The Election

There are a lot of great things that happened with the presidential election yesterday, regardless of your political views. One of the great things that I am going to miss was being able to witness the "power of the story" in the campaigns. It was fascinating for me as a marketer to watch all of the candidates, from local and national campaigns, try to frame their stories. Obviously, some were more successful than others. What it came down to was "connections". The candidate that "connected" to their constituency won. Those that couldn't find the connection...lost.

Connections are about relationships and the successful campaigns build relationships through emotional connections with their audience. These didn't happen overnight, but rather through a sustained and deliberate process of storytelling. Many candidates who couldn't find the story to make the connections and build relationships were scrambling in the final weeks of the election cycle to find the right story. Too late. It takes time, perseverance, and authenticity to connect your story with your audience.

Think about your candidate(s) of choice, whether they were successful yesterday or not, and look at their story. Was it SIMPLE, COMPELLING, and RELEVANT? Most important, however, is "was it AUTHENTIC"? Maybe it is too soon to tell, but if their story lacks authenticity it will eventually fail to maintain the connections and relationships.

As a marketer, your job is very similar to that of a political campaign. you need to make connections and build relationships with your customers. You do this through the art of storytelling. Just like with successful political campaigns, your product/service/company story needs to be simple, compelling, relevant and authentic.