Learning From Political Marketing and Vice Versa – The Post-Mortem
This article is part of a series that identifies direct observation and analysis from political marketing and its application to customer brand marketing and vice versa.
Please note that neither this nor any other article in this series attempts to make a political statement. I'm neither advancing nor supporting any candidate or political party in these articles. Instead, this is about marketing—pure and simple—and what we can learn from each other.
The 2024 Presidential election is history. The American people have spoken.
Former President Donald J. Trump won a resounding victory over Vice President Kamal Harris. He garnered a higher percentage of votes in virtually every county versus his performance in 2020.
Like it or not, it is what it is.
Democrat leadership, the legacy media, and left-leaning pundits are shell-shocked. They’re pointing fingers in all directions in their attempt to make sense of losing the presidency, the Senate, and the House.
It's time for the Democratic Party to conduct a post-mortem to learn what’s needed to get back on track for the 2026 midterms and pave the way for a better chance at victory in the 2028 presidential race.
The Dems' quest is similar to when a new launch brand fails to achieve its Year I Business Objectives.
It's no different than when a competitor launches a campaign that disrupts the market leader to snatch sales and market share.
A post-mortem analysis is a way to identify what’s needed to right the ship before it sinks.
Unfortunately, some companies will treat a failed launch like radioactive plutonium and distance themselves from it. Competitive losses are an entirely different matter.
The losing party passes through stages of loss: shock and denial, anger and finger-pointing, throwing solutions against the wall to find something that works, reflection and (begrudging) acceptance, deep understanding, followed by intelligent action to bring about relevant and meaningful change.
The earlier the post-mortem, the earlier the opportunity to come out of and position themselves to reverse the loss.
However, post-mortems are difficult for the dead to perform on themselves.
Indeed, they'll identify some of the “what went wrong.” But the real challenge is discovering and addressing the “whys.”
A sound post-mortem requires objectivity, which is stymied by the universal practice of CYA (Cover Your Ass) and muddied by engagement in the blame game and finger-pointing.
So, expect to hear inappropriate strategy, failed tactics, questionable shift in values, problems with voters for the opposition, and poor candidate choices as reasons for the Dem’s losses.
Round and round, the Dems will go until they conduct an objective post-mortem. It will take time—lots of time.
THINK ABOUT IT
MAKING YOUR MARKETING MATTER (EVEN) MORE!
Learn more about universal principles, best practices, and quality processes in all matters of marketing. Please follow me on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richarddczerniawski/ , where I share my perspectives from more than 50-years of successful worldwide “brand” marketing experience across many business sectors.
To learn more about creating a winning brand positioning strategy, read COMPETITIVE POSITIONING - Best Practices for Creating Brand Loyalty, by yours truly and Mike Maloney, and my latest book, AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS – How to Go from Dumb to Smart Marketing. Both are available on AMAZON.
Peace and best wishes in making your marketing matter (even) more,
Richard D. Czerniawski