Six lessons from the election

The Marketing Society Global Ambassador, Hugh Burkitt, offers his thoughts on the recent election result, and how Theresa May failed from a leadership point of view.

1. Never trust  the consumer research.
Percentage polling figures have a wonderful way of suggesting certainty. But in reality people change their minds, especially if they are being asked about their future intentions.

And our political polling still seems hopelessly inaccurate. The Times YouGov poll announced a 7% lead for the Conservatives on the eve of the election and confidently predicted an increased Conservative majority.

But in end the difference between Conservative and Labour was just 2.4% and May’s majority had melted away.  

Tom Ewing of System 1 Research has written another brilliant piece on how consumers really behave which you can read here.

2. Theresa May’s leadership failed on future, engage and deliver
Followers of the Society’s Manifesto for Marketing Leadership will know that our model of bold leadership is based on Steve Radcliffe’s “Future, Engage, Deliver”

How did Theresa May’s leadership measure up? Here is my tabloid-style analysis:

The future which Theresa May promised us was only exciting if you are obsessed with leaving the EU at any cost.

In headline terms her Manifesto launch ended up offering us the “Dementia Tax”, hungry schoolchildren and shivering pensioners.

It can’t have helped her image in Labour heartlands that she was seen to be in favour of bringing back fox-hunting and grammar schools.

She completely failed to engage the public, the media or even her own colleagues in the cabinet in her vision of the future.

She ran away and hid from everyone for the duration of the campaign, leaving behind a slogan – “Strong and Stable” - that she didn’t live up to.

The purpose of the election was to deliver an increased majority in the House of Commons to strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations. In effect she asked for a blank cheque on the Brexit negotiations, and she didn’t get it.

3. A brand is what a brand does
This is an old cliché in marketing, but Teresa May didn’t behave during the election campaign in a way that was either strong or stable.

If her “snap election” had happened the day after she called it, she might well have won the predicted landslide. But our constitution does not allow that.

Harold Wilson famously told us that “a week is a long time in politics”, and called a snap election in 1970 that also went wrong and let in the Conservatives under Edward Heath.

This time, the seven weeks from April 19th  to June 8th proved to be long enough for Jeremy Corbyn to rise from the dead.

4. It’s definitely not “The Sun wot won it”
On April 11th 1992 the Sun ran their triumphant headline after supposedly preventing Neil Kinnock from becoming PM with its headline on the day before: "If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights”

Their attempt to dis Jeremy Corbyn with their “Don’t Chuck Britain in the Cor -Bin” led to public burnings of the Sun being posted on social media. Consumers these days can answer back.

The tabloids are said to have a strong influence still among the politicians themselves, but personally I am particularly delighted that the press barons behind the Sun and the Mail have been chastened. The tabloids are yesterday’s medium.

5. “Strong and Stable” is not a benefit
I can hear an old colleague trained by Procter and Gamble saying to me “versatility is not a proposition”. “Strong and stable” is similarly unexciting.

And messages today need to fit the medium. Being able to target voters on social media is not the same as persuading them. The more personal the targeting becomes the more sensitive the message need to be, and old fashioned sloganeering of the printed poster era, or excessively negative messages just won’t cut it. Momentum, the group behind Jeremy Corbyn’s elevation to leader of the Labour Party,  are said to have had seven million viewings of their video about the abolition of university tuition fees.  

6. It’s not all bad news
While business generally hates uncertainty, I personally see some good news in the election outcome.

The United Kingdom looks less likely to break up following Ruth Davison’s successful campaign against “Indy ref 2”in Scotland.

And surely there will have to be a more constructive approach Brexit. The UKIP vote collapsed to under 2%, and no longer presents the threat to the Conservatives they once feared. So sensible people in Westminster can think more constructively about our future relationship with the EU and less hysterically  about “control”.    

Photo credit: Andrew Gardner | www.picfair.com