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In excerpt #2 of Go Big I introduced readers to my Four Horsemen of Marketing and the idea that to your audience, you must get all four right, and if you do, you will win. Get one wrong and you’re not likely to succeed: POSITION, DIFFERENTIATION, BENEFIT, and BRAND.
Today, I want to share some practical applications of those concepts.
What’s not a BRAND?
We’re smarter than the competition.
We work more efficiently.
We get more bang for the buck.
We’re a household name.
We work harder.
We get more results for less money.
We’re bigger, better.
I (or our organization) am (is) famous and profitable.
Having a famous name or being well-known doesn’t mean you have a BRAND. Having a successful business doesn’t mean you have a BRAND. Does it matter if someone buys from you or a competitor? If not, then you don’t have a BRAND.
Airlines such as United, Delta, and American do not have a BRAND. For myself and most Americans, it doesn’t matter which airline we fly. We want to leave and arrive at a certain time, and the airline that best suits our schedule and budget is the one we fly.
In 2016, 17 people sought the Republican nomination for president. Today very few who follow politics can even remember half of them.
Think, what was the significant difference between Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Rick Perry, or Marco Rubio? I couldn’t begin to tell you the difference between them. It was not clear at all why GOP voters should select one rather than the other.
However, if you had asked any of the above candidates what separated them from the others, most would probably have said something to the effect of “I’m smarter than the others.”
Sorry, the voters don’t agree. To them, you’re all smart or you wouldn’t be on that stage.
Now you know what is not a BRAND—but what is a BRAND?
A BRAND is being the first in a new category and dominating that category. You want to “own” a category/project that’s important to conservatives, and to position your organization as uniquely qualified to solve problem X.
Why is BRANDING important?
Because it creates a new category in the mind of a person. Once something is BRANDED, positive or negative, good or bad, it’s like Super Glue—usually permanent.
Using myself as an example. My BRAND is I’m the pioneer of political/ideological direct mail. Our company in 1965 was the world’s first political direct mail agency, and 57 years later, we’re still the largest and best-known conservative direct mail agency.
For centuries people have been engaged in fundraising—churches, schools, politics; for many years organizations had been raising money through the mail for charities and other good causes. But no one had raised money for political candidates and ideological organizations through the mail. I started a new category raising ideological and political donations through postal mail.
In the 1980s, Congressman Jack Kemp organized a meet-and-greet visit with future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for about 8–10 conservatives. Each one of us went around the conference table and just said our name. After I said Richard Viguerie, Netanyahu pointed at me and said, “Direct mail.” Then and now, that is my BRAND—the pioneer of political direct mail.
Remember a BRAND is when you branch off from an existing category and start a new category. For example, 50 years ago there were three network TV channels: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Then a new category appeared—cable TV.
Then a new category appeared—all news cable TV (CNN).
Then a new category appeared—all sports cable TV (ESPN).
Then a new category appeared—conservative cable TV (FOX).
So, if you want a BRAND, be the leader of a new category.
A successful BRANDING of a conservative organization will allow it to grow 100%–500%–1,000% in the next few years. Also, conservative candidates for public office need BRANDING.A law of politics is “Define [BRAND yourself] or be defined [your opponent will BRAND you].”
Read, read, study, study BRANDING and apply it to Democrats and to conservative organizations and save America. The single best book to learn about BRANDING is The Origin of Brands by Al and Laura Ries. Read the first 25 pages over and over until you really, really understand the concept of a BRAND.
This is not rocket science. We can do this people. We can save America.
That’s our positive BRANDING of conservative candidates, organizations and policies, so how do we BRAND Democrats and make them toxic to a majority of voters?
There is little, if anything, more important for conservatives to be doing than BRANDING Democrats as anti-American, anti-police, open-borders, and elite socialists/Marxists.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Democrats successfully BRANDED Republicans as the party of the rich, big business, Wall Street, trickledown economics, etc. This BRANDING of the Republicans helped Democrats win many elections.
Now, it’s conservatives’ turn.
As the Democrats move hard and far left, conservatives have a once-in-a-century opportunity to BRAND them as being anti-God, anti-America, anti-police, soft on crime, open-borders, elite, socialists/Marxists, and that BRAND could prevent them from winning national elections for decades to come (White House, control of U.S. Senate/U.S. House).
However, for conservatives to effectively BRAND the Democrats as stated above, we need to do five big things:
1. BRAND DEMOCRATS in a MACRO way (nationally).
2. BRAND DEMOCRATS in a MICRO way (to categories of voters).
3. CONNECT DEMOCRATS TO AMERICA’S PROBLEMS. Avoid referring to people as big city mayors, progressive prosecutors, defund the police politicians. All of these should be identified as who/what they are—DEMOCRATS.
