Winning a presidential election has a great deal to do with winning the ratings election. Both involve an audience who is asked to vote for a preferred option at a specific time. Who do they put a check mark next to when they are alone in that voting both? Who do they tune in to for trusted entertainment or information? How are they going to vote when it comes time for them to cast their votes? Times up…vote now.
Well if you believe the polls, then you would think people vote with their brains. Pollsters ask: Who would you vote for today? Who do think is going to do the best job with the economy? How would you rate how the president is doing? How much do you trust Mitt? How is Obama handling the economy? Who do you think won the last debate?
What you end up with are piles of statistical data that exclusively works the logical side of the brain. The left brain thinkers.
But inside they campaigns they know better. They know that people vote for the candidate that creates the right feelings, not the candidate who presents the best arguments. They know that at least 75 percent of the voters make gut decisions, not cognitive ones.
They know not to run on issues alone, but to run on the personal values that create strong emotional responses. They know they have to manage the personal feelings that people have towards a candidate because those gut feelings will override the logical decision making inside the booth. It’s an issue of left brain vs. right brain realities.
Let’s do your own reality check. Do you think listeners and viewers are making voting decisions because you tell them you are the “best” or “the leader” or “#1 for ______” or “your trusted source” or “for over 20 years” or “you play the most ____”? Or do you think they are voting with their guts?
Do you know the emotional hot buttons that drive the right brain “gut” or are you researching all that left brain stuff? How are you spending your marketing dollars either internally or externally? Try this one: get out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. Write Left Brain on one side and Right Brain on the other. List every single marketing message you send out according to logical or emotional appeal. Are the columns balanced? Most come up with a lopsided left brain marketing strategy.
Who do you think will win the election? I think I know. It will be the candidate who wins the right brain election when those voters are all alone in the voting booth. Who’s winning the ratings election in your market? Maybe it’s because they are more right brain than you are.
Courtesy of Ted Bolton PhD
