9 Marketing Lessons For Brands From Donald Trump's Presidential Bid

 

Though there are so many different sides to Donald Trump’s drive for the Presidency – the misogyny, the chauvinism, the racism, but there is one topic more than any other that should interest marketers about the Trump phenomenon: his approach to media, which is a marvel.

Some eye-opening comparisons between Trump and the other unlucky politicians attempting to beat him to the White House have been recently made thereby creating lessons for marketers.

1. Never make too much effort downplaying a competitor. The anti-Trump advertising by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubioall, so far, have been to no avail.
2.   Trump is achieving infeasible success from an incredibly small investment. While Trump has spent only $10 million on owned media, he has accrued almost $2 billion in earned media.
3. Trump campaign is another example of the power of social media when it connects people for all the political point scoring and a reduced budget.
4.  A renewed faith in content marketing and social media over traditional channels of communications is inspired with the great engagement he created by always providing ‘content’ for media and the public to share.
5.   Keep it natural and real as possible as you can. Trump’s campaign manager Corey was smart to realize that the only way his candidate could win was to “Let Trump be Trump”, a strategy that has baffled all analysts and worked against all odds.
6. Trumpunderstands the power of words and witty messages! Words like “loser”, “dummy”, “ugly”, “clown”, “goofball”, “bimbo”, etc. To be fair, these are everyday words used by ordinary Americans. His fans could connect and relate.
7. These tools work best when the product is a person and that person happens to be naturally, horrendously, enduringly fascinating. Hate him or love him, Trump is an ‘interesting’ character.
8. Being daring too is an important skill one has to wear as Trump is fearless. Whether done in ignorance or not.

The stunning success of Donald Trump’s earned media strategy proves that social media and content marketing work when brands are willing to take risks.