Master thesis
Sune T. Nielsen
1. Introduction
Communication is a concept which we all, in one way or another, are exposed to or deal with in our
daily lives. It takes a sender, a message and an intended receiver for there to be communication and
with the emergence of the Internet and social media and a growing population there is sigmoidal
growth in the global communication vectors.1 Social media have improved communication between
sender and receiver and produced the possibility of creating relations between people that were not
possible just 10 years ago. This is especially true in public relations and political communication
where the possibility of reaching a high number of people is growing rapidly.
This thesis explores the different levels of political communication. It is an inside look
on how the image of politicians is meticulously polished for the purpose of accomplishing a desired
objective, namely to attract as many voters as possible and eventually win an election.
Communication is not the only pillar in winning elections, but it is a very important pillar.
So, just how is an election won? It is not always the smartest candidate or the one with
the most experience. In politics as well as in the business world, a lot of aspects play a part in the
success of selling a product or getting the most votes. Why are some products more successful than
others and why did this particular candidate get the most votes? There is no clear answer to this.
What can be answered is how individual aspects of campaigning are successful in their areas.
Usually when a product does well following a campaign, it is clear that the campaign was the
reason for the success and in that case it is something tangible that can be used again. In political
elections it is not quite as simple as that, because of the many factors that are at play.
In discussing the impact of information technology and social media, Ralph Tench
(2009) has pertinently suggested that “[…] the public relations and marketing landscape is
changing”.2 And so is political campaigning. Barack Obama used social media in his 2008
presidential campaign and managed to reach a whole new segment of the population. It can be
argued whether or not it actually won him the election. However, the point is that it was a
revolution in political campaigning and has since been utilised by many other candidates running
for office. For instance, Texas Governor Rick Perry was also using social media extensively in his
most recent campaign to become the Republican presidential nominee. He has had great success in
previous gubernatorial campaigns without the use of social media. However, he is in a completely
different league when running for the leadership of the entire nation and not just his home state of
1
2
Internet World Stats (IWS) http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm Last viewed 21/02 2012
Tench 2009
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Texas. Perry would now have to keep up with the times and implement new technology in his
campaigns, which he ultimately did.
With particular focus on communication strategies, this master thesis will explore the
different communicative aspects in political campaigns. Republican candidate Rick Perry’s
campaign in the 2012 election is the primary focus. Another focus is how Republicans are now
using revolutionary social media as a communication strategy, following Barack Obama’s success
with social media in 2008. Ultimately, the purpose of the thesis is to evaluate how conservative
radicalism is packaged and ‘sold’ in a time of revolutionary social media. Also, to establish why
Obama had a successful campaign and Perry did not, despite his use of new technology.
Rick Perry is particularly interesting seen from a business perspective as he is a
conservative Republican, which means that he believes in low taxes and economic liberalism.
Perry’s main selling point is his ability to create jobs. His argument was that what he has achieved
for his state of Texas would be achieved for the entire country if elected. He is giving the
impression that he has the answer to the recession and electing him President will mean a lot of new
jobs. Perry is an outsider and an anti-establishment – anti-Washington D.C. conservative with
hyper-liberal policies, which makes him a very different and interesting entity. Perry started out as a
front-runner in the early part of the campaign and had raised large amounts of campaign funds
(second only to Mitt Romney). He was a natural ‘hard right’ candidate, a Southerner and a social
conservative. He had an up-to-date social media-integrated campaign from day one. He initiated a
relationship with Christians in the U.S. and started talking about faith and how America should stop
Obama’s ‘war on religion’.3 Perry’s policies, if he had been elected, would have transformed the
domestic as well as the international landscape, which makes him one of the more interesting
candidates. This is particularly interesting because if Perry were to get his policies of minimal state
passed, the many social policies that Obama has worked on getting implicated, such as health care
reform, would be, according to Perry himself, repealed.4 Also, since the US has such a large
influence on the economy of the world it would mean that Perry’s liberal economic policies would
have an impact internationally as well. However, Perry dropped out of the race, which means that
he will not be the next President this time around. So how did a front-runner end up quitting the
race to become the next Republican presidential nominee in just six months?
This master thesis will explore how Perry was communicating his political messages
and to explore the reason for his struggles towards the end of his campaign. Perry’s use of social
media as a communication strategy is particularly interesting. It will be one of the main focuses
3
4
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/GovernorPerry Last viewed 10/02 2012
Office of the Governor: Rick Perry http://governor.state.tx.us/initiatives/natl_health_care/ Last viewed 10/02 2012
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when evaluating his campaign. The Perry campaign will be contrasted with the 2008 Obama
‘revolution’ in the use of social media. A comparative analysis of the two politicians and their use
of social media will provide the reader with an understanding of the way Obama communicates and
whether or not Perry is following his example or if the Republican is communicating in a different
manner. This analysis will determine if what Perry is communicating is enough to attract a majority
of voters or if it is just to attract the minority of far-right, anti-Washington D.C. voters. The analysis
will be based on marketing/branding theory to see if a political candidate can be marketed in the
same way a product is in the market place. This is especially interesting when selecting the target
audience and when advertising. The analysis will determine to what extent Perry’s marketing
initiatives during his campaign mimics theory on marketing in the market place.
The overall objective of the master thesis is to show that the different subjects studied
over the course of the master’s programme can be put to use in an extensive academic paper such as
this. The specific communicative competencies that a student of the masters program in English, PR
and international market communication should acquire are knowledge of international PR and
market communication, media landscapes in English speaking countries and the cultural barriers in
different countries. A student in this particular masters program should develop skills in choosing
relevant communication strategies in different situations, to different senders and receivers, to
evaluate and plan a campaign and to produce PR material in English. Most of these aspects are
central to contemporary presidential campaigns in the United States.
During the course of the thesis the specific communicative competencies and skills
that has been acquired and learned by the author will be displayed. Rick Perry’s presidential
campaign constitutes a case that uses different communication strategies, which provides the author
with material to demonstrate the knowledge acquired during the masters program.
The way to show this is by first looking at Perry’s communication strategies and then
use relevant theory to show how his presidential campaign otherwise could have been executed.
Image is a very important factor in political communication, and when trying to win an election it is
essential to act in a certain way so as not to discourage voters. So how well was Perry
communicating his image and is the media helping or not?
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1.1 Problem Statement
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry and his campaign in the primaries is the object of
analysis in this thesis. President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign is the model that
Perry’s campaign in the primaries will be compared to. Both Obama’s campaign as well as Perry’s
past gubernatorial campaigns will be the backdrop for the analysis of Perry’s campaign in the
primaries. There are three communication strategies that are of particular interest in this analysis
and evaluation and they are; the use of social media, grassroots movements, and how the persona of
the candidate is portrayed through his politics. These are all strategies that spin doctors and political
strategists use in their efforts to optimize the possibilities for their candidates to win. A spin doctor
is, according to Macmillan English dictionary (2002), “[…] someone whose job it is to give
journalists information that makes a politician or an organization look as good as possible.”5 A
political strategist is someone who develops and carries out a political plan.6
This thesis is written especially for the purpose of demonstrating the work that spin
doctors and political strategists perform during campaigns. Firstly, the theory that is used in
political communication and political public relations will provide the necessary scientific
background knowledge needed for the comprehension and analysis of the rest of the thesis.
Secondly, there are two cases concerning Obama’s presidential campaign and Perry’s gubernatorial
and presidential campaigns, respectively. These cases will provide the material needed to be able to
first compare the two politicians and to make an analysis of Governor Perry’s campaign in the
primaries. Thirdly, the analysis of Perry’s campaign in the primaries will be based on observations
made during the previous campaigns of Obama and Perry, as well as the theory in the first part of
the thesis, including empirical data from social media and general media, respectively. Finally, an
evaluation of Governor Perry’s communication strategies in his campaign in the primaries followed
by an extensive conclusion regarding the entire thesis will answer the following questions:

What communication strategies are particularly effective when campaigning for the
presidency of the US?

What mistakes were made in Rick Perry’s presidential campaign since he could go from
being a favorite to win to being the loser of the primaries?
5
6
Macmillan English Dictionary, p. 1377
Macmillan English Dictionary, p. 1417
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Answers to these questions could be of interest to a number of people within politics, especially
those who deal with campaigning. Hopefully, the answers might tell us something about the state of
political campaigning, including the degree to which communicative processes have turned ‘virtual’
and whether traditional means of campaigning are either obsolete or have decreased in importance.
1.2 Structure
For the purpose of creating a clear structure the thesis is divided into six chapters. Each chapter
focuses on individual areas and builds on previous chapters.
Firstly, the introduction and problem statement presents the overall purpose of the
thesis as well as introduces the subject at hand. The following section states the way in which the
thesis will be executed by mentioning the use of theory, empirical data, the methodology, and
delimitation.
Secondly, the next chapter introduces the subject of politics in the United States. This
section is made for the purpose of explaining in what environment the subject of the thesis is taking
place. The overall theme of the thesis is political campaigning and the main objective of this chapter
is to explain the context in which it exists. The sections that explain the context of voting and voters
are included for the purpose of explaining important aspects of the process that the electorate goes
through in order to execute their democratic rights.
Thirdly, the chapter regarding communication strategies is for the purpose of
discussing the communicative aspects of political campaigning. This section is mainly theoretical
and deals with the three overarching topics of political communication, the media, and public
relations. All of which are necessary in contemporary American political campaigns.
The fourth chapter provides the thesis with empirical data on the campaigns of two
previous presidential campaigners and their staff. Firstly, President Obama’s campaign, which led
him to victory in 2008, provides the thesis with a model for a successful approach to campaigning.
Secondly, Governor Rick Perry’s six months long presidential campaign as well as his previous
gubernatorial campaigns provides the thesis with an example of a campaign, which inevitably was
unsuccessful.
The reason for the unsuccessful outcome of Perry’s campaign is analysed in this next
chapter. This chapter provides the thesis with an evaluation and analysis of a presidential campaign.
President Obama’s campaign will serve as a model to compare to Perry’s campaign in this chapter.
Finally, a conclusion to the entire thesis will provide the reader with a thorough
understanding of the process chosen and a theory on why some candidates are chosen over others.
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1.3 Theory
The general field of theory that will be used is within communication strategies and particularly the
sub-genre of political campaigning. The concept of political public relations is the main field of
theory. The theories mentioned in the first part of the thesis will be used after the two cases for the
purpose of making a comparison and evaluation of the latter case of Perry’s communication
strategies during his most recent campaign. In the analysis additional theory on brand attitude will
be mentioned for the purpose of exploring the possibility of branding a political candidate using
theory from the market place. The literature used in the theory section will primarily be provided by
Brian McNair, Darren Lilleker and Dan Nimmo. Also, a number of articles written by other authors
will provide this section with additional material. Larry Percy and Richard Elliott will provide the
majority of the literature concerning branding. The sources are carefully picked for the purpose of
using material which has been substantiated by more than one author, for the legitimacy of the
theory used. The theoretical material will be unfolded in the following sections.
1.4 Empirical data
The empirical data in this thesis will particularly come from inside the camps of the two
aforementioned politicians. Obama’s chief campaign manager David Plouffe and Perry’s chief
strategist Dave Carney have themselves written material which will be used as well as articles
written about these two communication strategists will also be used as empirical data. Of course,
one source about a campaign is not enough, which is why the material from the inside of the camps
will be confirmed by comparing articles and books written by a non-partisan, neutral source, such
as Theodor J. Lowi. However, firstly, there is a section which explains the subject of politics in the
U.S. for the purpose of understanding in which environment the campaigns took place. This is also
considered to be empirical data and will be provided by political and communications experts
Theodor J. Lowi, Benjamin Ginsberg and Darren Lilleker as well as articles from legitimate
sources.
Rick Perry’s social media updates are also empirical data and will provide the thesis
with messages directly from the Perry team to the social media site’s users.
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1.5 Methodology
The way these questions will be approached is by comparing the communication strategies of Perry
and Obama. Firstly, to better understand the field in which they operate, which is political
communication, is by explaining politics, as well as political campaigning, in the US in general.
Furthermore, the theory section will deal extensively with political communication and political
public relations in order to give the reader the necessary knowledge to be able to digest the two
cases as well as the comparative analysis and evaluation.
Secondly, the two cases will provide the thesis with the necessary empirical data. This
section is where the reader will acquire knowledge of the two politicians, Perry and Obama. Focus
here is on Perry as he is the object of analysis and Obama, the model used to analyse.
Finally, the theory and the empirical data will come to use in the final part of the
thesis. This part is equally an analysis as it is an evaluation and discussion of the use of
communication strategies in political campaigns. There is a clear link between corporate and
political campaigns and this link is continuously displayed throughout the thesis. The final part will
compare corporate and political campaigning as well as discuss the possibility of using PR &
marketing from the corporate world in a political campaign.
All of the different approaches to the subject of political campaigning are carried out
for the purpose of getting a full picture of the act of campaigning for the presidency in the U.S.
from different angles.
1.6 Delimitation
For the purpose of centring the thesis on Rick Perry and his strategic communication, there are a
number of limitations. President Obama’s campaign is only used for the purpose of comparing with
Perry’s campaign, which means that not all aspects of the communication in Obama’s campaign are
covered. Also, not all material written on the Perry campaign will be used as it is too extensive,
covering everything from media such as TV broadcasts, magazine articles, newspaper articles, etc.
The empirical data used in the two cases are limited to academic books and articles with credible
sources. In the analysis the focus is on what is communicated by the Perry camp in terms of
communication strategies. The evaluation of the campaign is mainly based on the findings in the
analysis, but also the way Perry is evaluated by the media and political commentators.
