Business and Political Strategy Aren’t So Different, According to Columbia

There may be a fine line between how successful business and political campaigns lay out strategies, according to a new Columbia Business School article.

Ted Wheeler, the recently elected Portland, Oregon mayor, former Oregon State Treasurer and CBS ’89 says his business acumen informed his ability to “manage labor, complex budgets and incentivize employees” to ensure he was a “good steward of the taxpayers’ funds.”

Wheeler explains that political campaigning is about marketing, outreach and branding—three essential components of running a business.

“It’s about building a community around your brand. It’s about smart use of technology,” he says. “It’s about careful monitoring of your budget and cash flows. It’s about establishing clear goals at the beginning of the campaign and 
tracking your progress throughout.”

Marketing executive Ellen Schapps, who teaches the marketing of an American president course at Columbia, piggybacks on Wheeler’s comments regarding thorough market research: “From the polling and the research, [candidates] will find out what message is going to resonate with the public.” Much like consumer products, Schapps says candidates “need to have a strong biography, a strong story and be authentic to differentiate yourself from the competition.”

Before they hit the ground running, Wheeler’s team asked themselves questions “akin to marketing a consumer product.” Namely, “What does the product do?” and “What do we want the product to do?”

Researchers say name recognition engenders consumer loyalty, trust and a perception of quality. “High brand awareness can translate to more loyal voters and more money in a candidate’s pocket for other campaign efforts.” Case in point is President Barack Obama’s first-term campaign back in 2008. Obama’s team devised the slogan “Yes We Can” as a response to the ailing economy and anti-Washington establishment sentiment, along with the historic precedence of Obama’s nomination. The slogan was so successful that advertising materials didn’t even need to include the candidate’s name. According to the article, “candidates without much brand awareness might want to spend more money early to get their names out there.”

Speaking of money spent: cash is king and nowhere is that expression truer than in presidential campaigns where “big media expenditures have to be paid for up front.” This explains why leading candidates had already raised significant sums by the third quarter of 2015—$29.9 million for Hillary Clinton, $26.2 million for Bernie Sanders, $13.4 million for Jeb Bush and $12.2 million for Ted Cruz. That money disappears quickly if campaign managers don’t understand the candidate’s voter base and how much they’ll have to cough up to tap into them.

In terms of building a brand, the rule of thumb seems to be that candidates must stick to their ethical guns—up to a point. Debra Coughlin ’82, who worked on MasterCard’s late 90s “Priceless” campaign, elaborates: “In order for [Hillary Clinton] to stay relevant, she has had to change her agenda. If your consumer base is starting to change, or shift in a different direction, you have to be adaptable to [reflect] what they’re looking for.” This shift in Hillary’s agenda is widely attributed to the influence of Senator Bernie Sanders’ grassroots success.

Coughlin unpacks what it means for candidates to successfully inspire and lead a team in one word—passion. “People who work at Apple feel like they’re special. A lot of people who work for a political campaign want to work for that person because it is a movement they want to be part of.”

One marketing strategy employed by business and politics alike is building communities that generate buzz, especially within social media platforms. But Coughlin believes that the “number-one form of communication is word-of-mouth.”

regions: New York City

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