Corporate Style Campaigning
Re: Bai, Matt, The Multilevel Marketing of the President. The New York Times Magazine (4/25/2004)
I wanted to post on the above article because it reminded me of a corporate business model. After analyzing the method of grassroots building the Bush Administration developed, I found that it closely followed the advertisement models of corporations. Bringing corporate style models into campaigns is very smart. If models work for a corporation, why not for a campaign? After all, a campaign is selling a good just like a corporation.
The grassroots model utilized by the Bush Administration helped lead to his victory. It is obvious that by organizing a campaign like a corporation it becomes more organized and efficient. The Kerry campaign seemed to lag in this area. The Kerry campaign did not have an organized corporate style campaign.
I would imagine that this new corporate style campaigning will only increase. If running a corporate style grassroots campaign will help a candidate win, then both sides of the aisle will utilize this tool.
2 Comments:
You're absolutely correct in the value of applying corporate marketing's best practices to political campaigns. Campaigns are by their nature marketing exercises, so why not go to the well of what has worked for corporate marketers.
The Amway approach by the Bush campaign is noteworthy because it is distinct from other models that have arisen in recent campaigns, notably the "open source" model utilized by the Dean campaign.
The key is control, and the Amway model recognizes the pressure to decentralize operations in the internet area, while retaining a workable measure of control. Open source approaches introduce large risks to a camapign's ability to maintain message coherence and efficient use of resources.
I think we'll see variations of each model moving forward, depending on circumstances. The Bush campaign proved that decentralization doesn't necessarily lead to loss of control.
A corporate structure and heirarchy can be effective for organizational efficiency, but be careful comparing campaigns to corporations. Keep in mind, a corporation's objective is to turn a profit year after year. A campaign's is to raise a lot of money and then bankrupt itself by election day. The Kerry campaign ended 2004 $15million in the black and Kerry ended up back in the Senate.
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