Absent from this thesis is the discussion of interpersonal political communication,
which is communication that is not documented or in any way available, such as discussions that
take place behind closed doors. It could be any political communication that, despite its importance,
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is not available to be analysed. What is lacking here is especially the conversations between the
politician and his managers, which would give us an important insight into what lies behind the
decisions that the politician is taking. Such information will usually be available down the line, as
the participants write or talk about the relevant events. This information will then only be from their
perspective and it is then up to historians to filter out the half-truths and lies until the true story
behind the campaign is properly unveiled.
2. Politics in the United States
Since this is a political paper, it is first necessary to briefly explain in what environment it is taking
place. It is a democratic country, which, according to Lowi (2011), means that “[…] citizens are
permitted to play a significant part in the governmental process, usually through the election of key
public officials.”7 There are two main political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. The
Democrats are generally more socially-minded, whereas Republicans, who are conservative, are
more oriented towards liberal economic policies. The Republican Party is often referred to as the
‘Grand Old Party’ or GOP.8 Compared to most West European countries, the U.S. has never been
particularly socially-minded, but more concerned with enforcing liberal economic policies for the
sake of economic growth. Americans in general like their independence and taking care of everyone
else by paying high taxes is not what they consider to be a libertarian society. A socially-minded
society takes care of its citizens, but it requires a lot of government spending and conservative
Americans would generally rather decide for themselves how their money should be spent.
In some economies there is a need for more social policies rather than liberal
economic policies, which is just one of the topics the two parties always seem to debate about. The
Democrats are what is referred to as to the left of the middle, whereas the Republicans are to the
right of the middle, the middle is where everyone is in agreement on all political matters. The use of
left and right wing to describe differing schools of political thought dates back to the time of the
French Revolution and the seating arrangements of the French National Assembly. 9 With that in
mind it is possible to place the two candidates mentioned herein in their respected places, i.e.
Obama, the Democrat, to the left and Perry, the Republican, to the right.
In recent U.S. history the fifty states of the nation have been categorized as either blue
or red during elections. The blue states are the states where there is a Democratic majority among
7
Lowi 2011, p. 4
Grace, Francie 2009 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/politics/main531460.shtml Last viewed 23/01 2012
9
Knapp 2006, pp. 1-2
8
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the electorate in the polls. The red states are the Republican majority of voters.10 Candidates tend to
focus on states where there is a risk of losing the majority of the votes to the opposition. These
states are called swing states. This is why the candidates campaign more in these states than others.
Iowa was for instance an important state for Obama when he was campaigning for the presidency.
2.1 Political Campaign in the United States
Campaigns lead up to an election where people get to convey their opinions to the government by
expressing their individual political preferences through their vote. This is known as democracy and
is what is utilised in the US. In local, state and federal elections in the US the people elect their
President, governors, federal and state legislators and thousands of local mayors, councillors, and
commissioners on a frequent basis.11 12
The elections happen so frequently that the politician and his politics are often
affected by it. There is a constant pressure on the politician to cater to the people’s needs in order to
get them to vote for him in the next general election. The frequent elections also satisfy the
electorate’s need for a continual renewal of government.13
A presidential campaign starts with the primary elections - where the opposition of the
ruling party initiates campaigning for the purpose of choosing a candidate to run against the
candidate of the opposition, which this time around is President Obama. The primary elections are
elections that take place in different states where the candidates compete for the support of the
electorate. These elections determine the popularity of the candidates and the candidates that get the
least amount of votes can choose to cancel their campaigns. Some candidates are more popular in
some states than others and may therefore choose to disregard a low count in one state and hope for
an improvement in support in the next state a primary election is held. Eventually there will only be
one candidate left and this candidate is to lead the party against the opposition. This whole process
is known as a caucus in which members of a political party meet in some U.S. states for the purpose
of choosing who will represent the party in the election for President.14 After these meetings the
general election begins. In the general election the presidential nominees of the two leading parties
10
Lowi 2011, p. 318
Lowi 2011, p. 284
12
As of June 30, 2002 there were 87,900 government units in the United States. There is one federal government.
11
There are fifty state governments, over 3,000 county governments, 36,000 municipal and town governments, about
13,522 school districts, and over 35,000 special districts (for example, water or utility),
http://ftp2.census.gov/govs/cog/2002COGprelim_report.pdf Last viewed 15/12/2011
13
14
Lowi 2011, p.285
Macmillan English Dictionary, p. 214
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compete in debates and campaign in particular states. The whole process can last between a year
and a half and two years.15 It is up to the candidate to choose when to start campaigning in this
period of time.
Campaigns are executed for the purpose of mobilizing the candidate’s supporters.
Other purposes are to gain new supporters which could be in the form of winning over supporters of
the opposition, undecided voters, newly registered voters and people who usually do not vote. The
significance of gaining supporters is essential in campaigns as it is within a system of plurality,
meaning that the majority of the vote wins the electoral district. This facet will be discussed in
further detail in the following section. The importance of gaining supporters causes a lot of
competition between the candidates and the two leading parties. The candidates that are chosen for
the nomination to run for President usually keep the supporters of the party. The only exceptions
would be if the supporter no longer identifies with the party’s policies or the candidate’s character
or personal issues.
Voters cannot choose to vote for a law or policy on a national level. In state elections
it is sometimes possible that there are specific ballot initiatives where the policy is what is voted on.
In national elections, voters have to vote for a candidate or party who are proclaiming that they will
pass laws or policies that the voter wants to have passed. It is a way for voters to get officials to do
what they want. If and when the officials get elected they are not bound by law to pass the policies
they were proclaiming they would pass. This means that the politicians have the opportunity to lie
their way through an election. However, at the next election the voters will presumably remember if
their chosen official passed that law or policy that they wanted or not. In any case it is necessary to
acknowledge the electorate as they possess the power to re-elect the official. With elections every
four years it is important to follow through on promises or the electorate may remember the broken
promises.
In the United States there is a lot of freedom when campaigning in terms of rules and
regulations. There is little restriction on what candidates are allowed to do in terms of campaigning.
There are no limits as to how much is spent on aspects of the campaign such as advertising.
Candidates are also relatively free to say or do whatever they want. There are federal laws that
prevent how much individuals or organizations donate to a candidate. However, in presidential
campaigns there are no restrictions on how much the candidate may spend. In January 2010 the
U.S. Supreme Court permitted unlimited corporate and union spending on elections. Following this
new law emerged super PACs (political action committees). According to Garrett (2011), super
15
Lilleker 2006, p. 52
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PACs “[…] have been permitted to accept unlimited contributions and make unlimited expenditures
aimed at electing or defeating federal candidates”.16 However, they are not allowed to contribute
directly to federal candidates or parties. What this means for candidates is that they may spend as
much as they want on advertising, supporters, or whatever is deemed important. Compared to other
countries, where there are usually a lot of restrictions on how to campaign, it is a very liberal
campaign system.17 This in turn increases competition and creates campaigns that last up to two
years, which the case of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign will provide an example of.
2.2 The Ballot
People can cast their votes by either going to a polling place or use absentee vote. When the vote is
cast in a polling place it is on Election Day in the presence of other voters. It is up to the voter to
share his vote or to keep it secret. In 2008, 30 percent of all votes were not cast at the polling place
but as absentee vote.18 Absentee voters are e.g. people who are not able to be at the polling place on
the day of voting. It could be people working abroad or military personnel in another country. These
people as well as all other registered voters have the possibility of casting their vote early, known as
early vote. They do this by filling out an absentee ballot. In 1972 only about 5 percent of all votes
nationwide were cast as absentee vote.19 This change in absentee vote could be because of
globalism and that more Americans live abroad. What is also likely is that politicians are getting
better at informing the electorate about the possibility of early vote.
Another important focus during campaigns is for campaign managers to encourage
people to get registered to vote. Any U.S. citizen above the legal voting age of 18 years is allowed
to vote.20 They just need to get registered first. The challenge lies in getting people interested in
getting registered to vote.
The voting system in presidential elections is geographically based. Elected officials
are tied to a certain state and the number of votes each state has depends on the number of U.S.
senators and the number of House members. There are always two U.S. senators but the number of
House members is not the same in each state. Whatever the number of senators and House members
each state has, equals the number of votes that the state can cast in elections.21 These electors are
known as the Electoral College, who are appointed by each state, and they are the ones that
16
Garrett, R. Sam 2011 http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42042.pdf Last viewed 19/01 2012
Lowi 2011, pp.287 - 312
18
Lowi 2011, p.287
19
Lowi 2011, p.287
20
U.S. Voting qualifications http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=1923&locid=47 Last viewed 19/01 2012
21
Lowi 2011, pp.293-297
17
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formally elect the President and Vice President. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors in each
presidential election consisting of 100 senators, 435 Representatives plus three electors from the
District of Columbia.22 Since all elections in the United States and the elected officials are
geographically based in states and not to a national electorate it means that candidates focus on
winning certain states. This system is called plurality rule, where the number of votes in the election
by the Electoral College is what wins the election and not the majority of all votes cast. Majority
rule is an electoral system where, in order to win, it is necessary to receive a majority of the vote,
which would be more than 50 percent. In plurality rule it is possible to win the election when
enough states are won, which is why the candidates always focus on certain states that have the
largest Electoral College. The states with the most Electoral College votes will have the most
influence in the election.
2.3 The Voter
Studies have shown that most Americans identify themselves with either the Democratic or the
Republican Party.23 They are loyal to either one of the parties and stay loyal until they are given a
reason not to be. There is a better chance at converting a loyal partisan in presidential elections,
rather than state elections, as there are more important national and international issues at stake and
there is also more information on candidates. Candidates that run for office in state elections are not
covered as extensively in the media as candidates in national elections. This exposure gets voters
more interested in choosing the right candidate. Voters will choose a candidate that they share
values with and preferably in their preferred party. If there are no candidates that share the same
values or are not agreeing on issues, that are important to the voter, in the preferred party, the voter
might choose a candidate in another party.
The voter will usually choose a candidate with a similar cultural background. Personal
characteristics such as race, religion, ethnicity, geography, social background, and gender are likely
to influence a person to vote for a certain candidate.24 Voters are, according to some analysts,
influenced by personal attributes and seem to prefer tall, light-haired men with short names.25 The
personal character of the candidate has increased in importance in recent years, which is evident in
debates where the personal attacks have become more obvious.26 The voter wants to be able to trust
22
See Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution and the Twenty-third Amendment
Lowi 2011, p. 308
24
Lowi 2011, p. 308
25
Lowi 2011, p. 309
26
SETUPS (Supplementary Empirical Teaching Units in Political Science)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/SETUPS/notes/candidate-characteristics.jsp Last viewed 19/01 2012
23
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the candidate and highly values honesty and integrity. It is an important issue in the competitive
environment of elections to have a clean slate, so that the competition has no possibility of using
any past mistakes against the candidate. Past indiscretions can ruin a political career, as was the
case with Republican candidate Herman Cain who suspended his bid for the presidency during the
primaries in 2011 after a number of women accused him of sexual misconduct.27 A candidate’s past
can also be a benefit if it has a positive influence on voters. During the 2008 election against
Obama, Republican presidential candidate John McCain benefitted from his impressive wartime
record.28 American voters, in particular, are proud of veterans, who have served their country.29
The voter has a lot of influence on decisions that are made in politics. According to
some, the politicians cater to the electorate and policies are therefore decided by the voter.30 If that
truly is the case then it is the people’s choice and can be compared to the market where companies
cater to their consumers/stakeholders. According to Tench (2009), “Some argue that voters choose
at the ballot box in much the same way as consumers choose in the market place; indeed there is an
economic theory of democracy based on that assumption.”31 Whatever the case may be, the
audience is always an important part in the execution of political messages. Many of the tools used
in communicating with voters can be compared to how organizations communicate with
stakeholders. One particularly interesting and comparable part of the communication in both the
market and in politics is the image i.e. of the organization/politician. Both aspire to have an image
that appeal to stakeholders/voters. Organizations will use e.g. corporate social responsibility
partially to appeal to stakeholders, whereas politicians will use policies/political agendas to appeal
to voters.
Some of the less apparent ways of appealing to stakeholders/voters are e.g. the logo of
an organization, which arguably can be compared to the demeanour and appearance of the
politician. Presidential candidates are constantly exposed to cameras during campaigning, which
means that it is important for them to not appear in any way inferior to their competition in
demeanour and appearance. Dr. Darren G. Lilleker PhD, BA. senior lecturer in political
communication (2006) argues that “[…] political communication has become increasingly more
about style and presentation, and increasingly influenced by popular culture, in an attempt to
27
Saulny, Susan - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/us/politics/herman-cain-suspends-hispresidential-campaign.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=herman%20cain&st=cse Last viewed 27/02 2012
28
The New York Times http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/candidates/obama-mccain.html Last viewed 10/02
2012
29
Lowi 2011, p. 310
30
Lilleker 2006, p 36
31
Tench 2009, p. 89 (inspired by Downs, A. (1957))
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become more modern-looking, relevant and in touch with society.”32 This is, according to Lilleker,
known as ‘aestheticisation’.33
Politicians can use this in order to appeal to audiences of different social backgrounds.
How Governor Perry used this in his campaign videos will be discussed later on in the thesis.
3. Communication Strategies
One very important aspect of communication in politics is the relationship between the politician
and the public. It is a channel through which the politician mediates his values and political agenda.
In order for the message to be comprehended in the desired way, it is imperative to choose
communication strategies that the public can relate to. When Barack Obama chose to use social
media in his presidential campaign in 2008, he chose a communication strategy that allowed for him
to reach a large segment of the population in a new way.34 It was an innovative way to
communicate the message of politics in a manner that spoke more personally to the public.
