I decide to get more detailed feedback from Simon Bell by emailing him how much I had currently written. This is what I had sent him.
Can design strategy make a Political Campaign more successful?
Introduction:Political campaigns have always seemed to follow traditional communications strategies and persuasion techniques. They constantly continue using the same tactics, believing that, what has worked previously will work again. However, political campaigns are now entering a new era of new media platforms. This causes new challenges due to changing demographics, social networking, and divided communities. Their biggest challenge today is innovation and communication strategies, which can target new voters and develop new technology strategies for fundraising needs. There are now new opportunities for persuasion and engagement of the voters. Campaigns that invest in new approaches to meet these obstacles, will benefit from the impact. Political campaigns can take inspiration from progressive businesses and organisations in the private sector. These businesses and organisations are already using design-based strategies, to innovate solutions for different situations. During the beginning of the 2012 presidential campaign USA, Jim Messina, the campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, said, “If we run that same [2008] campaign, we stand a good chance of losing... we have to run a new campaign” (Baribeau, 2012). This alone shows that Messina realised that in order to win, they needed to produce a new strategy that was different than previous campaigns, and also new innovative solutions to target their specific communication problems.
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1. What is Design Strategy?While political campaigns have been slower to adopt new methods of communicating with their intended audiences, the private sector has begun to adopt more of a design-driven approach to innovate solutions for their audience’s needs. Companies have recognized that innovation will be the new driving force behind the future of the economy (Kelley & Littman, 2001). One way they can do this is by becoming co-creators with designers and implementing design strategy as a process of innovation within their own companies (Holston, 2008). With the rise of the innovation in technology era, designers will be the leaders of this movement (Nussbaum, 2011). How this approach of design strategy is put into action will determine those who succeed and gain the competitive edge. Previous studies have shown innovation and design are linked. Companies are implementing design strategy approach which brought 27% more new products or services to market compared to their competition (“Centre for Design Innovation,” 2007). Not only are these companies innovating new products or services, design strategy is helping them grow and maintain their growth (“Centre for Design Innovation,” 2007). Design-led businesses are forming a foundation within their companies to facilitate these results and place a sense of brand within their employees. These companies are the benefiting from this approach, as they are performing more efficiently compared to their competition and gaining more profit than companies who are not implementing design (the economic effects, 2003). When it comes to brand, there is not a system placed used to measure its value of the company. This leads some members in higher positions to question if it is worth the time and investment for something that is viewed as non-essential. Yet, companies that use design strategy to strengthen their brands are gaining the majority of market share and more loyalty from customers and employees (Neumeier, 2006). Innovation not only comes from the acknowledgment of a user-centered business plan, it engages an audience. This forms an emotional connection is equally important as the brand. Designers have been connecting the links between emotion and usability for a long period of time. This technique is not only valuable for business, but for political campaigns as well.
2. Is visual Imagery enough?THIS SECTION IS STILL IN REFINMENT To form this connection a strong visual poster needs to be memorable and effective. Posters remain one of the most effective and most powerful tools for promoting candidates however, there is a visual distinction between posters produced by official campaigns and those produced by informal supporters. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1354068812472575On reflection, official campaign posters tend to lack in graphic design visuals and are very safe designs however, this could be a direct repercussion from reduced art programs and design education from school curriculums (especially in the U.S). This could be leading to discomfort by any imagery that is not easily understood or requires interpretation although, good design pushes boundaries and challenges viewers, there still needs to be some sort of stability. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/political-posters-oped/index.html Shepard Fairey's 2008 "Hope" poster brilliantly captured the country's need for optimism and hopefulness after eight dismal years of George Bush II. The design went viral which is evidence of emotional connection with potential voters. Many believe this poster inspired enough voters to give Obama the edge that he needed to win. Looking beyond the campaign, that particular poster design changed graphic design history. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/political-posters-oped/index.html
Messages can affect voters in at least three ways. This includes, voters might develop an attachment to a candidate based on how well they identify or are familiar with the person. Secondly, picturing a group alongside the candidate, sends a message of a strong support front. Lastly, the images that a candidate use could send a message about the candidate’s ideology. Philpot stated, images can convey substantive information that alters the way voters perceive a candidate, and campaign images often reflect a candidate’s sincere positions and priorities (Sulkin and Swigger, 2008). Through their advertising, candidates attempt to say that they care about the voters, and that they care about the issues that the voters care about (Rosenberg et al. 1991; Bradshaw 1995). They may do this through their verbal messages, however, they also transmit this through the images they use in their advertisements, whether they are aware or not.
