Marketing is Key in Today's World

As I was marching with the other anti-Walker protesters in Madison on Saturday, I was amazed at how some of those who are pro-Walker can be so dumb.  Then it came to me when I saw a sign slamming Walker for quitting college, I was reminded of what the degree was that he couldn't complete.  It was a degree in Marketing.  And I realized that this is exactly how we have gotten to this place in history.

Not only have the Democrats done a lousy job of marketing their brand, but the unions have as well.  Fox and followers have made it a point to paint unions as bad for America, at the same time promoting the ever widening income gap as truly great for America.  In fact they've made it seem downright patriotic.  Let's take a look at a few examples from the past few years.

The auto industry, through bad management and bad investments with pension's in Wall Street schemes that were nothing more than grand con games, blamed the unions for their troubles.  Not only did they make it a point to get the mainstream news media to say so, they also placed ad's stating as much, and giving the unions yet another black eye.  I would call that an pretty good marketing ploy on the part of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.  Here's where the unions blew an opportunity.  See, the big three were saying how the benefits and such for the union members was killing their bottom line.  That is when the unions should have spoken up and shown the country how the difference between the lowest wage earner and the top 50 executives at GM was far greater than any of those between the same group of employees at Toyota.  Instead, they allowed the big three to make the argument that companies like Toyota and Honda didn't have all the pension issues that the big three had.  And, instead of just taking and swallowing that bitter pill, the unions should have again pointed the blame towards poor management of the pension funds, and the illegal activities of Wall Street for the pension issues.

Maybe that's what unions need to start doing.  A re-branding so-to-speak.  Especially geared towards the under 40 crowd who have been heavily influenced by the anti-union sentiment of the big corporations.  It's time for unions to start once again, selling their brand as being as American as baseball and apple pie.  Prime examples of times to do so would be whenever a new news release comes about something bad or toxic that was made in China, the unions could jump on that and state safety numbers from products made by union members here in the United States.

Look over the history of companies or brands that have suffered from poor marketing, and think about how marketing could help bolster the image of unions.  It's time for unions to employ the services of some of the great marketing firms and re-brand themselves before it's too late.