It has been proven that brands that appear on a consumer’s Facebook page are more
appealing than if viewed on a stranger’s page.35 Advertising next to the consumer’s personal
content has a personal effect and probably even more so if the consumer chooses to receive updates
from the brand i.e. the politician, by ‘liking’ or subscribing. This would then move the politician
away from the other advertisers and over into where the consumer’s friends make their updates.
Facebook fan pages have proven to be efficient marketing tools, which is applicable to persons as
well as products.36 When marketing a person/product on Facebook, it can increase the number of
supporters. It also provides an efficient word-of-mouth marketing, as well as loyal followers.
Studies show that these supporters and followers are likely to get involved when asked to do so.
These studies suggest that there are possible correlations and not definitive causalities in their
results.37 A suggestion is to use social media as a niche tool next to the traditional ways of
marketing a candidate for a presidential bid. Using social media is not the only contemporary way
of marketing/campaigning, as will be discussed in further detail later in the thesis.
The use of media in general, as a way of communicating politics, can have varying
results. However, it is necessary, as it is the best way to communicate in politics, when trying to
reach a large number of people.
32
Lilleker 2006, p. 25
Lilleker 2006, p. 25
34
Plouffe 2009, p. 21
35
Perkins 2011
36
Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100218110938.htm Last viewed 10/02 2012
37
Dolakia, Utpal M. and Durham, Emily. One Café Chain’s Facebook Experiment. Harvard Business Review,
http://hbr.org/2010/03/one-cafe-chains-facebook-experiment/ar/1 Last viewed 10/02 2012
33
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For a politician to participate in a live political debate is a communication strategy
where the media is used without cost, which should be a benefit in any campaign. However, it also
enhances the risk of making mistakes, because it is live and unedited. It would make most sense to
take advantage of these debates by participating and getting the exposure. Choosing not to
participate in a live debate also sends a signal and is a strategy with a high risk of exposing the
politician as an incapable debater. Being a capable debater and rhetorically skilled is a quite
important quality in politics. The many strategies in a political campaign and to choose the right
ones are a main interest for political strategists behind politicians and are of great importance to
politicians.
The communication strategies dealt with here are in the genres of political
communication, public relations and political PR. What strategies the two candidates have used in
their campaigns will be discussed in the two cases later in the thesis.
3.1 Political Communication
3.1.1 Definition of Political Communication
Political communication consists of a variety of acts. These acts of communication are not just
verbal and written. Paralinguistic signs such as body language, demeanour and attire are also acts of
communication that are important factors for a politician’s image. What makes communication
political is the content and purpose, i.e. talking health care reform and the objective of
implementing it is political communication.38
In political communication there are three key actors:39 There are the political scene in
which the politicians and the state belong, non-state actors and the media. The politicians’ part in
political communication is to be the senders of political messages to the public. The second actors
are the non-state actors that have an interest in politics. They are for instance voters and
organisations that are motivated to participate. Their role is to receive the messages of the senders,
the politicians, and to respond for the purpose of having an influence on political matters. The third
actor is the media, which consists of, among others, printed, digital, televised, and radio media.
Their role is to mediate the messages sent by both the state and the non-state actors and in doing so
influence the public as well as the political scene. They are the channel through which most of the
communication between the two first actors is sent. The only exceptions where that is not the case
are when politicians speak directly to the public without the use of a channel. This could be at a
38
39
Mcnair 2011, pp.3-4
Lilleker 2006, p. 1
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meet-and-greet where the politicians’ talk directly to citizens and answer their questions. It would
also be the case when a politician holds a speech in a forum where the message is not mediated
through any channels.
One important factor in defining political communication is that it is largely mediated
communication, transmitted through the print and electronic media. What often happens is that
when a message is mediated through the media it is sometimes altered, which makes the reporters
political actors in their own right. It causes a problem for students and researchers of political
communication as the messages most often are mediated through channels that are affected by
personal perception and influenced by environmental factors. That is where social media and live
political debates become useful as they provide the student with empirical data which have not been
mediated. Instead it has gone through a direct channel from sender to receiver through a medium,
which most likely has not been tampered with or altered in any way. It is up to the receiver of the
message to determine whether or not the message is legitimate. When it is through a trusted channel
it will usually be perceived as legitimate. A trusted channel could be a channel through which the
audience usually gets their news from. If they have not been given a reason to distrust this channel
before, then they have no reason to doubt it now.
3.1.2 Political Communication and its Context
There are many factors than can influence the perception of a political message, e.g. social
semiotics, such as cultural background of the receiver of the message. According to Brian McNair
(2006), “[…] there are pluralities of comprehended meanings in the groups and individuals that are
receiving the message.”40 This diversity may also cause responses that vary. It might seem unlikely
that a simple message can be decoded in so many ways. However, it is the case when the audience
is a variety of people with different social and cultural backgrounds. The context of the political
message, such as political affiliation, age, ethnicity, and gender of the receiver as well as the type of
message are what influence the comprehension, i.e. meaning of the message, for the recipient.
When the comprehension of a message is varied it is natural for the responses to political messages
to vary.
A supporter of a candidate will decode the candidate’s message positively because the
supporter shares the world-view of the underlying political construction of the message. On the
other hand a non-supporter or supporter of the opposition will decode the candidate’s message
40
McNair, Brian 2006, The Culture of Chaos http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/may/01/mondaymediasection
Last viewed 10/02 2012
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negatively since there is no shared world-view. Then there are the undecided voters that have no or
little affiliation with any parties. They decode the messages according to their own values, because
they lack a commitment to parties. However, they still have a personal world-view, which may
correspond with individual pieces of a party’s political values, while rejecting others. Conservatives
in general believe in either lowering taxes or at least keeping them as they are, so they will respond
negatively to tax increases and reject the policies and values of any politician that suggests such a
policy.
3.1.3 Political Communication on the Internet
In politics it is now generally recognized that technology has advanced political communication and
that the processes in political campaigns have been influenced by “[…] techniques from the worlds
of corporate advertising and marketing in order to compete in the modern information-rich society”,
according to McNair (2011).41
With the rise of social networking tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, a new element
to campaigning became available. All of a sudden, the Internet could be used by the politicians in a
personal way and at the same time reach a lot of people. However, it was not until after Obama’s
presidential run in 2008 that social networking tools became standard communication practice for
political actors.42 According to McNair (2011), “Social networking is now routinely used to
communicate with electorates and stakeholders”43. It is especially useful during campaigning where
exposure of a candidate is a necessity to keep the electorate informed and interested.
Leading up to 2010, official information such as public inquiries and judicial reviews
became increasingly available on the Internet. Information is power, as some might say, and when
governments are forced to be open and share their information, it can sometimes get them into
trouble. That is exactly what happened when the Wikileaks site published classified US military and
other documents to the world without permission.44 This has the potential to undermine the political
process and democracy. The emergence of such information can hurt a candidate during elections.
There seems to be less and less secrets as the Internet provides all sorts of information
on candidates. Secrets about Obama’s past drug use came out during his campaign in 2008, which
probably did not help him.45 Also, Perry is especially criticised for not always sticking to his
41
Lilleker 2006, p. 6
McNair 2011, pp. 3-5
43
McNair 2011
44
McNair 2011, pp. 3-5
45
Kovaleski, Serge F. 2008, Old Friends Say Drugs Played Bit Part in Obama’s Young Life, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/09obama.html?pagewanted=all Last viewed 10/02 2012
42
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policies. For instance, he was once a Democrat and is now a Republican, which might lead people
to believe that he is not a true Republican. Also, his numerous attempts to convince people that he is
not like George W. Bush, despite the obvious similarities, fade when an old quote from 2000 came
out where Perry actually said “I’m the same as George W. Bush!”46
Politics on the Internet can be in the form of public activity in forums such as weblogs
(blogs), chat rooms or discussion boards. Established political organisations are also active on the
Internet, though to a lesser extent than the public.47 The Internet provides the public with a forum
where they can utter their opinions in true democratic form. Communication in politics is usually
one-way, from the politician to the public. However, with the emergence of the Internet and social
networking tools there is now the possibility of dialogue between individuals and groups in the
political sphere, as well as outside.
What is more important in this thesis is the candidates’ use of the Internet, especially
their own websites, including fan-pages on social networking sites. This issue will be addressed in
further detail in the following sections.
3.2 The Media
The media environment is constantly changing and so is our mediated political culture.48 According
to McNair, “Communication technology has been transformed by the rise of the Internet and real
time news channels.”49 This has caused a change in culture, which has given the public more power
and decreased the power of media moguls. In a sense, it has brought democracy to the world of
media and decentralised where the information is coming from. Maybe it is the beginning of the end
of media-centred democracy or at least the part of it where “[…] the public receive the vast majority
of their information from media reporting”, according to Lilleker (2006).50 Media-centred
democracy is a political system where politicians design their politics with the media in mind.51 It is
yet another tool in creating positive awareness of a politician or party. This is particularly used by
presidents close to elections. There is the risk that social media and web-based entities take away
power from traditional media and in turn gives politicians more leeway. If people turn to the
Internet they may not get the same kind of information they would have gotten from traditional
46
Library Grape http://www.librarygrape.com/2011/06/rick-perry-in-2000-im-the-same-as-george-w-bush.html Last
viewed 27/02 2012
47
Lilleker 2006, p. 72
48
McNair 2008, pp. 60-64
49
McNair 2008
50
Lilleker 2006, pp 110-111
51
Lilleker 2006, pp 110-111
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media. They, after all, have more economic and political muscle to keep politicians accountable, i.e.
serve as the fourth estate.
The media takes advantage of the public getting engaged in covering stories. Nonjournalists are influencing and are the cause of news material to an ever increasing extent, because
of the Internet. Another cause for the rise in news material is the technological development in
mobile phones and the possibility for people to instantly take pictures and video with their mobile
phones when news worthy events take place in their vicinity. The media takes advantage of this by
using the footage that people upload to Youtube or other video-sharing websites. This has
especially been beneficial in achieving additional information on candidates that traditional media
missed. The media can either use this extra material as an added sideshow or use it as a leading
story, depending on the content and validity.
This is certainly also the case when politicians are out campaigning and out talking to
voters. If a candidate is caught on video either saying or doing something which is out of the
ordinary or inappropriate it will soon become viral on the Internet and that is when the media will
pick it up and use it. If it is newsworthy there is a good chance that it will be used by the media and
even if it is not worth covering on the news it at least still has a life on the Internet. For political
candidates it has meant that they have to be more cautious about what they say during campaigns,
because there is a good chance that it is being videotaped by someone. This was the case when Rick
Perry was in Iowa early in his campaign. Here he responded to a question from a student by poking
the student in the chest and telling him that he obviously did not know what he was talking about.52
Behaviour like this should be avoided at all times. Politicians are especially criticized when they
respond poorly to questions from either the media or the public. In addition, it must be said that it
helps to increase the awareness of the politicians’ true capabilities in regard to their dedication to
politics as well as their abilities to answer questions in live unrehearsed situations. Politicians who
are used to solely stick to sound bites and talking points are brought out in the light when the media
catches them off guard. A candidate for the presidency of the U.S. will have to eventually discuss
controversial and important issues. Former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann
was especially viewed as insincere and repeatedly told outright lies, when her talking points did not
suffice anymore.53
3.2.1 Media Political Bias
52
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54YgnpovlzM&feature=related Last viewed 10/02 2012
CNN condemns Michele Bachmann lies on mental retardation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MheCHKSNpyg
Last viewed 10/02 2012
53
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Despite the growing emergence of the Internet, the majority of political messages are still mediated
by the media. For that reason media-centred democracy still plays a large part in the design of
politics.
There is a long tradition in the U.S. for the different news and entertainment channels
to be biased towards either the Democratic or Republican party.54 However, American news
organisations are rarely affiliated with specific parties. The public is heavily influenced by what is
said in the media, which makes this a very important issue for politicians. If the majority of media
are biased towards the ideologies of one party, it gives the opposition an advantage. However, the
general idea is for the media to be neutral when discussing politics. For journalists it is difficult to
be completely neutral when dealing with issues of a political nature. It could be anything from
elections to the protection of the environment. There are politics involved in so many matters that
for a journalist to not utter their opinions while discussing issues on a live TV show or when writing
an article on political issues is quite challenging. This is why it has been claimed that media bias
exists, because journalists have difficulty being completely neutral and sometimes they want to
exercise their right to free speech.55
Media political bias can prove to be hindering for politicians when on the campaign
trail. This is due to the advantage of going on local or national TV shows in order to promote their
campaign. If the host of the TV show is known to be biased towards the politician’s party, it will
most likely prove to be a challenge to attend his show. It might also be a strategy which could end
up making the politician less popular with the electorate. This is why it is necessary for
communication strategists in political campaigns in the U.S. to know if the network or host has bias
towards a party before booking the politician on their show. The preferred scenario for a politician
is if the network and host is non-bias and objective. There is unfortunately no assurance that that is
the case, which is probably also why Americans often watch the BBC to avoid the favouritism of
ideologies and get a more objective view on U.S. politics.56
There is a large segment of the population that believes in what they are exposed to in
the media. People that accept television versions as believable are young people and “[…] females
of relatively low education and income, associated with ‘working-class’ status, largely indifferent to
politics, and without partisan identification,” according to Dan Nimmo (2001).57 Newspapers are
the preferred source of credible news for men with medium to high educations, residing in urban
54
Media Research Center http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics2admissions.asp + FAIR
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=100 Last viewed 10/02 2012
55
FAIR http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=100 Last viewed 10/02 2012
56
Lilleker 2006, p. 118
57
Nimmo 2001, p. 145
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areas, with a high-status occupation, and of weak partisan identification.58 When these people are
exposed to media that have bias towards either of the two major political parties there is a good
chance that they will be influenced to vote for the party that is portrayed most favourably. This is
the case for both people of no or weak partisan identification. However, people of weak partisan
identification may lean towards one of the political parties and choose media that favour that
particular party. It is argued that most people are influenced by all sorts of media. It could be
anything from the local newspaper to CNN.
