The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Our challenge is to discover 'fundamental truths' and to then act accordingly.

So, another American election has happened and now the question is what we can learn from it.

Whether you are on the side of "when a clown moves into a palace he doesn't become a king; the palace becomes a circus", or whether you have a completely different view (possibly related to what is discussed below), it is worth digging into the data that is available and trying to draw insights from that.

Where can such data be found? Well, we've had a look at a few sources and the CNN exit polls (first published before result finality) seem to have some trustworthiness. So, let's look at that data.

Branding

A political party is a brand and a brand must be nurtured continuously. It needs to represent something.

What should a political party represent?

"It's the economy, stupid", is a phrase coined by (Democrat) Bill Clinton's strategist, Jim Carville, in 1992.

Although it is nuanced, the American Republican Party has successfully, and simply, positioned itself as the party of the economy. They, quite effectively, promised a better economy to voters.

So, is this really the case? What does the data tell us? Are they really are the party of the economy? Well, it is almost certainly not the case according to the data - such as from Wikipedia:

"In February 2021, The New York Times reported: 'Since 1933, the economy has grown at an annual average rate of 4.6 percent under Democratic presidents and 2.4 percent under Republicans'".

And the Democrats have performed better (according to this Wikipedia entry) with respect to most of the important economic measures too - i.e. not just 'growth'.

Here's the thing though. You (otherwise why would you be reading this) and I may be interested in what the data tells us. Many people are not. There's always some quantitative vs. qualitative decision-making - and both of these approaches have value at various junctions. Qualitative decision-making is often faster and easier though.

Customer-first

It seems as if it is easy to be customer-first. Heck, during elections a political party's main focus is winning 'customers' - i.e. voters. A customer-first mindset is essential there.

So, we need to know what is important to our customers then, don't we?

Here's a fact: There are many 'things' that are important to people, but those 'things' are not all equal. Some 'things' are more equal than others.

We encourage you to also work through the CNN exit polls with your business hats on (and yes, this data comes with all the usual caveats), but let's just focus on the following two sentences from this analysis (to show why the data shouts that some 'things' are more important than others).

"In 2024, it’s about two-thirds of Americans who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But they didn’t necessarily tie that support to their vote for president."

In other words: "it's the economy, stupid"; not abortions, or climate change, or candidates' felony counts, or whatever else.

People have many views about many things. They may be pro-choice (as in this dataset example). Yet, the situation of whether an abortion needs to be performed, for whatever reason ('good' or 'bad'), is not most people's lived experience. Similarly, they may agree with many of the other policies of the Democrats. But, ultimately, they'll vote for their lived experience.

The economy is our lived experience. People may view the winner of this presidential race as a despicable individual (at the one extreme), or as a good role model, or as a leader to their 'cult' (at the other extreme). These views matter less than what many analysts thought. What matters most is what matters to voters (and their loved ones) as individuals.

And, in terms of what matters to voters, their financial well-being is paramount. Then it simply is a case of which party positioned itself along those lines: "it's the economy, stupid". Which political 'brand' is the brand that positioned themselves as the party of the economy.

Your customer-first approach

So, it is clear that it is not as easy as it may sound to have a Customer-first approach.

Yes, a majority of your potential customers may appreciate your brand positioning and may love what your brand represents. Yet, they may still spend their money elsewhere.

And they may then do so for many reasons:

a.) You may be doing really well in terms of issues that are important to customers. Yet, you are either not telling them that, or you are doing a bad job of telling them that.

b.) They may believe that you competitor does a better job of holding that position, regardless of what the facts are and what the data reveals. Your competitor told a better story and built a better brand w.r.t. this position.

c.) While you brand positioning may resonate with potential customers, there are other positions that resonate more with them. You chose a good secondary position - not a good primary position.

... and so forth.

The Question

"It's the economy stupid" is a truth in elections. Everyone knows this. Yet the American Democrats still did not act accordingly.

What is 'the truth' for your target market?
Not 'a truth'.
Rather, 'the truth'.

This is the fundamental question.
Find the answer.
Act accordingly.