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HOW TO WIN #8: Darken the Most Doors

By Diff on September 19, 2011 in

Voters want to feel that you value them, individually. There is no better way to do so than to take time out of your day to knock on their doors. It’s that simple.

Despite how significant this simple task can be, most politicians hate it. From my experience, most politicians are introverts. The others are woefully over-confident. As such, the introverts are too shy to meet strangers and the extroverts are generally too confident to “waste time” knocking on doors. Both categories face enormous obstacles: themselves.

If you find yourself making excuses for why you cannot knock on doors today, you likely fall into one of these categories. Get over yourself. Get out there. Win votes.

Never underestimate the value of a candidate standing on someone’s doorstep. It provides an unparalleled opportunity for you to show voters how much you value them. Sending a staffer is good, but it does not have the same effect.

Think about it. If a candidate for your party’s presidential primary rang your doorbell, you would be very impressed. You would probably even vote for that candidate. If that same candidate’s staffer rang your doorbell, you would probably be impressed by the campaign’s management and maybe even the staffer, but you would not be directly impressed with the candidate. You wouldn’t necessarily feel a connection to the candidate or that the candidate values you as an individual. It’s too distant of a connection.

Free Advice:

  • Knock on doors every chance you get.
  • Skip the banquet and spend the evening meeting the neighbors. At the banquet, you will likely find only a few undecided voters. Your neighborhood, on the other hand, is probably filled with dozens or even hundreds of undecided voters.
  • If you cannot personally pound the pavement, instruct your staffers to use the following greeting: “Hi. My name is [staffer’s name]. [Your name] asked me to stop by and let you know about…” This lets the homeowner know that you – and not your staffer – are reaching out to them.
  • Don’t walk on the grass or through the shrubs.
  • Wear a pin to identify yourself as a candidate and not a salesperson or a Jehovah’s Witness.
  • Bring swag – not flyers. People love free stuff. Give them a branded keychain or a calendar magnet (with election day highlighted, of course). Your flyer will go right into the trash, but your cheap, branded, plastic sunglasses will live on for months. Also, don’t forget the kids and the pets, but avoid consumables.
  • Invest in hand-sanitizer, but never use it in pubic. A sick candidate is a useless candidate.
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HOW TO WIN #7: Hire an Outgoing Staff

By Diff on July 25, 2011 in

Policy wonks are great and all, but they do not win elections. Voters want outgoing, charming candidates with outgoing, charming staffs. So hire outgoing, charming people. Maybe some of their charisma will rub off on you.

Too often, I have seen candidates invest significant sums of money into hiring strategists, policy briefers, and consultants. These people may be brilliant troves of useless, obscure political information, but that’s not what you need to win votes. You need people who can confidently and naturally work a room.

The worst kinds of campaign staffers are those who do not proactively engage strangers. These people loiter in the background of political functions aimlessly pretending to be conducting urgent business on their BlackBerries. They become wallflowers at public events. Or, even worse, they latch onto other already-converted supporters and drag everyone into their bog of introversion.

An outgoing staffer is invaluable. Nothing wins votes like personal interactions. Someone who constantly pursues interactions with strangers has exactly what you need to win. She can singlehandedly secure your election for you. Experience and knowledge are great, but nothing trumps charisma.

Bottom line: If you are going to hire staff, hire an outgoing staff.

