The Psychology of Building a Candidate

When you start developing a campaign plan you have to always think what the voters perception will be of the candidate from this product or technique. There is a psychological order to building a candidates likability and creditbility to the public. So whether you’re walking, mailing brochures or giving a speech, think about building the voter's impression of a candidate in this order below throughout the campaign.

1. FRIENDLY / BIOGRAPHICAL
The first impression a voter must get of the candidate is a friendly impression. A person will not listen to you and certainly not vote for you unless he or she likes you.

Remember Michael Dukakis, he started campaigning extremely hard right after the primaries in 1988. But two weeks before the election, the Dukakis campaign polls showed that he was not gaining any support. And the one reason was nobody knew who Michael Dukakis was. The campaign immediately started to create ads showing what a great man Dukakis is. They had soft music playing in the background while slow fade-ins of Dukakis as a young boy working hard in school. The struggels of his immigrate Greek family. And Michael working in South America as a young man to help the poor.

Michael Dukakis numbers did go up slightly. But it was too late. He needed to run these “friendly/bio” ads months before the election. Then people may have listen to what he had to say.

That’s why a lot a candidates have a “fluff” brochure at the beginning of the campaign to handout to voters when walking or at events.

2. ISSUES
Now that people like you (hopefully), they will listen to you. What do you stand for? Are you going to make sure there trash gets picked up on time? Are you going to save the library? Are you going to patrol the neighborhood yourself to help stop crime?

“Issues” for obvious reasons is extremely important. You need a reason why people are going to vote for you.

3. CREDIBILITY
Who else believes in you? Who is the most popular person in your city or district that will take a photograph with you shaking your hand? Find that person and a bunch more. Get as many endorsements as possible.

What about organizations, clubs, neighborhood groups, party membership, special commissions, and church activities you belong too. This is all part of the voter getting a feel that you are for real.

4. COMPARISON / ATTACK
In most local races you never have to compare yourself to the other candidates let alone attack. But, if the race is close and you have to tell the voters that your law & order opponent was arrested three times for shoplifting, this is the time to do it.

You cannot compare or attack your opponent until the voter gets the other three impressions of you first. Many candidates start ranting and raving right at the beginning of a campaign. This might be interesting to a voter for the moment. But after a couple of months of this it starts to backlash. People start to ask “who is this guy?”

If your uneasy about attacking your opponent but you feel you have to do something, there is a safer way. It’s the comparison piece. You probably seen them. A mailer that’s designed in a spread sheet form that compares your accomplishments and credentials to your opponent lack of accomplishments and credentials.

4. FRIENDLY AGAIN
You’ve come full circle. The very last impression a voter must feel about you when they walk into the polling booth is a friendly impression again.

This is usually when campaigns send out there faniciest, largest brochure.

© 2007 Croshaw Printing and Direct Mail

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