3.2.2 Mass Media
For candidates to reach constituents it takes communication experts in order to figure out the most
efficient ways of communicating political messages. Communicating to the masses has become
increasingly difficult and technical over the years. Politicians are now encouraged to hire specialists
in various areas of communication. These areas of communication include public relations,
advertising, film/video making, television production, computer programming, and marketing.59
Specialists in these areas are needed in political campaigns for the purpose of increasing awareness
of a candidate in mass media. It is their job to develop a creative media campaign using their
expertise in their respective areas.
These specialists, that the politicians hire, are usually employees in firms that deal
with their area of expertise on a daily basis and are preferably experienced in political
communication. Top politicians want top specialists in their campaigns, which means that they want
the best and are usually willing to pay large amounts of money for their expertise.
According to Robert MacNeil (1970), a former news anchor and journalist, “The mass
media campaign is not directed to the informed voter but to the eyes and the ears of the voter who
does not care very much.”60 There has always been difficulty getting Americans to vote.61 This is
why political campaign strategists focus a lot on creating hype around their candidate in order to
make the undecided and uninformed voters interested in voting. Since most voters decide early on
who they will vote for, it makes more sense to try and convince the undecided and uninformed
voters. These voters are also a large part of the population and a group that eventually can turn the
tide of an election.
58
Nimmo 2001, p. 145
Nimmo 2001, p. 142
60
MacNeil 1970, pp.198, 222
61
United States Elections Project http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm Last viewed 10/02 2012
59
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A good way to get undecided voters to vote for a candidate is to use mass media. The
way this is usually done is, of course, by using the media, but also, by ‘dumbing down’ political
messages. Over time political candidates have realised that they are alienating voters by talking in a
way that voters do not understand, which is why the concept of ‘dumbing down’ has emerged for
the purpose of getting uninformed voters interested in politics.
“What meager knowledge Americans do have about candidates’ positions on the
issues is picked up from those inane TV spots that proliferate at election time like a biblical plague
of annoying locusts.”62 This quote from Rick Shenkman (2009) is very descriptive of how
Americans get their impressions of candidates from their TV spots. The messages in these TV spots
are usually quite simple and easily understandable. For instance, Rick Perry’s TV spots/Youtube
videos are clear messages about how he either proclaims to be a Christian or his opinion about gays
and how he will end Obama’s ‘war on religion’ as he calls it.63 Another video is only about his
faith.64 These messages are very simple and easy to understand for anyone. Of course, this is not all
that Perry’s communication strategies are about. It is just an indication that these videos are made
for the purpose of attracting uninformed voters with simple values. The more politically advanced
voters will read newspaper articles and watch political debates where they will get the full picture of
the candidate’s values and capabilities as a politician. The politician will try to make his messages
as varied as possible for the purpose of attracting voters of different cultural backgrounds and
values. The objective for communication strategists is to have the ability to have an overview of the
messages that are sent from the campaign camp to the mass media. It could be anything from the
content of TV spots to the extent of the use of political terms in speeches/debates.
3.2.3 Social Media
A clear advantage in political campaigning is the emergence of social media and how politicians are
now able to reach a new segment of the population. Social media is having a significant impact on
the political landscape as it provides politicians with a tool unlike anything ever seen before in
politics.
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are now available on the
Internet and the marketing potential of these sites is enormous.65 As previously mentioned there is a
62
Shenkman 2009, p. 118
Youtube channel for Rick Perry 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA Last viewed 10/02 2012
64
Youtube channel for Rick Perry 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=c6tmsxdSUkY
Last viewed 10/02 2012
65
Holzner 2009, p. 6
63
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comparison to be made between branding a product and a politician. The use of social media to
brand products was initiated shortly after the development of Facebook. However, it was not until
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign leading up to the 2008 election that social media advertising
was used in a presidential political campaign. The way products are branded on Facebook is by
advertising. There is also the possibility for users of Facebook to ‘like’ and become ‘fans’ of
products/corporations and persons. Advertising on Facebook is a marketing tool that has the
potential of reaching a large number of the site’s 800 million users.66 According to Facebook’s
Sarah Smith (2009), the banner ads on Facebook can have down to 0.05 percent of the click-through
rate, which is a measure of user responsiveness.67 This is, according to some marketers, about one
fifth of the larger web, i.e. the mass of all other sites.68 However, what Facebook may lack in
advertising capability it makes up for in the social capabilities it provides. The ‘like on Facebook’
function, which can be added to basically all online campaign material, has the potential of linking
supporters with the Facebook fan-page of a candidate. There is, of course, also the possibility of
linking to the candidate’s personal social network website. Due to the size of the Facebook network
there is a clear advantage in using said site, simply because of the possibility of networking with
more than 800 million users.
Facebook is not the only social-networking site. Out of the more popular sites, which
could be used to promote a candidate, are Twitter (200,000,000+ users)69 and Google+
(50,000,000+ users)70. Governor Rick Perry is using all of these social-networking sites in his
campaign.71 There are plenty of other social-networking sites which could be used for the same
purpose of creating awareness of a candidate. However, many of the other sites are e.g. for sharing
pictures (Flickr) or to talk about movies (Flixster), so they are not particularly fitting for a political
campaign.
More details of the use of social media in political campaigns will be mentioned in the
two cases. Starting with Barack Obama’s revolutionary use of social media and followed by Rick
Perry’s adaption of the same communication strategy.
66
Ostrow, Adam 2011, 800 million users as of September 22, 2011 http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-800million-users/ Last viewed 10/02 2012
67
Techpulse http://techpulse360.com/2009/08/12/facebook-says-its-click-through-rates-do-not-match-those-at-google/
Last viewed 10/02 2012
68
Bloomberg Businessweek 2007
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071128_366355_page_2.htm Last viewed 10/02 2012
69
Twitter was launched July 15, 2006 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12889048 Last viewed 10/02 2012
70
Google+ was launched June 28, 2011 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393640,00.asp Last viewed 10/02
2012
71
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/GovernorPerry, Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/TeamRickPerry and Google +
https://plus.google.com/104785503282152839300/posts Last viewed 10/02 2012
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3.3 Public Relations
3.3.1 Definition of Public Relations
There are many definitions of public relations. One definition is that PR is a distinctive management
function that helps communication as well as the relationship between an organization and the
public. It may also be for the purpose of creating a favourable opinion among people about a
person, product, company, or institution.72 In this case we are dealing with the activity of creating a
favourable opinion among the electorate about a political candidate. This is a complex and wide
ranging area in campaigning. The context of public relations is broad and entails a large number of
initiatives for its proper execution.
PR is not to be confused with advertising or marketing. Some might see a connection
between establishing favourable relations with the public and creating material that entices people
to buy a product or to support a political candidate. PR is, despite its many definitions, primarily
defined as an effort on the company or, in this case, the politician’s behalf to establish a positive
image in the eyes of the public and not necessarily to sell a product. 73
Practitioners of public relations are for instance spin doctors whose primary role is to
influence the public as well as the politician for the purpose of maintaining or improving the
relationship between aforementioned parties.
3.3.2 Political PR
The main goal of political public relations is to use media outlets to communicate specific political
aspirations in the hope of garnering public support. The term political public relations is not used
frequently.74 However, it is a concept, which is frequently used in the political sphere. The concept
is often termed differently with definitions such as, political communication and propaganda.
Political public relations has largely been dominated by media relations. Mass media
is a main influence on voting behaviour. This activity of influencing voters would be categorised as
within political PR. Media relations is no longer the only method of influencing a large number of
voters due to the emergence of the Internet and social media. The politicians now have the
opportunity to spread their political PR online without the use of the general media.
72
Tench 2009, p. 4 & MacMillan English Dictionary p. 1139
Tench 2006, pp. 35-42
74
Jackson 2010, p. 1
73
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The practitioners of political PR are mainly journalists due to the power they possess
within the media. They control what is printed in the press and what is said on the news. Some
journalists may use the power they possess to influence political outcomes. It is the journalists’ role
to create an interesting story and they may twist the words of the politician in order to create a
newsworthy story.
There are also the practitioners within the political sphere that try to influence the
media. They are the politicians themselves and the politician’s spin doctor. Sound bites and talking
points is what protect the politician from saying more than what is necessary and to avoid the media
from using their own utterances against them. The Internet and social media have provided a direct
channel for politicians to speak to a large section of the public, as well as the media, where their
political utterances are clear and rehearsed. This minimizes the opportunity for misinterpretations or
alterations by the media. This provides the politicians with more public relations power and
diminishes the power of the media.
Other practitioners of political PR are supporters and volunteers of political
candidates. In the process of supporting their candidate they are creating public relations by talking
to voters through the different channels that they use. Going door-to-door and putting up posters of
candidates are forms of public relations, some might call it propaganda.
It can be argued that political PR has experienced a revolution with the emergence of
the Internet and social media since it provides the politicians with a direct channel to the electorate
to practice their public relations. There is the possibility for politicians to release statements on their
own websites, which provides the politician with an excuse to simply refer journalists to the website
for further information. This helps to deter the media from getting any unrehearsed utterances that
they can twist into their own story.
4. Cases
Campaigning is mainly about raising funds and getting people to vote or as the politicians would
have us believe, it is about spreading their messages of how to create a better society. However, as
these cases will show it is much more than that. Getting people to support a candidate is quite
challenging and the candidates and their staff are willing to work excessively hard in order to get
people to vote for them. A lot of the time the focus is on the funds and on how much can be raised.
However, the focus in this thesis is on communication strategies. So, that is why the use of
technology, the supporters’ way of organizing and the communication skills of the candidates are
what is most interesting and is what will be focused on in these two cases. The two cases consist of
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Barack Obama’s campaign for the 2008 election in which he won the presidency of the United
States and Rick Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns as well as his campaign in the primaries
2011/2012.
4.1 Barack Hussein Obama
This case of the communication strategies of President Barack Hussein Obama can be seen as a
model for how it is possible to campaign when running for president in an age of social media and
global communication. A host of commentators have elevated the Obama campaign to a blueprint
for (post) modern campaigning.
The objective is to compare his communication strategies from 2006 until today with
Rick Perry’s communication strategies. Obama’s successful campaign should be seen as a case of
good managing and ingenuity in the use of technology. Much of the success of the campaign can be
attributed to two of the managers, David Plouffe and David Axelrod. However, winning the election
would not have been possible without Obama’s ability to inspire and energize people with his
charisma and strong personal character.75
Three main strategies seemed to have made the difference in Obama’s campaign. The
revolutionary use of technology played a pivotal role in reaching a large number of voters. Also, the
whole grassroots movement and the large number of volunteers were a reason for the success of the
campaign. The two methods were intertwined in an innovative way to create a communication
network that increased the opportunity for raising funds.76 Finally, Obama, his personality, his
ability to win people over and his speeches were what really won him the election, according to
David Plouffe. On a further note, Theodor J. Lowi (2011) believes that, “Obama may have won the
election partly because of his predecessor’s poor performance”.77
The campaign trail started in August of 2006, where Obama had a busy schedule,
which started with a two week tour in Africa and went on for two-and-a-half-months until the
midterm elections. The period included a national book tour for Obama’s second book The Audacity
of Hope, which had just been released and it unexpectedly turned into a campaign from coast to
coast for the run for the Democratic nomination for President.78 Obama eventually wrested the
Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton in the primaries and won the presidency with 365
electoral votes beating Republican candidate John McCain. It was 7 million more popular votes
75
Lowi 2011, p. 320
Lowi 2011, p. 313
77
Lowi 2011, E2 (p. 188)
78
Heilemann 2009, p. 55
76
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than anyone who had ever run for president. It was also a higher vote percentage than any
Democratic candidate besides Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.79
4.1.1 The Campaign
The people behind the campaign were, among others, David Plouffe and David Axelrod, who were
partners in a political consulting firm.80 Before they got involved with Obama they had worked on a
long-shot gubernatorial campaign for Deval Patrick of Massachusetts in 2006. In this campaign they
started doing some innovative communication strategies on the Internet for the purpose of
developing better ways of organizing and communicating messages. Obama and his team retained
the services of Blue State Digital to create a social networking site, which evidently came to be
known as ‘MyBo’.81
People got their first glimpse of Obama’s tremendous television presence and his
ability to communicate directly to voters in his 2004 race for the senate in the state of Illinois.
Plouffe and Axelrod knew that Obama’s personality and his abilities as a speaker would be
powerful tools. They also came to realise that the emergence of social media would prove to be a
powerful instrument in conveying Obama’s personality. It was innovative and not the standard for
when usually running for President.82
Iowa was an important state for Obama during the primaries as it was a state which he
from the outset of the campaign wanted to derail Hillary Clinton in. Accordingly, a lot of time and
resources were spent here. This was also necessary as Iowa’s voters historically paid little attention
to the national media. There was also the need for personal presence as a lot of people did not turn
up to vote, especially young people. In recent caucuses, twice as many people over sixty-five had
turned out as people under thirty.83 A new challenge, which seemed to most political observers to be
difficult, was to get young people interested and get them to vote. The Obama camp decided to
focus on volunteers and they wanted to focus on using grassroots methods, which meant that they
would have to stay away from Washington D.C. The reason for this was that they felt that the
campaign could be inclined to apply conventional wisdom on how to campaign and they wanted to
think differently. There is nothing wrong with conventional wisdom on how to campaign, except
that some of the old ways may be too time-consuming and expensive. Technology had made
79
Plouffe 2009, p. 3
Plouffe 2009, p. 6
81
Lowi 2011, p. 320
82
Plouffe 2009, p. 15-16
83
Plouffe 2009, p. 17
80
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campaigning easier and more effective, which is why the team needed to involve themselves in a
more contemporary setting and disregard a lot of the old ways of campaigning.
