The simple marketing principle Trump won with
Just as Winston Churchill was reelected after being defeated in his attempt for reelection after World War II, Trump was reelected after being defeated just four years ago.
Winston Churchill. Great company for Donald J. Trump in the history books.
The book “Discipline Market Leaders” was published in 1995. I used it to help teach my students what is required to be a market leader in business. It also can be applied to politicians and governments.
The basic tenet of the book is that a company needs to be competitive in three basic business areas for a consumer group that it selects, and then to be the best in one of those areas. Of most importance is defining “a consumer group that it selects.” Those three areas for competing are:
- Competitive price or overall cost to the customer, which is achieved by operational excellence (i.e. COSTCO, for middle-class people).
- Leading product functions/features, which come from internal R&D (i.e Apple, for personal computer users).
- Product/service customization, customer intimacy, to make the customer feel special (i.e. Neiman Marcus for rich consumers).
Kamala Harris and the Democrats selected blacks, Hispanics, agnostics/atheists, feminists, LBGTQs, intellectuals, elitists, Hollywood celebrities and globalists as their target consumers. A rainbow. And then tried to provide the best service customization to that rainbow of consumers. When a business tries to customize its offerings to more than one group, then no group feels like it is catered to. That happened to the rainbow that Harris/Democrats tried to cater to. The party failed as no group felt special. The only reason to vote for Harris was to vote against Trump.
Trump selected average working Americans as his targeted consumer group. Common people. Just as businesses like COSTCO, Walmart, Target and Safeway target average working Americans, common people, as their consumer group, Trump used the same strategies to be the best at operational excellence. To provide the best government at the lowest price to taxpayers. “Common sense” to attract common voters.
The price for government has skyrocketed for Americans. When the taxes for the federal, state and local governments are added together, they are somewhere between 40 and 55% of Americans’ incomes depending on individual income and the state/city of residence. Forty to 55% is way too high. The operational excellence that made America great is lost. It is lost because of a lack of political competition that would lower the price/cost of government, a lack of political competition to achieve operational excellence. Left, right, Democrat, Republican, Deep State … they all look alike with the same offerings and the same prices. Collusion. Price fixing. Establishment.
Establishment politicians catered to everyone with a spread of government-supplied services/products that stretches our governments too thin to do any of those services with operational excellence. Our governments try to customize everything to everyone, which drives up the costs/prices of everything.
Donald Trump is a businessman. He gets this. He saw how America lost its greatness by trying to be everything to everyone and then clearly defined his market, his constituency, as average working Americans. And then then defined his campaign, his marketing, to provide what is necessary to lower the price to Americans for government while still maintaining product/service excellence. DOGE. Make America Great Again. America First.
Average working Americans bought it. All races. Men. Women. Young. Old. They could all identify as average working Americans.
Voters agreed with limiting government products/services to securing the border, decreasing inflation, lowering government spending, decreasing crime and providing the best “fighting” military. Limiting products is how to provide operational excellence and lower prices/costs. Wokeness, DEI and other niche “products” are too operationally expensive. They are counter to operational excellence.
Democrats did not get it. By defining their market as certain identities, they had to provide something special to each group and therefore got nothing done for any of them. Everything from free health care to canceling student loans to more affirmative action to policing Christian churches to allowing more and more illegal immigrants, continually increased the price of government for average working Americans.
In addition, Democrats were hellbent on replacing the oil/gas industries with energy products that are currently still in research and development (those with the highest prices/costs). Oil/gas production is the most operationally excellent industry in the USA. The cheapest forms of energy. As oil/gas production increases, the prices for all products in the country decrease. A great America, an operationally excellent America, requires more oil/gas, not less. Trump got that.
Trump won while Democrats, RINOs and Deep Staters lost because Trump practiced the discipline of market leaders while his competition did not. Everything Trump said and did was to attract support from average working Americans as his targeted audience. “Common sense” for common people. Even the garbage truck. Mass rallies. Mass marketing. Mass.
Donald J. Trump will now be in the history books right beside Winston Churchill. They both won reelection after losing reelection. Obama and Biden both removed the Churchill bust from the Oval Office. Not surprisingly, President Trump has put it back.
Trump won because he is the disciplined leader Harris and Democrats are not.