11th April 2008
The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom
In
business marketing sciences are crucial to success. Whether the product is as
big as a luxury car or as small as a safety razor, no organisation that expects
to achieve success can develop such product without keeping clients in
mind.
Indeed the most successful companies spend huge amounts of time and money to engage continuously with existing and potential clients to ensure that they develop products that meet and surpass consumer expectations. Focus groups, direct interviews, telephone surveys are all tools that marketing departments have learned to develop to ensure that they turn out products returning commercial success.
All aspects of the products are seen from the consumers’ viewpoint. Even the packaging is subjected to rigorous testing to ensure that it arouses consumers’ emotions that can be translated into hard sales. Perfume manufacturers research the scent as much as they research the shape of the bottle and the brand to label such perfume. Car manufacturers are now packing their outfits with a vast range of standard accessories that could stimulate buyers’ interest beyond the basic need for a comfortable and safe drive. All such decisions are taken after regular research about consumers’ attitude and expectations.
Such research is also quite standard in modern politics. The PN branded their last election campaign as gonziPN not because Prime Minister Gonzi wants to build a cult in his honour. They did so because research among the electorate showed that while the party was suffering fatigue and dissatisfaction with its long stay in government, voters’ attitude was much mellower regarding Gonzi personally.
If Labour failed to paste up huge pictures of Alfred Sant on their billboards it was not because they wanted to show disrespect to their leader. It was because their research showed that voters were much warmer to the party than they were to Alfred Sant personally who consistently, in all reliable research, scored less than Gonzi on the issues of credibility and appropriateness for the top job.
Any organisation, be it a commercial manufacturer or a political party, that does not take its customers’ feedback into consideration when making internal decisions would be seriously risking to fail the market test where it really matters.
I dare suggest that unless Labour adheres to this principle when it makes the choice of the new leader, it could prejudice as of now its chances of winning the next election. The PN did not make that mistake when they chose Gonzi to take over from Fenech Adami. The party machinery, a common phrase these days, which is not easily definable but basically refers to those who really pull the strings behind major decisions, threw its weight behind Gonzi because they got market feedback that while Dalli could have been more popular with core PN supporters, Gonzi was more acceptable to the narrow middle segment of floating voters.
Why is it that I get the distinct impression that the Labour Party machinery does nothing of the sort and really do not ask the simple question which everyone else is asking, namely what are Labour doing wrong not get a majority in six of the last seven general elections?
The Labour Party machinery is clearly backing the candidature of Joseph Muscat. Have they made any research showing that Joseph Muscat can offer better prospects for winning the next election than the other candidates? My impression is that while Joseph has great potential to reach the top post at some point in his career, he still needs to enrich his CV with executive experience and further doses of maturity before he would be able to successfully take Lawrence Gonzi head on sometime in the next five years. So I thought the Labour Party machinery must know something I don’t know, that my impression is wrong, and that they truly see Joseph Muscat as their best hope to win government next time round, an elusive objective if they ever had one.
So I decide to ask the client. I had a survey organised among a sample of 400 telephone interviewees chosen by age and location to be representative of the electorate. What I found out is reproduced in the table above.
While such surveys have to be read with caution in that they carry a wide margin of error and need substantial validation which is only achievable through the conduct of additional surveys to capture both trends and absolutes, I think it is obvious that the client is proving my impression that the Labour Party machinery have decided to back Joseph Muscat’s candidacy for reasons different from the most crucial one i.e. who is the candidate that offers best prospect for victory next time round.
Labour voters and decliners (generally considered pro-Labour people who refuse to disclose their voting preference for fear of recrimination from incumbent government) are for Joseph Muscat, possibly influenced by the party machinery. However these will vote Labour irrelevant of who is chosen as the new leader. They do not signify any new votes for Labour.
Floating voters clearly prefer George Abela. PN voters are probably people who normally vote PN but I have found that PN hardliners were hard to persuade to participate in the survey. So these must be PN voters with potential to become floaters as the PN continues to accumulate fatigue and if Labour were to propose a refreshing alternative. They also prefer George Abela.
So what is the client saying? The client who decides which way elections go, floaters and potential floaters, are clearly saying that as things stand today if Labour wants to stand a chance of attracting their vote, George Abela is the best candidate for the top post.
Based on this research I cannot but conclude that the party machinery and most of the candidates contesting are telling the people who ultimately decide which way elections go, the floaters and potential floaters, that they do not care about their tastes, feelings or expectations and want to continue with the trial and error methodology, based on hope rather than logic. Small wonder that if this persists Labour could be forcing floating voters as of now to vote it yet again in opposition right until 2018.
I will be publishing the full numerology of these surveys on my personal website in the next few days.
