Marketing Acumen: The Donald
IT marketing needs to be strategic and use all the resources at its disposal. It needs to be creative; it needs to connect with people on a base level— just like the new president, Donald Trump.
You may or may not like Donald Trump. But you’d be ignorant to totally disregard his exceptional ability to utilize the mainstream media to his advantage— even as they were publicly against him. For or against Trump, one must acknowledge his acumen piloting the media machine. The most recent presidential election had enough mud slung to build a brick industrial complex in an antiquated Egyptian suburb. There was so much mud thrown about that it was hard to see what was going on. The Don adapted, and how did he do that? Well, he hit on something everyone could relate to immediately and remember with simplicity— something higher than the mud.
Today’s world is fast. Between smartphones, the Internet, fast transportation, and Twitter, everyone today expects instantaneous service. They don’t’ have time to research. They don’t have time to sit down with two options and carefully weigh the pros and cons. Well, actually, they do have time— but they’re not going to use that time, because everything today is so fast. Trump understood this fundamental aspect of humanity in the modern age. So, he created a 1-2 punch that totally utilized it. Think to yourself: what was the Trump slogan? You know it without even reading the line: “Make America Great Again.” Then he followed that up with “Drain the Swamp”. What makes these two simple slogans so effective?
Fundamental Truth
Progressive or not, people in America understand there’s something fundamentally wrong with the country that transcends basic politics. When you can’t cut down a tree in your own backyard without getting a permit, when you have to pay a 10-cent tax for a plastic sack in a California grocery store, when the price of gas rivals your monthly rent every couple of weeks, and when after working overtime four weeks a month you barely have enough to eat healthy, it doesn’t matter your political affiliation. Suddenly, you know in your bones that something isn’t right.
Bernie Sanders appealed to the more leftist sector who recognized this truth. The fact is, in 2016, everybody needed some kind of positive change. But Bernie didn’t have a 1-2 punch. What was his slogan? Does anyone remember? How about Clinton’s? You can do a Google search if you like, but neither of what these opposing candidates— Trump’s business competition— had to say resonated with the American people. “Make America Great Again” did appeal. “Drain the Swamp” was a three-word abbreviation pertaining to the current president’s in-office strategy. How do we get things how they were? Get rid of the muddy quagmire choking operations. These two slogans completely communicated his entire campaign and approach to office in seven words. Your IT marketing campaign should be so strategic!
Chew the Meat, Spit Out the Bones
You don’t have to swallow gristle and bone to get the nutrition of solid meat. Whether you think Trump’s ideals are bone or meat or not, it’s wise to acknowledge that there’s some sustenance to his strategy. If you want to nourish your MSP, you want to look at successful individuals like this, find where the “meat” of their strategy is, and ingest that while ignoring the bone. You don’t have to love Obama to see why he made it into office initially: he had a similar campaign strategy with a one-two punch. “Yes we can,” and “Change you can believe in.” Trump essentially used that information and inverted it for his own constituency. You, as an IT marketing firm, can do the same. To condense the strategy:
• Have a digestible slogan, read: BRIEF
• Incorporate a twofold approach
• Communicate your company’s core provision
• Emphasize a known reality— a truth— pertaining to your target market
• Adapt to a hostile, competitive environment
You may not have all the concerted effort of America’s media machine parsing through your entire life to find things worthy of criticism, but you will have competitors. Know your enemy, know your clientele, and find victory in those simple marketing ideals which emphasize an understood reality.
