Progressive Roundtable - Marketing Strategy and Techniques

The Persuaders

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 11:00:32 -0500

Author:
multiple

Description:
This disquieting 90-minute PSB documentary film about contemporary marketing and advertising techniques, marketing challenges, and the power of branding includes commentary on the 2004 election. Of particular interest from the political standpoint are the sections on functional MRI studies of the brain--the brain's responses to ads, brands, and messages, including political ads and events--and the implications for "neuromarketing".

Link to External Document:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders

Resource Access:
Available to the General Public

Document Source and Bibliographical Information:
PBS Frontline broadcast; video available for purchase

"Progressives and Democrats: Assert Your Brand!"

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:05:32 -0500

Author:
Thom Hartmann

Description:
Excerpt: “Politics is all about branding. And brands are not about issues or details -- they're about identity....[W]hen a person has bonded to a brand, it becomes part of their identity. They then develop a psychologically sophisticated and largely unconscious internal system to filter out and reject contradictory information....Progressives, liberals, and Democrats have failed to apply this simple reality, and therefore have allowed conservatives to define our brands for us.” Hartmann goes on to describe what he considers the fundamental brand for progressives and asserts how this can b

Link to External Document:
www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views05/0210-26.htm

Resource Access:
Available to the General Public

Document Source and Bibliographical Information:
CommonDreams.org, February 10, 2005

"Getting Your Message Across"

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:03:37 -0500

Author:
Genevieve Wood

Description:
Excerpt: "Personalizing your message is one of many effective techniques to help you engage, inform and motivate your audience. There are really three basic steps to creating an effective message. First, you must target your message. That means deciding who is your audience. Second, and only after you have defined your audience, you must develop your key message points, what are sometimes referred to as “talking points” or “soundbites.” Third, you must effectively deliver your message. This means using the right tone, wearing the right clothes and making sure you smile when possible. T

Link to External Document:
www.heritage.org/about/community/insider/2001/jun01/

Attached Document:
wood-messaging.doc (32.5 KB)

Resource Access:
Available to the General Public

Document Source and Bibliographical Information:
The Insider no. 284 (June 2001)

"Selling Ideas in a Rationally Ignorant World"

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:58:43 -0500

Author:
Fred L. Smith, Jr.

Description:
Excerpt: "Americans are busy people. They have real lives. They don’t have time to become expert on everything. And they most assuredly don’t read the Federal Register before dozing off each night. They rationally devote time to becoming informed about those things they can do something about, which means that they are rationally ignorant about most things in the political realm. Yet, we in the policy world keep trying to educate them, to make them as knowledgeable as we are! Bad idea....Yet, although people will not be knowledgeable, they will have opinions. And public opinion is importan

Link to External Document:
www.heritage.org/about/community/insider/1999/nov99/

Attached Document:
smith-selling.doc (31.5 KB)

Resource Access:
Available to the General Public

Document Source and Bibliographical Information:
The Insider no. 265 (November 1999)