Obama Essay

obama

This essay is term paper that I completed in the first semester of 4th year for the Marketing Leadership module at the University of Limerick.

Date: 29/10/2015
Word Count: 2894

AN ANALYSIS OF THE DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY OF BARACK OBAMA’s 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

                                                                                                            

INTRODUCTION

In November of 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American to become the president of the United States of America. Obama beat his main competitor, Senator John McCain, in what turned out to be a decisive victory for the Democratic Party. The campaign raised a record amount of monetary contributions, totalling more than $770 million, surpassing the sum garnered by all the presidential candidates four years earlier (Seidman, 2010).

Before running for Presidency, McCain had been a Senator for 21 years and in comparison, Obama had only been a Senator for 3 years. On paper McCain had a more prolific record as a politician and one of the ways Obama was able to overcome this disadvantage was through clever marketing tactics.

Obama’s marketing team was spearheaded by Obama’s Chief Strategist, David Axelrod, and the digital marketing that ‘’Team Obama’’ introduced was groundbreaking. Obama was the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand (Seidman, 2010). In terms of marketing terminology; Obama is the product, the positive changes that he brings are the features and benefits of the product and the ways in which these changes affect voters positively is the generated consumer value.

An analysis of Obama’s digital marketing strategy can only take place with an understanding of the cultural, economic and technological states of America leading up to the Presidential campaign. It is important to consider the external factors that would have influenced the decision making of the marketing team. Once the necessary contextual information is outlined, this article explores the digital marketing campaign that ‘’Team Obama’’ employed in relation to the channels of communication and promotional tactics that were used. After the main strategies of the campaign are discussed, the analysis of the campaign begins. The three main marketing sections that are covered in the analyses are: the segmentation strategy, the brand strategy & the marketing communication strategy. These sections of the marketing plan were deemed to be critical to Obama’s digital marketing campaign.

CONTEXT OF THE CAMPAIGN

Before the presidential campaign commenced, extensive market research was carried out by Obama’s marketing team. There was a definite realisation that this Presidential Campaign should be specifically tailored to fit into the context of the current situation in the country. Vast consumer research was used to see what the candidate should say and do (Zavattaro, 2010). Just like any modern business or organisation, a (Political, Economic, Social & Technological) PEST analyses was completed in order to build a foundation of knowledge that would indicate the most appropriate course of action to take in 2008.

Recent technological developments had created many opportunities for digital marketing (Canhoto, Clarke & Fennemore, 2013). At the time of the campaign, we had just entered the ‘’2.0 phase of analytics’’ and it became clear to ‘’Team Obama’’ that the use technology could play a major role in this campaign. ‘’Team Obama’’ realised that the current wave of digital technologies was fundamentally changing consumer behaviour (Belk 2014), and because of this, their marketing campaign’s use of new technologies was noteworthy (Seidman, 2010).

The marketing team had to consider some major social issues such as ‘’gay rights’’ and ‘’the war in Iraq’’. These controversial social issues would have to be handled with great delicacy by Obama. The television commercials eventually launched by Obama’s team negated much of these issues in order to evoke a positive image of Obama for as many Americans as possible.

In Political marketing the party or candidate’s use of opinion research and environmental analysis to produce and promote a competitive offering can assist in earning votes (Wring, 1997). Obama considered the external environment as context to build his campaign. The research that shaped his campaign the most was Obama’s gamble on the American youth. From 1972 (the year that 18-20 year olds were first given a right to vote) until 2000, youth turnout rates were decreasing every year, with the exception of 1992. (Alexandrova, 2010). Despite the fact that young people were increasingly becoming disengaged with politics, Obama choose to specifically target this group of voters. He took a huge leap of faith on the power that technology could play in connecting the youth with his progressive political movement.

THE DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

The slogan “Yes We Can” was the foundation of Obama’s digital marketing campaign. He wanted to get the people of America on his side and to build a community of loyal followers. The plan was to build a community of people that envisioned a brighter future for America and a change from the woes of the past. This powerful slogan was coupled with a unique logo that evoked messages and feelings consistent with the themes of the campaign. A design team led by Sol Sender developed the logo, after being asked to come up with “something different” that embodied the campaign’s themes of “hope” and “change you can believe in” (Seidman, 2010). Once the themes of the campaign had been designed and the slogan and logo had been introduced, the next step was to begin spreading the messages of the campaign.

