Marketing Lessons from the US Elections

I just finished watching Mitt Romney's concession speech as he ended with a prayer for Barack Obama's success as he continues as President of the United States for the next four years. Rest assured though that Obama's victory by a wide margin was not all based on faith. There will be a lot of political analysis over the coming weeks but here is my marketing perspective on Brand Obama and some key lessons DesiCMOs and CMOs around the world can learn from the campaign he ran. This is very timely since we have our CMO-CIO Leadership Symposium tomorrow in Gurgaon where we will explore "Smarter Marketing: The Science of Giving People What they Want"...and that's exactly what Team Obama did.

A great ground game enabled by a passionate "workforce" aligned to an authentic brand. 
No matter how sophisticated election analysis and polling seems, elections are still won through personalized interaction at every touch point, in this case building an authentic brand that galvanizes volunteers to go door to door. Brand Obama was able to infuse energy and passion in his campaign team and volunteers who went that extra mile, even on election day to get out the vote. Trust in and authenticity of Brand Obama has been a critical factor in the big victory as Romney wasn't able to communicate a clear and consistent brand to the market (he was swinging right to center throughout) and that created doubt despite big ad spending and a big win in the debates and impacted his ability to win the swing states. As Obama stated in his victory speech "The best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics...all of you are family."
Takeaway: Don't understimate the power of  deliberately designing your brand and culture so they are authentically one.

Sophisticated targeting using digital media - both e-mail and social.
Even sitting thousands of miles away in India I received regular personalized e-mail communications from the Obama campaign asking for small donations and support over the last couple of years. Even today, he first tweeted his gratitude to his followers before he has given any official statement to the press. I have already received a personalized email before he got on stage to deliver his acceptance speech. His team's ability to leverage digital to connect to each voter as an individual, even those in remote locations is the reason why he was able to not only hold onto democrat strongholds (i.e. Blue States) but also ensure early victories in swing states by reaching young first time voters, minorities and women as individuals vs. treating them as segments. This was a man to man/woman to woman/neighbor to neighbor campaign. 
Takeaway: Understanding your target audience as individual allows you to build a more loyal, engaged install base and also systematically acquire new supporters.

This was not a campaign, but a system of engagement with citizens, who happen to vote every four years. Team Obama has been engaging citizens in a dialogue throughout the first term. The election wasn't the reason he started this communication campaign, the dialogue had started long before and will continue long after the election is over. Voters, whether they agree or disagree with Obama's policies, at least felt he was listening and was transparent.  As he said in his victory speech: "Whether I have earned your vote or not, I have listened to you so that I can become a better President". That earned him the right to reach out to his followers to ask for votes and donations because it was a natural and logical extension of the conversation and not an out of context request.
Takeaway: Create a system of engagement (vs. ad hoc engagement campaigns) to maximize value at every touchpoint. Brands have to first give and be willing to listen before they earn the right to ask.

These three imperatives continue to make more and more sense to me as I apply them to my profession. I am looking forward to hearing examples from 30 leading brands tomorrow from across the country on how they apply these imperatives in their industry context. Even if you aren't attending, do leave a comment with your perspective!

A Leo's Guide to Marathon Training and Brand Management

My birthday is coming up and my gift to myself this year is completing my first half marathon (Delhi, September 30th). I am super excited! I am benefiting from the experience and expertise of my runner friends who have helped me put a good training plan together, which is a combination of discipline through a schedule and injury prevention techniques. Much like managing a brand isn't it? Here are parallels I see:

1. Compete only with yourself, enjoy the training process and do not fix any time target for the race.
Great brands are built over time for the long run (no pun intended).  Brand visibility and buzz through big ATL spends and sponsorships may seem like high impact for new brands but what matters more is brand relevance. When your brand is owned by your customers, as it now is in the social/digital world, you can't set build a new brand successfully using a stopwatch or by being louder than the rest.


2. Run 4 days a week with a mix of easy, moderate and long runs.
When I first started training I thought I needed to run as much as I could, as long as i could, as fast as I could, until I got too tired, or until the park closed. I was obviously wrong! Faster, longer, higher may work for the Olympics but for brands to win marathons, they need to have a strong foundation.

• Your easy runs (typical running speed) are your brand quality differentiators. You must have your basic hygiene in place around your brand identity and everything looks like, sounds like, performs like, IS your brand. 
• Your moderate runs (faster, where you need to pay a little more attention to your running) make sure you are well aligned internally across your employees and functions to represent and deliver a consistent brand promise (Over time your moderate pace will become your race pace and this tempo will become BAU across the business).
• Your long runs (start with 8km then build up to 16km on the last week of training) are like 360 degree campaigns, which you roll out after comprehensive planning, testing and collaboration across the disciplines and its important that these "mini runs" are successful to give the business confidence in your ability to roll out the BIG ticket campaign of the year - the actual race. 

3. Stretch your muscles properly before you start and once you finish.
Usually one is so eager to go to just start running, the idea of warm up stretches seems arduous, doesn't it? Much like testing campaigns. You work so hard to create the campaign that you are just eager to roll it out, but A-B testing matters and helps. It makes the campaign go the distance. Also once you finish your run, you really just want to hop in the shower and move on with the rest of your day. Likewise with campaigns, you have to take the time to do a post campaign deep dive on lessons learned, best practices instead of quickly moving onto the next thing.

4. Be very careful about niggles and pains. If any pains surface, deal with them before they become an injury!
Brand managers ignore negative social sentiment at their own risk.  Most brands aren't unsure about how to deal with negative tweets, blogposts or comments because the mentality is as long as its not negative press, it will blow over. These can easily blow up before they know it and cause permanent injuries to the brand  in the long run. 

5. Once you hit 20km a week, check if your shoes are in good shape.
Shoes are like your IT infrastructure. On the surface, all shoes look the same but really many companies do not have robust, scalable IT infrastructure to support campaigns loads. websites crash, applications don't work on various mobile platforms, data security breaches are just the few challenges that happen when you have outdated, worn out IT infrastructure. We have seen this happen right here with Spicejet's anniversary campaign which I recently blogged about. Also ready my post on how CMOs and CIOs need to work closely together to execute initiatives like Smarter Commerce and Social Business and the rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist, a topic I am particularly passionate about. 

This was fun! If you are a runner and a marketeer, do share your marathon tips and the parallels you see between marketing and brand management!

Marathon training tips courtesy Srini Vooruvakili, the most enthusiastic runner I have ever met who really convinced me that human beings are born to run! Thank you Srini!