When you speak or write about Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, AOC, The Squad, etc., be sure to identify them as DEMOCRATS. The importance of connecting DEMOCRATS to America’s problems is that on the ballot, people are identified as Democrats, not liberals/progressives/socialists, or Republicans, not conservatives.
4. EDUCATE FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND NEIGHBORS. Educate, engage, encourage, empower, and activate 25, 50, or 100 of your family, friends, and neighbors. Then when millions of grassroots conservative activists do the same, it will lead to educating over 100 million voters. Then, conservatives will govern America for decades, perhaps generations.
5. BE THE LEADER YOU ARE LOOKING FOR—Read on . . .
If millions of conservatives become modern-day political Paul Reveres, we will be so successful in BRANDING the Democrats that they may have to abandon the Democrat name and form a new political party.
Now back to Number 5 above. It’s probably the most important thing of all: YOU and YOUR
LEADERSHIP.
As our beloved Ronald Reagan used to say, “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
Obviously, we can’t depend on Big Media—most all have joined with the progressive/socialist/Marxist Democrats.
And the same for Big Tech (Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc.).
As if that’s not bad enough, we also can’t depend on the Republican Party and most national Republican politicians, because too many are weak, boneless, and spineless in fighting Democrats. Also, most national and state GOP committees and politicians are under the control and/or influence of content-free Republican consultants.
There are many good sources on the web where you will find current news articles, videos, editorials, conservative articles, e-books, news articles, etc., to forward to others, including FedUpPAC.org, ConservativeHQ.org, LeadershipInstitute.org, Heritage.org, HeritageAction.com, Newsmax.com, and WesternJournal.com. There is a larger list in Appendix 2 of Go Big.
If our BRANDING is effective, between now and 2024, some of the “older/wiser” Democrats will be holding meetings in early 2025 to discuss abandoning today’s Democrat Party to the socialists/Marxists (Pelosi, Schumer, AOC, MSNBC, CNN) and forming a new “mainstream” political party.
As I said, we need to BRAND Democrats in two ways: MACRO (to all voters) and MICRO (to categories of voters).
MACRO—Our BRANDING will be effective because most Americans are patriots who love our country. The big issues where the Democrats have moved far left are well known; however, you may find a partial review helpful.
BRAND DEMOCRATS MACRO—to all voters
Defund the police – Joe Biden
In a TV interview (NowThis News), host Ady Barkan asked Biden, “Can we agree that we can redirect some of the funding [from the police]?” Biden replied, “Yes, absolutely” (NowThis News, July 8, 2020). President Biden has been joined by many national, state, and local Democrats calling for and working to cut police budgets, which is seriously hurting police morale and allowing an increase in crime.
We must make sure the Democrats, in the public’s mind, own the “defund the police” movement.
Street crime must continue – Kamala Harris
When asked about rioters that are destroying American cities, Kamala Harris said, “They’re not going to stop. And everyone beware—because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November [2020], and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And that should be—everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not” (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, June 18, 2020).
Open borders
During the first Democrat presidential debate on June 26, 2019, Biden said that when he is president, illegal immigrants should “immediately surge to the border.”
Democrats are opening wide our southern border to illegals (including dangerous criminals), which drives up welfare costs and causes high unemployment as illegals flood the job market and work cheaper. Democrats’ open-border policy is also bringing in hundreds of thousands of COVID-positive illegals. The Biden Administration is sending them throughout America.
Soft on crime
“Defunding the police isn’t radical, it’s real” —Tweet from Democrat Congresswoman Cori Bush on January 28, 2021.
“We have seen video after video over the last few weeks of peaceful protesters being met with extreme violence from police. We can’t wait. It’s time to overhaul our policing system” —Tweet from Democrat Congresswoman Barbara Lee on June 5, 2020.
In 2020, the Democrat majority on the Philadelphia City Council gave approval to cut $33 million from the police department. Now, “Philadelphia is on pace to have one of its deadliest years [2021] on record” —NBC10 Philadelphia.
In Portland, Oregon, Democrat city commissioners cut nearly $16 million from the police in June 2020 (Associated Press, June 17, 2020). Portland Police Association Executive Director Daryl Turner warned during an appearance on NBC Nightly News in late June 2021 that officer morale is “as bad as it’s ever been” as the Democrat-run city experiences a sharp rise in violent crime.
Democrats have a long history of being soft on crime and criminals. Democrat governors, mayors, and prosecutors are letting hardened criminals out of jail and refusing to prosecute many crimes, including shoplifting, which encourages more crime and the destruction of small businesses.
Critical Race Theory (CRT)
CRT is a racist, mean, and evil attempt by Democrats to indoctrinate our children and adults that all whites are racists, minorities are victims being held down by whites, and America, the greatest country in the history of the world, is racist to its core.
