Barack Obamas Political Marketing Strategy

Barack Obamas Political Marketing dodgingvictimization a country of your choice as an exemplar, tyro only in everyy evaluate if or how semi governmental merchandise has been utilize in governmental hunting expeditioning or governmental communicationHilary Clinton began her ladder for the democratic nomination in cc8 in pole position she was by further the near recognizable name, already had a core block of support at the grass-roots take aim and from the commencement ceremony she had portal to the greatest pecuniary resource. Yet it was the young and inexperienced Afri mountain-American senator for Illinois who began his vex as a relative unkn receive who secured the nomination. This es cite intends to examine how the Barack Obama police squad utilised political market in clubhouse to win the manage. Specifically, we leave analyse three crucial factors of Barack Obamas political selling strategy. first off it will be armyn that by embracing the concept o f online amicable profiting the Obama be bowl overn greatly increased its ability to reach aside to and connect with his supporters. This produced a wide range of positive results, from increased grass-roots mobilization to great levels of fiscal support. Next we will demonstrate that the info mining methods employ by the Obama team to profile supporters gave the take the field greater efficiency, both in identifying potential electors and maximizing fund rise opportunities. The third critical element of Barack Obamas political marketing will be shown to be the way in which he was brand his was the most professional, ordered and aesthetically cohesive branding effort, with a typical heart and soul that gave him a clear demarcation from his rivals. In short this essay will argue that these three strategies the concept of social ne bothrking, the extensive selective selective information mining and the professional branding of Obama all served to play a decisive rol e in his victory and provide important, nevertheless seminal, less(prenominal)ons for future political marketing strategies.Marc Ambinder (2008) argues that Americas politics have regularly been transform by sudden changes in the way we communicate and he goes onto to show how past professorships have embraced previous communication revolutions Lincoln exploited the wave in the pertlyspaper industry, Roosevelts radio-broadcast fireside chats enabled him to speak directly to the American mickle, whilst Kennedys assured performance against a less than comfortable Nixon in the first televised Presidential debate in American political tarradiddle helped win the White House. They all understood and exploited these unfermented media transgress than their opponents. Todays newest media is of course the mesh and Barack Obamas compact for the 2008 Democratic nomination has attempted to fully utilise the cyberspace for political marketing purposes. Whilst using the web to reach come in to the electorate, raise feat coin and another(prenominal)wise such(prenominal) activities is nothing new witness the success of Howard doyen during the 2004 Democratic movement what made this campaign unique was the joining up of disparate new-media strands into a general array of services. The Obama team embraced the concept of internet social networking, as exemplified by sites such as MySpace and Facebook, to a item that was unsurpassed by any other vista. So keen were they to co-ordinated the social networking phenomenon they hired Chris Hughes, one of the original put upers of Facebook (Stelter, 2008). The big idea to come nearly from this was that Barack Obamas internet presence should go further than merely having a website which detailed policies, provided news program, allowed donations and so on preferably there should be a network of inter-linked services and tools that enabled supporters to interact with one another and form a virtual community. At the heart of this was the site My.BarackObama.com which acted as a hub for Obama supporters, allowing them to network at a local anaesthetic level with other supporters. In virtual(a) terms this meant the establishment of fund-raising events, the mobilization of activists at the micro-level in order to put forward people to do the groundwork of distri neverthelessing leaflets and knocking on doors. Although the site was set up by Obamas campaign team, once set up it became self-perpetuating fundraisers were creation organized at the ground level, with little or no fundamental interaction or involvement from upon high. My.BarackObama.com went further than a standard campaign website, which unremarkably allows the politician to connect with their own supporters. Whilst such an approach can be termed as a sort of vertical, or top push down communication, My.BarackObama.com facilitated crosswise communication, that is to say that it allowed Barack Obamas supports to communica te with each other, as well as cosmos able to participate in the campaign.. For a expectation such as Obama this new method of engaging with the overt via new media presented him as part of the zeitgeist, as next generation just as magic trick F. Kennedy was seen as the first President to be of the 20th Century so Obama is seen as the candidate that outstrip reflects the 21st Century. Aside from all the implicit in(p) practical benefits, the adoption of internet social networking