Free Advice:

  • When interviewing potential staffers, abandon them in a room of strangers. (Pretend you have to take a call.) Observe them from a distance, and see if they introduce themselves to anyone. If they don’t, don’t hire them.
  • Before hiring a staffer, see how many friends they have on Facebook. Anything less than 500 is not a good sign. Also check to see how many people respond to their Facebook activity. Make sure it is a healthy response.
  • Observe your staff at political functions. Count how many strangers they proactively engage. If you can keep an accurate count, they didn’t meet enough people. Fire them.
  • Staffers are really good at pretending to be busy. Test them. Give them one afternoon to raid a public area and see how many contacts they can make. If they don’t come back with some impressive results, reconsider their employment.
  • Take your staffers’ phones away from them prior to any public events. Don’t let them hide behind their texting.
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HOW TO WIN #6: Define “winning”

By Diff on June 21, 2011 in

Political campaigns aren’t just about winning the most votes. Successful politicians realize that their political brand can often benefit regardless of the outcome of a specific election or piece of legislation. Smart politicians often choose pursuits for reasons other than the final sum of the votes they can acquire. Successful politicians are always building their brand.

For the most obvious examples of this, let’s look at the 2008 presidential election.

Joe Biden never had a chance against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Nevertheless, Ol’ Joe managed to pull off a victory in the Democratic primary by branding himself as a seasoned pro and international relations guru. For those reasons alone, he got the second most important gig in American politics. Joe Biden won.

Hillary Clinton won in the same contest by branding herself as a tenacious and dependable political workhorse. She pulled the Clinton name out of the mire of crude punch lines and landed the role as U.S. Secretary of State. Today, her approval ratings are the highest they have ever been. Clinton won.

Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin both used the Republican primary to pull themselves out of relative obscurity and launch their forays into conservative punditry.  Huck and Palin both won.

Even Ron Paul pulled off a victory in 2008. Paul widened his base and became a money-raising machine, which helped him win re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. Paul won.

But not everyone wins.

John McCain is no more influential today than he was prior to 2008. If anything, his presidential campaign injured his political brand. Granted, he does now have an impressive new bullet point to add to his political resume. I guess it wasn’t a total loss.

In my home state of Tennessee, the 2010 gubernatorial election resulted in only two winners; Bill Haslam and Bill Gibbons. Haslam’s victory is obvious; he moved into the Governor’s mansion. Gibbons, who was a long-shot in the gubernatorial race before he dropped out prematurely, won by securing a promotion from Shelby County’s District Attorney General to become Haslam’s Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner.

Haslam’s Republican primary produced two losers; Zach Wamp and Ron Ramsey. Wamp lost both the gubernatorial race and his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ramsey lost the election but was able to return to his position as Tennessee’s Lieutenant Governor.

The primary election, however, was not the only thing these two gentlemen lost. Wamp and Ramsey also lost a tremendous opportunity to build their political brands. Had they rolled with the punches effectively, they could have used their heightened visibility to position themselves as leaders on any number of important issues. They could have secured great positions, book deals, media gigs, or founded issues-based PACs, lobbies, or non-profit organizations. In short, they should have built and leveraged their brand to become something more than what they were prior to entering the race. They didn’t. Perhaps they feel that they won moral or personal victories, but such are not the sorts of things that can be leveraged later in life.

Remember that the winners are not limited to the people with the most votes.

Free Advice:

  • In private, define what it will mean for you to “win.” If you would be happy with starting a radio show or a PAC or being appointed to a lower office, keep that in mind. As in any good negotiation, don’t tip your hand and don’t let anyone know what you would “settle” for.
  • As in business, compile a list of potential exit strategies. In the same way that not every business needs an IPO to be wildly successful, not every politician needs to win his or her election.
  • Pursue all options. Elections are fickle and the right person doesn’t always win, so keep all options on the table. For instance, if one of your exit strategies is to launch a career in punditry, don’t piss off all the local media outlets during your campaign. If you want to start a charitable non-profit, don’t alienate potential donors in your community.
  • Always build your brand. Never think that you should compromise your brand for the sake of winning an election. If you do, you will likely lose both. There are plenty of elections, but you only have one brand. So, if the campaign isn’t going your way, use your heightened visibility to do some political branding.
  • Surround yourself with winners (Charlie Sheen does not count). Don’t pick your staff and inner circle based solely on who has won the most votes. Identify people who were able to win in every situation regardless of the vote totals. If they were able to build lasting brands while also winning votes, all the better.
  • Keep your ego in check. Winners don’t always win and losers don’t always lose, so don’t take it personal. Don’t let your emotions kill your brand.
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HOW TO WIN #5: Steal the show

By Diff on June 14, 2011 in

Last night’s New Hampshire GOP presidential primary debate was about as exciting as the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. With few exceptions, the candidates seemed to be spending the entire night politely auditioning to be another candidate’s VP pick. The results of this snorefest were largely predictable. With one exception…

Michele Bachmann stole the show.