They set up headquarters in Chicago, which was a strategic move as they felt that it
would be hard to sell an outsider candidate who was based in Washington D.C. Obama wanted to
have two headquarters for those that were not prepared to move to Chicago, Plouffe shot it down.
He felt it was still important to have everyone under one roof despite the possibility of using
conference calls and all of the other technological opportunities that improves communication. He
felt that it was important to be able to talk to people face to face, which the IT revolution, after all,
does not provide. 84 Despite the social capabilities of social media it still does not provide personal
contact, which can also have significance when conveying a message. A lot can be lost in
translation when the message is through a technological channel and not in a forum where it is
possible to gesture and use body language. This is maybe why Plouffe wanted everything under one
roof.
A prime motivation for Obama to run, according to Plouffe, was that he wanted
people to reengage in their civic life, which was perfect for a grassroots campaign. If properly
motivated, the volunteers could become a powerful weapon in the pursuit of raising money and
votes. A grass roots movement is an approach to campaigning which has the advantage of reaching
the electorate locally.85 The Internet would be the tool to quickly reach a large number of volunteers
for the sake of building a grassroots movement. By this time most people were online and it was
easy to reach people this way and supporters were likely to be knowledgeable about the Internet and
its possibilities.86 Supporters were at this time aware of the fact that information was most easily
found online and information about politics was no exception. The Obama team decided to build a
website containing their own social-network for them to easily communicate and raise money. It
was and still is a tool for supporters to find each other, organize and have discussions.87
The website was a place where supporters could contribute. Fundraising events and
direct-mail were also part of the team’s strategy to raise funds. The fund-raising target for 2007 was
fifty million dollars, which this strategy would eventually help them achieve. It was enough for
their initial budget and as Obama’s popularity grew, so would the contributions.88 The Obama camp
spent $700 million in total in his presidential campaign. His Republican opponent John McCain
84
Plouffe 2009, p. 20
Lowi 2011, p. 313
86
Pew Research Center - Pew Internet http://www.pewinternet.org/Static-Pages/Trend-Data/Whos-Online.aspx Last
viewed 27/02 2012
87
Plouffe 2009, p. 21
88
Plouffe 2009, p. 22
85
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spent less than half than that ($326 million).89 This was possible due to the fact that Obama opted
out of the public financing system (FECA) during the primaries, as well as the general election,
which allowed him to spend much more than his opponent. 90 Besides giving money, the team was
interested in how to get supporters involved and they went about it quite aggressively in the
beginning in order to build a grassroots movement. They had to reach more than 220 million
people, which is the number of people in the United States with the proper voting-age, so reaching
that many people would not only take a lot of money but also time and a large grassroots
movement.91
When Obama announced he was running, he first taped an online video announcing
his involvement in matters outside of his work as a senator, which involved the forming of a
committee. For anyone involved in politics it was obvious that this meant that he was running. A
few weeks later he officially announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to run for
President. 92 It was announced through an online video on January 18 and the video was uploaded to
Youtube, where it instantly got hundreds of thousands of views and linked the viewers to Obama’s
website. This was an extraordinary moment for the team as they saw how the Internet could play an
important part in reaching a large number of people.93
In these early days of the campaign there was a lack of resources and staff. Even with
technology there were a number of communication obstacles. There was no campaign office, no
internal E-mail, and no staff in the early states, which made communication difficult as there were
no sufficient direct channels in a number of places between colleagues.94
Communication became a very important part of the campaign and the new media
group, in charge of online communications, maintenance and development of the Web-page as well
as texting to the supporter’s mobile phones, was seen as an essential part of communication.
Therefore they were to report directly to the senior staff, i.e. Plouffe. Plouffe saw that the success of
the campaign relied on the Internet. The media group had a lot of work to do as the strategy of the
campaign had to be channelled to the grassroots volunteers. This was orchestrated by the
technology staff via weekly conference calls and it was also a place where they could air new ideas.
Most other political campaigns were not as evolved technologically as Obama’s campaign.95
89
Lowi 2011, p. 313
FECA Federal Elections Campaign Act. The public financing system is a reform that limits the amounts that a single
individual can contribute to a candidate or party. Passed by Congress in 1971. & Lowi 2011, pp. 314-316
91
Lowi 2011, p. 313
92
Plouffe 2009, pp. 28-29
93
Plouffe 2009, p. 32
94
Plouffe 2009, p. 31
95
Plouffe 2009, p. 36
90
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The team initiated an online event page where people could sign up for events such as
low-dollar fund-raising events. In the spirit of grassroots movements, the campaign did not focus on
big donations but on volunteers and people who could only afford small donations. It turned out to
be a great success, with three thousand people showing up to hear Obama. During the campaign this
model was used across the country. An added bonus to online campaigning is that everything from
monetary contribution to volunteer work can be tracked, which informs the team of where the
supporters are. The small amounts that came in, which a tool on the team’s social-networking site
showed to be generally between $100 and $1000, along with the proposition to ask others to
support, eventually grew into a powerful force. The team was careful not to discourage or leech off
of supporters by asking them for money too frequently. Supporters frequently visited and used the
website and its social-networking components.96
The team targeted sporadic, undecided and young voters, Republicans and people who
were not registered independents. They were determined to get them all if possible and realised that
they were not going to come by themselves in groups, so they would have to be reached
individually.97
They sent messages sparingly, because they realised that if people were constantly
bombarded with e-mails from the Obama team they would eventually get bored with it. That is also
why the messages that were sent varied in length and tone. If it was a serious matter the message
would be long and informative and then there were the short and informal messages that informed
of lighter matters. Also, when Obama personally signed e-mails it should send a strong message and
if he did this too regularly they thought they might risk not getting such big responses as they did.
Accordingly, Obama’s wife Michelle Obama’s messages were used more frequently and they were
also received very well.98
Additional media and Internet advertising was sent out for the purpose of reaching
young voters. Part of their strategy for bringing supporters together to caucus was to do
comprehensive instructional and informative work. So far their grassroots supporters had used the
social-networking site, my.barackobama.com, or MyBo, to organize. On their own, the supporters
had done a lot to push forward the campaign, and with some further instruction and information, as
well as tools to measure their performance, their effectiveness was bound to increase. The
96
Plouffe 2009, pp. 48-55
Plouffe 2009, pp. 64 & 70
98
Plouffe 2009, p. 76
97
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supporters were told to take matters into their own hands by one of the founders of Facebook, Chris
Hughes, who came to help organize online.99
In the business world we often see celebrity endorsements for products and the same
is the case in the world of politics, where celebrities choose their favourite candidate and speaks out
about why this person should win. This was also the case when Oprah Winfrey showed her support
for Barack Obama in early 2007. There was the concern that Obama might be viewed as more of a
celebrity rather than a serious contender for the race of becoming the next President, but they went
along with it and ended up devoting a weekend to campaigning with Oprah.100
As the campaign went on Obama got a chance to breathe when he won in South
Carolina. The Clinton camp argued that Obama won because of his skin colour. What they were
aiming at was to get young whites, independents, newly registered African American voters as well
as African Americans who usually voted sporadically. They succeeded in winning a quarter of the
white vote including the majority of white voters under forty, showing their broad appeal as well as
exceeding the medias expectations.101 Obama’s speeches were watched by tens of millions and were
a main reason for the massive turnout. Technology played a big part in reaching the high number of
people, because not that many people would watch Obama make a speech early on a Tuesday
morning. However, when these speeches are uploaded to Youtube, and the other outlets available, it
makes the availability of the speeches more accommodating to the general user.102 “Obama’s
convention speech at Mile Hile Stadium drew nearly eighty thousand people and was the first to be
held outdoors since JFK’s in Los Angeles in 1960,” according to Plouffe.103
By now much of the success of the campaign was accredited to the grassroots
supporters and their ability to organize on their own. The supporters started very early on in the
campaign by using My.Barackobama.com and Facebook and got so efficient at organizing that they
could have trained the staff. This was all done with barely any resources, just the passion and drive
to get a proper candidate in the White House.104 The volunteers and staff were better than the
Clinton campaign at organizing, because of their use of the social-networking site. Plouffe points to
that there was a sort of camaraderie between supporters and the staff, which the staff did not want to
take advantage of. This relationship was balanced by sending e-mails that either requested for
organizational help, asked for funds, informed, or was sent out locally, as opposed to nationally,
99
Plouffe 2009, pp. 91-92
Plouffe 2009, pp. 117-118
101
Plouffe 2009, pp. 161-163
102
Plouffe 2009, p. 214
103
Plouffe, 2009, p. 227 & Helman, Scott
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/07/a_stadium_to_ma.html Last viewed 20/02 2012
104
Plouffe 2009, pp. 174-175
100
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which gave it more of a personal touch. The staff felt that the culture of the campaign was very
healthy and that this healthy atmosphere and the support from their volunteers were the reason why
they won.105 Their strategy of a wide electoral map was fulfilled by the many volunteers, who
campaigned for Obama nation-wide, online and offline.106Having people volunteer through-out the
entire country was something they hoped for so that they could reach the electorate in all states and
spread their message of ‘change’.
The campaign’s strategy was to announce that electing Obama meant ‘change’ and
there was hardly any deviation away from this core message. They were willing to change tactics
during the campaign in cases when their strategy came under fierce criticism from opponents or
other political observers. According to Plouffe, they only had one slogan, Clinton had several.107
The strategy made it easy to make decisions, such as allocations of time and resources, because the
goal was always to get the most votes and win the election. The road was laid out before the team
and they knew what to focus on in order to serve their strategic interests. It seemed to be working
better than the team had thought as they exceeded their own expectations and even gained more
resources than their opponents. As the primaries went on, more and more resources, including
technological resources, became necessary. In the beginning of the campaign the e-mail list had
fewer than ten thousand people on it but due to Obama’s popularity it had grown to over five
million by June 3, 2008. About two million of the people on that list had either volunteered or
contributed. During the primaries over two hundred million dollars had been raised online. This
could be because of the Obama camp’s goal of being predominantly on the Internet when raising
funds from the beginning of the campaign.108
Later on in the campaign contributors were up to two million and there were more
than seven million people on the e-mail list. They continued to buy more Internet advertising to
gain more supporters. The reason for this was to continue reaching people online by making them
visit MyBo.com and Obama’s Facebook page. If they were able to get people to visit one of the
pages, then maybe it would be possible to get them to support, in one way or another. 109
Even though earlier in the campaign it had seemed like Clinton was a certain win, she
had now lost the primaries to Obama and he was now the Democratic nominee for President.110
Obama’s new opponent was the Republican nominee for President, John McCain. He did not have
105
Plouffe 2009, pp. 237-238
Plouffe 2009, p. 256
107
Smith, Ben http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7685.html Last viewed 27/02 2012
108
Plouffe 2009, pp. 236-237
109
Plouffe 2009, p. 254
110
Lowi 2011, p. 320
106
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the same kind of online presence and ability to raise funds in other ways than the traditional way.
McCain had to work harder and spent more money on advertising. The Obama team’s strategy still
remained the same, which was to continue acquiring e-mails, to build strong local organizations,
boosting turnout where needed, use person-to-person persuasion, and registering voters. They saw
these field operations as more important than advertising, because they take time and human
resources to grow, whereas advertising on TV was something they wanted to wait with until a later
stage if it was deemed necessary.111
During the debates Obama proved his abilities as a speaker and convinced many of the
non-believers that he was presidential material. There were three televised presidential debates in
September and October 2008 where both candidates showed that they were knowledgeable about
domestic and foreign policy.112 The experienced 72 year old McCain was expected to know all of
these matters whereas the much younger and less experienced 47 year old Obama had to convince
voters that he was up for the job as President. Obama’s popularity rose following the debates as he
had, according to many commentators, succeeded in convincing voters of his abilities in being able
to lead the country. This is an important component of campaigns and it is something that any
future presidential candidate needs to achieve at some point during their campaign. Obama’s
success was argued to be because of his ability to answer several political matters smoothly and in a
reassuring manner, which appealed to the American people. The political matters were anything a
president face when in office, such as the economy, domestic and foreign policy.
When it was time to pick the Vice President, there was a lot of speculation as to who
Obama would pick. John McCain also had to choose a Vice President and he unexpectedly chose
far right, religious conservative, Tea Partyer to be, Sarah Palin. There was a lot of media focus on
this and it was an opportunity for the team to get more people to visit their website to get updates on
when the VP might be chosen. They came up with the idea to first tell supporters who got picked as
VP. It went under the tag line “Be the first to know” and it resulted in their list growing fifteen fold
in less than two weeks.113 Obama eventually chose Joseph Biden, the Delaware senator, who earlier
on in the campaign had tried to become the Democratic nominee, but had dropped out of the race.
