I have signed up to get emails from a number of presidential candidates, and I’ve noticed something lately about the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Strategy: Branding is a Candidate’s Best Friend
While other candidates like John Edwards are focus on election-losing issues like universal healthcare, Clinton is branding herself as the “Roadmap out of Iraq” candidate. Her team gets this part. Pick the hottest topic possible, and be the leading opposition on the issue. Bush gets criticized for having not plan. “Roadmap” is exactly the opposite. Iraq has created some seriously heated debated in this country. “Out of Iraq” addresses that. Her team gets it. Tell the same message about the hottest issue again, and again and again, and tell it the same way. Email, video, etc… Tell it the same way. Now, I’m not saying other issues aren’t important, I’m saying there are election-losing issues that a candidate can address later - once he or she is in office.
Tactics: They Work When Used Correctly
While I still think some of her followers were not using their brains (actually, I called them morons), I still think that her communications team is one of the best. That email I mentioned used almost the exact wording of a video she recently posted. They get it. Tell it again and again, and tell it the same way. (See video here) See email below.
Hillary. Take a lesson from the Obama team and allow bloggers to post your videos directly on their blog. You know that crazy thing YouTube does.
5 comments ↓
Her team gets this part. Pick the hottest topic possible, and be the leading opposition on the issue.
This is why I think so many people disconnect themselves from politics. When politicians use PR campaigns, pithy slogans without meaning, and base their agenda and decisions on focus groups and poll statistics, they lose the trust of the people they claim to serve.
Amen Connor. It\’s one reason I don\’t like politics and part of the reason I\’m writing about it. I want to shed some light on how it\’s more about marketing the best candidate and less about actual qualification . . . as sad as that is.
I agree fully. I think Hillary’s race, on the surface, is an easy win, but, unless she only wants to be a candidate and not a White House resident, she can’t make a mistake. Too much against her as it is.
Barack Obama is no dumb chicken, though. A good lawyer knows the jury needs to be impressed, and he’s on it.
Branding, Manipulation, Voting, Obama and Iraq: How We Vote Becomes How He Runs
The best, most real, most globally secure plan for exiting Iraq is the winner, I think too. John Kerry let to much be vague and lost. Clinton won’t be so foolish.
“Hillcast”???
[...] I believe it’s a sad day in the United States when we jump to support a candidate who is “likeable” or has a “plan,” yet we don’t take the time to study his or her character and the principles by which they make decisions. [...]
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