Bachmann’s answers were typical (for her) but not outstanding. Her presentation was good but not breathtaking. Bachmann’s ideas: Satisfactory but not revolutionary.

Bachmann stole the show by pulling a surprisingly simple publicity stunt; she announced her candidacy. The simplicity of this tactic is brilliant and so obvious that no one else thought to do it. Think about it; a participant in a presidential debate announcing that she is running for president should be a non-starter. But it wasn’t.

By announcing her candidacy at the debate, Bachmann was able to ensure that she would leave the night with a positive headline for her campaign. Regardless of how she actually performed in the debate, Bachmann guaranteed that she wouldn’t be relegated to only a brief mention in the media’s coverage of the event. The night’s prize was the media’s attention. Bachmann won the prize in the first 30 seconds of her performance.

Stealing the show is essential to pushing a campaign toward victory. Its tactical importance cannot be overstated. To win, you must capture attention.

The best way to steal the show is to do something out of the ordinary and defy expectations. Oprah, Lady Gaga, and magicians in Vegas make millions of dollars and capture the attention of their audiences by doing just that. While the other debaters were preoccupied with the task of answering questions, Bachmann turned the debate into her own press conference. Public announcements are standard practice in modern politics, but no one expects an announcement at a debate. At debates we expect boring, nuanced answers to questions that we would never ask. By putting something unexpected and atypical in an otherwise typical situation, the show was stolen.

Successful politicians do this with ease. Look at Sarah Palin. Palin never does what the political establishment expects. It infuriates many people, but she always captures our nation’s attention and has the media eating out of her hand. In 2007, Obama defied expectations by running for the presidency too early in his career. Obama took on the Clintons. Obama picked a modern, almost commercial logo. Obama was nominated in a packed stadium. And Obama kept defying expectations all the way to the White House.

So steal the show. Here are a few thoughts:

  • Save the big, anticipated announcements for unconventional media opportunities. Don’t put the headline items in your weekly newsletter. Don’t announce your candidacy at a “Campaign Kickoff Picnic.” That’s the sort of unimaginative crap that we are expecting and have already dismissed. Find a unique opportunity when the media will already be present and steal the show.
  • If you wouldn’t expect to see your news or event on the front page of the newspaper, rethink it. Anything less than the front page is a failure of imagination.
  • Never go along with a boring event. Make it interesting. Make a big announcement, get a celebrity friend of yours to go with you, pick a fight respectful policy debate, or present a gift. Do something unusual. For instance, if you are going to be speaking at an event for the local animal shelter, spend an afternoon calling everyone you know to see if they will commit to adopting a pet. At the event, you can announce your support and surprise the organizers with the news that you’ve found homes for a dozen or more animals. Your speech and support will be expected, but your activity and the adoptions will steal the show.
  • Create some mystery. If the activity of your campaign is becoming expected and stale, change something. Rent a tent and an inflatable bouncy house for the kiddos and host an impromptu party at the local park. Attend the monthly meeting of the rival political party. For one day, reassign your phone bank to solicit donations for a local non-profit.
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Needed: 1 internet outreach director for Rick Santorum

By Diff on June 6, 2011 in

As you probably already know, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has been under attack from relationship podcaster and pro-gay activist Dan Savage and Savage’s friends and fans across the internets. Thanks to Savage & Co., Google search results for “Rick Santorum” and “Santorum” now produce the sort of low-brow results that would cause Santorum’s socially conservative base to turn red, either from embarrassment or rage. Rick’s only small consolation to his current search engine ranking disaster must rest in the fact that such R-rated search results will likely be blocked by the nanny-filtering software employed by many of his Bible-belt, socially conservative supporters.

