"The best way to kill a bad product is with good advertising." That's one of the oldest maxims in the ad business, an industry I have spent my career in, usually online but with a fair amount of traditional branding experience as well.
Simply what it means is that good advertising will get consumers to look at a product, to give it a try, drive its trial numbers up if you will. However, consumers are pretty smart folk and eventually, they will decide for themselves if the product matches the hype.
Some products succeed on the strength of their product with little or no advertising. But most products are a blend of marketing and product.
Barack Obama is heavy on the marketing and light on the product. Essentially, he talks about hope and change but far too much of his campaign, how they operate and how they act, speaks of old D.C. politics and business as usual.
Let's take one moment: the ridiculous vote in the U.S. Senate to condemn MoveOn. Barack was in the building but didn't vote. He no-showed. Sounds to me like D.C. business as usual. Hide in your office so you don't have to take a stand -- he's played this game before with critical votes. Not much hope or change in that stance.
If you look at what has happened to Barack since he announced, you'll see what I mean. Before he went and raised tens of millions of dollars, spent it and raised more, he actually was closer to Hillary in the national polls than he is now. Kudos to Pollster.com for a great organization of polling, click here and go back to May. Barack the unknown is in better shape than Barack the known. The long primary calendar has not been his friend.
Important to note here: what Hillary has done is prove that her product is better than her marketing, or to be more specific, the negative branding of her 'competition.' She did this the only way she could, one voter, one district, one county, one state at a time. The more people see her, the more they like her. And then there's Barack.
So what would you do if you were running Barack's campaign and wanted to prove conclusively that you were actually about Hope and Change and not just about talking about Hope and Change? Here are a few starter thoughts that will make sense to anyone outside of the beltway.
RESIGN FROM THE SENATE
Well, if D.C. is part of the problem, how about being part of the solution instead of keeping a back-up as remaining part of the problem? Everyone accepts that Senators run for the White House and keep their 'day' job.
But if you wanted to prove you were in this to win, Barack, resign. And focus.
JETTISON THE CONSULTANTS WHO REMIND ME OF EDWARDS 2004.
Remember all the complaints about John Edwards in 2004? Pretty face, all about the talk and not much walk, et cetera? Would it come as a shock to learn that Obama has some of those same consultants in 2007? Nope.
STOP RAISING MONEY. OR, AT LEAST, TELL ME WHERE THE LEFTOVER MONEY WILL GO.
You have plenty of money. You will have extra money win or lose. What charity is that going to go to? Or are you going to stash $20 million away for 'future' races? Show me you understand it's not your money, or your email list and I'll believe you're different.
OR ACCEPT DONATIONS OF $100 OR LESS.
You say you're about the people, well, the people think $100 is a lot and that it's insane for anyone to give a candidate $2,300. So take only $100 or less per person.
NATIONALIZE THE RACE.
I love Iowa. But the illusion of Iowa's power is really just a self-fulfilling prophecy and this time around, it won't really matter as much because the bump anyone will get from winning Iowa will be short-lived because so many primaries happen so soon after Iowa -- unlike 2004 where there was six weeks from Iowa to Super Tuesday.
BETTER YET, CONCEDE IOWA.
You don't have to win Iowa if you stop campaigning there. Chances are Hillary or Edwards will win, so take your show on the road.
AND, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO SWING FOR THE FENCES, CALL UP AL GORE.
You have the money, and the field operations, and a Gore-Obama ticket would be something to see. Al's going to have a good week hopefully, with the Nobel Prize thing and all. So call him up.
Tell him that he knows all about the vice presidency and you want to be his vice president.
Trust me, with the path you're on now, you have nothing to lose.