Obama lessons for Lankan marketers

Just imagine a marketing budget investment on two brands exceeding a value of 6,000 million dollars to get into the most powerful seat in the world; the most cutting-edge strategies may have come into play. I believe this is exactly what team Obama did at the 2012 Presidential elections.

It will be interesting to carve out the key strategies that tipped the scales to brand Obama especially because the 2012 edition of the US election was up by almost 700 million dollars as against the 2008 edition which further adds to nostalgia of this piece of history in 2012.

 2013 – tough year

Whilst examining some of the Obama lessons to Sri Lanka, we must keep in mind that 2013 will be a very challenging year back home in Sri Lankan given the liquidity cut in the market place that has reduced the buying power of traders whilst modern trade is up in arms with the 12% VAT imposed in the 2013 Budget, which will come to effect from 1 January.

On a separate note, the standoff between the Legislative and the Executive has driven the whole country to focus on a totally non value adding activity in the backdrop of a ballooning trade gap of almost nine billion dollars with exports declining by double digit, gives us a snapshot of the uphill road ahead in 2013.

Importance of Obama lessons

Some of us learn by watching the success and failures of others, whilst it is said that only a fool wants to experience everything and make one’s own decisions. They learn from others. I am not sure which of this ethos is right but with just one billion dollars spent in just six weeks of consumer engagement one cannot expect a marketing hiatus than this. Let me capture the top 10 for Sri Lanka.

Obama lesson 1: Talk straight

The 2012 elections in the US were marred by guerrilla marketing tactics just to get voter share of mind. But I also noticed that the straight-talking candidate got a higher share of voice on the media and access to people’s minds. The only issue in this strategy is that people will like you or dislike you. But these are the decisions that made brand Obama cut through the clutter in the last few days that went on to secure a 50% share in the market place to the Romney 48.1%. It could not have got closer than this.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: The implications to Sri Lankan marketers is that, if were to examine last Sunday’s advertising either on the press or TV medium, we see that most do not convey a single-minded idea. They have at least three to four messages in one single ad. This needs to be corrected taking the learnings from the Obama campaign.

If I am to single out a brand that does this really well is one of my favourite brands – Marmite. The strap line ‘One Either Loves it Or One Hates It’ forces the consumer to take a decision if they are in or out to consuming the product due to its unique taste. This is the cutting edge brand marketing that is called for, in today’s over-communicated world.

In my experience of hands-on marketing, I feel it is not only the single-minded message only but the power of the proposition that calls for a specific action that makes the Marmite brand stand out. Let me term this the first Obama lesson for Sri Lankan marketers.

Obama lesson 2: Be there on the field

Whilst billions of dollars were spent on media, the cutting edge was the ground end consumer engagements that both brands indulged in. Especially the last few days in the swing states the brands outsmarted each other in the itinerary, so that the last word in people’s minds was theirs. If we do a deep dive, Obama had more field officers than Romney, which tells you how important distribution is in the overall game of marketing.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: Based on my experience, Sri Lanka is essentially a distribution game. The brands that have a stronger distribution in depth and width together with a better rapport with the dealer will edge out when a consumer walks into a retail outlet. The doctor to a housewife when it comes to buying products to the mudalali who is in a sarong and may be a t-shirt who toils the day from 6 a.m. to almost 9 p.m. in the night, that’s his first home by the way and if a company respects this and works around this, your brands will score. Arrogance to the trade and fat advertising budgets is only a sure recipe for failure.

Obama lesson 3: Importance of PACE

Tough to accept but everything is immediate and everything is viral now. When Romney made a slip by saying that majority of Americans live on the state, it just went viral that no PR agency could do damage control. Obama on the other hand had its fair share of mistakes but when it mattered it sure used PACE to his advantage. The tweet he sent as soon as he gave his acceptance speech, the victory tweet “Four more years” by President Obama was shared 400,000 times within a few hours.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: The implication to Sri Lankan marketers is that we have to accept that every consumer is a journalist now. If one messes up a consumer engagement let’s say in a restaurant, whilst the customer is yet having the meal it will be on FB or Tweeted to thousands, which will kill your business. Hence, PACE is the next marketing mix element that must be in the brand plan of 2013. The best example to me was the fast action of Munchee when the melamine scare hit the market some years back. The only reason the brand fought back was because of the quick action by the marketing team and also because they tracked the consumer behaviour via research like the gains and loss analysis. To me this was marketing action at its best that can be linked to Obama Lesson 3.

