I received not one, but three Email messages from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) this week.
The first had a subject line of “Bulltwinkie“, the second “Sarah’s Secret Plan” and the third was “Palin Antidote.”
Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum … I smell marketing copy.
It was next to impossible to read these emails with a straight face. They had nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with marketing. These guys are selling a product.
I’ve voted as a Democrat for as far back as I can remember, and that’s a long time. But when I read these emails, I didn’t read them as a voter. I read them with the senses of a copywriter.
Take this for example:
“DCCC are launching an advertising campaign while Republicans are home in their districts for President’s Day to help expose the Republicans” not-so-secret plan to gut social security.”
Man, I could have written that myself.
And this:
“There is no way you and I are going to let them drag us back into the ditch they drove us into – no way, no how.”
I could name a dozen copywriters who may have written that line, and more importantly, they could have written it about either party!
We’re not being asked to engage in a political debate about the merits or potential overhaul of our health care system. The sole purpose of these emails is to raise funds by creating a feeding frenzy against Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.
This Stuff Isn’t New …
The DCCC’s copywriting approach is straight out of Breakthrough Advertising, the classic book on writing marketing copy by Eugene Schwartz.
Schwartz demonstrates that the best way to make a sale is to amplify the already existing feelings or thoughts of your reader. If you know that your readers think Sarah Palin is an idiot who is Hell-bent on destroying all this is right and good, then all you need to do is hand them a little fuel to flame their passions.
Just look at the words they use:
- Not-so-secret plans…
- Gut social security…
- Drag us back into the ditch …
- No way, no how…
- Dangerous plans…
- Special interests…
The emails are filled to the brim with inflammatory words and phrases. That’s certainly not an accident, and it’s not political. It’s just good copywriting.
It really doesn’t matter that I think Ms. Palin has all the presidential qualities of a cockroach. We’re not being asked to engage in a useful political or social conversation about health care. We’re being poked and prodded – lit under the butt even – to play a dangerous game of “Beat the Opposing Copywriter.”
It’s scary to think that as copywriters, we actually have that much power!
Who was it that said, “Behind every great man is a great copywriter“?
The Problem With This Approach
Let’s step out of the political realm for a second and talk about the dangers of the kind of approach the DCCC is taking by using a sports analogy (I can’t help it… I’m a jock).
If your half-court oriented basketball team is getting ready to play a team with a fast-paced, face-break, high-scoring style, you’ve got two options: you can try to match their tempo; or, you can focus on defense and try to slow them down to your level of play.
Anyone with a lick of basketball sense knows that you want to get the other team to play your style because that gives you the best chance of winning. That is, you play to your strengths, not the other team’s strengths.
As a marketer, I have to understand the strengths of my client and play to those strengths. The strength of the Democratic party has never (in my opinion) been muckraking. In fact, they pretty much suck at it. You can infer from this what I believe to be the strengths of the Republican party.
This negative, attack the opponent where it hurts approach by the DCCC will backfire. It will turn away moderate Democrats (like me) who would rather talk about solving the country’s problems than raising pitchforks against the “evil” Sarah Palin.
Apply This To Your Marketing Plan
Think about what’s happening today in Congress in terms of your own marketing.
Are you playing to your competitor’s strengths, or to yours? Are you so busy bashing the heads of your competitors to find out what your customers really want?
The DCCC letters are good copy. They’ll get the “fund raising” job done because they are so in-your-face inflammatory. But will they serve the greater purpose of keeping Democrats in office?
Think in terms of the big picture — creating life-time, loyal customers. Apple has done this by giving their loyal fan base exactly what they want. Their light-hearted jibes at Microsoft reinforce the perceived strengths of Apple while poking fun at Microsoft’s weaknesses.
These ads work because they continue to promote the bottom line strength of Apple, what I call the “Cool Factor.”
Get it? It’s about always working from your core strengths in your copy – the things that make your loyal customers so loyal. Then, if you throw in a few right crosses at your opponent, your loyal fans are still connected to you through your primary strengths.
It could make all the difference between a winning campaign, a so-so campaign, and a losing campaign.
Getting a little lost in the battle for supremacy of your products and services? Let me know … Let’s use a little of that copywriting magic to put you on the podium instead of the dog house.
One of these days I’m going to try an experiment.
Want more website traffic?
You already know that the “build it, and they will come” mind set doesn’t work online.
Many internet marketing “strategies” focus solely around getting traffic. Traffic generation is important, but without the Big Idea threaded throughout your internet marketing system, you confuse your visitor.