The ups and downs of a campaign

As I write this, the political campaigning of recent weeks is drawing to a close and the UK is about to vote for the next Prime Minister. The TV debates are over for now and the battle buses are presumably parked up somewhere as the support teams take a well-earned rest.

The campaigns have been tiring enough for the public who have been the recipients of so much messaging and so much targeted hype. But, what of the protagonists – what have they learnt from the process before some of them rush onto the next stage? Does a political campaign have useful parallels with a marketing campaign and can we learn anything from studying the way our politicians behaved during the campaign?

In a nutshell, I would say a resounding yes to all of the above. Which of is going to forget the bacon sandwich incident, the Green Party brain-freeze or expressions like “pumped-up” and “hell yeah”? OK, in business we don’t have the luxury often of appearing on national TV to get our message across and most of don’t command a budget the size of a political party. But we are often waging a campaign to raise awareness of who we are and what we stand for. Every time we open our mouths before a client or engage in a dialogue with the object of persuading a client to opt for us, we are on exactly the same path.

So, in my humble opinion, we would do well to heed the lessons of the past few weeks. Perhaps, like me, you cringed every time you heard the expression “pumped-up” or winced when a politician struck a note which was not authentically their own. Maybe you hid behind the sofa when you saw a “life-time supporter” of a well-known football team simply forget what they were called.

Yes, it’s good to identify with your target audience and talk about subjects likely to be of interest and relevance but remember to be honest if you want to be credible.  As we’ve seen time and time again just recently, if you are faking it, there’s a good chance you will be caught out. As I suspect some of our politicians are about to find out, it may well be simply impossible to come back from such a position of having been exposed!

But just in case you think this is just an exercise in politician bashing, I would pay them all a massive compliment for harnessing meticulous planning and prodigious quantities of energy. Surely these are two absolute prerequisites for any business campaign. Having sown the seeds, it is absolutely vital that you have the resources and energy to harvest your results. If you go after a target market you will like as not provoke a reaction – be ready to deal with the tiger you will be holding by the tail!

Be ready for the long run. Whether you’re a politician or a business person, I think you’ll you’re your personal equivalent to marathon training to be very useful.