methods in any case dovetailed neatly with Obamas wider political message of self-empowerment. soce, the man himself has made this connection, declaring that the qualities that best described his campaign openness and transparency and participation were ones that merged perfectly with the Internet (cited in Cohen, 2008). In fact we could go as faraway as to say that, in terms of Obamas use of internet-based social networking, the medium is the message My.BarackObama.com is significant not becaus e it details radical policy proposals that rather because of the way in which it facilitates communication and allows for greater interaction and collaborative change participation. In other words, its actual message is not what significant only when rather the way in which knowledge is conveyed and the symbiotic relationship that is make as a result. For example, just the very fact the Barack Obama was au fait with entanglement 2.0 ideas and trends such as social networking distinguished him from his rivals.The aforementioned Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook who joined the Obama team, ensured that My.BarackObama.com stuck to the founding principles that has made Facebook so popular and effective despite being a large national-based service, it was organized on a local level so users would interact with those in their genuine-life communities (Stelter, 2008). An Obama supporter in, say, a suburb of Rhode Island, could interact with other in his/her real-life co mmunity, events could be organized, they could meet up if they so wished. Indeed any(prenominal) such social events were arranged in one example Obama supporters put oned together at each others abide to watch a live webcast of their candidates speech (Kantor, 2007). just the online strategy was instaurationed not merely to facilitate the social lives of Obama supporters but rather to improve grass-roots organisation, as Joe Rospars, Obamas online director explains Weve tried to eastern United States the tools less as a social network and unt venerable as a mobilization network. Were creating opportunities for people to get out there and do things, the campaign is election-outcome oriented (cited in Stelter, 2008). The practical benefits of adopting the concept of social networking soon became apparent. The New York Times reported that in some primary and foregather states, volunteers utilise the Internet to outgrowth organizing themselves months before the campaign st aff arrived(Stelter, 2008). The real gains of Obamas new media strategy however can be counted in dollars and cents in April 2008, as the campaign entered a crucial stage, Obamas teams brocaded $31m, whilst Hilary Clinton managed $20m (Sullivan, 2008). This gave Obama $38m for the remainder of his campaign, whilst Hilary $6m for hers (Sullivan, 2008). Such figures should not fool the reader into thinking that Hilary Clintons fundraising efforts were in some way ineffective far from it, as peter Leyden of the think-tank New Politics Institute explainsWhats amazing is that Hillary built the best campaign that has ever been through in Democratic politics on the old model she raised more(prenominal) money than anyone before her, she locked down all the party stalwarts, she assembled an all-star team of consultants and she really mastered this top-down, command-and-control type of outfit. And even shes getting beaten by this political start-up that is essentially a totally different model of the new politics (cited in Sullivan, 2008)This new model was partly influenced by recent changes in the U.S. in laws pertaining to campaign funding. Due to concerns that massive donations by big business to campaign coffers could potentially cause a conflict of interest once a candidate was in office, the maximum amount allow for an individual donation was particular(a) to $2,000 ($2,300 for the 2008 election). This shifted the emphasis away from the courting of wealthy donors towards attempts to encourage individuals to get their friends, family members and so on to also contribute the maximum donation. This strategy was the one which enable George W. crotch hair to amass the enormous sums spent on his Presidential bid, through and through the means of fundraising events and dinners, in which attendees paid considerable sums to rub shoulders with the candidate themselves (Sullivan, 2008). However, Obamas team use of social networking led to two significant consequences in relation to campaign finance. Firstly, social networking raised fundraising events by the grass roots supporters themselves, with no input from the candidate necessary. Secondly, rather than seek the maximum $2,300 from each individual, Obamas team realized that a greater number of smaller donations meant a higher overall contribution. Of the $31m raised by Obamain April 2008, almost all of it came from online donors (Sullivan, 2008) and 94% came in donations of $200 or less (Sullivan, 2008). In comparison, 26% of Hilary Clintons donations and 13% of John McCains were under $200 (Green, 2008). allow us be clear the amount that Barack Obama has raised online is unprecedented. Howard Dean was feted for raising $27 million online in 2004. So far, Obama has raised just about $200 million (Green, 2008).A great example of how the snowballing effect of social networking worked to pee donations for Barack Obama is given(p) by Joe Erwin (2008A friend I