Multilevel Marketing

I just read the New York Times Magazine article published April 25, 2004 by Matt Bai on the Republican presidential campaign in Clark County, OH. It's a fascinating read about how the Republican party used MLM as a mandatory campaign method to recruit volunteers for GOTV and other activities. The numbers alone are staggering - statewide, the RNC was looking to secure 51,000 volunteers. That's an amazing feat to accomplish!

In the article, it mentions that Democrats traditionally go door-to-door and in 2000, their efforts nearly cost Bush the election. Learning from this, Rove's team devised the "most ambitious grass-roots model in the party's history." Boy, did they.

Structured like Amway, the marketing efforts were directed from the top-down in a pyramid-like structure. Everything done at the local level was in consultation with HQ in Arlington, VA. The campaign used everything from high-impact TV ads, to knocking on doors, to laser-guided direct mail and a massive new database that tracks every facet of a voter's profile. They call it "microtargeting." In addition, each team leader has a "toolbox" similar to Amway that was used to implement a cohesive campaign message.

It's amazing to think that politics relies so heavily of the grass-roots efforts. It still takes major technology to make it all happen and the RNC did an extraordinary effort to make the campaign as seemless as possible, no matter where you were or what form of communication was used.