Marketing is all around you, and the experts are not necessarily where you may think they are - at advertising agencies, consumer product giants, or even walking the hallowed halls of top B-schools. Some of the best marketing experts are those people who have the toughest products to sell - themselves and their ideas. Who are these people? Our elected officials, of course.
OK, we're certainly not the first ones to point out that politicians are media savvy, and know how to play to an audience. Nor has it previously gone unnoticed that political advertising has become among the most slick and persuasive there is. What we're suggesting here is that our top elected officials are not just great at marketing themselves on election day, but design fairly impressive marketing plans for their ideas as well. Not only do these plans hold muster against the basic principles of marketing, but they're robust, too. (Don't know what makes a marketing plan robust? Take a look at our tutorial on the subject to improve your own marketing expertise).
A recent top news story demonstrates this fact fairly well: our President's marketing of his tax cut plan. That is, enact tax relief to help consumers deal with high energy prices. Let's take a look at his plan step-by-step following basic marketing principles any fresh-faced MBA should know by heart. Apparently George W attended a few of his classes at Yale, after all.
Step One: Understand your customer
What does your customer care about? What do they really want and need? Some people mistakenly believe that marketing is about convincing people to want what you are selling. It is not possible to convince someone to want something they don't (just try to convince a child - or George, Sr. - that they want to eat broccoli). The goal of marketing messages is, more accurately, to persuade the customer that what you have matches what they want. (Marketers sell Ovalteen to children based on the fact it tastes like chocolate, not that it has all the nutrients of broccoli). Simply put, the features your product has provide the benefits your customer wants. (More on this here).
Dubya gets this: "I am deeply concerned about consumers. I'm deeply concerned about high gas prices." He knows what consumers want-relief at the pump, and now: "If I had my way, I'd have it in place tomorrow, so that people would have money in their pockets to deal with high energy prices." Since Dubya wants to lower taxes (not gas prices), he must convince consumers that what he has (tax relief) is what they want (lower gas prices). His marketing message is simple - 'spend the money you would have on taxes at the gas pump.'
Step Two: Understand Your Company
Knowing what your customers want is not enough. Are you capable of delivering to them what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and at the price they want? And why can you do these things any better than anyone else?
Dubya has these answers, too. Fortunately, the economy is in a slump-providing the President with an environment of lessened opposition to lowering taxes. So he can deliver it. Tax reduction means less money is taken out of your paycheck. So the consumer has to do nothing, and the extra money will be there - there's not much better than that. So he can deliver it how they want it. From the quote above, Dubya wants tax relief "tomorrow." Well, that takes care of when they want it. And the price? Giving money to your customers is always a pretty sure bet. Check that one off, too.
Step Three: Understand Your Competition
Can a competitor beat you to the street? Offer lower prices? Better service? Provide features that more closely match the benefits sought by your customers? George W has the lock on these as well.
Energy prices are not coming down anytime soon, so even if tax relief doesn't come "tomorrow," he's still safe. Not many prices are lower than "we'll give YOU money." Service? Well, OK, the IRS isn't exactly as quick and hassle-free as Amazon.com, but since the deal is they'll take less of your money in the first place, that's still pretty good service. As for the last one, it is possible that the energy companies would increase supply/lower their prices (which does more closely match what the customers really want). But with Dubya in office why would they do a silly thing like that? Especially if he is giving consumers the money to pay their higher prices-not only is the President giving his customers what they want, but he's giving his "competitors" (wink, wink) what they want too. Everybody wins!
So George W Bush has a fairly solid marketing analysis to back up his plan. And his execution looks to be well oiled as well (Texas is, after all, the land of oil & executions). The product gives customers what they want, when they want it and how they want it. The price is perfect. As for promotion, he's the President of the United States-people listen to whatever he has to say. And what distribution could be easier than letting people keep something they already have?
Ok, basic marketing principles paint his tax relief for gas relief plan a winner. But what about that key determinant of a marketing plan's success noted above: robustness? Is Dubya's plan robust? If any of the assumptions upon which he's based his marketing plan turn out not to be true will his plan still be a good one? Let's evaluate a few:
Dubya's assumptions gone awry:
· Gas prices don't continue to rise. If this doesn't happen his plan is still a good one-people can spend the money on something else (how about some Texas beef?).
· Supplies of energy increase. Same answer (and his friends still make money, just via volume rather than high prices).
· Conservation works. This seems rather unlikely, as it hasn't worked yet, and summer hasn't even begun. Nonetheless, if it does then consumers can spend the extra dough on an ice cream cone to keep them cool on hot summer nights.
· The economy improves. More jobs, better pay, more vacation time & tax money to spend getting to Hawaii.
Sounds robust to us.
So it would appear the President is a bit of a marketing whiz himself. His tax relief for gas relief plan appears a well-researched, well-executed, and robust marketing plan. Something we could all learn a bit from.
