You should follow the elections to witness the greatest campaign in the marketing industry. Candidates are able to raise and invest millions, even billions, of dollars to attain a common goal: getting the public to choose their “product”.
Lessons of the Past
Team Obama was responsible for running what was not just the best political campaign in US history but also the best marketing campaign in history, fours years ago. Millions of passionate citizens adopted the responsibility to use word of mouth and become loyal, unpaid advocates for the campaign. This is, no doubt, every marketer’s dream. Social networks combined perfectly with these peer-to-peer efforts, and the campaign, supported by Blue State Digital, was successful in harnessing the power of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and blogs to promote peer-to-peer advocacy.
Marketers and corporate executive read about the effective use of social media by the campaign and began searching for some lessons in marketing. However, these CMOs, CEOs and other marketers came across the wrong lesson by believing that the social platforms and networks were similar to magic bullets and that gaining likes, impressions and followers would translate into improved sales. What they failed to learn from the campaign is that it is important to form enthusiastic brand loyalists who will be able to translate this enthusiasm into actual social marketing.
Significant Marketing Strategies in ‘12
In 2012, Micah Sifry noted that social media was no longer relevant in 2012; it had become a new entertainment fad. Team Obama again proved in ’12 that it had what it takes to push the limits of the marketing industry by recognizing four major trends that are important lessens for corporate marketers:
- America was no longer the same due to the shift in demographics. For the first time in the history of the US, non-white babies outnumbered white infants in 2011. Even though several corporations claim to possess diversity marketing groups, the senior executives need to pay proper attention to understanding the different target communities along with the ways they need to adapt their market approach in order to succeed in such an altered landscape.
- Big data is key to marketing success. Smart marketers should use tools of big data to track each interaction with customers so that every touch point remains recorded and coordinated. Customers should be custom targeted depending on previous complaints, purchases and interests.
- Local marketing is essential. National corporations should provide appropriate autonomy to local offices so that they are able to cater to the demands of local communities.
- The most powerful form of marketing is peer-to-peer. Marketers should realize that the main challenge is not to gain social media followers or even to sign people up for special offers. Rather, they need to form passionate loyalists of the brand and then motivate them to advertise the brand to their peer groups.
