This is the finale of an analysis of Senator Clinton's 23 June 07 campaign website, the one with the Sopranos take off and the winning theme song.
I'm going to run a series of three political web site analyses. We started with Senator Clinton's website, next up is Governor Romney's and we'll close this grouping with a meta-analysis of all the sites. I chose these two simply because that's where the dart landed when I threw it over my shoulder. FYI, NextStage Evolution does not endorse any campaign or candidate. Our interest is purely in how campaigns and candidates communicate to different populations.
Senator Clinton's home page of 23 June 07 was designed to work equally well with men and women. And what does Hillary (or at least the people putting her page together) really want you to know? The strongest single message that page wants to get across is that Senator Clinton has a vision for this country.Will you be surprised to learn Senator Clinton's website wasn't always designed this way? Back in Feb '07, Senator Clinton's website was geared towards people who preferred to make decisions firsthand, who were hesitant to try anything new, who believed there was trouble ahead and were looking for solutions. This is a K9 audience in NextStage parlance. The strongest message was "I Have a Vision for this Country", the same it is today, but a very strong second message -- just 40 points difference -- was "I Can Lead Us to a Better Place".
That Senator Clinton's website would be designed for these two audiences at these points in time is to be expected. She was still an unknown commodity in Feb '07, was speaking to people hesitant about her and who wanted to see her first hand in order to make their decisions. Now she's known. Her message has shifted from one of gaining trust to letting people know she has a plan.
How do these messages get across? The choice of colors, images, text, banners and placement, ... there's more involved in demonstrating a message than most people -- including professional designers -- care to think about. But the messages are there, working their way into our hearts and minds. That's the candidates hope, anyway.
At some point and if there's sufficient interest, we'll look at the changes in the campaign sites, not just from here in NH but from all across the country. Did you know that politicians' websites have different messages for different constituencies? Again, you're surprised, I know.
Next up, Governor Romney.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- How Politicians Want You to Think - Senator Clinton, Part 1
- How Politicians Want You to Think - Senator Clinton, Part 2
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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