With stories such as Europe’s Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who once stated “the best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them” while suggesting in-flight porn and pay toilets, it is not surprising that Donald Trump is running for U.S. President. Like O’Leary – who became extremely successful with his low-fair and heavy fees business model for Ryanair, politics suddenly became the most interesting sport in America with Donald Trump.
The GOP candidate has taken the world by storm with his controversial strategy and outrageous announcements. Donald Trump kicked off his campaign by directly attacking Mexican immigrants, and the whole world went up in flames. At that time, only 16.1% of Republican supporters would likely vote for the candidate. Six months later, after proposing a ban on allowing any Muslims to enter the U.S., and stating the Fox News host Megan Kelly had “blood coming out of her whatever”, about 58% of Republican voters said they would likely vote for Donald Trump.
How Is Donald Trump Winning the Republican Nomination?
Love him or hate him, when Donald Trump speaks – the world listens. He has not been elected, and yet, Forbes recently asked if Trump could shake the financial markets up in 2016. See what is happening here? Was Forbes really asking if Donald Trump could be the cause of the financial markets’ volatility in 2016?
The press on Trump has been rampant, and while his crowd support has increased, he has also lost former supporters and business partners. However, rather than being frightened or otherwise deterred by all the criticism he is currently facing, Donald Trump seems to be thriving off of it. Despite the UK’s current protest against Donald Trump called “Block Donald J Trump from UK Entry”- with over 560,000 signatures – and with the election dates coming up in July, it can be expected that Trump’s behavior and rash statements will continue.
*Donald Trump can be a racist and a bigot – But Information Always Wins**
But can we really blame Donald Trump? Tim Calkins, a branding and marketing expert at Northwestern University\’s Kellogg School of Management, doesn\’t think so. In fact, he thinks of the Republican establishment as the airline industry that figured O\’Leary was nuts and a passing impostor. Moreover, Calkins thinks that Trump’s marketing strategy has been pretty brilliant, at least so far: he\’s luring voters with his selling strategies; he has unsettled the GOP hierarchy and, on top of everything else, Trump is confirming the tenets of marketing professors.
We can be sure of one thing: The real-estate mogul knows how to get the attention of the media; he’s done it all his life. If there is one thing Trump knows, is business – and it’s how to get deals done. He is an excellent sales person, marketer, and knows how to work the system better than any other candidate running. That’s how he recently was able to redirect Jeb Bush’s campaign website to his own homepage. Don’t worry, we will get to how Donald Trump stole Jeb Bush’s voters shortly.
How Has Digital Marketing Helped Donald Trump?
We can definitely learn several valuable lessons from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign – and in a competition based largely off popularity and public appeal, business savvy counts for nearly everything. Here are three reasons why Donald Trump’s marketing strategy is working:
- Trump’s Campaign Approach Has Worked in The Past: studies conducted in 2012 on political uncertainty, market volatility, and financial crisis have confirmed that volatility was intensified when the candidate was particularly extreme in multiple regards. As we all know, Donald Trump is not the first presidential candidate to have extreme views – there were many others before him, and we can be sure that there will be many others to come. However, we cannot ignore The correlation is strong, and for better or worse – we know Trump’s campaign will skew the actions of investors and stockholders.
- Global Occurrence Impacts from His Campaign: the republican’s campaign style is radical, and it is clear Trump has chosen to blaze his own trail. By doing so, he has caused millions of Americans to second-guess what it was once known as the “absolute truth”. Despite being widely criticized, Donald Trump is still leading most of the polls.
- Self**-Funding is Great Marketing**: ask any supporter, and they will tell you one of the reasons for voting for Trump is his bank account. Or should we say ‘he doesn’t need to negotiate with anyone else’? Either way, Donald believes he can do it all himself, and people seem to believe him.
What Marketing Lessons Can We Learn From Donald Trump?
Now that we both agree that (un)fortunately Donald Trump has been extremely successful in his presidential campaign, most can be attributed to some fundamentals of marketing:
- Live Your Brand: George Soros once said – “I used to be a human being, until I became a businessman”. To be successful, you MUST advocate for what you truly believe in.
- Manage Your Brand/Domain: We mentioned that Donald Trump redirected Jeb Bush’s website to his own, but never explained how: every website is registered as a domain, or a specific address that you go to in order to access information, buy or sell a product/service. Jeb Bush’s campaign management team had to pay in order to use the address http://www.jebbush.com for a certain period of time. However, due to poor brand management, his team forgot to renew the payment for that domain, making the address available to anyone else. Unfortunately for Jeb, his archrival Donald Trump saw the opportunity, and applied checkmate by automatically redirecting all visitors to his own website. (Sorry Jeb! Next time, make sure you hire a reputable digital marketing company!)
- Always Be Available for Your Audience: By becoming present whenever your audience is, you show them that you care for their opinion, and want to provide the best product/service possible. If you don’t, your next door competitor will.
- Dominate the Media: Let’s be honest: Has there ever been a “more talked about” presidential candidate then Donald Trump? He has almost universal name recognition across the U.S., and is constantly headlining news and magazines around the globe. With the same goal, you need to ensure your company comes to consumer minds when thinking about the product/service that you offer.
- Be Prepared to Manage Crisis: As boxing legend Mike Tyson would say “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Running a business involves overcoming more obstacles than simply following a plan. Thus, make sure your team is ready for any challenges that may come your way – or make sure you hire a professional team that is specialized in Reputation Management.
The truth is: Information always wins. And that is exactly how digital marketing can dictate market trends, influence the way people think, and change a culture as a whole. Times have changed, and the tools are way more advanced nowadays, than they were 5-10 years ago. So, it is vital that you choose a reputable marketing company to help not only market your brand, but successfully manage your name, and protect your reputation. Additionally, selecting a company with proven results ensures the quality of your decision, thus guaranteeing the return on your investment.
For more information on effective Brand Management, strong Reputation Management, or any other digital marketing solution that helps establish your business, contact Savage Global Marketing. This full service digital marketing company based in South Florida is the fastest growing marketing company in Florida, and has successfully increased the businesses of large corporations such as Ford Motor Company, Lincoln Motor Company, and Foster’s Yacht Services to name a few. Through mass press, professional press releases, well-written articles, effective management, and an aggressive marketing strategy Savage Global Marketing provides excellence in every service. They can be reached at 954 633 2963, by filling out this Contact Us form, or by email.
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