Biden was partly selected because of his foreign policy experience, which it was said Obama
lacked.114
As the day of election was drawing nearer, the funds that were coming in were
continuously increasing. Throughout the campaign the number of monetary funds that were coming
111
Plouffe 2009, pp. 260-264
Lowi 2011, p. 322
113
Plouffe 2009, p. 295
114
Lowi 2011, p. 321
112
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in kept increasing and at this late stage in September 2008 the team raised more than $100 million
online. On days when the team sent fund-raising e-mails there was a lot more funds coming in,
which were in the amounts of $250,000, $300,000, and sometimes even $500,000 an hour. Roughly
ten e-mails were sent out in September and on the days when they were sent, the amounts that came
in were the highest. However, also on days when they were not asking for money, the contributions
that were coming in were often more than $1 million.115
The team was efficient in updating the website and just being online in general. What
they came to realise was that their internal communication could be improved. Supporters should be
treated differently, so they decided to send memos directly to them, which would add to the sense of
camaraderie they felt they had with Obama and his team. Also, the use of direct-mail has a much
more powerful impact on people than updates posted on a website. Plouffe started sending videos to
supporters every seven or ten days. To keep things interesting, along with the videos there followed
a diversity of Obama’s issues and speeches. There sometimes also followed contribution/volunteer
requests or supporters were reminded to get registered to vote and were informed of the possibility
of early voting. Also, state-specific issues were addressed. In the last sixty days, dozens of e-mails
were sent every day and an immense e-mail team was hired to deal with all of the incoming e-mails
and contributions.116
Early voting was a key issue when advertising, whether it was on the radio or on the
Internet. E-mails and text messages on the subject were sent out to people on their list. In order to
reach first-time and sporadic voters they needed to do more than just advertise. Therefore, for that
personal touch, volunteers went door-to-door and made phone calls to get voters interested and also
to spread the message of early vote. African Americans and whites in progressive areas were
turning out on a massive scale.117
By now the e-mail list had reached 13 million people. Obama and his team had
essentially their own personal television network in the sense that they could send videos to
everyone on the list. It was a way to communicate directly to 20 percent of the total votes they
needed in order to win. At one point Obama was to do a 30 minute nationally televised program.
More than 20 percent of the nation, that was watching TV at the time, tuned in to watch the
program on TV. Millions of people either saw it as it was streaming online on Obama’s website or
on the other sites involved with news coverage. Obama spread his message of why he should be
115
Plouffe 2009, p. 327
Plouffe 2009, pp. 328-329
117
Plouffe 2009, pp. 350-351
116
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elected and why this election is so important. He especially emphasized the economy, health care,
and the people affected by a system that does not take care of its inhabitants.118
The strategy throughout the campaign had been to use technology and it eventually
ended up playing a key role in getting Obama elected. There were a couple of challenges. One was
to figure out who would support Obama and the other was where to find them. It was possible to
find out about this online, because the people they were trying to reach spent a lot of time online
and they realised this at a fairly early stage in the campaign. They also realised that a strong online
presence would get them to reach a high number of volunteers and supporters, who would be given
the tools to get involved. Most people were at this time regularly online and seeking out information
on the Internet. The team would be able to reach people in their homes rather than trying to get
them to deviate from their daily lives in order to get them involved. Their commitment to using
technology as their platform from the outset of the campaign paid off on a large scale. The idea was
to approach campaigning in a new way, but also use traditional methods, such as, using TV ads and
press interviews, which also would be important communication tactics. Another of their main
tactics was to communicate person-to-person, whether it was online, over the phone or face-to-face.
Their use of direct mail and text messaging was also seen as a personal way to communicate.
Finally, the messages that were sent had to be diverse, so that people would not get bored with it.
However, it was also important that people did not get confused by being exposed to different
messages through TV, radio or from Internet ads all at once.119
All of the hard work paid off and Obama won the general election on November 4,
2008. He was the nation’s first African American President and won convincingly with 53 percent
of the popular vote, the largest Democratic majority since Lyndon B. Johnson. He was successful in
conquering both red and blue states across the nation. As expected he had the majority of the black
vote with an overwhelming 95-4 percent. Hispanics and young voters both voted 66-32 in favour of
Obama. He also got 43 percent of the white vote, which was better than Gore or Kerry, who were
the two last Democratic presidential nominees to run for President.120
One of Obama’s advantages in this campaign was that the Republicans were not
particularly popular with voters and Obama’s message was that it was time for a change, which the
voters agreed on.121 Obama secured 53 percent of the popular vote. Out of the Electoral College he
118
Plouffe 2009, pp. 364-366
Plouffe 2009, p. 378
120
Heilemann 2009, p. 429
121
Lowi 2011, p. 317
119
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won a 365-173 majority, which is substantially more than the 270 electoral votes that are needed to
claim the presidency.122
4.1.2 Epilogue
The communication strategies that the Obama team used played a large part in getting the votes
needed and in raising funds. His win is attributed to the grass-roots movement in particular, as well
as his revolutionary use of technology, which was Plouffe and Axelrod’s idea to begin with. It
might seem like what really won Obama the election was Obama, but it would not have been
possible without the exposure that the Internet and the grassroots movement provided. In any case
there are lessons to be learned here. The grassroots movement was a communication strategy that
helped immensely and it is a tool any candidate can use. Also, it makes good sense to take
advantage of technology due to its capability of reaching a large audience in a fairly inexpensive
way. These advances in technology have previously proven to be of use in political public relations.
Former presidents, such as Theodor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy put
radio, television and tabloid media to good use. Especially, the use of social media has proven to
have a strong effect on people, as it is a personal way of communicating to people. When people
read an article about a candidate or see him on TV, it is not the same as when he personally writes
to you on your Facebook page. It is unlikely that Obama is the one personally writing all of the
messages on Facebook due to his important and time consuming job. However, it is assumed that he
has approved it since it is written on his personal Facebook site. Finally, having a candidate with
strong communication skills, who can win people over and convince them that he is the best
candidate, is possibly the best communication tool there is. The challenge for communication
strategists is to shape the candidate into that person. This next case will discuss if Rick Perry is as
good a communicator as Obama.
4.2 James Richard ‘Rick’ Perry
Texas Governor Rick Perry is according to himself a Washington outsider, a conservative, and a
Christian. These were just some of the things he was advertising in his campaign to sell himself to
the electorate. This is a part of the communication strategies he used in his campaign in the
primaries during his bid for the presidency of the United States. Perry’s past gubernatorial
campaigns as well as his campaign in the primaries will be discussed. Some of his work as a
governor will be mentioned for the purpose of providing an insight into the man and politician
122
Lowi 2011, p. 317
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before his run for the presidency. These past initiatives are relevant for determining his political life
and his values. The case will be compared to President Barack Obama’s case and finally evaluated
for the purpose of evaluating his campaign in areas where he might have been lacking in
effectiveness.
Rick Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns have been seen as great successes and he is the
longest running governor in the country. This case study will look into the communication
strategies that were used in those campaigns as well as in his current campaign in the Republican
primaries.
His top consultant is Dave Carney, who has been with Perry since 1998 when he
helped Perry win a state-wide race to be elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas.123 Carney’s work is
particularly interesting since he and the other campaign managers are the ones that primarily create
the communication strategies. Perry is also responsible for a variety of the communication
strategies. In the analysis it will be concluded to what extent the communication strategies were
successful.
4.2.1 Gubernatorial Campaigns
Rick Perry became Governor of Texas in 2000, when he took over from George W. Bush, who had
been elected President. In 2002, 2006 and 2010 he was elected to full gubernatorial terms, all with
the help of Dave Carney. In fact, Perry had never experienced defeat in an election until he ran for
the presidency.
4.2.2 Donations and Favours
It appears that one of the more interesting aspects of Perry’s political life is the large amounts that
he gets in donations. Money is an important factor in any campaign, and these contributions are
definitely a help for Perry to get an advantage in elections. Perry’s three gubernatorial campaigns
collected a total of $102 million.124 More than half of that came from just 204 donors, which means
that he got very large amounts from these individuals. Most people who donate to a politician
because of their ideology would usually just donate small amounts, like $100, therefore, the
incentive is that these donors must be getting something in return. Perry has a long track record of
doing favors in return for large monetary contributions.125 Texas has no limit on individual
123
Recio (2011)
Taibbi (2011) http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rick-perry-the-best-little-whore-in-texas-20111026 Last
viewed 27/02 2012
125
Taibbi (2011)
124
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donations to politicians, which makes it possible for corporations to make a donation to a politician
in order to get a legislation passed. This has made it possible for Perry to make a system where
donations and favors are like currency. This system has made sure that he gets massive donations,
because entrepreneurs are interested in having a person in office who is willing to sign their
petitions. This is most likely for the purpose of being able to keep operating in their usual manner,
in return for a donation. One of his first big favors was to back a $175 billion project called the
Trans-Texas Corridor, which was to privatize the state’s highways. The state-legislature eventually
shut the project down. However, Perry was able to push parts of it through, including some new
highways around the two largest cities of Texas, Houston and Dallas. Perry had received donations
from some of the beneficiaries of the project, such as, Williams Brothers Construction ($621,000),
Parsons Corporation ($410,000) and JP Morgan Chase ($191,000).126
These are just a few of Perry’s political endeavours to raise funds during his 11 years
as a governor. It is worth noting that these favors send a signal, which most would think is not in
the best interest of the people or the state. Especially, the favors he has done for corporations that
allow them to dump nuclear waste near cities in Texas, which can potentially pollute the drinking
water.127 The Trans-Texas Corridor was a direct violation of Perry’s supposed conservative values
as it would have created a public highway system that would have seized 500,000 acres of
farmland. Seizing land from farmers for the purpose of creating a public highway system is not
particularly liberal and is therefore not something conservatives would usually do. If voters are
informed about his past initiatives they will get an impression of a candidate who violates his own
values and is therefore not trustworthy. Also, the fact that he used to be a Democrat, who used to
root for Al Gore, back in 1988, sends a signal to faithful Republicans that he might not be as
conservative as he now wants to be perceived as.
It seems that Perry is very efficient at raising large amounts of money by going along
with any deal that will give him the largest donation. He is even getting so good at it that he is
making donors compete to give him the largest amount in order to make him select whichever
endeavour they want him to endorse. This, it seems, is done by sending a signal to the donors that
this individual is willing to sign anything for the right price. Perry does not seem to be concerned
with any environmental matters as he in 2005 signed an executive order to build 17 new coal-fired
power plants. This is a massive setback for any environmentalist, as it would increase the state’s
carbon footprint to a level above New York, Florida and California combined.128 As we already
126
Taibbi (2011)
Taibbi (2011)
128
Taibbi (2011)
127
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know, with the Trans-Texas Corridor project, Perry is willing to give up his political ideals as well.
This could lead one to believe that not much, if anything, is stopping Perry from signing anything
for the proper monetary donation. People of industry may find this appealing and see Perry as an
individual who is easy to work with. How this all reflects in the eyes of the voter may be another
story. Perry’s consistent arguments seem to be that his initiatives are creating jobs and that appeal to
a lot of voters. Texas is attracting industry from all over the South due to lenient environmental
standards, low wages and illegal immigration. 129 Perry’s stand on illegal immigration came up
during a debate where his opposing statements seemed valid. However, Texas has a large illegal
immigrant workforce and it is Perry’s job to toe the Republican line on illegal immigration, which
he is not successful at. Some of Perry’s top contributors thrive on illegal immigrant labourers but
that is not necessarily something that can be hold against Perry. It simply is not possible to know if
Perry is being lenient on immigration for the purpose of helping his contributors or if it is just
Perry’s incapability of preventing illegal immigrants from working in his state.
4.2.3 Moving Forward
Once again to emphasize the importance of this information is how voters may respond when
informed about the past actions of Perry. The question is whether or not Perry is any different than
his competitors in this area or if all politicians are mainly focused on monetary gains. In any case,
what can a spin doctor do when dealing with a candidate that has made mistakes in his past? Is it a
losing battle or is it possible to focus on other matters or maybe to justify the candidate’s actions? In
the past several candidates have succeeded in moving on after past indiscretions came out into the
light. Obama is a prime example of this when he was able to move past the discussion of his run in
with drugs in his youth. When Perry was being criticized for his inabilities in live debates, in the
primaries, he chose to announce that he was not going to participate in these debates any more. He
also made a video, which he published on Youtube and Facebook, where he argued that he is not a
slick debater.130 He instead wanted to give the impression that if elected he would create a “[…]
clean house in Washington with a balanced budget amendment, a flat tax and a part time
congress”131, appealing to those voters that want less government influence in their daily lives. His
statement here was to give the impression that he is not like the other political candidates and that
Gillman, Todd J. - Dallas News – Texas watch Perry’s attack on Romney ignores Texas dependence on illegal
immigration http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/perry-watch/headlines/20111022-texas-watch-perrys-attack-onromney-ignores-texas-dependence-on-illegal-immigration.ece Last viewed 10/02 2012
130
Youtube channel for Rick Perry http://www.youtube.com/user/RPerry2012?feature=watch#p/u/19/aiCRW5zGSG4
Last viewed 10/02 2012
131
Rick Perry, see link above.
129
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he is not from Congress, continuing his anti-Washington discourse. Perry participated in debates
shortly after this statement. A more effective strategy may have been to disregard the mishaps and
move on. However, the massive media coverage can make any communication strategist want to
respond in one way or another. Perry’s inabilities as a debater was brought on by a mistake he made
during a debate in which he forgot what agency he would cut. His ‘stumble’ it seems was arguably
reason for his demise, which will be elaborated upon in the analysis.132
4.2.4 Tea Party Connection
Another aspect of Perry’s political ideology is his connection with the Tea Party. The Tea Party
movement was founded in 2009 as an opposition to the current government. It is an American
populist political movement with conservative and libertarian ideals. It was formed as a grassroots
movement by people with an aversion towards government. This aversion sprung from the financial
crisis, which had ruined a lot of lives due to loss of jobs and homes. Many people joined the Tea
Party because of this situation. In addition, people, who generally had aversion towards big
government or Obama, also joined.133 Perry is known for having used some of the campaign’s most
extreme anti-government rhetoric. This sits well with the Tea party due to their dissatisfaction with
mainstream Republican Party leaders. The Tea Party movement “[…] has gone on to upend the
existing political order, reshaping the debate in Washington, defeating a number of prominent
lawmakers and elevating a fresh cast of conservative stars,” according to The Washington Post.134
In preparation for running for president, Perry wanted to get everyone’s attention by
getting a foot in in both of the main camps of the Republican Party base. The Tea Party is one of
these main camps. One of Perry’s main political statements is his anti-Washington, anti-government
and minimal federal interference in general. Like a true capitalist, neo-liberal and far-right
conservative, he wants the government to have as little influence on business as possible. This is
right up the Tea Party’s alley, which makes him popular with a lot of the party’s members.
