A few months ago we posted a Blog on the employment of marketing techniques used by Donald Trump to contest the American Presidential Election. The blog explained how the use of a well thought out marketing strategy would connect Trump to the American voters. Now that the race is over and Donald Trump has won, we are following up with our previous blog post to reflect on his successful activities and how he deployed them to win the Presidency.
Donald Trump employed a number of classical marketing techniques in his campaign and they are detailed below.
- Know your market and how to influence it. Trump (team) had done their homework and exploited the anger and frustration that many Americans had with the current Government, Politicians and the overall Washington establishment. Trump knew the frustrations voters had and he built his campaign to address them.
- He established his “TRUMP” Brand quickly and differentiated himself from other Republicans and Hillary Clinton – Trump became the outsider- the “Anti- Candidate”.
- Donald Trump focused on the key issues affecting Americans – Jobs, Immigration, Security and Obamacare.
- Trump had a single focused message that connected with voters. He would “Make America Great Again” and he never strayed from that message. There was never a doubt about what Trump wanted to do.
- Trump made his “Brand” the leader in the race and he always highlighted the difference between himself and Hillary Clinton.
- Donald Trump totally dominated the media environment. You could not turn on a TV, read a newspaper or be on a computer and not see news on Donald Trump. Most of this media exposure was Free! Trump’s connection to voters was unprecedented! He was on all the major media outlets daily. He spent a minimal amount on paid media compared to Hillary Clinton who spent millions of dollars buying TV commercials. Trump probably had the most “cost efficient” campaign of all time!
What we witnessed was a textbook lesson on how to run a marketing program. This phenomenal marketing campaign touched Americans like no other political campaign in decades. Donald Trump deployed proven marketing techniques that have been used by many great Brands over the years and it worked!
In contrast to the campaign run by Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton’s was all over the map. She came into the election with a lot of baggage and was unable to change or improve her perception amongst the American voters. Hillary Clinton’s marketing campaign did not create much enthusiasm and she changed her campaign themes several times. Hillary Clinton did not have a clear message to voters and on the main issues, she was either defensive or did not establish a strong position.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign and overall messaging was not connecting with the American voters who were angry with the established politicians and overall Washington establishment, and the voters identified Hillary as part of those groups.
Trump’s campaign stayed on message. Donald Trump never changed his slogan, “Make America Great Again” and he repeated it over and over. Trump demonstrated the use and manipulation of media to his advantage and his use of both digital and social media was outstanding. Trump’s use of earned media is an example to all marketers of how it should be done. Despite bad publicity from a number of interviews, events etc., Donald Trump was able to overcome them by constantly pivoting back to his main message to “Make America Great Again“!
This campaign will be remembered for many things, the divisiveness, many insults, lack of clear policies and the general antagonistic feelings from both candidates. It probably won’t be remembered for the great marketing program that Donald Trump ran, but in the end, it played an essential role in winning him the White House!
