What Do Political Marketing Firms Do?


Branding politico

The political environment in marketing isn’t good. If someone were to tell you that you speak like a politician, chances are you wouldn’t take it like a compliment. The political marketing firms that people imagine are untrustworthy spinsters who try to manipulate citizen’s minds to win their vote.

While that’s certainly been the case in the past, political marketing firms nowadays are devoted to the art of political communication. This is the art of articulating a politician’s political beliefs and ideals to voters in a way that they can understand and get behind. It’s one thing for political marketing firms to make voters believe that a political candidate would make a good politician, but it’s another thing to make voters believe in what the candidate stands for–to fully comprehend and then believe in his or her ideas and goals.

The problem is that most marketing products–buttons, yard signs, leaflets–simply don’t have the space to properly articulate the complex ideas and arguments of a candidate. What’s more, most voters don’t have the time or desire to thoroughly hear a candidate out. So how do political marketing firms solve this problem?

The key is to break through the clutter, cut to the core of the message, and put that front and center. Political marketing firms know that a name, a face, and a party are easy to remember, so they put those things up front on the direct mailers and other promotional materials. These are short hand for what a candidate believes in, and though accuracy is sacrificed for brevity, it’s still quite effective.

Once a candidate has become well known (increased their brand awareness through multiple exposures), then people will get interested if but for the sake of finding out what everyone is talking about. Thusly, the chance for real political communication has been created, and the political marketing firms are successful.

If you have any questions about political marketing firms, feel free to ask in the comments. Research more like this.