Selling Brand Obama: ‘Grow volume by 150%’
By DONNA BOGATIN • Apr 11th, 2008 • Category: CONFERENCE CIRCUITVeteran Hillary Clinton proudly hails she is “in it to win it,” but so is newcomer rival Barack Obama’s key polling strategist, Joel Benenson.
How does Benenson’s self-declared “underdog” candidate for the highest office in the land best the “dominant category leader”? By doing what any “new brand” would do to rapidly “grow volume by 150%“, the head of his namesake Benenson Strategy Group shared in a luncheon keynote at the Advertising Research Foundation’s conference last week in New York City.
The success of the Obama candidacy has “sent shock waves through the political establishment,” according to Obama’s pollster. Moreover, political shock and awe was at the heart of Obama’s political presidential campaign strategy. An ultimate two-candidate democratic primary race was also in the Obama strategic game plan.
Hoping to clinch a democratic victory, Benenson is currently green lighting millions in TV and radio commercials to woo Pennsylvania democrats to his man, over the leading woman there. Just as consumer marketers position their product pitches according to target buyers’ psychographic traits, the selling of Barack Obama on the airwaves entails crafting a message that will resonate with desired voters.
Benenson Strategy Group’s own positioning is that of “a consulting firm, not a polling factory,” hailing “new and creative approaches to assess underlying attitudes and beliefs of target audiences.” Benenson’s tactics offered to political candidates are the same ones corporate brands tap: Strategic market research, message testing, positioning, bench marketing, tracking studies, focus groups, in-depth interviews, satisfaction research.
Benenson’s crossover services seek to develop “sustainable strategies for persuading consumers and voters…(to) help clients win elections, launch new products and beat back competitive challenges.” Benenson’s core Obama challenge was to successfully exploit “a tremendous growth potential relative to the other candidates”:
Imagine launching a new brand or product and going up against a well-known category leader: You need to grow volume by 150%, with12 months to do it. That’s where we were when Barack Obama announced he was running.
Benenson is consulted on Obama big media buys and employs traditional dial groups, one-on-one interviews, and A/B testing to hone the messaging. If polling results indicate the Obama ads are not sufficiently selling voters, commercials are reworked to better achieve voter traction.
Obama apparently only says “yes we can,” if his polling strategist says he can.
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DONNA BOGATIN is the Founder & CEO of STARTUP ALPHA
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