Nevertheless, Santorum is currently losing his Internet war, especially with regard to his SEO (search engine optimization). And he is losing badly. Think Waterloo.

Santorum’s problems are compounded by the simple fact that his own website is a mess. It’s an SEO nightmare. I hope Santorum’s not locked into a long-term contract, because whomever Santorum has running his campaign’s internet outreach should be fired immediately for the following reasons:

  • Santorum has very little text on his frontpage. Search engines are text-based, so more text can mean better search engine rankings. Just look at the Huffington Post.
  • Aside from his first name, it’s not clear what search engine keywords Santorum is trying to target. Targeted repetition is invaluable to SEO.
  • In an apparent attempt to avoid Google’s results for “Santorum,” Santorum’s campaign has taken to re-branding him as just “Rick.” The problem is that the average voter will still search for and always know him by “Santorum.” By ceding the best keyword, “Santorum,” to Dan Savage, Ricky’s SEO is doomed. Furthermore, a quick Google search for “Rick” will quickly inform voters of the now classic meme “Rick Roll” and Ricky’s, which is evidently a publicly traded chain of gentlemen’s clubs. Good luck competing with Rick Astley, NASDAQ, and adult entertainment for SEO.
  • There’s also a glaring design flaw; Santorum’s site isn’t a fixed-width site. Pull it up and see for yourself. If you are on an iPhone or tablet, the problem is probably already obvious. If you are on a desktop, try adjusting the size of your window. It’s a mess. The little modules jump around and are perpetually disorganized.
Now you see it.

Now you see it.

Now you don't.

Now you don't.

Many have said that Rick Santorum is a long-shot in the 2012 presidential race. If his internet outreach is any indication, I’d say that is an overstatement.

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HOW TO WIN #4: Become a political brand – not a product

By Diff on June 1, 2011 in

Successful candidates and politicians generally realize that they are a brand – not merely a product. Brands have lasting value. Products are only as valuable as their edge over a competitor.

Look at Apple. Apple’s value is in its brand. If their value existed only in the merit of their products, they would have been sunk years ago. If fact, they were sunk years ago – back when they focused on pitching their products more than their brand. All that changed when Apple stopped advertising product specs and put dancing silhouettes in their ads. They stopped focusing on the merits of their products and started selling a lifestyle and philosophy – and the cash continues to roll in.

Products are dead ends. They all become irrelevant with age. They have to be constantly updated or scrapped. The only true lasting value of a product is its ability to reinforce a brand.

I could go on about this from a business perspective, but you probably don’t care. Let’s talk politics.

George W. Bush beat John Kerry because Dubya Karl Rove had built a strong – albeit controversial – brand. George W. Bush’s brand carried him to victory in that election. Bush talked about his family, God, his ranch, and fighting terrorists. John Kerry talked about wars, casualties, fiscal policies, and voting records. Snore. Kerry was trying to pitch his merits and specs, while Bush was selling his lifestyle and political philosophy.

In the 2008 presidential election, the Obama brand obliterated the McCain product. Obama ran on hope, change, and other lofty, abstract ideals. McCain ran on his heroically tortured body and legislative experience. Obama asked voters to join him in a journey toward some brilliant future. McCain asked voters to elect him to perform specific tasks. Obama presented a lifestyle and philosophy. McCain offered a list of his capabilities.

Candidates should never forget that we are not living in a meritocracy. The platonically “best” candidate or campaign does not always win. The cars with the best specs are not necessarily the cars that everyone wants to buy. SUVs and Mini Coopers prove this point.

Let’s look at some current examples.