know, whos an Independent vote r and who had never made an online campaign contribution, recently went online and donated $50 to the Obama campaign. Within two minutes she received a give thanks-you for the contribution and an acknowledgement that someone in Ohio had matched her contribution as a way of also saying thank you. Two minutes after that, she received another e-mail from the campaign conducting if she, too, would be willing to match the $50 contribution of a new donor, and whether her e-mail lecture could be shared so that the new donor could thank her for her match. You get the picture.The tactic of asking supporters just to give a little was inspired. Not only did it deliver a massive number of donors over two million (Stelter, 2008). but as the vast majority did not contribute the maximum amount, Obama was able to continue to ask them for another little donation date and time again as his campaign went on. Furthermore, such a request is one that he can make again once the Presidential race aga inst McCain begins in earnest. As The Times declares, This is a money machine un like any other (Sullivan, 2008).Obamas method of online fundraising meant that it minimized the amount of time he actually had to be present at events and dinners. In February 2008 the Obama campaign raised $55m ($45m from the internet) without Barack Obama personally hosting a ace fundraiser (Sullivan, 2008). thither are always multiple demands on a candidates time during a campaign, so the opportunity to spend less time trying to sweet talk people into emptying their wallets and purses and more on working on policy, speeches and suchlike is invaluable. Not only were the demands on the candidates time lessened but the campaign team soon found that fundraising events were springing up spontaneously, independent of any official involvement, as Andrew Sullivan (2008) explainsThis spring, many an(prenominal) friends who had never previously been interested in politics suddenly told me about their Obama fundraisers. I was stunned by their activism. No one had asked them. They were arranging the parties or performances or gatherings through Facebook and MySpace, without any formal leadership from Obama headquarters. Just as Obamas most famous web videos were never commissioned by the candidate they were created and disseminated spontaneously online so his fundraising began to take on a life of its ownThere is no question in my mind that this is the future of political organisation and fundraisingJoshua Green (2008) witnessed first hand how Obama supporters became empowered to get knotty in a meaningful way. Upon visiting the local Obama headquarters in Silicone Valley, Green found it to be jammed with volunteers who were listening to a Obama speech asking volunteers to phone wavering delegates in Iowa in order to try to get them to back him. Soon these volunteers did exactly that. The next day, Obama had gained nine delegates. What struck Green most about this episode was thattha t the headquarters is on the whole self-sufficientnot a dime has come from the Obama campaign. kinda, everything from the computers to the telephones to the doughnuts and coffeeeven the holdings rent and utilitiesis user-generated, arranged and paid for by local volunteers. It is one of several such examples across the country, and no other campaign has put together anything that can match this level of self-sufficiencyAs Obamas online director Joe Rospars states, the idea is to give them the tools and have them go out and do all this on their own (cited in Green, 2008)Another pellucid advantage to the social networking system was that it allowed the campaign team to amass a wide array of personal information regarding Obamas support. This data went far beyond the usual demographic indicators usually utilized in elections. The sequent data mining of the information allowed Obamas team to yet again maximize campaign contributions, as well as giving them a stronger, more organi zed presence at the grass-roots level. Upon visiting My.BarackObama.com you are prompted to any log-in to your account or sign up if you are not already an existing user. This means that, unlike with traditional candidate websites, to access the full range of services you must provide your email address as well as your zip code. Other personal information can also be volunteered. As a result of his internet presence Barack Obama has over five million people signed up to his email list (Madden, 2008). What is significant however is not how some(prenominal) data was available to Obamas people, but rather how it was use. After all, too much information can be overwhelming how this information was utilized, the way in which it was broken down and sliced up meant that the campaign could achieve greater efficiency and function in a much more slick manner. Targeting the right demographic is crucial, there is little point in burbly in money and time attempting to recruit voters who are b y disputation Clintonites (or in the forthcoming Presidential campaign, right-wing Republicans). By knowing a voters age, gender, race, household income, academic qualifications and suchlike, predicting who they are planning to vote for (or indeed if they are in all likelihood to vote at all) is made all the more easier.Not only did Obamas people collect data from their own supporters, they also used information that was already in the