Carpet Bombing as a Marketing Strategy

The 2012 election season is almost over - and you will hear a sigh of relief across the country on Wednesday November 7 when the pain of constant, negative messaging is finally over.

Because of changes in the regulations surrounding political advertising (particularly the "Citizens United" case), this year has been particularly obnoxious when it comes to political marketing.  By some accounts, the various groups supporting the presidential candidates will spend about a billion dollars on this election.  And that doesn't count the money spent on congressional and local races.

Carpet bombing destroys everything in its path

, sometimes even the target

Unfortunately, this flood of dollars has resulted in marketing that has adopted a "carpet bombing" strategy.  The advertising is reactive, disjointed, and anything-but-strategic.  The logic of carpet bombing is that if you throw enough explosives in the vicinity of the target, you might just get the target.  The problem is that there is tremendous waste and a lot of collateral damage.

The damage from this year's political carpet bombing is likely to be a loss of consumer interest in advertising messages.  The advertising for candidates could have been so much more effective - and palatable - if the campaign managers had followed the proven and effective tenets of marketing: develop a cohesive strategy that builds over time and presents the consumer with a clear and understandable benefit.

I believe good marketing could have provided the candidates with twice the impact for half the cost.

There's just not a lot of "bang for the buck" when it comes to carpet bombing.