Sky high gas prices
The Democrats are warring against fossil fuels (oil and gas), including cancelling the Keystone XL Pipeline and forbidding more drilling on federal lands. This is causing sky-high gas and oil prices and is a big gift to Russian dictator Putin, whose economy is strongly tied to the oil and gas he sells to Europe.
Inflation
Inflation is the direct result of the Democrats spending $7 trillion in 2021 to buy votes and turn America into a one-party, socialist/Marxist country. By putting massive amounts of money into the economy, but not increasing the supply of goods, more dollars began chasing a limited amount of goods and services—thereby driving up the cost of most everything.
Changing election laws to keep Democrats permanently in power
Democrats oppose asking people for an ID to vote, insist on keeping non-voters on the voting rolls, support mailing everyone in the government database a ballot (those with multiple name spellings and addresses will get multiple ballots), promote voting six weeks before Election Day for no reason, which means we no longer have Election Day—we have election season. Some Democrats even favor allowing illegal aliens, as well as 16- and 17-year-olds, to vote, etc.
Erase all differences between males and females, including girls/women’s sports
Democrats say people should be able to declare themselves any of 57 different genders, which will destroy the culture of America, including girls’ and women’s sports.
And as you know, there are dozens more issues, which will BRAND the Democrats, including sexualizing school children, high taxes, out-of-control government spending that leads to runaway inflation, packing/destroying the Supreme Court, D.C. and Puerto Rican statehood, etc., etc.
BRAND DEMOCRATS MICRO—to categories of voters
Most people are normal. They are not like some of us, attending political meetings in the middle of the week, or on a Saturday morning going door-to-door. However, for most voters, there are one or two, maybe even three, issues that are so important that they trump all other issues. And on that issue, they will become activists, attending meetings, making phone calls, etc. By stressing these issues of particular concern to an interest group, it can increase the conservative/Republican vote by three to five points from each group of voters.
And when you increase each interest group’s vote for Republicans by even a few percentage points, Republicans will start winning elections by landslide numbers.
GO HUNTING WHERE THE VOTERS ARE
Some examples of important voting categories
* Parents
o CRT—teaching our children that all whites are racist and all people of color are victims.
o Democrat-led teachers unions want to sexualize five-, six-, and seven-year-olds, including telling them they can change from being a boy to being a girl, or that a girl can become a boy.
o Democrats say you are a bigot and a mean person if you don’t approve of a biological male calling himself a female and participating in women’s sports and using women’s bathrooms and showers.
* Gun Owners
o Licensing, restricting, and taking away Second Amendment rights.
* Seniors
o Security—Democrats want to defund the police.
o Security—Democrats refuse to stop street violence and prosecute the law breakers.
* Single Women
o Security—Democrats want to defund the police.
o Security—Democrats refuse to stop street violence and prosecute the law breakers.
* African Americans
o Education—Democrats oppose charter schools.
o Education—Democrats oppose school choice.
* Hispanics
o Jobs—Democrats are destroying their hopes for achieving the “American Dream” with illegal immigration and the inability to get work at a good wage.
* Evangelicals
o Democrats are anti-God and anti-religion.
o Abortion—Democrats want abortion-on-demand at any time and any reason.
* Catholics
o Democrats are anti-God and anti-religion.
o Abortion—Democrats want abortion-on-demand at any time and any reason.
* Millennials
o Democrats want to abolish privacy with new regulations, increased personal tracking, automobile tracking, forced vaccinations, medical passports, and teaming up with Big Tech to track your whereabouts in your car, through smartphones, GPS apps, etc.
Because the leadership of every major American institution and government agency supports progressive/socialist/Marxist policies, conservatives must counter that by millions of grassroots activists becoming modern-day Paul Reveres and BRAND these people as Democrats. The Democrat BRAND will then become so toxic that conservative Republicans will govern America far into the future.
By the way, using the term “woke” is not helpful in BRANDING the Democrats. It doesn’t label the Democrats as having dangerous beliefs, views, and values. If, instead of calling Democrats “woke,” we refer to them as anti-American socialists/Marxists, that will be a highly toxic BRAND. I feel the same way about the term “politically correct.” It doesn’t have any negative connotation to most people.
Click here to order Go Big: The Marketing "Secrets" of Richard A. Viguerie on How Conservatives Can Win with Bigger and MORE: Organizations, Donors, and Money from Amazon
Tomorrow’s excerpt from Go Big is NEWT’S FOUR-PART PLAN
Excerpt #1 from Go Big – Why Conservatives Must Go Big
Excerpt #2 from Go Big - From Young Americans For Freedom To Viguerie’s Four Horsemen Of Marketing
Free Speech
conservative leadership
conservative grassroots organization
political marketing
branding
political fundraising
issue advocacy
Young Americans For Freedom