3. Design familiarity: How can it be used?
4.Structure/process of Political Campaigns:The 2008 presidential election has become historic for many reasons, not only because Barack Obama was the first African-American to be elected as President of the United States, but also due to how his campaign was run. His campaign effectively utilised the use of the Internet, Obama went from a little-known senator in Illinois to the Democratic presidential nominee. The campaign used the Internet to form small aids from a large audience and build tools, along with developing marketing strategies, to encourage donations. This strategy accumulated in the highest amount of fundraising produced by a campaign in American political history (Scherer, 2012a). In 2008, the campaign also used the Internet to organise volunteers across the country and created the largest voter registration ever seen, resulting in the largest voter turnout – 62% of registered voters – since 1968, which also had the largest amount of total people (131 million) vote in a presidential election (Associated Press, 2008). After the election Claire Miller, a New York Times reporter said, “One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president has echoed that of John F. Kennedy is his use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the Internet” (Miller, 2008). However, The Obama campaign was not the first to utilise the Internet as a fundraising and organising tool. Another campaign that saw the potential however was not as successful was Howard Dean, a former governor from Vermont. He was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 when his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, decided to make the Internet the focal point of their campaign (Berman, 2010). At the time, the Internet was a becoming a major part of daily culture, however other political campaigns were ignoring its potential. The Dean campaign used and found bloggers to spread their message, arrange meet-ups, organise local events and, most importantly, use online participants to encourage small donations from groups of supporters. This fundraising strategy kept the Dean campaign strong and was viewed as a significant improbability, which was later elaborated on to form the foundation that the Obama campaign would use to set record-breaking levels (Berman, 2008). Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap, defines a modern brand not as a logo or identity system, but a “gut feeling,” an emotional connection with a product, person, or service (Neumeier, 2006). The Obama campaign linked his ideals of hope and change to a visual representation of a horizon within an “O.” This was the first time that a presidential candidate, was visually represented by a mark rather than a logo or typographical symbol of his last name (Thomas, 2008). The design pushed the traditional political visual themes and combined the candidate’s message with imagery to create something that felt new and original. Having a modern brand was important to the candidate, because it represents his ideals however, because it became a symbol of his campaign and a representation of the movement that his supporters would come to embrace. Sol Sender, whose team produced the original logo representing the brand, said that design helped facilitate this: “the identity was for the campaign, not just the candidate... some have termed it a movement, a symbol of hope” (Heller, 2008). The combination of an original brand and visual identity met beyond its requirements as the main function of an identifier was helpful to Obama because, it attracted new participants to take part in the political process along with helping differentiate him from his competitors.
A political campaign needs to operate in a way that is similar to a hierarchical structure. An interview with Bloomberg Business Week during the 2012 presidential election, Jim Messina claimed that he was now convinced that modern presidential campaigns will have to mimic fast-growing tech companies rather than follow previous campaigns (Joshua, 2012). Messina said, “What they’ve done is more readily applicable to me, because they all started very small and got big very quickly,” representing a change in belief of the traditional method of organising a campaign to one that allows them to move at the same pace of a tech company (Joshua, 2012).
A campaign’s leader, or CeO, is known as the Campaign Manager. They work together with the candidate and their senior advisors to determine the overall strategy for a successful campaign. The candidate’s role is to work beside the leadership team in the planning process. During this phase they will set the primary objectives, and then his or her role shifts to meeting donors and persuading voters (Mcnamara, 2008). The campaign manager is then responsible for observing the day-to-day progress of the campaign, developing strategies, and determining how they will execute directives. Departments that are found within presidential campaigns consist of Communications, Fundraising, Legal, Field, and new Media or Digital.
5. Perception of Design in Politics:There are various studies based on the perception of design in politics. In one particular study conducted by the Centre for Design Innovation, 78% of small and medium enterprises (SMes) polled in Ireland viewed design as important factor in staying ahead of their competition, yet only 15% of them intended to significantly raise their investment (“Centre for Design Innovation,” 2007). Centre for Design Innovation. (2007). If design is to become more efficient and become a larger role in political campaigns, then designers will need to be viewed as strategic partners. This means these perceptions will have to improve to allow for a more successful design and political strategy.
In The Political Campaign Desk Reference, which promotes a starter guide for anyone interested in getting involved with a political campaign. The guide mentions the campaign logo: “A campaign logo – the image that is imprinted on signs, literature, television and all other materials, is something that some campaigns spend far too much time creating” (Mcnamara, 2008). This opinion alone, is detrimental to the impact people may have on design within politics. Designers need to form a strategy and trust by considering these steps: good communication, listening, honest interaction, transparent procedures, and producing what has been discussed.
Conclusion:
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