I made a start at answering questions about NextStage's methodologies and how to apply them to politics in Do McCain, Biden, Palin and Obama Think the Way We Do? (Part 1). That post was a first blush at answering reader Dwight Homer's question "What is an A6 or A11 or V6 or V21, etc. decision style?" in his Did Americans Always Think This Way? (Responding to WindKiller's comment on "What McCain said about Obama and Palin to Hillary and Biden") comment.
Again, thank you all for reading and commenting.
Second, From A6, A11 and so on to {C,B/e,M} matrices to Rich PersonaeTM to politics and the 2008 US Presidential Election.
(Hmm...almost like "To Infinity and Beyond!")
I ended Do McCain, Biden, Palin and Obama Think the Way We Do? (Part 1) with the suggestion that politicians win elections by "vibrating at the right frequency", ie, having a {C,B/e,M} that is most easily accepted and identified with by the largest percentage of the voting population. The colloquial concept of "vibrating at the right frequency" is well known in marketing and advertising; the use of people in ads and creative that your target audience can identify with. IE, you probably won't see too many spindly academic types in driving pick-ups in truck commercials. Much more simply; count the number of people wearing eyeglasses driving pick-ups in truck commercials versus the number of people wearing eyeglasses in commercials for upscale cars. Why the difference? Eyeglasses indicate intellectual, managerial and executive capabilities. That's not the traditional pick-up truck market. Want to hear marketing types going nuts? Listen in on conversations about whether or not actors in SUV commercials should be wearing glasses (see What do kids think about kids in eyeglasses? for more on this). <PLUG>
What this dips into and one of the ways NextStage makes use of these {C,B/e,M} matrices is in our Rich PersonaeTM. Rich PersonaeTM take the personae most clients come up with and imbue them with very real, very "mindful" reasons and motivations for their thoughts and deeds. You can find some links to information on NextStage's Rich PersonaeTM at the end of this post. The most germane for this post might be Romney, Mitt Romney, Governor Romney, Social, Social Networks, Social Media, Video, Multimedia, TV, Advertising.
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Websites, etc., work very hard at vibrating at the desired audience's frequency. The reason for this is that it creates a trust relationship very rapidly. Politicians want you to trust them, hence analyzing how a political website vibrates is a good indication of who they think their audience is.
Maybe.
Because if you've been following along with this series of posts, they websites aren't doing a very good job of vibrating at the frequency of the largest audience. A strong case could be make that they're not vibrating at the right frequency of some kind of glommed audience (see What McCain said about Obama and Palin to Hillary and Biden).
So I analyzed the debates
Thinking that the candidates would communicate differently in the debates, we analyzed the videos of the debates. What did we find?
Well, strangely enough (at least to me). Biden, McCain, Obama nor Palin were vibrating to the tune of the largest audience or even the largest audience glom.
In fact, I was shocked to learn that Biden, McCain, Obama, Palin, Lehrer and Ifill were all communicating with an A13 style. They were having a heck of a time being understood and understanding each other but what about the rest of us? I mean, during the exact time periods that the debates were going on, were the majority of people thinking and making decisions in an A13 style? At one point in time 14% of the BizMediaScience audience was A13 (see Do You Know How to Persuade, Influence and Convince Your Visitors? (NextStage Evolution's Evolution Technology, Web Analytics, Behavioral Analytics and Marketing Analytics Reports for the BizMediaScience Blog) Again).
Right now (as I write this) the A13 personality comprises only 5.21% of BizMediaScience audience. I am reaching a more varied audience though. I was only reaching 12 personality types when I wrote Do You Know How to Persuade, Influence and Convince Your Visitors? (NextStage Evolution's Evolution Technology, Web Analytics, Behavioral Analytics and Marketing Analytics Reports for the BizMediaScience Blog) Again, now I'm reaching 34!
So what is an A13 Personality?
- These people strongly prefer to be taught via negative reinforcement
- They make final decisions based on the immediate outcomes, they aren't persuaded by appeals to long range goals
- They look to those emotionally close to them for guidance and leadership
- They base their decisions on the negative aspect of arguments
How much of the viewing public was vibrating at this frequency during the debates?
You'll be shocked (at least I was mildly amused) to learn that the personality types prevalent during the first McCain-Obama debate on 25 Sept 08 were the same as in the graph above. However, things changed during the Biden-Palin debate on 2 Oct 08 as shown in the chart on the right.
What caused this shift in popular thought processes from 25 Sept to 2 Oct 08? This is more than a shift of a few points in the existing personality styles. Old styles are gone, new styles are taking their place, there were 7 and now there are 6. Hmm. The ranks are tightening, me thinks.
The linking element of the decision/personality styles extant on 2 Oct 08 is simple; things are looking bad. Anyone want to take a guess why the nation as a whole would be thinking things aren't looking too good at this point in time?
What about the interviews?
How about I cover these either tomorrow or soon?
Stay tuned...
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- {C,B/e,M} matrix references on TheFutureOf blog
<UPDATE>
That blog no longer exists in its original form. The blog name is still there and it's no longer what I'd hoped it would be. All of my FutureOf contributions can now be found on TheAnalyticsEcology.
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- Guest Blogger Joseph Carrabis Answers Dave Evans, CEO of Digital Voodoo's Question About Male Executives Wielding Social Media Influence on Par with Female Executives
- Rich PersonaeTM information
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