Political Marketing in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Jamie Gillies

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9783319593449
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319593456
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Marketing

This edited collection is one of the first books to focus on the distinctive political marketing and branding strategies utilized by the candidates and their parties in one of the most gripping elections in U.S. history. It considers why this election was so unusual from a political marketing perspective, calling for new explanations and discussions about its implications for mainstream political marketing theory and practice. At a time of political upheaval, candidates from both parties – Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in particular – have appeared to overturn the conventional wisdom that has hitherto dominated U.S. politics: that candidates should appear 'presidential', be politically experienced and qualified to run for office, and avoid controversial and politically incorrect positions. This book presents scholarly perspectives and research with practitioner-relatable content on practices and discourses that look specifically at the Trump, Clinton and Sanders campaigns and howthey took current understandings of political marketing and branding in new directions.

© The Author(s) 2018

Jamie Gillies (ed.)Political Marketing in the 2016 U.S. Presidential ElectionPalgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Managementhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59345-6_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: The 2016 US Presidential Election

Jamie Gillies¹

(1)

St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB, Canada

Jamie Gillies

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The introduction to this edited collection breaks down the focus of this book and considers the distinctive political marketing and branding strategies utilized by the candidates and their parties in one of the most gripping elections in US history. The book will focus on why this election is so unusual from a political marketing perspective, calling for new explanations and discussions about its implications for mainstream political marketing theory and practice. At a time of national economic and cultural crisis, candidates from both parties—Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in particular—have appeared to overturn the conventional wisdom that has hitherto dominated US politics: That candidates should appear ‘presidential,’ be politically experienced and qualified to run for office, and avoid controversial and politically incorrect positions. This book presents scholarly perspectives and research with practitioner-relatable content on practices and discourses that look specifically at the Trump, Clinton , and Sanders campaigns and how they took current understandings of political marketing and branding in new directions.

Keywords

MarketingBrandingElectionsPresidencyPolitical

End Abstract

The 2016 American presidential election was a cataclysmic event, not just in terms of the surprise of Donald Trump’s victory and the nationalism and populism at play in American politics, but also in how the election campaigns challenged conventional political marketing paradigms, theories, and frameworks to the party–voter relationship, personal legitimacy, and political credibility, the brand ‘promise’ of candidates and the phenomenon of political outsider challenging the status quo. The election’s legacy likely will have far-reaching effects within the political marketing and branding industries in that social media and voter targeting techniques were fully integrated into both the national campaign strategies of Republicans and Democrats. But it also exposed the real concerns with utilizing and harnessing nationalist and populist themes as tools to recruit voters. How that squares with the complexities of American democracy is going to be a key part of the American experiment under the leadership of President Donald Trump.

One of the challenges with analyzing the 2016 election is that the emotionality it set off around the world makes it difficult to consider the campaign objectively, and to focus on the advances in the political communication toolkit that many of the campaigns employed. Those advances are an important part of the narrative in this election in that they may have more far-reaching effects than Trump’s win and Clinton’s loss. New dialogues for political marketing and branding were established. Long-standing political communication theories were challenged and altered. Part of this has to do with the steady development and integration of new technologies into how politicians and political parties communicate. In some respects, we were leading to an election like this given how social media and the personalization of politics have pervaded political cultures across the globe (Gillies 2015). The American case, of course, is an important focal point because of the shear magnitude and international attention paid to American leadership and power. Part of this also has to do with the rise of Donald Trump, and to a lesser extent, of Bernie Sanders, as outsider politicians who shook up two entrenched and powerful political parties, and found ways to appeal directly to primary voters, without the party apparatus. This is an important moment for party brands in politics as well because 2016 represents a fundamental shift toward personalized branding, especially in national leadership contests like presidential elections.

While the 2016 contest will inextricably be linked to the rise of right-of-center nationalist forces in advanced industrial societies, especially in western Europe, and be seen as part of larger trends in the world with respect to anti-globalization, ethnic nationalism, and larger concerns about the fabric and identity of societies, the purpose of this volume is to shed light more on the tactics, strategies, and technologies utilized not just by the Trump and Clinton campaigns but by insurgent candidates like Sanders and Ted Cruz who employed a wealth of similar tactics to target voters. In many ways, 2016 is a tale of two separate elections. Acrimonious primary contests in both parties exposed deep fissures not just in terms of personality conflicts among the candidates and increasingly negative campaigning, but rifts within the party coalitions themselves. The follow-on general election was on the one hand a battle fought on traditional Republican and Democratic Party identity politics grounds with party and cultural identification playing a significant role as it traditionally does. But on the other hand, it also unfolded like a reality show carnival, with social media and pseudo-events grabbing media attention and taking away almost all of the substantive discussions that one would witness in a US presidential contest. And in the largest popularity contest in the world, Hillary Clinton may have won the popular vote but ultimately lost the war to Donald Trump, whose campaign efficiently campaigned to over 270 electoral votes.

This is not the first American election in which populist forces were marshaled in marketing and branding. The 1968 campaign of Richard Nixon, the 1932 campaign of Franklin Roosevelt, and the populist presidency of Andrew Jackson all used techniques and ideas similar to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. But 2016 is notable for its political incorrectness, and in an era of professional politicians acting in professional politically correct ways using coded language that fit within the confines of each party’s ideology, to have outsiders who simply bucked the trend and refused to comport to the established decorum of campaigning and speechmaking, is something new.

Like the rise of recent ethno-nationalistic rhetoric in Europe, especially in the Brexit referendum campaign of 2016, the Trump campaign recognized that connective emotional themes could appeal to a segment of voters that would provide a path to victory. What is interesting is that the rhetorical and symbolic messaging by Trump, especially through social media , that appeared to be on-the-fly and instantaneous, was part of a careful data-driven, market- and brand-focused strategy years in the making. While the Hillary Clinton campaign was criticized for its cold, obvious and sometimes cynical calculations in appeals to targeted groups, and in marketing to groups within the Democratic Party coalition, the Trump campaign was applauded for bringing a freshness to the political dialogue and debate. The blunt speeches, with Trump’s rhetorical flourishes of attempting to speak truth to power, were his most effective marketing tool. The narrative the Trump team developed, as a billionaire self-funding his campaign, and a man who could not be bought by special interests, became an organizational tool around which the Trump brand could instill loyalty and enthusiasm among his supporters.

In this book, we focus on the distinctive characteristics of the election campaign and analyze both the marketing and branding tactics used in the primaries but also consider the successes and failures of the parties and nominees in the general election. The individual research in each chapter revolves around the fundamental themes as to why this election was so unusual from a political marketing perspective, and why it calls for new explanations and discussions about its implications for mainstream political marketing theory and practice. At a time of perceived political upheaval, candidates from both parties have appeared to overturn the conventional wisdom that has hitherto dominated US politics: That candidates should use politically correct language, be ‘presidential’ and ‘look the part,’ and be experienced and qualified to run for office.

This book presents academic research and perspectives of the 2016 presidential election with practitioner-relatable content on practices and discourses that focus on shifting current understandings of political marketing theories in new directions. Additionally, the campaign has been widely described by political observers and pundits as ‘theater’ or ‘reality television,’ with increasingly controversial statements made by candidates on complex issues that mainstream politicians have tended to ignore or marginalize. While the chapters are ostensibly not about the social and political effects of the use of language that is considered racist, xenophobic, sexist, demeaning, and politically incorrect, it is impossible to ignore the implications of the alteration of the media and discourse landscape as a result of unfiltered political dialogue.

While no doubt much will be written about this election from a variety of perspectives, one theme that should be considered is that the unusual nature of the campaign follows a larger trend in the USA of unconventional politics and the ascendancy of leaders that have not fit the American presidential leadership narrative. Recall that the 2008 election saw an African-American candidate do battle with a female candidate. In 2016, the unconventional political trend took on new forms, through a diverse and interesting cast of characters: the same female candidate but now fighting against a democratic socialist, and a reality television star and business mogul fighting against two Hispanic-American Republicans. This phenomenon holds new meaning and significance for the study of the personal branding of candidates for national office.

The rise of Trump and Sanders is perhaps indicative of a malaise among voters with the political establishment. Certainly, the micro-targeting of voters suggests and some of the data shows that there were a group of voters who simply were tired of and no longer trusted establishment politicians. But it is also a continuation of the Obama model, of building a personality-driven mass movement where party brand is secondary. While we should not overemphasize this in regard to parliamentary and legislative elections, as American voters are casting votes for an individual office when voting for president, it certainly fits within a larger trend of brand personalization among charismatic candidates.

It should also be noted that particular branding and marketing techniques did not work with every candidate. Many campaigns tried to use the strategies that Obama, Clinton, and Trump employed over the last couple of election cycles and their message or the candidate did not resonate enough to win the nomination.

The second chapter in this volume, by Vincent Raynauld and André Turcotte, considers the rise of Donald Trump through the Republican primary elections. This is an important starting point in the narrative because it highlights the way in which the Trump campaign differentiated itself from the other candidates. Despite the 2016 US Republican primary contest being considered by many as ‘one unlike no others,’ this chapter posits that its outcome can be attributed, at least partly, to dynamics that had affected the unfolding of previous American electoral contests. They explore contemporary political messaging and marketing tactics deployed by candidates running for the presidential nomination. As the Republican electorate was fragmented due to different factors, candidates engaged in hyper narrowcasting in order to reach out and mobilize specific groups of voters. Through the statistical analysis of polling data from key primary states, Raynauld and Turcotte conclude that by occupying narrow political ‘lanes,’ Republican contenders collectively weakened their chances of winning, thus allowing Donald Trump to secure the nomination.

The third chapter, by Brian Conley, analyzes the Trump campaign’s market research efforts largely prior to the primary campaign even began. From his willingness to indulge in the politics of defamation and personal attack, to his near total reliance on earned media and massive rallies, much has been made about the unconventional nature of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. But there is an element of his campaign that fit squarely into the conventional and one that all viable presidential candidates in the USA now try to do: Trump based his message and market positioning on a detailed, research-driven understanding of the thinking and political instincts of the voter segments targeted by his campaign. Conley’s chapter analyzes the systematic market research done by Trump to identify, target, and position himself with specific voter segments even prior to the election. This foreshadowed the broad-based appeal his messaging would have on the general election audience.

The fourth chapter looks at the Republican Party brand refresh and its integration with the Trump brand in the 2016 election. Ken Cosgrove considers the Republican Party brand heritage historically and sees linkages with Trump’s update and refresh. He shows how Trump presented himself using Reagan’s branding and then developed a product that was more populist and harkened back to the kind of anger that Richard Nixon and George Wallace harnessed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cosgrove then considers the ways in which Trump used branding as the restoration to a past, glorious America in which the rules were followed, the borders were secure, the values of the majority were valued most, both in racial and in cultural terms, there was no threat of terrorist violence, the economy worked for all. He links this also to brand refreshes in the private sector and considers examples of sports organizations that were able to successfully re-brand.

The second half of the book pivots from Trump and the Republican primary campaigns to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic primary campaigns. Chapter five, by Neil Bendle, Joseph Ryoo, and Alina Nastasoiu, addresses the technological side of campaigning and the increasing integration of social media into the political marketing landscape. Their research considers what such changes, including the increased availability of data, mean for our understanding of political marketing and primary elections. They suggest and discuss the implications that these changes may wrench control of brands away from parties toward candidates with identities independent of their party. This is particularly true with respect to Trump’s and Sanders’s early campaign themes. One of their key premises is that there are specific decision-making challenges for voters in primaries, and problems for candidates in being market oriented in a world of sequential elections. They posit and then show that if voters forecast their own choices effectively and, despite the strong feelings generated in primaries, the contests in the primaries may poorly predict general election performance.

The sixth chapter, by Edward Elder, looks specifically at the Hillary Clinton campaign, by analyzing Clinton’s verbal communication during the election. It focuses on Clinton’s appeals to moderate swing voters through anti-Trump targeted communication. Using analysis of speeches and debate performances, the chapter looks closely at prominent and important themes and issues Clinton highlighted during the campaign that could have appealed to moderate swing voters who did not have a positive opinion of her Republican opponent, Donald Trump. The chapter also examines Clinton’s verbal communication from a broader perspective to better understand how her overall messaging may have been received by this less politically engaged demographic. Elder concludes by highlighting what impact Clinton’s communication may have had on her evidential election defeat, and what lessons this teaches us about contemporary thinking around targeted communication.

The seventh chapter, by Jamie Gillies, considers what might have been in analyzing the primary challenge of Bernie Sanders through the marketing and branding lens . While many argue that Sanders’s feisty challenge to Hillary Clinton was as much about Clinton’s weakness as a candidate, this chapter considers how the Sanders campaign was able to take an avuncular, unpresidential curmudgeon and market and brand democratic socialism both to a deeply committed left-of-center base and to many voters who were not ideologically committed but who wanted change. It underscores how Sanders’s messaging became more important than the candidate himself and why so many people supported Sanders instead of the presumptive Democratic nominee. Sanders, like Trump, used populist themes and simple messaging that were outside the Democratic Party establishment. Far from being a one-trick pony, Sanders tapped into a strain of populism that Clinton’s campaign either missed or did not fully consider. Gillies draws upon the marketing and branding techniques of Revolution Messaging , the digital strategy team Sanders employed, to help explain the rise of such an outsider candidate. He shows that Sanders is perhaps far closer in spirit to Trump than what many commentators might have expected or, indeed, noticed: They both blame the media and the party for the perceived unfairness and rigging of the entire system. They just went about it in remarkably different ways.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Introduction: The 2016 US Presidential Election
• 2. “Different Strokes for Different Folks”: Implications of Voter Micro-Targeting and Appeal in the Age of Donald Trump
• 3. Thinking What He Says: Market Research and the Making of Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign
• 4. Trump and the Republican Brand Refresh
• 5. The 2016 US Primaries: Parties and Candidates in a World of Big Data
• 6. The Clinton Campaign: Appeals to Moderate Swing Voters Through Anti-Trump Targeted Communication
• 7. “Feel the Bern”: Marketing Bernie Sanders and Democratic Socialism to Primary Voters
• 8. The US Presidential Race: Advances and Insights for Political Marketing Practice
• Backmatter