Digital marketing was to be at the forefront of the marketing campaign. Obama opted to use modern forms of communication to capture the attention of the young audience he was targeting. This new media communication strategy helped Obama to embrace young voters. Interestingly, this strategy was prompted by the youth themselves, who organized a ‘’Facebook’’ group “Students for Barack Obama” in 2006, even before he announced his candidacy. The ‘’Facebook’’ group had amassed 250,000 members without any effort from the side of the campaign (Alexandrova, 2010). This was another reassuring sign for Obama’s marketing team that young people had found a new platform from which to engage with politics and that this should be utilized.

One social media outlet that was used quite frequently by Obama was ‘’Twitter’’. One of the benefits of this social media platform is that a large number of people can be reached due to the snowball effect of ‘’re-tweeting’’. ‘’Twitter’’ users can republish other users’ in the form of a ‘’re-tweet’’. Recent research suggests social influence has a compounding effect on social networks.  This means that you are much more likely to endorse a behaviour on ‘’Twitter’’ if you have multiple friends who have endorsed that behaviour (O’Sullivan et al., 2015). When others respond with a comment or a ‘’retweet’’, they’re adding value to your collection of published content (Belk 2014).  Barack Obama’s ‘’twitter’’ account ‘’@BarackObama’’, gained over 10 million followers during the run up to the election. The aim of using ‘’twitter’’ as a form of communication was to lure in followers by engaging in popular culture while at the same to pushing the president’s political and social agendas.

Another channel of communication that was utilized in Team Obama’s bid to utilize new forms of media was their use of the content sharing site, ‘’YouTube’’. The rise of ‘’YouTube’’ was particularly dramatic. In the beginning of February 2007, for the first time in history, ‘’YouTube’’ gathered more Internet visits than all of the television network websites combined (Alexandrova, 2010). Obama’s marketing team strategically placed him on popular talk shows such as Jimmy Fallon’s ‘’tonight show’’ which was hugely popular with American audiences. After these talk shows were aired, they were then uploaded to ‘’YouTube’’, allowing Obama to deliver messages to millions of Americans.

A medium of communication employed by the Obama’s marketing team amidst the shift towards contemporary communication was to use of the Online Website, ‘’BarackObama.com’’. Online advertising technologies profoundly enhance marketers’ ability to tailor advertising to a consumer’s specific context (Rayport 2013). By signing up on the Obama Web site, people could receive campaign updates and notices about events on their cell phones (Seidman 2010). All of these updates and notices were specifically tailored to individuals using an analytical analysis of the data collected by ‘’BarackObama.com’’. Obama’s Web site witnessed almost 100 million video views, compared to JohnMccain.com’s 25 million views (Seidman, 2010). ‘’BarackObama.com’’ disseminated campaign messages and enforced the candidate’s brand.

Infomercials were another form of digital communication that was used to promote Obama’s campaign and build the Obama brand. A record $75m was spent on television commercials alone (Pilger, 2009). Infomercials are usually produced either to create a problem for an opponent or to solve a problem for a client. In this instance, the majority of the infomercials were produced to solve the perceived problems of Obama’s somewhat unclear, multinational heritage and doubts about his “patriotism’’ (Seidman, 2010). The pictures in the infomercials visually emphasized the candidate’s connection to the heartland of America and to middle-class. The images included undulating wheat; prairie scenery; waving flags; a man in a cowboy hat; children of several races; an older military veteran (Seidman ,2010).

The insertion of a campaign ad into video games was an unusual case of “product” placement that ‘’Team Obama’’ employed. This unprecedented form of digital marketing optimised Obama’s attempt to grab the attention of the young voters of America. The large emphases that Obama’s marketing team put on digital marketing was a first for a Presidential campaign and allowed him to effectively communicate with young voters.
ASSESSMENT OF THE DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

SEGMENTATION STRATEGY

The practice of grouping customers – segmentation – is well established in marketing theory and practice (Canhoto, Clarke & Fennemore, 2013). Despite the success of the digital marketing campaign, I still feel that there were certain aspects of the marketing segmentation strategy that could have been improved on. For instance, the Marketing segmentation strategy failed to meet the requirements of the older generation and as a result this category of voters voted for his opponent, McCain. It is clear from the voting polls that Obama’s expanded support did not extend to all age groups, McCain won the support of 58% of voters aged 65 and over (Creamer, 2008). Although it must be pointed out that McCain’s vast experience in politics may have been a reason to attract the vote of the older generation, I think that Obama’s decision to communicate with voters predominantly online and with social media meant that the older weren’t communicated with effectively. This could have been avoided if the older generation were communicated with via traditional channels of communication such as radio and television.

Despite the shortcomings in the voting’s from the older generation, the overall segmentation strategy was very successful and the votes of the crucial target market identified as the younger generation were secured as planned. The attractiveness of each segment depended on the potential to secure votes and whether the needs of each segment were aligned with the vision of the campaign. Team Obama correctly predicted that the segment of young voters would be the most valuable segment to target due to the increase in technology and the vision of the campaign.

The Campaign team managed to segment the voters under the core bases of geographics, demographics and psychographics which was paramount in order to meet to needs of each voter in the most targeted way possible. As Rawthorn (2008) details, Obama would subtly change and craft his brand depending upon the audience.  The digital marketing was crucially not geared towards campaign policies and structural change, but geared to what it will do for the individual voter.

BRAND STRATEGY

The Brand image that Barack Obama managed to generate was remarkable. The identity of the brand incorporated the themes of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ as well as Obama’s strong personality. Obama was a principled, inspiring, patriotic, informed, unifying, moderate, exciting, and “cool” candidate whom everyone could support with enthusiasm and hope for the future. This targeted segment of voters, aged 18-29, gave Obama the largest percentage (66 percent) achieved for this group since exit polling commenced in 1972; – (Seidman, 2010) as the brand values were created and delivered with that key group of voters in mind.

Successful brand management most certainly played an important role in winning the campaign. For a candidate or a political party, the brand that is revealed in posters and other media, is characterized by visual imagery that is usually simple, powerful, and appealing (Seidman, 2010). The powerful branding that was exemplified in the campaign worked so well that it managed to turn Obama into a commodity. Obama now has an image that can be bought or sold (as we saw after his election when the myriad buttons, pins, shirts, and other fanfare were on sale throughout the world) (Zavattaro, 2010). This counters Newman’s, (1994) argument that a candidate is not marketed like a product but, rather, as a service provider.

There were, however, some downsides to the Brand Obama that were most likely unforeseen by the skilled marketing team that created brand Obama.  As a productized brand, the president became a simulation for a leader. His messages were designed and constructed in such a refined manner that at times the brand seemed fabricated and unreal. An example that typifies this unnaturalness was his constant use of teleprompters when speaking to audiences. On several occasions during his 2008 Presidential campaign, the teleprompters malfunctioned and Obama appeared to be incoherent and forgetful. This was picked up by the media and subsequently tarnished his reputation. This slip into hyper reality could be precarious. If, for example, future campaigns employ the Brand Obama model, perpetual presidents will feed into the simulation of an ideal image rather than an ideal leader (Zavattaro , 2010).

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

At the time of Obama’s campaign, the marketing team realised that communicating to the voters through the medium of digital technology would be imperative. Overall this strategy worked very effectively in securing Obama the victory. The messages of hope and change were disseminated effectively to the targeted audiences. The embrace of social media is exactly what the ‘’Web 2.0’’ generation wanted and needed (Rawthorn, 2008). Obama set out to win the vote of young voters and that’s exactly what he achieved. It was a targeted use of marketing research – go where the people are, to sell a product. The people, in this ‘’Web 2.0’’ world, were moving to social media (Zavattaro, 2010). Almost 60 percent of under-30 registered voters visited candidate Websites, social-networking sites, or blogs in 2008 (Smith, 2009). Given the fact in 2008 Millennials would represent 18% of voters and outweigh seniors as a voting group (16%), it could have been reasonable to treat them as an influential and crucial electorate (Alexandrova, 2010).