The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom
In
business marketing sciences are crucial to success. Whether the product is as
big as a luxury car or as small as a safety razor, no organisation that expects
to achieve success can develop such product without keeping clients in
mind.Indeed the most successful companies spend huge amounts of time and money to engage continuously with existing and potential clients to ensure that they develop products that meet and surpass consumer expectations. Focus groups, direct interviews, telephone surveys are all tools that marketing departments have learned to develop to ensure that they turn out products returning commercial success.
All aspects of the products are seen from the consumers’ viewpoint. Even the packaging is subjected to rigorous testing to ensure that it arouses consumers’ emotions that can be translated into hard sales. Perfume manufacturers research the scent as much as they research the shape of the bottle and the brand to label such perfume. Car manufacturers are now packing their outfits with a vast range of standard accessories that could stimulate buyers’ interest beyond the basic need for a comfortable and safe drive. All such decisions are taken after regular research about consumers’ attitude and expectations.
Such research is also quite standard in modern politics. The PN branded their last election campaign as gonziPN not because Prime Minister Gonzi wants to build a cult in his honour. They did so because research among the electorate showed that while the party was suffering fatigue and dissatisfaction with its long stay in government, voters’ attitude was much mellower regarding Gonzi personally.
If Labour failed to paste up huge pictures of Alfred Sant on their billboards it was not because they wanted to show disrespect to their leader. It was because their research showed that voters were much warmer to the party than they were to Alfred Sant personally who consistently, in all reliable research, scored less than Gonzi on the issues of credibility and appropriateness for the top job.
Any organisation, be it a commercial manufacturer or a political party, that does not take its customers’ feedback into consideration when making internal decisions would be seriously risking to fail the market test where it really matters.
I dare suggest that unless Labour adheres to this principle when it makes the choice of the new leader, it could prejudice as of now its chances of winning the next election. The PN did not make that mistake when they chose Gonzi to take over from Fenech Adami. The party machinery, a common phrase these days, which is not easily definable but basically refers to those who really pull the strings behind major decisions, threw its weight behind Gonzi because they got market feedback that while Dalli could have been more popular with core PN supporters, Gonzi was more acceptable to the narrow middle segment of floating voters.
Why is it that I get the distinct impression that the Labour Party machinery does nothing of the sort and really do not ask the simple question which everyone else is asking, namely what are Labour doing wrong not get a majority in six of the last seven general elections?
The Labour Party machinery is clearly backing the candidature of Joseph Muscat. Have they made any research showing that Joseph Muscat can offer better prospects for winning the next election than the other candidates? My impression is that while Joseph has great potential to reach the top post at some point in his career, he still needs to enrich his CV with executive experience and further doses of maturity before he would be able to successfully take Lawrence Gonzi head on sometime in the next five years. So I thought the Labour Party machinery must know something I don’t know, that my impression is wrong, and that they truly see Joseph Muscat as their best hope to win government next time round, an elusive objective if they ever had one.
So I decide to ask the client. I had a survey organised among a sample of 400 telephone interviewees chosen by age and location to be representative of the electorate. What I found out is reproduced in the table above.
While such surveys have to be read with caution in that they carry a wide margin of error and need substantial validation which is only achievable through the conduct of additional surveys to capture both trends and absolutes, I think it is obvious that the client is proving my impression that the Labour Party machinery have decided to back Joseph Muscat’s candidacy for reasons different from the most crucial one i.e. who is the candidate that offers best prospect for victory next time round.
Labour voters and decliners (generally considered pro-Labour people who refuse to disclose their voting preference for fear of recrimination from incumbent government) are for Joseph Muscat, possibly influenced by the party machinery. However these will vote Labour irrelevant of who is chosen as the new leader. They do not signify any new votes for Labour.
Floating voters clearly prefer George Abela. PN voters are probably people who normally vote PN but I have found that PN hardliners were hard to persuade to participate in the survey. So these must be PN voters with potential to become floaters as the PN continues to accumulate fatigue and if Labour were to propose a refreshing alternative. They also prefer George Abela.
So what is the client saying? The client who decides which way elections go, floaters and potential floaters, are clearly saying that as things stand today if Labour wants to stand a chance of attracting their vote, George Abela is the best candidate for the top post.
Based on this research I cannot but conclude that the party machinery and most of the candidates contesting are telling the people who ultimately decide which way elections go, the floaters and potential floaters, that they do not care about their tastes, feelings or expectations and want to continue with the trial and error methodology, based on hope rather than logic. Small wonder that if this persists Labour could be forcing floating voters as of now to vote it yet again in opposition right until 2018.
I will be publishing the full numerology of these surveys on my personal website in the next few days.
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