No Politics Here, Just Business

What do presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have in common with everyday marketers? Simple marketing.

This year's presidential election has rewritten the rules of political campaigning. Never have candidates been more digitally in-touch with voters--through blogs, e-mails, phone calls and even text messaging.

In the past couple of months, there's been a back and forth tug between both Senators in the robo-call war. Senator McCain launched a campaign using the telemarketing technique of automated phone calls and recorded messages to question Senator Obama on several issues. In turn, Senator Obama responded with a couple robo-calls of his own.

But let's forget politics, just for a second (considering tonight is the election). This is strictly business. Studies show that these automated robo-calls, while cheap and easy, do little to sway voters.

It's the oxymoron of technology all over again: easy to proliferate but not necessarily the most effective. Incorporating technology removes the face-to-face personal touch of marketing. Yet with times as bleak as these, technology has opened new streams of communication with customers at relatively low prices—it's more with less.

But at what point do you sacrifice quality for mass distribution? Marketers, and especially presidential hopefuls, cannot afford to lose a costumer or a voter.

So when everything seems to be thrusting you forward—the force of technology, the drop of the market and the high stakes of the presidency—sometimes it’='s about taking a look back and remembering your cause. The people. It's about combining the wizardry and gadgetry of technology with personalization, and tailoring it to your costumers. And Senator Obama's use of text messaging in this campaign seems to have done just that. 

Studies show that efforts to get out the vote through text messages win one out of every 25 people. E-mails and robo-calls on the other hand had no significant effects.

Test messages are both cost efficient, about six cents each (Donald Green and Alan Gerber report in Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout), automated (there's the token technology), and personalized (they show up on those little devices you carry around as your life support all day). It's the perfect touch of intimacy synchronized with the efficiency of digital communication. And text messages, unlike e-mails and Internet advertisements, are still read and are a constant reminder literally at your side.

Marketers should heed this relevant, clear example of using technology to your advantage, by blending innovation with customer wants and needs.

Maybe the presidential hopefuls know a thing or two about marketing and have more than just politics up their sleeves.

Comments

[joe click make money]

Well done I especially liked where you said...Maybe the presidential hopefuls know a thing or two about marketing and have more than just politics up their sleeves.We all know the out come now. But they did use Good marketing strategies.
Great job Thanks,
Joe.