public domain, such as census records and voter registration records (Madden, 2008). Statistical parcel and market research tools used in the corporate domain were then used to isolate trends or common factors that indicated whether someone would be likely to vote Republican or Democrat, for Hilary or Obama. Whilst such research cannot secure to predict an individuals voting behaviour it does allow for more educated guesses. For example, Obamas campaign team would know that members of the American well-behaved Liberties Union would be more likely to vote for their candidate than members of the subject Rifle Association. This data mining process meant that time and money could be more efficiently targeted and channeled. In the Iowa caucus the Obama team used civilise tracking mechanisms to firstly identify supporters, then hold their support. Internet sources were used to build mailing lists based on political, professional and personal interests. To gather information o voters his team trawled social networking sites, and not just MySpace and Facebook but also more niche sites that catered for white collar professionals, baby boomers, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and the transsexual(prenominal) community (Slevin, P. Vargas, J.A., 2007)Data mining for political ends is nothing new. During the 2004 Election George W. Bush used consumer data to target potential new supporters (Madden, 2008). The Democrats used correspondent information to target wealthy donors (Madden, 2008). The difference with the Obama campaign i s that his team used far more detailed information in pursuit of far wider reaching aims. For Obamas people even information that may at first seem to have little or no relevance was utilized in order to accrue an advantage. The time at which people on the mailing list read the emails sent to them was monitored and if a consistent pattern emerged, they would always send them at that time of day. As Michael Bassik, a Democratic consultant with online advertising company MSHC Partners explains, the marginal benefit of direct some people an email at 2 oclock vs. 3 oclock vs. 4 oclock might not make sense at first but once you start getting an e-mail list thats 3 million, 4 million, or 10 million people, increasing the returns for a fundraising e-mail by 5 or 10 percent means additional returns of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars (cited in Madden, 2008). A user of My.BarackObama.com would have their usage tracked so it would be cognise how often they visited and when and thus their commitment to the campaign could be measured. all in all members nearly a million people (Stelter, 2008) were asked to complete a detailed postdate of their voting habits, previous contributions to political campaigns, the political groups and issues they care most about and if and when they visited church (Madden, 2008). All of this information was then collated in order to build a profile of an Obama supporter. This information was then put to use via traditional electioneering methods. Neighbourhoods in which the data showed the highest percentage of likely Obama supporters were extensively canvassed. This integration of old and new methods is what made Obamas data mining a success. Online information was joined up with offline data, everything became integrated, as the following example given by Andrew Sullivan (2008) showsObamas trademark mass ralliesarent just media draws. Everyone who treasured to get into the 75,000-strong tantalize in Portlandhad to provide an e-mail address. By the time they came home from the event, an e-mail was waiting for them, asking them for money or for referrals to other friends, and encouraging them to form affinity groups to spread the network wider and widerThe information gleaned from data mining was combined with the advantages of social networking by Obamas team when users of My.BarackObama.com were back up to help the campaign by canvassing in their own areas. They were supplied with information that told them which of their neighbours were most likely to vote Democrat and who in their area was registered as an independent voter (Stelter, 2008).The final key element of Barack Obamas political marketing strategy that we will discuss is branding. In his campaign Obama applied practices used for the branding of consumer products by corporate entities. He realized that soundbox was the watchword consistency of message and consistency in the way in which that message is delivered The use of consistent and exp ertly designed fonts, logos, slogans and web design prompted Newsweek to declare that Obama is the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand in a way that transcends the mere appropriation of mercantile tactics to achieve the sort of seamless brand identity that the most up-to-date companies strive for (Romano, 2008). Just as with much else of the campaign, the operation to create brand Obama was consistent and wide ranging. The online efforts were joined-up and synchronized with offline marketing. Obamas team again took what can be described as a holistic approach. All of the graphics were in the same typeface, the Gotham font. This is true of the website, placards, leaflets and other literature. At Obama rallies all non-homemade signs are in the same font, which, according to graphic designer and critic Michael Bierut, is a more impressive feat than