How to market Ron Paul 101
I have a marketing minor and dusted off some of my text books to get this information. Marketing can apply to anything including products, services personalities, celebrities, and politicians. While we are all creative and have our own ideas about how to get Ron Paul’s name out there, there are indeed some hard and fast, tried and true rules to marketing that we should keep in mind.
First off you want to:
Get Attention, hold Interest, create Desire, produce Action. (AIDA)
This is done by:
- Informing voters that Ron Paul exists
- Reminding voters that Ron Paul exists
- Persuading voters to investigate/vote for Ron Paul
- Building a relationship with voters
These actions result in voter:
1) Awareness (repetitive branding – see below)
2) Knowledge (disseminate information)
3) Desire (create favorable feelings)
4) Self-research
5) Loyalty – ongoing communication
6) Their vote
Ways for us to get Ron Paul out in front of people:
- News reports (considered by voters to be most accurate)
- Word of mouth (most effective)
- Entertainment shows (TV/radio)
- Celebrity endorsements
- Internet (we’ve got this one covered ha ha)
- Paid Advertisements (electronic/print/outdoor)
ADVERTISING:
Types of advertisement formats:
- Comparative (RP vs other)
- Demonstration or showing action
- Testimonial
- Dramatization (slice of life)
- Lifestyle/bandwagon “everyone’s voting for RP”
- Fear appeal “Hillary will win if you don’t vote for RP”
- Humorous appeal
- Problem/solution “Taxes are too high, RP will do something about it”
- Reasons ‘why to vote for RP’
All purposeful dialog must include:
- Recourse
- Recognition
- Responsiveness
- Respect
Anytime advertising is attempted there are metrics to keep in mind:
Reach - how many voters will see the ad at any one time
Frequency - how often the ad is seen
CPM – cost per 1 thousand people to get the message out (m is the Roman numeral for 1,000). For example, a radio ad might have a CPM of $10 whereas a TV ad might have a CPM of $20. Obviously in this case the radio ad is more cost-effective because it reaches the greatest number of people with the least amount of money. Each medium is different and should be explored to get the most bang for your buck with the lowest CPM.
The best ads of course have the widest reach with the highest frequency and the lowest CPM.
SEGMENTING + TARGETING:
- The audience should be segmented based upon individuals’ needs, wants, desires
- Those segments should be targeted individually for maximum impact
Segments are usually based upon:
Behavior/lifestyle
Demographics
Ethnicity
Geodemographic
Psychographic
Age/life stage
Political Affiliation
Defining the segments involves market research (random phone surveys).
Name Recognition and Branding:
“"Name recognition is a concept used in politics to describe number of people who are aware of a politician. It is considered an important factor in elections, as candidates with low name recognition are unlikely to receive votes from people who only casually follow politics.
Name recognition is also considered a major obstacle for challengers hoping to defeat incumbents. The fact that they are already in office, and have usually already won an election, gives incumbents an inherent name recognition advantage over most challengers." - Wikipedia
“"the most important ingredient to winning any campaign is name recognition-" - unknown
While spreading the name of Ron Paul we need to:
- project credibility
- strike an emotional chord
- give voters a compelling reason to vote for Ron Paul
- ask for their vote
Any slogans, catch-phrases, logos, graphics, etc used should:
- be easy to pronounce
- be easy to remember
- be easy to recognize
- attract attention
- suggest unique proposition
- distinguish Ron Paul's position relative to the competition
People often reduce a candidate’s identity to names, logos, and other associated words, graphics, videos, or soundbites. These marks do become inseparable from the candidate over time, and when seen or heard they elicit specific thoughts about him or her. But it is those thoughts that represent the true identity of the candidate. The branding experts call it mindshare or “top of mind awareness” and is the most valuable piece of real estate in the mind of the voter. The names, logos, and other brand associations of a candidate with strong identities eventually elicit clear and consistent positive thoughts in the minds of the receptive public. When this positive mindshare leads to affiliation, action, and support, a candidate gains brand equity and builds a brand community.
Brand marketing, or branding, creates or solidifies name recognition
Branding is not about getting voters to choose RP over the competition. Branding is about getting voters to see Ron Paul as the only solution to their problems. Branding is not about Ron Paul. Branding is about the voters!
Ever since the spread of books, memorization became less important and the process of rhyming, in the same way, has gradually fallen out of favor. We all remember in one way or another the nursery rhymes we were told as children. In today's memory management courses, for instance, they tell you to use rhymes and word association. Rhyming is pleasing to the ear and, beyond ease-of-recall, it also tends to adds credibility. “I like Ike” is a perfect example.
CONCLUSION AND CALL TO ACTION:
It’s going to be an uphill battle. Here in Tennessee our primary is Feb 5th. That gives us November, December, and January. That's 90 days
Here are my thoughts on this:
November: PROS – money is not tied up in holiday marketing and spending. CONS - few voters are paying close attention to the election yet
December: CONS - lots of marketing dollars are being spent which makes penetrating through to the voters very difficult; most individuals are not thinking about politics; individuals have money tied up in the holidays.
January: PROS - voters will be paying more attention to election. There are less recreational activities in January to distract voters. Advertising is very inexpensive in January due to low demand. CONS - many supporters will have blown all of their available cash on the holidays.
In all honesty I consider December a wash. That means we have ONLY 60 days!
I suggest all of the Meetups begin to purchase local advertising. DO NOT WAIT ON THE CAMPAIGN. They are swamped and can barely return calls or e-mails. WE MUST DO THIS OURSELVES! Take the initiative to get Ron Paul elected. If WE don’t do this ourselves, then Fred will win the primary and Hillary will be President.
We MUST get the phrase “Ron Paul for President” out there to as many voters as possible. The goal is 3 impressions of that phrase via 3 different mediums within 72 hours of each other. That will produce a 30-50% response. If you determine your reach and frequency over a specific geographic area, then you can calculate based on these numbers how many new people were exposed to Ron Paul.
When we promoted the Nashville Rally on Oct 6th here is what we paid:
A local 100,000 watt FM talk station (carries Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage):
Morning drive times were $45 per :30
Evening drive times were $75 per :30
Overnights were only $1 per :30.
(if anyone needs me to record a radio commercial, I would be happy to do that for them – I have a studio available for that sort of thing)
TV advertising:
I spoke with a small business locally who told me they had a television commercial on Comcast the local cable provider. They said it was free to shoot the commercial, and it runs several times a week for $1200-$1500 month. I am investigating this further, you should contact your local cable provider to investigate rates in your area.
The MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the entire campaign at this point is name recognition to those voting in the primary with the ultimate goal of earning their vote for Ron Paul. Nothing else matters.
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Originally Posted by kylejack
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