It’s highly unlikely that Newt Gingrich will gain traction in the 2012 race for the simple reason that Newt is selling himself as a product. He is constantly listing his accomplishments and abilities. He isn’t marketing a lifestyle or philosophy. If he wants to rally support, he should try presenting himself as a rascally underdog who is willing to fight with Americans for the American dream. He should model himself after Winston Churchill or Rocky. The voting public won’t care about his product specs, and his brand is incoherent at best (just ask the Tea Party, Nancy Pelosi, or his ex-wives).

When it comes to political brands, Obama is (or at least was) king. The only person on the other side of the aisle who even comes close is Sarah Palin. Palin’s brand is larger-than-life. She is the Kim Kardashian of politics. Palin has done a masterful job of branding herself as both the every-mom and a victimized warrior. She uses every opportunity to reinforce this brand.

Palin’s on-going bus tour is a perfect example of her brand management. She is presenting herself as both a mom on a family vacation and someone who is standing up to the establishment that is attacking her. Many have complained that Palin’s bus tour is an erratic and poorly planned campaign tactic. I disagree. I think it’s a brilliant strategy to reinforce her political brand. She’s not trying to get votes now – she’s building her brand. Regardless of what Palin decides to do in the future, her time on the road will have added value to her brand.

Free Advice:

  • Write a single-sentence description of what your political brand should be.
  • Build your brand around something that makes you unique but not odd. Being the only farmer in a race can be a huge positive. Branding yourself as the only person with a dozen children or first-hand experience with mental illness may have the opposite effect.
  • Ensure that your brand doesn’t contradict your own life. (You shouldn’t pitch yourself as the “Lone Voice of Integrity” if you’ve cheated on your wife, for example. I’m talking to you, John McCain.)
  • Make sure your brand is both inclusive and aspirational. Be something that voters can either identify with (Palin’s brand) or aspire toward (Obama’s brand) or both (Jesus’ brand, I guess).
  • Instead of always trying to just win votes, engage in activities that reinforce your brand. For instance, if you are building a “family values” brand, go to church every single week. Want the “environmentally conscious” brand? Without any fanfare or organization, pick up trash at your local park. How about the “community development” brand? Try helping your neighbors with their weekend projects. Voters will notice.
  • Redesign your campaign’s marketing collateral. Everything from your photography to your logo to the color scheme of your brochures should reflect your brand. If you’re casting yourself as a no-nonsense budget cruncher, you probably shouldn’t use script fonts or pictures of yourself smiling beside a mountain stream.
  • Realize that your brand doesn’t have to appeal to everyone. You only need a majority (and often not even that much) to win an election. Trying to please everyone is a surefire way to water down your brand. Taking uncompromising stances on the right issues is the stuff that lasting brands are made of.
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Yes, we Cain

By Diff on May 31, 2011 in

Herman Cain’s presidential candidacy announcement video hits all the right notes. It’s obviously a low-budget production and starts off a little slow, but it is effective nevertheless. This campaign video reinforces my point that voters don’t want perfection and there is danger in being too polished.

To overcome his relative political obscurity, Herman Cain’s campaign video does a good job of quickly presenting his family history and resume. His team also did a good job of inserting his faith and wife into the video without it seeming contrived or as though he is pandering to Bible-Belt voters. This video presents Herman Cain as a no-nonsense, no-frills underdog. And everyone loves a populist underdog.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

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HOW TO WIN #3: Don’t be too polished

By Diff on May 23, 2011 in

In the 2012 primary election, Mitt Romney is going to have a serious problem; He’s too polished.

Mitt is beautiful. He’s got a warm, manly voice. His salt and pepper hair is always perfect. His family is apparently flawless. He always looks like he has just rolled in from modeling in the Hamptons for a forthcoming Brooks Brothers’ catalogue. If the election was a casting for the father figure in the next Ralph Lauren ad, Romney would steal the show like an early ‘90s Cindy Crawford. But it’s not. Mitt will need to overcome his impeccable appearance if he wants to be sure of a victory.