However, even though, Perry in general believes in the Tea Party doctrine of limited government he
has on several occasions issued government controlled policies, like his order of the HPV vaccine
order, which he later renounced as a mistake.135 He repeated the same policy with another order to
132
Wemble, Erik (2011) - The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/rick-perrystumbles-but-for-how-long/2011/11/10/gIQACORc8M_blog.html Last viewed 19/02 2012
133
Barstow, David (2010) – The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/us/politics/16teaparty.html
Last viewed 27/02 2012
134
Gardner, Amy (2010) - The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102304000.html Last viewed 10/02 2012
135
West, Paul (2011) - The Los Angeles Times http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/13/nation/la-na-gop-candidates20110914 Last viewed 10/02 2012
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vaccinate college freshmen students with shots of a meningitis vaccine, which he got a $700,000
donation for from the drug company Novartis. The students had to get a conscientious-objection
form from the Texas Department of State Health Services in order to get out of taking the shot,
which is very non-liberal and definitely not something that fits in the doctrine of limited
government.136
Perry has experienced some opposition from members of the Tea Party, including
Debra Medina, a nurse and entrepreneur and a non-partisan Tea Partyer, who ran against him in a
primary race and got 18 percent of the vote. 137 She blames the Republicans’ obsession with getting
rid of Obama on why they voted for Perry, because he supposedly would stand a better chance
against the President. 138 Perry no longer had the backing of the Tea Partiers later on in the
campaign.
4.2.5 The Electorate
The state is a neutral entity, in the sense that it acts in the interest of all and represents the electoral
vote. In a democracy such as the U.S., there exists a system of plurality where power is dispersed
amongst the inhabitants of the society in different social groups as opposed to an elitist society
where power is held by only an elite group of people.139
In a democracy there is the risk of voters without the proper knowledge of candidates,
who may vote simply because they like the candidate’s persona. Perry is taking advantage of voters
who may vote for him simply because he makes statements on Christianity. It seems especially
befitting in the South to be religious when in politics. Perry grew up as a Methodist and until
recently only showed his faith in God superficially. In 2009 he decided to show his faith by inviting
two evangelical pastors into his office for a prayer meeting. This sends a message to the Christian
community that Perry is also on their team, which automatically gets him support from a large
group.140
In early August of 2011, Perry invited Christian leaders to a big gathering of 30,000
evangelicals in Reliant Stadium in Houston, where he read from the Bible and talked about
America's departure from proper Christian values.141 It was a non-political meeting where the
136
Taibbi (2011)
Medina Party http://www.medinateaparty.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=20 Last
viewed 10/02 2012
138
Taibbi (2011)
139
Heywood 2004, p. 79
140
Taibbi (2011)
141
Dawkins, Richard (2011) - The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/rick-perrybetrays-a-great-american-principle/2011/07/13/gIQA0cCNCI_blog.html Last viewed 27/02 2012
137
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promotion of it was paid for by state resources. This was right before his announcement that he was
running for President.142
Perry is advocating to American Christians regardless of which kind of Christianity
they are tied to. His main selling point is the belief in God, Christian values, and faith. There is a
large segment of this group who would vote for a candidate because he is Christian, who will leave
them alone. Perry knows this and is advocating especially to this group when he is sending
messages about God and minimal state.
Another segment of the electorate that he is advocating to are industry leaders and
independents, who likes Perry’s plan to have a part time Congress and a flat tax for optimal
libertarian economic freedom.143 Perry has already shown industry leaders that he is a person who
shares their values, which is especially important when collecting donations. It is also important
come election time. This is not only because of industry leaders but also how they can influence
their employees to vote for a candidate that will help their business and subsequently the
employees’ future employment.
One might speculate as to why Perry all of a sudden meets with Christians and why he
suddenly switches from being a Democrat to being a Republican. In addition, his relatively late
conversion to flat-tax/Tea Party rhetoric may be just to get a foot inside a large party. In any case it
seems to be a communication strategy that entices a lot of people, which is what an election is all
about.
4.2.6 Dave Carney and the Eggheads
A particularly interesting aspect of campaigning is the scientific facts and the surveys that have
been completed for the purpose of providing empirical data that is solid information that can be
used in a campaign. Spin doctors can use this information to optimize exposure of their candidate.
In 2006 a team of four political scientists were invited by Perry’s top strategist, Dave
Carney, to take a look at the budget for the upcoming gubernatorial campaign and see where they
could experiment and measure the effects. 144 They became known as the Eggheads during the
campaign, maybe because they were scientists who were doing experiments related to campaigning.
An egghead is, according to Macmillan English dictionary (2002), “[…] someone who has a lot of
142
Taibbi (2011)
Youtube channel for Rick Perry http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aiCRW5zGSG4 Last
viewed 10/02 2012
144
Sides, John, Rick Perry’s Eggheads, Washington Monthly http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-milessquare/2011/08/rick_perrys_eggheads031734.php Last viewed 10/02 2012
143
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knowledge and intelligence and is only interested in academic subjects”.145 They tested the
effectiveness of campaign initiatives, such as candidate appearances, TV ads, and direct mail. It was
the first time that scientists got to experiment with an actual budget from within the camp of a
political candidate. The experiments gave Dave Carney a lot to work with for the next campaign
and he made a lot of changes to optimize the use of Perry’s time and the use of the campaign’s
money. Perry and Carney are still working together now on the presidential bid and the work the
Eggheads did certainly improved the Perry team’s way of campaigning.
The key eggheads are Alan Gerber, James Gimpel, Donald Green, and Daron Shaw.
Their experiments included television and radio advertising worth approximately $2 million. They
chose media markets, launch dates and volume of television advertising randomly for the purpose
of studying the effects on the public. The effects were measured by conducting telephone interviews
with approximately 1,000 registered voters each day, including a brief follow-up one month after
the television campaign had ended. The experiments showed that voters do not recollect a television
advertisement showed one month previously and the advertisements therefore had little effect on
voting preferences. Television advertising does provide strong effects while viewed, but is shortlived.146
This was all carried out before Perry started campaigning in the primaries, but is now
being used on a national level in the primaries. According to Bingham (2011), “Perry’s team hopes
to now take its new political metrics to a national campaign stage”.147 One example where Carney
and the team reused a campaign strategy, which they found to be better than their past strategy, was
to visit small communities like Abilene instead of doing interviews state-wide from a studio in
Austin, Texas.148 The strategy was first carried out in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign and reused
in the 2010 campaign. This is according to Sasha Issenberg, in his new e-book chapter, “Rick Perry
and His Eggheads: Inside the Brainiest Political Operation in America.”
It now seems that Perry is reusing this strategy in the primaries by visiting voters
where they live instead of only speaking to them from afar. It seems he has learned that being up
close and personal with voters is the best strategy to use. This could be why he has also adapted the
communication strategy of using social media, since it is, as previously mentioned, a way to be
personal with the electorate.
145
Macmillan English Dictionary, p. 446
Sides, John, Rick Perry’s Eggheads, Washington Monthly http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-milessquare/2011/08/rick_perrys_eggheads031734.php Last viewed 10/02 2012
147
Bingham, Amy, 2011, ‘Rick Perry and His Eggheads’ – ‘Moneyball’ Meets Campaigning, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/08/rick-perry-and-his-eggheads-moneyball-meets-campaigning/ Last viewed
10/02 2012
148
See link above
146
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Choosing to write about Rick Perry does not only provide an interesting candidate, but
also an interesting political strategist in Dave Carney. David M. Carney is a Republican, based in
New Hampshire, who has worked with Perry since his campaign for Lieutenant Governor in 1998.
Carney has worked with several other political figures through his professional consulting
company, Norway Hill Associates Inc., of which he is the CEO and president.149 Carney has
consulted Perry in every campaign since 1998 and was deeply involved in Perry’s campaign in the
primaries.
4.2.7 Social Media Updates in the Primaries
Now that it has been established what Perry has done in the past, what kind of voters he is pursuing,
and who he is working with, a further look into his communication strategies during the primaries is
in order. This is done for the purpose of collecting empirical data that concern the Perry team’s
methods of communicating to supporters.
Firstly, a look into Perry’s use of social media will give information on the kind of
messages he sent to the electorate during the campaign. He frequently uploaded TV spots to his
Youtube account and made frequent updates on his Facebook and Twitter fan-pages.150 Perry made
updates sometimes several times a day and almost every day. The messages he sent were wide
ranging and mostly political. On August 13, 2011 he made an update about his announcement to
run for President. Since then the updates on Facebook and Twitter contained a lot of antigovernment, anti-Obama rhetoric and a lot of his job creation record rhetoric. However, Perry’s
updates were quite diverse, which made them interesting.151 The updates ranged from simple
messages, such as wishing everyone merry Christmas, to more important messages, such as asking
supporters to support the campaign. The diversity of his messages helped to keep people interested
in what he had to say. If the messages were similar in nature each time they would quickly become
uninteresting, which, as previously mentioned, was something the Obama team was aware of as
well. In addition, Obama linked his personal website with his social media sites and so did Perry.152
For reason of scope of Governor Perry’s messages, here is a recap of his main political
messages from his Facebook updates and Tweets (=messages on Twitter):153
In chronological order:
149
The Texas Tribune http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/david-m-dave-carney/about/ Last viewed 23/01 2012
Youtube channel for Rick Perry 2012 http://www.youtube.com/user/RPerry2012 , Facebook - Governor Perry
http://www.facebook.com/GovernorPerry and Twitter - Team Rick Perry https://twitter.com/#!/TeamRickPerry Last
viewed 23/01 2012
151
Redish 2007
152
Rick Perry’s website http://www.rickperry.org/ Last viewed 16/02 2012
153
Facebook updates are from the ‘Rick Perry’ account and the ’tweets’ are from the ‘Team Rick Perry’ account.
150
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1. “Just announced I’m running for President at the RedState gathering. Together, we can get
America working again!” August 13, 2011 (Facebook and Twitter)
2. "Americans Need Work, Not Symbolism; We Need New Jobs, Not New Agencies." August
16, 2011 (Twitter)
3. “More Texas job creation facts: pro-growth policies and good wages. It's time to bring these
policies to Washington so we can get America working again!” August 19, 2011 (Facebook)
4. "Economic freedom comes from work and wages, not welfare." August 20, 2011 (Twitter)
5. “Voter ID legislation, lawsuit reform, private property protections, and stiff penalties on
human trafficking are just some of the legislative successes we were able to achieve this
year.” September 1, 2011 (Facebook)
6. “I simply want to get America working again and make Washington DC as inconsequential
in your life as I can.” September 13, 2011 (Twitter)
7. “Israel is our friend and ally. It is not a perfect nation, but its existence is critical to
America’s security in the world.” September 20, 2011 (Facebook)
8. “America needs a new leader with a proven record of job creation.” October 6, 2011
(Twitter)
9. “You can't live free when the government gets between you and your doctor.” October 7 &
10, 2011 (Twitter & Facebook)
10. “These four principles of governing allow jobs and wealth to grow: don't spend all the
money, keep taxes low, keep regulations fair and predictable, and don't allow for oversuing.” October 12, 2011 (Facebook)
11. “We need a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution!” October 25,
2011 (Twitter)
12. “Replacing one Washington insider with another won’t change a thing. If you want an
outsider who’ll overhaul Washington, then I’m your guy.” November 19, 2011 (Facebook)
13. “Within 12 months of the Inaugural, we will have that border shut down.” November 23,
2011 (Twitter)
14. “These outrageous secret federal loans to bailout big banks are why Americans are disgusted
with business-as-usual Washington, the Federal Reserve and taxpayer-funded bailouts.”
November 28, 2011 (Facebook)
15. “Americans of every income group will receive tax relief under Perry’s optional flat tax”
December 11, 2011 (Twitter)
16. “We need a President with a proven record of creating jobs.” January 15, 2011 (Facebook)
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17. “We need an outsider in DC with the record to overhaul Washington.” January 15, 2011
(Twitter)
18. “…today I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich for president of the
United States” January 19, 2011 (Twitter)
4.2.8 Analysis of ‘tweets’ and Facebook Updates
Firstly, the political messages are the most important messages in that they provide the reader with
Perry’s political agenda and values. These messages provide Republican conservative voters with a
reason to want to vote for Perry. Especially the anti-Obama, anti-government updates are written to
draw in dissatisfied voters. As mentioned previously, these voters, most likely, identify themselves
with the Republican Party or generally believe in conservative values. However, it is also possible
to change the minds of loyal Democratic voters, who may be tired of a supposed inefficient
government. Perry’s political statements help Democratic voters to realise that maybe it is time for a
change. This again emphasises the importance of the political messages, like the ones above, rather
than the non-political messages.
The themes of these updates are all politically charged and written like a sort of
propaganda. Many of the updates deal with jobs in America and how Perry will use his proven job
record to get America working again. The updates that deal with job creation are conservative and
critical of the current Democratic system. Some of the less frequent updates are on political matters
such as Israel and the Mexican border. One of the themes of the updates that appear frequently is
Perry’s criticism of the government, especially in regard to taxes and the government’s invasion in
what he considers private matters.
