It may be that Donald Trump understands marketing better than the entire Democratic Party.
In a speech, he said: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose a single vote."
This is something the Democratic Party can’t understand.
They believe people are only voting for Trump because they don’t understand how stupid and evil he is.
They think, if they can make these people understand how stupid and evil Trump is, they won’t vote for him.
This shows that Donald Trump understands marketing better than the Democratic Party.
Because Trump understands the concept of Core Users.
These are the people that will always buy your product or brand, no matter what.
The opposite is the people who won’t buy your product or brand, no matter what.
These are the Core Non-Users.
The Clinton camp, of course, is full of Trump Core Non-Users.
But they don’t see it that way.
They think they are simply stating common sense.
If they could only make the Trump voters understand, they would change their vote.
Trump understands this isn’t true.
His Core Users will vote for him no matter what.
Meanwhile, the Clinton camp is doing what the Remain camp did during the Brexit vote.
They are ignoring the people that really matter.
The people who are neither Core Users nor Core Non-Users.
The people whose minds can be changed.
This is a major problem for anyone in marketing.
Separating our own subjectivity off from objectivity.
The Remain camp couldn’t believe that anyone would vote for Nigel Farage and racism.
So their main message was that Farage was a racist.
This didn’t make a dent in the Core Users, but it pleased the Core Non-Users.
Meanwhile, it ignored the people who really mattered.
The voters who didn’t care about Farage, and weren’t racist, but hadn’t heard any other arguments about staying in Europe.
After the vote was counted, the Remain camp were shell-shocked.
They began to explain all the good things about staying in Europe.
All the things they should have been saying before the vote.
When they were too busy repeating that Farage was a racist.
After the vote, they realised their mistake.
Core Users liked the fact that Farage was a racist.
Core Non-Users hated the fact that Farage was a racist.
Everyone else didn’t care about Farage, and they weren’t racist.
But they didn’t hear any good arguments for staying in the European Union, so they assumed there weren’t any.
It seemed the only argument the Remain camp had was that Farage was a racist.
Then, after it was too late, the Remain camp discovered all the good things about the EU they should have been saying all along.
Let’s hope the Clinton camp learn that lesson.
The lesson everyone in marketing needs to learn.
Stop talking to Core Users and Core Non-Users.
Start talking to the people who actually can be converted.
Dave Trott is the author of Creative Mischief, Predatory Thinking and One Plus One Equals Three
(This article first appeared on CampaignLive.co.uk)
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