Seth Godin's marketing lessons from the US election

I was going to write something this morning about lessons we all can learn from the past two years, but thankfully Seth Godin did this already, because I'm exhausted (I can't handle anymore midnight speeches, and late-night TV).  Here's a quick overview of Godin's lessons (see below for the link to the whole article):

• Stories really matter.  Wonder what we'll remember about this election a few years from now?  Probably trivial stuff that made for good stories.
• TV is over.  It's true that the first time I watched "TV" on my computer was for the conventions.  That broke the damn and now I watch TV shows, movies, conferences, etc. and assume if I miss the Daily Show or SNL, I can always find the good stuff on line.
• Permission matters.  I have a post coming out about this on Friday.
• Marketing is tribal.  This election drove people into very different "tribes" and Senator McCain's pick of Palin shored up certain tribes, while alienating others.  Senator Obama went after new and different tribes.  Both are risky strategies.
• Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted. This is somewhat related to the two points above.  It's easier to sell something to a group that already wants to buy.
• Attack ads don't always work.  Thank goodness.  Hopefully, we'll see a higher road here going forward. I think the pinnacle of this was Senator Obama's infomercial which played out more like a documentary about the middle classes than a pro-Obama ad.  Notably, there was not a single attack on Senator McCain in it.  We also saw the country's dislike for attacks in the live ticker that CNN ran during the debates. When candidates went negative, their approvals went down. 
• We get what we deserve.  Note that Godin wrote this yesterday not knowing the results and intended to say that we, as Americans, have let the process become what it is, and therefore we deserve whatever results from the process.  However, I'd like to think that based on the record voter turnout, the country might now be energized to help improve the process.

Click here to read Seth's article. 

Comments

[Deborah]

TV is NOT over. CNN and the other networks got extremely high ratings for the election coverage. Although you can get numbers and analysis online, I believe people like to hear it too. And, the marketing lesson from the campaign is that you have to have all hands on deck in order to win--meaning TV, online, print, grassroots etc.

[Diane K. Danielson]

@Deborah. I agree that TV is not "over," it's simply reinventing itself. But, Godin makes his living making big sweeping statement. However, what I noted was that my tv-watching habits have changed. I can't live without my DVR. I have no idea what time shows I watch are on because I just have them taped, or I find them online. And I did watch election night with CNN/Daily Show on the telly and CNN.com and MSNBC.com on my laptop (my son and I were playing with the CNN electorial college calculator all night). So, you're correct. We like our news in lots of different ways!