• by Kathleen Stockham , January 14, 2014

Hear that? That somber, deep reverberation as the clock strikes midnight? Birds scatter away, leaves scuttle across the pavement and anyone with a TV, internet connection, a mailbox or social media account groans aloud at the same time.

Yep, it’s an election year.

Like it or not, the earthworms that live just below the surface locally and in D.C. come to the light for the next 10 months to remind you “how important you are” to them and why you need to keep them in office. (…or, ahem…in the dirt).

But for all of the attention on the blow-dried polish and panache of politicians, very little attention actually gets paid to the real power brokers in election years -- the political marketer.

Pollsters, marketers, list brokers, statisticians and even demographic specialists are part of the well-oiled machine of political marketing. Whether it’s a local election or a nationwide ticket, the political marketers are the real craftsmen of the effort.

Messaging, canvassing, spinning, conducting opposition research, spending, targeting, positioning, reacting, floating and a whole host of other verbs ending in “ing” are part of the job.

A close colleague who is a marketing strategist for a specific political platform once told me that the political marketer is a lot like being the city coroner; it’s a job everyone is depending on, but no one really wants to do. “You hold the power and determination of a direction after a lot of digging around inside the corpse for clues,” they once said.

Bodies and crimes aside, the political marketer is also the absolute barometer of what is trending and occurring in the community (city, state, and nation.) Unlike retail marketing or corporate marketing or any other marketing role, the political marketer promotes a commodity of influence and clout with a dash of charm and “everyman” status. However, with that promotion comes a very prescriptive and surgical targeting down to street-level, income level and even gender of the message and how it is heard.

Back to the coroner’s job theory, the coroner has to figure out how to tell a story based on the clues and evidence found in the body cavity. The political marketer has to figure out how to make “evidence and clues” out of a story they tell and make it stick in the ballot box cavity.

The modern pol marketer also has to have a thick skin and strong stomach, as does a coroner, because of the blood and guts -- and sometimes the sorry side of human beings -- they come across. Before you laugh at that, remember that aside from image and public relations, the marketer has to project an image and a vision even if their product (politician) is sour, corrupt or just a dishonest person. Having the stomach for how dirty politics can be definitely aids explanation as to why the political marketer is a very obscure and rare species!

Alternative news, social media and 5,000 cable stations have broadened the messaging spectrum for pol marketers, but as with any window that can open, it will also close on your fingers if you let go too fast. 

Social media, in particular, has truly become the great equalizer in political marketing, where the spin-masters no longer control the messaging and the constituents fire right back. With anyone able to respond to reporters, candidates, body men, handlers, fakers, shakers and everyone else, the conversation is now wide open and a little more “loose” than through normal channels.

In other words, the coroner now has to deal with the real possibility that the corpse can get up off the table and walk around all by itself with no warning; clues and evidence falling to the floor like severed body parts.

So, ready to put on that lab coat?