Obama lesson 4: TV ads yet work

Whilst there is a major hype on viral media that includes search engines, My Space, FB, Twitter and Four Square, the thing that really made a impact to impacting behaviour in the Obama campaign were the Videos on YouTube. The lesson is that it sure has an impact to brand value building and appealing to the emotions of a consumer. Hulu, a tracking company, recently announced that online video spending was up 700% in the 2012 edition of the US elections.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: I guess the lesson is clear. Whilst viral media can keep the brand salience and top of the mind recall, real brand building is via traditional TV advertising. This is where values of a brand gets rubbed off on a potential consumer that leads to the brand value picking up. This cements the binding between a consumer and brand. If I may take a Sri Lankan example, the Ginger Beer advertising campaign of ‘No food No EGB’ orchestrated a bonding that resulted in the arch age brand that was consumers by senior citizens moving to a younger audience and a more sustainable proposition.

Obama lesson 5: Competitor attacks

The negative advertising by Obama and Romney was at its peak, this time around. In the last four months alone the negative advertising accounted for 63.1% of the monies spent. Latest research coming out states that it really turned voters away from a candidate rather than moved them closer. The logic is that a consumer of today in more informed and they like a two-sided message but not to be influenced to take a decision. Some even stayed away from voting.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: When the competition gets really hot, especially in the insurance industry of Sri Lanka, negative attacks on competitors are rampant. This does more damage to the brand than actually winning a customer. Sometimes in the short-term you can win a customer but it has been proven in the long-term they are not sustainable customers. Some call this ‘swing consumers’ or ‘multiple brand users’. Drive towards sole users and working on expanding this base with sharp marketing ploys than spending that money on attacking competitors.

Obama lesson 6: Testing

This is something really strange but the Obama team used to video every single campaign meeting and every time there was a strong uproar to a comment that President Obama made, they turned this into an advertising campaign. The testing ground was the campaign speech.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: This is not a mind-blowing idea as many companies use this technique. But if this can be formalised in a company and documented, then it can be a very good source for campaign planning. For instance, a brand like Necto can check reactions of kids at social situations and then incorporate same to the next advertising campaign.

Obama lesson 7: Niches

I guess the campaign planners had no options but focus on the niche markets of African Americans, Latinos, gays, youth and women, who were termed minorities. Whilst the age old strategy when marketing a mass marketing brand is to focus on the bigger number and stay consistent with them, brand Obama beautifully architecture the niches. He changed his product to cater to niches. For instance, the immigrants supported Obama with a block vote of 62% from Hispanics given that he changed the Immigration Bill. He got the Ohio vote mainly by supporting the automobile rescue package.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: Whilst mass market brands focus on the larger target group, it’s important that brands target niche segments of the market. The best case in point was a mass market brand like Sunlight chased after niche segments and doubled its yearly revenue.

Obama lesson 8: Do things

If one analyses the Obama campaign, the President always asked the voters to do things. Phone, vote, donate, visit, tweet or FB something that made the brand a very actionable brand. There was always something happening. Youngsters between 19-29 years believed in the Obama brand, then Romney for this fact. They tend to like his personality which was action-centric. This group between 18-29 years worth to be 44 million votes actually tipped the scale on Election Day.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: Be an action brand is the simple message. This does not have be fat advertising budget but mainly micro marketing programs. Analyse your sales weekly. See the territories that are performing well and those that are slacking. Visit the sales rep and work with him on a route. Have a poster run or a cycle operation. Maybe a Pola campaign. Be a brand that is action-centric.

Obama lesson 9: God

Let’s accept it; hurricane Sandy swung in favour of brand Obama. He was able to demonstrate that he could swiftly change strategy if it was required and that is exactly what the President did – regular press updates, visits to disaster zones, correcting the power issues, etc.

Sri Lankan marketer 2013: Don’t just do CSR but spend quality time to do good. Spend some time helping youngsters to be better than you. Play foster parent if required. This is non media activity and time consuming but God will support you.

(The author is an award winning marketer and business personality who has a double degree in Marketing, MBA. He is Black Belt Karateka and is an alumni of Harvard University, Boston. Rohantha serves the United Nations (UNOPS) as the Head of National Portfolio Development – Sri Lanka and Maldives.)