Whether you love Donald Trump or you hate him, there’s one thing you’ll have to agree on: He broke every rule of presidential politics…and won! The guy has said things, the guy has done things that every pundit said would lose him the election. And he won!!!
So what’s going on here? What’s the message that a company like yours must take away from the last year and a half?
It’s that all the traditional rules and all the conventional thinking about marketing no longer matter – in fact they might actually work against you. The climate in the country is CHANGE.
IN with bold. IN with audacious. IN with clean sweeps. And OUT with the Status Quo!
We’ve all heard the phrase, maybe within your organization or department, “That’s not the way we do it here.” In the case of now-President Trump, he certainly didn’t buy into that line. This phrase is used to defend against change. It’s the easy way of avoiding having to change or embrace better alternatives. But the problem with defending “the way we’ve always done it” is it keeps us from doing something new. It keeps us from having to change.
Change forces us to take a position. Taking positions expose us to potential criticism and critique and that makes us uncomfortable. So, to keep from being criticized and being uncomfortable we do the “same old stuff.” But Trump has changed all that. The new rules in this post-election world are: Dare to go on the offensive. Dare to do things differently. Dare to look forward. Dare to be audacious. Dare to risk failure.
In fact, Donald Trump stole a line right out of our hymn book: “Dare to be Different,” and now he’s sitting in the oval office. The Status Quo is over, whether you like it or not. And if you’re not ready to change, well, ask Hilary Clinton how it feels to be on the outside of the White House looking in.
The rules are being re-written even as we speak. So I’m breaking one of my own and putting our agency pitch video right here at the end – because it’s all about change.
I’m Rolf Gutknecht and I approve this message!
Rolf Gutknecht is vice president, director of account services for LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Rolf on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com. You can also connect with Rolf on LinkedIn.