answered : marketing blunder or brilliant marketing - the sarah pailin vp choice

on august 30, 2008, we posted this question on sarah palin - "sarah palin vp choice - brilliant marketing move or biggest blunder?" (read posts here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/US%20presidential%20elections)

since that announcement, the answer to that question had its peaks and valleys --- there were times it showed it was a brilliang marketing move, and yet there were times it looked a big blunder.

with just a few more weeks to go in the elections, it is nearing the point of no return. we think that will be just around the time of the 3rd presidential debate next week. this point of no return will be reached at the latest a day or two after the 3rd debate.

in WAWAM!, we have reached a conclusion and we have the answer to that question we posted - was sarah palin as vp choice a brilliant marketing move or marketing blunder? that is next in WAWAM!

vp palin - haste leads to marketing blunder?

the honeymoon is over on palin.

there is a part here that bothers me very much --- a presidential candidate chooses a vice president partner when they hardly met? not so much as talked face to face? is it that easy to get the job of US Vice President? and the job of US Vice President can be taken that lightly?

the miss universe beauty contest seem to take the no. 2 position more seriously than mccain did. in every miss universe contest we always hear the announcer say how important the runner up position is. but i don't see that resolve on this matter.

that leads me to think that palin seem to have been chosen purely on the basis of being an excellent marketing strategy. obama did not choose hillary, a female, so get one over the democrats by choosing palin. obama chose biden, a man older than obama, so why not get one over the democrats by choosing a much younger woman than mccain. mccain made a big deal of obama's inexperience, so why not get palin as VP, who has no experience and contrast that to biden who has a lot of experience.

the best marketing strategies are those that clearly differentiate versus all others in the same category. it's not only clarity, it is also discrimination and uniqueness. and those seem to be the overriding consideration in choosing palin.

as predicted, the next few weeks will be the most interesting and exciting time in the US presidential elections and that is not because it will be tight race. WAWAM! can't wait to see which marketing strategy worked the best.


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Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process

ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.


On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.


Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.


Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom.

While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCain’s judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions.


At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.




New Yort Times photo and article, parsed, read complete story here : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

palin as republican VP - brilliant marketing move or biggest blunder

are we confused? yes we are.

we are looking at this as a purely marketing move, in fact within the realm of strategic marketing – palin as the republican vp partner of mccain in the presidential election.

are we confused? yes, we are. oh, i said that already.

palin as republican vp is either a brilliant marketing move or a big marketing blunder.

it's brilliant as for now, all the good things that were with the obama campaign - obama being an african american, hillary as a strong contender, and all the goodies that went with that, specially the one on hillary and the great convention that just ended have just evaporated and moved over to the republicans.

this choice for now has stolen the thunder away from the democrats. "stunning" is a word often used to describe the choice of palin. i agree wholeheartedly.

that leads us to downside. she is an unknown, at least for now but we will get to know her very well in short order. and that is where the other part comes in -- it can turn into the biggest marketing blunder made in political history.

while we do not know palin much, we do know hillary very well. hillary, the other woman candidate is very much a known candidate, almost the opposite of palin. while we may not know palin yet, it's almost a sure thing that hillary would have a longer list of accomplishments and credentials.

it's possible mccain just took in the weakest leak in his campaign.

while we do not know yet if palin as vp choice is a marketing blunder, we did know before and we are much more certain now that obama not choosing hillary as vp is a marketing strategic blunder. pailin in the mix reinforces and makes obama's non-choice of hillary as a much bigger and more obvious mistake. (read posts in WAWAM! on biden as a good choice but choosing hillary a brilliant move : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/08/obamas-vp-choice-biden-is-great-but.html).

as of this moment - the US presidential election is in a flux. much more interesting days ahead. take your seats!