one might initially imagine every single non-handmade sign is in that font. Every single one of the m. And theyre all perfectly spaced and perfectly arranged. Trust me. Ive done graphics for events and I know what it takes to have rally after rally without someone saying, Oh, we ran out of signs, lets do a batch in ArialTheres an rank(a) level of control that I have trouble achieving with my corporate clients(Romano, 2008). There were even occasions at rallies when supporters were requested to trade their home-made signs and placards for official Obama material so as to maintain the aesthetic cohesion (Brady, 2008). The typography used by Obama is significant for the message that it relays to us. His use of the Gotham font is fitting, as like the man himself it is a modern American creation. It was devised in 2002 for New Yorks public buildings (Romano, 2008 Heller, 2008 Brady, 2008). Experts in the field insist that it is assured, elegant, and plain-speaking (Brady, 2008), conversational and pleasant (cited in Romano, 2008) and substantial yet friendlyUp-to-date yet familiar (ci ted in Heller, 2008).Various experts have waxed lyrical abut their admiration for how consistent, comprehensive and professional Obamas branding campaign has been, whilst insisting that to successfully form such a huge, nation-wide branding effort in such a short and concentrated time-frame is something that even the major players in the corporate cosmos have not been capable of (Romano, 2008 Heller, 2008 Brady, 2008). As we have seen with the adoption of social networking, the Obama campaign was as comfortable in dealing with new media sources as well as traditional media outlets. His campaign was transmedia, he understood that many people, especially those in the younger demographic, no longer get their news and other information from solely the television, radio or printed word. Instead many diverse platforms are used websites, email, podcasts, mobiles phones and other such devices. Obamas branding strategy, along with the rest of his political marketing operation utilized all m edia forms to deliver a coherent message. Keith Reinhard of the major advertising agency DDB worldwide sees Obama as the ideal political product Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand. New, different, and attractive. Thats as good as it gets (cited in McGirt, 2008). His inspirational rhetoric, his ascertain of change, his idealism are his unique selling points, they differentiate him from the other candidates. The Yes We foot message appeals to the younger, perhaps more cynical and apathetic segment of the demographic, it resonates with an audience tired of negative campaigning and broken promises. His is a message in of inclusivity, of empowerment Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other timeWe are the foretaste of the future (cited in McGirt, 2008).In conclusion, Barack Obamas use of political marketing has been crucial in making him the Democrats choice to contest the 2008 election. The use of social networking strategies was perhaps the most impressive and important element. The Obama campaign exploited the new opportunities of social networking far better than any other. The Yes We groundwork attitude of his speeches took hold so strongly with his grass-roots support because the opportunities that new media provided for them to expire part of the campaign. Supporters were enabled to organise events and engage in political activism with minimal top-down management from the campaign team. The amount of money raised online, and the number of donors is unprecedented. Instead of reaching out to the wealthy elite and big business in the hope of large donations, Obamas fundraising methods have conclusively shown that greater funds can be gathered by receiving smaller donations in much higher amounts. The data mining used meant that targeting potential supporters was made easier and more efficient. Having better information on the political issues that voters were interested in also helped to maximise do nations and build support. The Obama brand achieved a remarkable level of consistency, professionalism and aesthetic cohesion and was delivered across a whole host of media, both old and new. His campaign, particularly the way in which the internet was utilised, could well signal a seismic shift in political marketing. Regardless of whether not he becomes President it seems almost certain that Barack Obama has changed the way politicians market themselves to the electorate.BibliographyAmbinder, M., 2008. HisSpace. Atlantic Monthly, JuneBrady, W., 2008. Obamas media campaign branding our consciousness. The Guardian, 10 JulyCohen, N., 2008. The Wiki-Way to the Nomination. The New York Times, 8 JuneErwin, J., 2008. How They Grew Brand Obama. Advertising Age, 27 Februaryinternet. usable from http//adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=125377cited 29/07/2008Green, J., 2008. The Amazing Money Machine. Atlantic Monthly, June Heller, S., 2008. To the letter Born. The New York Times, 2 A prilHeller, S., 2008. To the Letter Born. The New York Times, 2 AprilKator, J., 2007. Obamas Online Strategy Seeks Big Bonus From Small Turnout. The New York Times, 1 AprilMadden, M., 2008. Barack Obamas super marketing machine. 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Barack Obama is master of the new Facebook politics. The Times, 25 whitethorn