Americans (many of our voters) prefer people whom we can identify with. This is why actors and models in household product ads are generally just slightly better looking versions of the average American. When’s the last time you saw a supermodel pitching a new cable service bundle, yogurt, or mop?

We like people who look like us – or at least we like people who look like they may understand the plight of an average American. Beautiful people don’t know what it’s like to be ugly. Generationally wealthy people don’t know what it’s like to get calls from collections agencies. Talented people have no idea what it’s like to not have anything interesting to brag about at a party. The general feeling is that perfect people don’t know what life is like for the rest of us.

Still not convinced? Elections, like American Idol, are popularity contests. Has a skinny diva ever won American Idol? I rest my case.

In America, those of us who vote like for our candidates to have minor imperfections. It enables us to think that they can somehow identify with us. Bill Clinton has a larger-than-necessary nose. George W. Bush talks funny. Barack Obama is a few cheeseburgers too skinny and has ears that can probably pick up intergalactic radio waves. Is this superficial? Of course it is. Is the average voter superficial?

Mitt needs to find some imperfections. Sure, some people will complain about his policies, but that doesn’t count. We want to see real, superficial flaws; the kind of flaws that would keep him from winning a role on Days of Our Lives.

My suggestion is that Mitt should start by incorporating more conjunctions and shorter words into his conversations. A bad haircut would also help. If he wasn’t a Mormon, I would suggest that he invest in a beer belly. America is getting fatter. Our candidates should start thinking about doing the same. (Ignore that last sentence, Chris Christie. You are already one step ahead of me… And we both know that one step is directly toward the buffet line.)

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HOW TO WIN #2: Introduce yourself well

By Diff on May 20, 2011 in

Your introduction is a fundamental part of building your political brand. First impressions mean everything, especially in politics where the average voter isn’t going to invest time to learn about candidates’ policies, agendas, or voting records. Your five-second introduction could decide their vote. So make sure you introduce yourself well.

When making an introduction, never assume that the other person knows your name, office, campaign etc. It makes you look like an arrogant ass. And no one want to vote for an ass.

Milling around political functions, I meet a lot of candidates, voters, and political trolls. At one such meeting, I spotted a woman that I hadn’t met before. In an attempt to be charming and outgoing, I walked up to her and introduced myself:

Me: “Hi, I’m Diff. How are you?”

Woman: “Hi.”

:: awkward pause ::

Me: “What’s your name?”

:: woman sighs, offended ::

Woman: “Senator [name withheld to protect the guilty].”

She made me feel like an idiot, but she was the fool.

Sure, maybe I should have done some homework and brushed up on my Random State Elected Officials flashcards, but I was not the one trying to win votes. She was. I was not trying to win the popularity contest known as an election. She was. Therefore she should have made it her priority to ensure that our fledgling relationship went well. That single flawed introduction gave me the impression that she was arrogant, which is an impression that I haven’t been able to shake.

In politics, you must remember that impressions are legitimate – even when they are completely baseless or just dead wrong. You may be the most humble, others-centric person alive, but that really doesn’t matter if a voter has the opposite impression. Facts have a really hard time overcoming impressions. The impression is what wins votes.

Voters generally feel like their elected officials have superiority complexes. This is why we marvel when a candidate seems to be “down to earth” or talks “like an average Joe.” Really, we are just thrilled that the candidate doesn’t treat us like we are inferior to him or her.

So introduce yourself as an equal. Don’t assume anything; knowledge or ignorance. A simple “Hi. I’m John Doe. It’s great to meet you.” can go a long way. If you start off with a solid introduction, you can always add your office, title, and/or campaign stump speech later in the conversation. Win voters over as you would with any potential friend. Later, when they find out that you are a Senator or running for office, they will be impressed, and you will have their vote.

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