The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

This was the first time we saw Senator Obama speak and there were several questions we learned the answers to. NextStage had three observers in place, myself and two others. I travelled to and from the rally with one observer and spoke with the third early this morning.

Please note NextStage isn't endorsing any candidate or political party. This material is based on our research and studies.

• Two of us noted that people referred to the candidate as "Barack Obama" much more often than they referred to him as "Senator Obama". This may seem a subtle thing and when you study how people lingualize their experience, the distinction is significant. I wrote in the Author's Foreword to Reading Virtual Minds, "The author's bio states that I've been everything from a butcher to truckdriver to Senior Knowledge Architect to Chief Research Scientist. What's my specialty? My specialty is understanding why people don't capitalize butcher and truckdriver but do capitalize Senior Knowledge Architect and Chief Research Scientist, and why most people don't pay any attention to that fact until someone references it."

  What we learn from the above is that fewer voters recognize Senator Obama as Senator than recognize him as the more familiar Barack. That level of familiarity might play well and, based on other observations, our conjecture is that it will work against this candidate.

• There was a greater ethnic diversity at this rally than we've observed at other rallies.
• There were no alphas, either male and female, in the crowd on the campaign staff.
• There was only one campaign banner observed at the rally. One of us thought it was a sign for a bank at first glance.
• There was a poor operational layout to the campaign stop, meaning it was not well choreographed for either the candidate or voters. This led to some discussion amongst NextStage staff. Was the poor operational layout due to
  • an inexperienced campaign staff,
  • the lack of alphas amongst the campaign workers or
  • the personality of the campaign itself?
  This last conjecture was most evident when we compared notes on the Senator Clinton rally versus the Senator Obama rally. Senator Clinton's campaign workers demonstrated a belief they were going to follow Senator Clinton to greater things. Senator Obama's campaign workers demonstrated a belief they were going to stay where they were once Senator Obama moved on.

  The first conjecture was most evident in the poorly controlled environment. There was no attempt on the part of the campaign workers to "work" the crowd. At one point I approached a group of nine campaign workers who were standing together talking amongst themselves and asked if, indeed, they were campaign workers. The first thing they let me know was that I had interrupted their conversation, secondly that yes, they were campaign workers. There was considerably more enthusiasm letting me know I had interrupted their conversation than that they were campaign workers. I asked if they thought they should be walking through the crowed, greeting people. The response was that I shouldn't worry, there were others doing that.

  This attitude on the campaign workers' part was echoed in several other observations during the rally.

• The campaign workers demonstrated a disinterest in the audience.
• There was a lack of enthusiasm at Senator Obama's entrance. It was conjectured that this was due to campaign workers not letting the crowed know Senator Obama had arrived.
• There was no observable transmission of "glamour" from Senator Obama to his staff, meaning his staff did not necessarily identify themselves with either Senator Obama or his message.
• Senator Obama was introduced with minimizing statements.
• Senator Obama often used self-deprecating humor in his statements.
• Senator Obama's statements demonstrated that he was looking for followers, not leaders. He wasn't asking or inviting people to act. This can be a challenge because people who follow don't really care who they follow so long as they follow someone they recognize as a leader. People who are called to act tend to act for the individual or group asking them to act. Followers tend to be helpless without a recognized leader.
• Senator Obama failed to engage his audience in his answers. The audience grew restless several times during the Q&A session of the rally.
• Two observers noted an incongruity between Senator Obama's statements and his delivery of those statements. This is usually and not always a demonstration of an internal disagreement or disbelief with what is being verbalized.
• One observer postulated that Senator Obama doesn't believe this is going to be his best chance for the presidency. Two of us stated this a little differently as "Senator Obama is being driven by other people's beliefs, not necessarily his own".

Links for this post:

• Blog Political Posts
• Working with Prediction Markets via NextStage's Evolution Technology

• IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
• XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
• DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
• Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.