Comments on: Marketing Lessons from Barack Obama and John McCain

By: Shel Horowitz’s Monthly Newsletters » Blog Archive » New on the Sites, December 2008

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:59:05 +0000

[...] Marketing Lessons from Barack Obama and John McCain [...]

By: how obama got elected

how obama got elected — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:32:12 +0000

Conservatism’s current intellectual chaos reverberated in the Republican ticket’s end-of-campaign crescendo of surreal warnings that big government — verily,

By: Big Marketing For You » Blog Archive » Principled Profit » Marketing Lessons from Barack Obama and John …

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:35:43 +0000

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onPrincipled Profit Â» Marketing Lessons from Barack Obama and John …Here’s a quick excerptComment by Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert — November 7, 2008 @ 7:14 pm. Shel, excellent analysis. I tend to agree with just about everything you said, and take this as my favorite point:. “When you really want something, … [...]

By: Vijay Sankaran

Vijay Sankaran — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:59:54 +0000

Thanks so much Shel, for cross-linking my guest article on the digital marketing lessons from Obama’s campaign. Like you said, Obama did chose the high road (except maybe for the tough negative ads on local stations). The lasting fallout of this election is that the American youth has finally discovered the joy of working for a bigger cause. I personally know Indian American kids as young as 14-15 who worked the phones to get the vote out The world is watching America closely, with great expecations:-)

By: Dr.Mani

Dr.Mani — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:40:40 +0000

Shel, excellent analysis. I tend to agree with just about everything you said, and take this as my favorite point:

“When you really want something, work your butt off for it, be the kind of ieader that inspires others to help, and take nothing for granted.”

He really did that, didn’t he?

A flawlessly executed campaign, for sure. I’ve been watching it and learning from it for close to 9 months now, and even bought the domain PresidentOlbama.com 4 months back because of it!

All success
Dr.Mani

By: Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert

Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:14:44 +0000

Thanks, all. RE: Jacqueline’s comment. Today a very interesting article was posted in India, discussing Obama’s marketing success from a much more MBA-in-Marketing kind of lens, and focusing heavily on Web 2.0. It’s must-reading.

My goal in the above post was more to use the ethics lens–but I’m glad someone else really got down with the amazing stuff he did online.

I couldn’t find a permalink, but the story is posted 11/7/08 and headlined Guest Article: 10 lessons for marketers from Barack Obama, and at least for the moment can be found at http://www.afaqs.com/main1.html

Shel Horowitz, author, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and foudner of the Business Ethics Pledge

By: George Bush On Best Political Blogs » Marketing Lessons from Barack Obama and John McCain

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:42:34 +0000

[...] Marketing Lessons from Barack Obama and John McCain Senator McCain had to vote 90 percent of the time with George Bush and Dick Cheney to get it.” Stay clean, tell the truth, and don’t do the things you attack your opponent for. After 21 months of intense scrutiny, neither Hillary … [...]

By: Humera Fasihuddin

Humera Fasihuddin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:12:34 +0000

Nicely said, Shel.
It is important, but not enough to take the high road. You’ve also got to unapologetically take a stand and be consistently (stay on message).
Humera.

By: rhonda

rhonda — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:56:52 +0000

excellent lessons to apply

By: Jacqueline Simonds

Jacqueline Simonds — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:10:18 +0000

Let’s not forget the way the marketing was carried out: on the Web – in all its forms. This was unprecedented. He used the new forms of communication, from smartly designed websites (Clinton’s was terrible and McCain’s was just sorry), to daily e-mails to text messaging and Twitter. Obama (and his people) totally get Web 2.0 – he’s the first to use the modern communications.

Also, let’s not skip his logo – which is now a cultural icon – so much so that you don’t even need the words any more. (McCain’s was not bad by ordinary standards, but Robin pointed out the star in the middle is military in nature (don’t forget he’s a war hero!).) Obama’s people developed this before his presidential announcement. The road into the sunrise captures the Hope theme brilliantly.

Lastly, I want to address something that Obama was criticised on: the DNC stage with the columns. People said it was presumptuously presidential. Well, first of all, what was wrong with THAT? Helping people see that he would look just fine as a president was part of the strategy. But also, it was a representation of the front of the Springfield, IL courthouse where he announced his run for president. Loads of columns and flags.

Smart, consistant, excellent branding, targeted outreach, right image, an unflappable candidate: these are the things that got a half-African, half-Kansan, Hawaiian-born black man elected president. Political historians and conusltants will be studtying Obama’s methodology for years!