7 Marketing Lessons from the Trump/GOP disaster and Implications for the General Election:

As we head into the critical phase of the primaries, it looks like Donald Trump is well on his way to clinching the nomination, while the GOP is in despondent about the disaster they have brought upon themselves.

Here is my analysis of the situation with my marketing academic hat (turban!) on:

1. You need to focus on customers, not your product and your competition. The GOP became product-centric (pushing a rigid ideology) and competitor-centric (obstructing Obama blindly) and lost sight of their customers (white, blue-collar, rural, less-educated voters who are hurting economically).
2. Disruptive challengers don't play by the incumbent's rules, they don't target the same customers and they don't offer the same value proposition. Trump does not compete on ideology or policy (he makes it up as he goes along), he doesn't bother with facts or positions, he doesn't appeal to traditional "Conservatives" or "Evangelicals" and he doesn't position himself as a politician. His coalition is unique and crosses all traditional party and ideology lines. Democrats, take note!
3. Disruptors play Judo, not Sumo. Disruptive challengers use the weight of their opponents against them. Trump has skillfully leveraged the weight of the Republican Establishment against them. The other GOP candidates have tried to compete against Trump by using money (Jeb), ideology (Cruz) and endorsements (Rubio). Wrong tools and the wrong fight.
4. Trump is a brand with emotional appeal. You don't counter emotions with logic. When you try to talk logically to people about Trump's positions or his infamous utterances, you don't get through. Its like telling people why your Android phone has better features than the iPhone. You get laughed at. You counter emotions with emotions. Bernie has a better chance than Hillary of battling emotions with emotions.
5. If Hillary uses her head, she will lose against Trump. She needs to find her heart and connect with people at an emotional level. She should sound less like a policy wonk, be less scripted and rely less on focus groups and more on gut instinct. Voters respond to simple emotional messages that come from the heart (Remember George W. Bush "Either you are with us or you are Against us"). What's Hillary's emotional battle cry?
6. Trump is a brand. Brands are built on perceptions. And perceptions are reality. If Hillary wants to win, she has to dismember the myth of "Trump the brand that stands for success". Trump has positioned himself as a master deal maker. But many of his deals have been bad deals and shady deals. Trump the brand is very different from Trump the reality. Hillary needs to attack "Brand Trump" and not Trump the politician. He isn't a politician at all!
7. Fear sells better than Greed. Hillary needs to scare the crap out of Hispanics, African Americans, Immigrants and women about what a Trump presidency could mean. She should forget talking about "hope and a better tomorrow under Hillary". Instead, she should talk about "hate and a lousy tomorrow under Trump". As the Venture Capitalists say - "Sell Painkillers, not Vitamins".

The Trump Juggernaut can be stopped in the General Election, but only if Hillary learns from the GOP primary disaster. But the GOP establishment does not seem to get it. Mitt Romney's denouncement of Trump only served to fuel the fire among Trump supporters who see Mitt as an out-of-touch elitist. Further, Trump quickly dismissed Romney as a failed candidate.  Stay tuned for the fireworks to come!