Adapt

November 6, 2012

Candidates are brands.

What your business can learn from elections:

1. Both sides begin with a supporter base. Call them customers.
2. Both sides are addressing persuadable voters. Call them prospects.
3. You don’t know prospects as well as you know customers. Dig in and learn all you can, because they’re the lever to success.
4. You offer a Brand Narrative that, first of all, has to be true. In an age of social media, you’ll be found out if you’re faking it.
5. Your narrative should not appeal to everybody. That’s a weakness.
6. Findability is more cost-effective than outbound messaging. Postage is killer expensive. A good social media following is silver, a great website is gold.
7. Getting into the selection set = winning in the primaries. Competing in a 3, 4, or 5-way field requires visibility, differentiation – with a differentiator that’s urgent.
8. How deciders decide is different today. Your strategy and tactics must adapt to new rules, new tools.

Evolve