A 'groovy Kind Of Rudd' Beat Howard
The Age
Friday May 2, 2008
MARKETING gurus at the Australian National University say John Howard was defeated in last year's general election not because he lost the political plot, but because he failed to stay on message and failed to be - well - groovy.
Two lecturers say in a paper published in the Monash Business Review that the election branding strategy of the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was far more in tune with the mood of voters.And, they say, by bobbing up regularly on Rove and FM radio, the ALP leader made a deliberate pitch for support from the crucial under-40s.By contrast, the Liberal Party's negative attacks on Mr Rudd "inadvertently enhanced the ALP" when they continued to allow Mr Rudd to be positioned as Howard lite, say Stephen Dunn and Andrew Hughes, of ANU's College of Business and Economics.The Coalition also tried to run dual messages that the economy was fine but would go bad under the Labor Party. "Consumers were left confused about what the actual message was," the two academics say. Mr Rudd's strategy of selecting celebrity candidates was also effective in marketing terms, not in every seat but in some crucial Coalition seats on margins of between 6% and 9%.Mr Rudd himself was marketed as a celebrity under the core brand of "New Leadership", leaving Mr Howard unable to define many new ideas beyond polling day.* Mr Rudd has made Time magazine's list of the world's most influential people, just five months after he was elected. The magazine has included Mr Rudd in this year's list of 100 names, including world and business leaders, celebrities and sports stars.
© 2008 The Age