What the general election can tell us about tapping into your audience.
Election fever hit us last week and you couldn’t turn on a TV without being subjected to some sort of polemic from one side or the other.
Facebook turned into the Houses of Parliament and suddenly everyone was a political expert – from Auntie Mary down the road, to Wayne in the Spar shop – many opinions were expressed, chewed over and digested, until it all came to a head on Thursday.
The nation held its breath….
And then we all expressed an opinion on the result, chewed it over and digested it again!
What was interesting for me from the outset were the primary messages the two main parties were conveying, and who they were conveying it to.
In the rush to promote their ‘strong and stable’ leadership, the Conservatives seemed to forget a whole swathe of voters – young people – and how to speak to them in a language they would engage with. Messages about actual policies were thin on the ground, if not completely absent at times, making it difficult to distinguish rhetoric from real politics.
By forgetting to tap into Generation Y (or Millennials, whichever you prefer), the Conservatives dis-engaged an entire audience segment.
If they had done their homework, they would know that a sense of purpose and social mindedness is high on the Gen Y agenda – perfect for conveying a clear message about social policy. No wonder the proposed Labour policies of cuts to tuition fees and an increase in NHS funding resonated with this audience.
And all the while the Conservatives were banging on about ‘strong and stable’ with no one really listening….
Yes, it is difficult to be all things to all people but the Conservative campaign really missed the mark with its lack of meaningful content and ill-thought out political discourse.
Mrs May still came up trumps – just.
My advice to her? Research your audience/s thoroughly and unreservedly. Talk to them on the ground, get inside their heads and learn their language. What makes them tick? What do you have to offer that will appeal to them directly? Have they got a ‘pain-point’? What can you provide that will fix that?
If I took one thing from the general election it’s that we all need to be audience-savvy when we’ve got an important message to get across – be that a message to the nation, or a message to your potential customers.
Will Teresa get it right next time? Only time will tell….