Obama is a very gifted orator and his ability to communicate messages and connect with his audience was remarkable. The credit for his accomplishments, at least in part, can perhaps be attributed to the visual literacy of Obama’s campaign staff and to “a remarkably well-designed visual, verbal and written message that did not lurch from idea to idea’’ (Seidman, 2010). The message of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ were communicated consistently through various digital channels. As well as that, viewing of online political video material by registered voters tripled from that of four years earlier (Seidman, 2010). In comparison to Obama’s campaign, the new media strategies of Obama’s main opponents, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, were ineffective, and failed to harness the power of communities and user activities (Alexandrova, 2010).

Despite the success of the Marketing communications strategy, I feel as though the team failed to connect with older people in a way that they could have. There are methods of digital marketing that appeal to older audiences such as radio and television advertisements. I think that call’s to action using these communication channels would have connected with an older audience in a more meaningful way. However, overall, it must be said that Obama’s marketing communications strategy was hugely successful.

CLOSING

Obama’s 2008 digital marketing campaign for presidency was highly successful, Obama managed to create a powerful brand, segmented and targeted the correct voters and communicated with them effectively through the most suitable channels. The Obama campaign was deemed so masterful that it was voted the Marketer of the Year Award in October 2008 by advertising professionals gathered at the National Advertisers’ annual conference. The campaign beat out Apple, Zappos, Nike, Coors, and the campaign of Obama’s Republican opponent, John McCain, in that order (Creamer, 2008).

All of Obama’s efforts to promote his brand were aided, endorsed and reinforced by his supporters online and although there were some minor setbacks, the innovative digital marketing that was exemplified by ‘’Team Obama’’ allowed for his powerful messages to prevail. After reviewing the literature on the effects of political advertisements, it is clear that “people vote for the candidate who elicits the right feelings, not the candidate who presents the best arguments’’ (Seidman, 2010). It became apparent that this political campaign was unusual in that many supporters viewed it as the promotion of a cause, not just one to elevate a candidate to higher office. (Seidman, 2010).

Engaging with the young people of America was a bold strategy; however, based on the big shift towards new technological platforms taking place in 2008, it was justified. The innovative use of new technologies undoubtedly aided Barack Obama in his contest for The White House in 2008 (Seidman, 2010). Make no mistake about it; the Marketing team behind Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign were a team of highly skilled and knowledgeable marketers who utilized the power of digital marketing to great effect.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexandrova, E. (2010) ’Using New Media Effectively: An Analysis Of Barack Obama’s Election Campaign Aimed At Young Americans’, unpublished thesis, (M.A.), Fordham University.

Belk, R. (2014). ‘Extended Self in a Digital World’. Journal of Consumer Research. 40 (3), 477-500.

Canhoto, A.I., Clark, M., & Fennemore, P. (2013). ‘Emerging segmentation practices in the age of the social customer’. Journal of Strategic Marketing [online], 21 (5), 413-428, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2013.801609 [accessed 20 Oct 2015].

Creamer, M. (2008). ‘Obama Wins! Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year’. [online], available: http://adage.com/article/moy-2008/obama-wins-ad-age-s-marketer-year/131810/ [accessed 28th Oct 2015].

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Rawthorn, A. (2008) ‘Brand Obama, a leader in the image war’, The New York Times [online] 28 Oct, available: www.nytimes. com/2008/04/04/arts/04iht-design7.html [accessed 24 Oct 2015].

Rayport, J. (2013) ‘Advertising’s New Medium: Human Experience’, The Harvard Business Review [online] 28 Oct, available: https://hbr.org/2013/03/advertisings-new-medium-human-experience [accessed 24 Oct 2015].

Seidman, S. (2010) ‘Barack Obama’s 2008 Campaign for the U.S. Presidency and Visual Design’. Journal of Visual Literacy. 29, 1-27.

Smith, A. (2009) ‘The internet’s Role in Campaign 2008’, Pew Research Centre [online] 27 Oct, available: http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/04/15/the-internets-role-in-campaign-2008/ [accessed 23 Oct 2015].

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Zavattaro, S. (2010) ‘Brand Obama: The Implications of a Branded President’ Journal of Administrative Theory & Praxis, 32 (1) 123-128.

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