Strategy: What The 2008 Election Showed US
Now that the great race is finally over, I am thrilled that I lived to see what was previously unimaginable: An African-American candidate overwhelmingly elected President of the United States. Not as a protest or grievance candidate but as iconic symbol for change, with wide spread across the fabric of American society. This monumental achievement was in no small part made responsible by the truly brilliant strategic planning and the tactical campaigning of President-elect Barack Obama. No future presidential candidate will ever run a campaign the same way as a result of the Obama win. This should be a harbinger of sound thinking process, cerebral approaches and hopefully better decisions borne out of improved judgment from past mistakes. Taking chances means making mistakes. This is what I see as strategic development that won an election. BAD TIMES = BETTER CHANCES: Tapping into a national, across-the-board mood of anger and unhappiness, Obama’s brand embodied not only change, but more importantly hope, vision, challenging the status quo and then upsetting it like we’ve never seen before. The message was consistent, continuous, and coherent. Tap into the vein of meaning, need and relevance and people will buy what you are selling. DEFINE, Don’t Be Defined: Obama’s team managed and ran access to the candidate unlike any other Presidential candidate before. This came under a great deal of attack from the media, but what it did was important because it succeeded in Obama being able to manage the electorate’s perception of him, regardless of the press’ attempts to takeover how the voters saw him… Not since Presidents John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan has image been such a force of nature responsible for carrying a candidate in to the White House. Obama is almost a cult of personality. PERCEPTIONS: More Important Than Reality During the debates in September and October while the economy was crumbling all around us, neither candidate stepped up… FOR MORE VISIT: WWW.12POINTTYPE.COM
