The 5 Lessons that Obama Can Teach Us About Self-Marketing

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Throughout the United States presidential campaign that has been going on for the last year and a half, I have marveled at the marketing prowess of Senator Barack Obama and his advisors.

While I am not a huge Obama fan, I can appreciate his feat of going from an obscure, first-term Senator to a favorite to win the presidency of the United States in such a short time. This, of course, not mentioning the fact that he is the first African-American candidate to be taken seriously in the history of the American presidential race.

As it is with many stories of great achievement, much of Barack Obama’s success has to do with extremely savvy marketing. In fact, I believe that Obama is one of the greatest self-marketers that we have seen in recent times.

The marketing of his campaign is truly incredible, and it is the reason why he is the leading presidential candidate right now; he simply has marketed himself and his campaign better than anyone else in this election so far, which is a compliment considering there were at one time about a dozen or more candidates vying for the presidency in 2008.

In this article, I will outline 5 of the main marketing principles that Senator Obama has perfected that have led to his current success in this presidential race, and break down his character traits that can help you to achieve similar success when replicated.

1) Determine the single greatest desire of your target market, and then center your marketing approach around that desire. Identify yourself with that desire. In this election, we have many different urgent issues at stake. There is the lagging economy, the war in Iraq, and the disastrous housing market, among other things. Overall, the American people are unhappy. What do people want when they are unhappy in general? Change.

If you are unhappy, you want your situation to change, period. Change is the simplified answer to the nations’ problems, and Obama and his campaign have taken the ingenious step to capitalize on the publics’ desire for change by making the Senator the face of American change. ‘Change you can believe in’ and ‘Obama for Change’ are incredibly smart campaign slogans, and it is no wonder that the candidate who is using them is the candidate that is ahead in the polls.

By identifying himself and making himself synonymous with the American publics’ main desire, Obama has marketed himself to success.

2) Keep it simple! Although he is sometimes criticized for the generality of his stance on certain issues, and for not getting into the specifics of some of his policies, keeping your message simple is a very effective way to win the hearts of your target market.

Time and again we have seen a simple approach to explaining an idea connect much more effectively with an audience than a complicated, detailed approach. Obama understands this, and has used it in his campaign. He knows that by keeping his message simple and direct ( ‘Change’ ), he will appeal to a much broader spectrum of voters. Oftentimes, people do not want to know or do not understand the details of a complicated message, and are turned off when they do not understand that message.

By keeping your message simple and direct, you will connect with a larger group of people.

3) Speak well and communicate clearly and firmly. Obama ia a great orator, has a firm, confident way of speaking, and is adept at conveying his belief in what he is saying. This is a great self-marketing quality, and is a large contributor to the Senator’s popularity and political success. All of the greatest leaders, both negative and positive, have been powerful, eloquent speakers.

If you want to be more successful in marketing yourself, it is imperative that you hone your speaking skills.

4) Be personable. Like all great self-marketers, Obama is very personable. He has the ability to connect with the people he is peaking with, knows how to make a quick joke, listens intently, and is generally an agreeable, likeable person. Since much of life ( especially politics ) is a popularity contest, being likeable and genuinely nice to others is a valuable asset in marketing yourself. Like many other powerful leaders, Obama has perfected this character trait.

5) Present yourself with dignity, confidence, and self-respect. One of the key principles in successful self-marketing is that people view you the way that you view yourself. How you view yourself is something that people can sense immediately when they meet or see you; it is a sort of energy that you emit to others. By respecting and valuing yourself, you will cause others to value you as well. Do not be cocky, but make every effort to exude a calm confidence and sense of self-assurance when you are around others. This cannot be faked, either; people will sense your true feelings about yourself intuitively. This character trait is especially important to posess when you are trying to advance to a higher position in your work, relationships, or life in general.

It will be extremely hard for you to have great success without exuding confidence and competence. Obama has perfected this character trait in himself, and it has served him extremely well, for without it he would not be considered worthy of such a lofty position as President of the United States.

These self-marketing principles can be applied effectively to any area of your business or life. Obama has utilized them all the way to the U.S. Senate, and perhaps the White House. Keep these principles in mind with all of your marketing and self-marketing efforts, and watch your success increase greatly.

What did you think of this article? Are there any other self-marketing principles that you think Obama has used successfully? Do you disagree with anything I’ve said? Please share your comments with us, we’d all love to hear them!

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P.S. This is not a show of support for Obama, but simply a critique of good marketing, so please do not leave any politically charged comments. They will be deleted. Thanks!

Tags: character, Marketing, Obama, Relationships, Self-Marketing, speaking