Thursday, May 23, 2013
Episode III: Taken for Branded
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PrintI love Rachel Maddow.
She’s smart, elegant, shows both sides of any issue, and proves my theory that there’s no contradiction between progressive liberalism and mental toughness. For example, President Obama is a Democrat. He got Osama bin Laden. That was ballsy. And tough.
And yet the Left have a frustrating tendency to cede traditional American values like “toughness” to our Republican brothers. We also forfeit “patriotism” to the Republicans. In fact, there’s a whole panoply of American ideals that the Democrats let Republicans own exclusively for no other reason than the Republicans claim it and the Left doesn’t correct it.
The problem is that Democrats don’t know how to brand themselves. In the book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout, Law Number Four is the Law of Perception, which states: “marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perception.” For consumers it’s not what the product does, it’s how we feel about the product that gets people to buy it.
Republicans know this well. Democrats think they’re above such strategies.
Law Number Five is the Law of Focus. It states: “The most powerful concept of marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.” For example, there are many brands of car out there. Volvo doesn’t try to own the words “sexy”, “fast” or “luxury” when you think of their cars. They focus on one word: “safe”.
Ask anybody to give a one-word description of a Volvo and 90% will say “safe”.
The Democrats need to apply the Law of Focus to the Democrat Party. They need to own the word “tough”.
This week Rachel had a story about the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA is an almost Men in Black-like government organization that combs the world looking for rogue fissile material like Plutonium or Cesium. They either buy it or take it by force. Either way they bring the bomb-making material back to the United States, and out of the hands of terrorists. In short, they’re tough.
On August 17th it was reported that the NNSA recovered 14 pounds of highly enriched Uranium spent fuel from South Africa. There was even a shoot-out.
In Rachel’s piece about the NNSA, she points out that – unbelievably - the Republicans WANT TO DEFUND THIS AGENCY!!!
These are the same Republicans who claim to be the ones keeping us “safe” because they’re so “tough”. The Democrats know that the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of our most successful protective agencies and want it to be financed appropriately.
Obviously, if the Republicans have their de-funding way, and continue to strip governmental organizations essential to our nation’s defense, they will be making America less safe.
“But seriously, the Republicans are the tough ones,” you say.
Only because the Republicans said so, and the Left didn’t correct them.
“But seriously, the Republicans are pro-business and pro-prosperity,” you say.
Only because the Republicans said so, and the Left didn’t correct them.
It’s time to rebrand. Democrats should own the word “patriotic” like Volvo owns “safe”. They should own the word “prosperity”.
And Rachel Maddow is on the front line of this all-important rebranding.
I love you, Rachel. Did I say that out loud? Tough.
Previously on Mad About Maddow:
