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Risky Business
Companies should be watching election strategies very closely. There are a lot of pearls of marketing wisdom to be gleaned by observing how the candidates react to each other. The McCain campaign, watching the democratic convention, realized this week that a serious move needed to be made in order to counter punch the haymaker the Obama campaign landed when it was able to navigate the perilous Clinton Mountain range, select a suitable running mate and even invoke the power of the civil rights movement.
Many times companies face the exact same dilemma: Your competitor is younger, newer and is gaining momentum and you begin to panic. You need to resist the knee-jerk reaction and just introduce a new product to directly compete or react every time they run an ad, matching them dollar for dollar. Only time will tell, but I believe McCain has made a mistake rushing to name an inexperienced and unknown candidate in order to grab bag the headlines and gain momentum of his own. As the American people begin to equate this action to leadership in the White House, they might not like what it implies…a leader that makes snap decisions for short term gains.
Companies must insure the long term viability of their products and services and make sure they don’t paint themselves into a corner during times when it seems the competition is making rapid gains.