
@Web_D Sounds like there's going to be a rollercoaster and dodgems.
@JanMinihane Sounds like Labour are planning a fair, how wonderful.
Conservative: Vote for change
The Conservative Party slogan has the virtues of directness, simplicity and it’s memorable – all key elements of a good slogan. On the other hand, it doesn’t tell you what they want to change or who will benefit from the change. Is it us? Or is it them? They seem to rely on a public appetite for something – anything – different.
You said:
@benparkatbjs Does anyone know the Tory election slogan? “Spare any change?” isn't it? Something like that.
@runninginheels7 Conservative could mean change in any sense or subject?
@dpoyser Would have to be the Conservatives; most descriptive with the least number of syllables and it makes the best soundbite.
@JanMinihane Conservative Slogan: "Time for change" - what, 20p, 50p, 5p?? Bit too snappy and short for my liking.
Liberal Democrat: Change that works for you, building a fairer Britain
Of all the slogans, the Liberal Democrat one feels most designed by committee. It’s a mouthful, two slogans tacked together - two slogans we’ve already seen, in fact. The Lib Dems truly are finding a middle way with this one; they have the promise of change (Conservative) AND the promise of equality (Labour) all in one rather unwieldy mouthful.
It is, however, the only slogan that actually speaks directly to you, the reader. This alone was enough to help it find favour with our Twitter following:
@mathewhulbert In simplistic terms you might think the Tories is the best, but the Lib Dems speaks to two different groups.
@Web_D I like this actually. It’s the “for you” that wins me over.
@JanMinihane My fave, seems more personal somehow.
And the winner is...
@twistandshoutuk That Lib Dem one seems a bit weird and wordy. The Labour one sounds like part of a poem. Conservatives is brief and snappy.
In a sense, each of the slogans does exactly what we might expect of each of the parties: the Labour slogan treats us a collective; the Conservative slogan commands us; the Liberal Democrat slogan tries very hard to appeal to everyone – but at least they are personable about it.
When I asked how you would rewrite the slogans, I should have known I was inviting trouble:
@benjamindyer How about “Write me a letter if you like, but I am too busy knocking back Martinis and attending garden parties to care.”
@Web_D I’d vote for any party that admitted the truth: “We're in the s**t... It will be tough, but we'll get through it in time.”
Despite this cynicism, I’ve had a go at adjusting the slogans to address the criticisms and this is what I came up with:
Labour: A fairer future for you
Conservative: Changing Britain for the better
Liberal Democrat: Your only REAL alternative
I reckon they might just work. What do you think?
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