12 Oct 2001

MARKETING TIPS

by Ken Mitchell

In a recent City News article I commented about the importance of the AIDA model (Awareness Interest Desire Action) in advertising and promoting the candidates as one promotes products and services.

Unfortunately not many candidates have been able to campaign successfully and many are frustrated and wondering how to get airtime and be noticed.   This is hard enough at the best of times however with the big issues of the ongoing Federal election and international military action dominating the news, it has been hard to get the public to pay attention to local issues.

Some candidates appear uncoordinated with their campaigns, have limited grasp of how to be noticed and have no projected point of difference – they are merely making noise that no one is listening to.   There campaigns are all over already but they will go through the motions until the last day.

We are now entering the crucial last week period and basically from here on only the main players will get the attention of the public.   The election result will be close and will probably take a week or two to finalise the counting.   Then there will be the post mortems.   Clearly it is time for some candidates to now start looking at the post mortem as the key learning exercise and document the successes and failures and begin planning for next time.  

They, like marketing any business, must plan to succeed.   Good planning includes research to establish what works and what does not and learning from your mistakes – lest you repeat them.

Ken Mitchell is the CEO of Australian Marketing & Research Services and can be contacted on 62576677w, or kenmitch@austarmetro.com.au.