These are just a few of the updates on Facebook and Twitter. The updates that are
written are a mixture between political statements, like the ones above, and numerous other
messages that are not related to politics. These other messages are mainly related to the campaign,
except a few. The non-political messages are for instance updates on issues that concern the citizens
of Texas, such as wildfires in Texas on the 6th of September, 2011. On September 11, 2011 Perry
made a commemorative update on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington D.C. Therefore, his messages are not all political or campaign related. However, these
messages reflect that he cares about citizens of the U.S. and gives the myriad of messages a
personal touch.
Governor Perry’s Facebook updates are a mixture between updates with or without
videos. The videos all concern his campaign in one way or another. All of the political statements
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are all different and diverse. Some updates are similar in the sense that they concern similar matters.
Also, many of the messages are anti-Obama and a cry for people to get involved and overhaul
Washington for the purpose of having a conservative government once again. Some messages also
criticise his GOP colleagues. Most of the messages concern Perry’s record job creation in Texas and
how electing Perry will mean a transformation of the job market of the entire country.
The nature of Facebook updates and ‘tweets’ are very different. Governor Perry’s
Facebook updates are scarcer than ‘tweets’. His ‘tweets’ are commonly shorter than his Facebook
updates. It is possible for other ‘tweeters’ to make updates on Perry, which everyone who ‘follows’
Perry will see on their Twitter page. On Facebook it is possible to comment and ‘like’ Perry’s
updates. On both sites it is possible to link to videos. However, on Facebook, a still of the linked
video is displayed on the site, whereas on Twitter it is simply a link.
On Twitter there are actually three accounts that make updates about Perry. One is as
‘Governor Perry’, the second is ‘Team Rick Perry’, and the third is ‘Perry Truth Team’. Perry’s
‘Governor’ account is naturally for his profession as governor. ‘Team Rick Perry’ is Perry and his
presidential campaign team, including Dave Carney. The ‘tweets’ from the ‘Perry Truth Team’
have the appearance of having been written by someone not affiliated with the Perry team. These
‘tweets’ by the ‘Perry Truth Team’ are all political and more critical of Perry’s opponents,
especially Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. All three Twitter accounts are like three
different animals. The ‘tweets’ from the ‘Governor Perry’ account are quite mellow and personal.
‘Team Rick Perry’s’ ‘tweets’ are very diverse and mostly only oppositional to Obama. The ‘Perry
Truth Team’ is highly oppositional to the other GOP candidates and arguably more to the right
politically, appealing to the more extreme right.
‘Team Rick Perry’ encourages people to donate and regularly ‘tweets’ as donations
come in, thanking the donors. On Facebook the messages are strongly oriented towards debates and
the primary elections when the candidates caucus. The possibility to ‘like’ is heavily used on
Perry’s Facebook site, which is a way to determine the popularity of statements or initiatives. It is
an easy way to get an idea of the state the campaign is in. If less and less people ‘like’ statements
and if the number of new supporters is declining, as well as a low percentage of votes during the
primaries, it could mean that focus on Perry is dwindling and that new communication strategies
should be set in motion. Of course, there are many other factors that determine a declining
popularity, such as what is written and said in the media as well as a decline in support from donors.
On January 19, 2012 Perry finally announced that he was suspending his campaign
and endorsing Newt Gingrich for President of the United States. This was following a low vote
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count in the primary election in Iowa.154 The primary election was about to start in South Carolina.
The campaign team must have realised that it was a losing battle. The ‘tweets’ and Facebook
updates were at this stage still positive and enthusiastic. On Facebook he thanked his supporters
after he had announced the suspension of his campaign. On the ‘Team Rick Perry’ twitter page he
‘tweeted’ 12 times on January 19, 2012. These messages covered everything from thanking
supporters to asserting that he will continue to fight for conservative reforms. All of the messages
are quite personal, which is evident in the repeating use of personal pronouns.
The Facebook and Twitter updates seem to follow a pattern of characteristics. These
characteristics are that the messages are short and simple, diverse and contemporary, and many of
the messages are propagandist. Some may think of propaganda as half-truths or lies. That is also the
case in many of Perry’s updates. When Perry asks supporters to help him in stopping Obama’s ‘war
on religion’ he is making a statement that seems farfetched.155 Obviously Obama is not leading a
war on religion. A statement like this is propaganda. The point of messages such as this is to get a
rouse out of supporters and to set a mood, which is antagonistic towards Obama and the
government.
In conclusion to the analysis of Governor Perry’s social media updates, it must be said
that the only negative aspects are the updates that resemble propaganda. These updates might serve
a purpose for an immediate rise in people. However, using propaganda in a context where every
word uttered can have consequences, in the sense that it can backfire and make the person who said
it seem dishonest, does not seem prudent. Other than these propagandist updates there does not
seem to be anything wrong with the characteristics of the updates. The updates are informative,
interesting, short and to the point, diverse, and fits the medium i.e. Facebook updates are generally
longer than ‘tweets’.
It is obvious that Perry focused on politically charged updates in his communication
strategy for social media updates. It seems that it is important to focus on the task at hand, which is
to get Perry elected. In order to accomplish that, it is necessary to focus on the politics when
communicating, rather than to focus on other matters. Even though most of the updates in one way
or another relate to the campaign, the updates mentioned herein are more directed towards actual
political agendas, which also make them more interesting due to the sentiments for people to get
involved and do something about it. Conclusively it can be stated that writing politically charged
154
Chris Tumlinson, 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/rick-perry-iowa-caucus-2012_n_1182594.html
Last viewed 24/01 2012
155
Facebook update 29/12 2011 http://www.facebook.com/GovernorPerry?ref=ts
Last viewed 24/01 2012
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messages that entice people to get involved, or at least messages that make people think, are
generally the most effective updates.
5. Rick Perry as a Brand
Analysis and Evaluation of Campaign
This section of the paper deals with analysing and evaluating communication strategies of the
campaign. A secondary purpose is to demonstrate how to develop communication strategies by
using theory from branding in advertising and campaign management in the business world. This
will all be compared to Obama’s campaign for the purpose of making a comparison between a
successful campaign and an unsuccessful campaign. This will join the different sections of the
thesis together and give an answer to how branding can be implemented in political communication.
The campaign to get Governor Perry elected was unsuccessful. So, what went wrong?
In order to answer that question, this analysis will view Perry as a brand. After all, Perry is the one
being ‘marketed’ in this campaign. Unlike a product, Perry is a human, and that is one of the major
differences in this type of marketing campaign. Perry’s persona and the live unrehearsed utterances
are some of the differences between a campaign of a product and that of a man. However, firstly it
is possible to view the communication strategies of the campaign to establish if there was anything
that could or should have been done differently. This is done for the purpose of establishing if
Perry’s campaign strategist Dave Carney, as well as the rest of the managers, are to be blamed for
the unsuccessful campaign or if it was out of their control.
Other matters that need to be analysed are for instance the target audience that Perry
catered to. Was this strategy the correct one or was that one of the reasons why Perry eventually did
not get enough votes in the primary elections? Were Perry’s policies too far right for the general
Republican voter to cast their vote on him?
The use of social media has already been established as a positive aspect of the
campaign, which the campaign definitely should not have been without. The new technological
method of campaigning seemed to have no negative aspects, so maybe the old campaign initiatives
should have been focused on more. Perhaps the outcome of the campaign was inevitable from the
outset. Whatever the case may be this analysis will provide an answer to what to look out for when
campaigning for the presidency of the United States.
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5.1 Creating a Positive Brand Attitude
Creating a positive brand attitude is what leads to purchase or in this case a vote.156 Perry was
initially successful at creating a positive brand attitude through his communication strategies and so
was Obama. Perry’s proven job record and that he was a Washington outsider were his main selling
points. In the beginning of Perry’s presidential campaign it seemed that these two main points were
just what the public was looking for. The financial crisis and a growing dissatisfaction with the
government and its fiscal policies were reason for voters to favour Perry and his anti-establishment
agenda. He was the perfect candidate with a long record of job creation in his home state of Texas
and unaffiliated with Washington D.C.
Perry’s use of social media and the attempt to create a grassroots movement as well as
his affiliation with the Tea Party made him look like an outsider who could connect with the people.
This in a way mimics Obama’s campaign. Obama’s campaign turned into a grassroots movement
from outside of Washington. His campaign introduced social media, which Perry then started using
a couple of years later. When Perry is talking about overhauling Washington, he is campaigning for
change, which is similar to what Obama did. Perry’s job creation record is one point where Perry’s
campaign does not mimic Obama’s campaign.
All of these initiatives helped to create a positive brand attitude in the minds of voters
who were fed up with the government and ‘a failed president’, according to the Republicans.157
Based on William J. Mcguire’s theory of attitude change, a person goes through several stages
before reaching a change in attitude towards a message. Mcguire’s theory can help to understand
what happens in voters before reaching a decision on who to vote for or in other words how the
voter’s brand attitude changes. The message that the voter needs to comprehend and accept is in this
instance ‘Perry for President’.158 This theory can be applied to advertising as well as political
campaigning, which the following will display. The first step of the campaign was a success in the
sense that the message conveyed by the Perry camp was persuasive and it got the attention of the
target audience. The target audience in this instance are voters and the media. The next step in
creating a positive brand attitude is for the target audience to comprehend the messages conveyed
by the candidate. This was done with the use of social media, traditional media and canvassing.
Social media helped to convey the messages in a personal and simple way. The media was helpful
156
Percy 2009, p. 7
Code blue politics http://codebluepolitics.com/ & Chicago Tribune
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2012/01/new-hampshire-math-gingrich-santorum-perrypaul.html Last viewed 31/01 2012
158
Mcguire 1969 http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~tecas/syllabi2/adv382jfall2002/readings/McGuire.pdf Last viewed 10/02
2012
157
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in spreading the message that Perry was now running for President. Canvassing helped to reach
even more people and helped them to properly understand the messages coming from the Perry
camp. Now that the target audience are aware of Perry’s bid for President and that they understand
his political agenda, the target audience must now accept the arguments in his messages for it to be
a success. The next step is for the target audience to retain the arguments of Perry’s messages and
act positively towards them. This behaviour is evident in people who support Perry in one way or
another. It could be by donating or by volunteering to help the campaign. If the target audience goes
through all of these attitude changes they will eventually arrive at casting their vote on the
candidate.
If this had been a campaign for a product it could have had a very successful start on
the market. Unfortunately for Perry, he would have to go through a course, which evidently made
the campaign less successful than when it was first initiated. Successful branding includes much
more than these steps. This is just an example of what may happen when initiating a campaign and
a theory on attitude change. The following sections will elaborate on branding and the steps that
should be taken when implementing the strategic planning process when developing
communication strategies, including when setting a media strategy.
5.2 Developing the Strategic Plan
The following sections will analyse Perry’s strategic plan and simultaneously represent how to
develop a strategic plan using knowledge from the market place. The focus here is on the
development of communication strategies. In order to develop a communication strategy, it is first
necessary to select the target audience. Next is to understand target audience decision making. Then
the best positioning is determined. Now that these aspects of the strategy have been established, it is
possible to develop a communication strategy. In developing a communication strategy it is
necessary to discuss the category need, brand purchase intention, brand awareness strategy and
brand attitude strategy, which involves cognitive and affective components of brand attitude.
Finally, the critical elements of involvement and motivation affecting purchase and usage behaviour
is mentioned. It will be determined how these communication tools may have been utilised in
Perry’s campaign while comparing it to Obama’s campaign. Once the communication strategy is
set, it is possible to set a media strategy for the campaign. This is all part of developing a strategic
plan for a campaign. In this case it is a political campaign in which the theory of branding is used
within a context, which it was not intended to work in. This analysis is an attempt to see if it really
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is possible to use brand theory in political communication and to determine if it has already, in one
way or another, been used in political campaigns.
5.2.1 Selecting the Target Audience
Selecting the target audience is an important factor in any election. A candidate’s goal in elections
is to get the support of the most people. There is obviously no clear answer to how that is done. The
challenge lies in selecting the largest target audience possible in order to get the support of the
largest segment of the population. Corporations target specific groups of people, their target
audience, when advertising and when developing communication strategies. Depending on the
product that is sold, the corporations may segment groups of people. It could be according to age,
gender or cultural background. Corporations do this because it is difficult to cater to all people
through one message or advertisement. In order to reach different groups of consumers, it is
necessary to communicate by sending different messages i.e. advertisements. This is necessary
because consumers are rarely attracted to the same things.
In elections in the U.S. the target audience is people of voting age (18+ years), who
are U.S. citizens. This is a large target audience, which makes it difficult to know what
communication strategies will work best to reach as many as possible. Since the target audience is
so vast and diverse, it is necessary to go through a number of steps in order to select a
communication strategy that will work most effectively. In advertising management there is a way
to develop a communication strategy and eventually also setting a media strategy.159
The first step is to select the target audience, which is easy as it has already been
established that it is all U.S. citizens above the age of 18. However, during the primaries it is most
prudent to choose a target audience that is loyal to the party that the candidate is running for. This is
because they are the ones who will show up and vote in the primary elections. That is probably an
indication of why some candidates chose far-right policies during the primaries in this election. This
was most likely for the sake of standing out from the other candidates. Candidates tend to move
away from extreme politics and into more universal politics once they have been elected the
nominee of their party to run against the opposition. Within this group of loyal party supporters
there are divisions of groups of people that have different opinions on matters. In marketing, where
the concept of loyal supporters is known as brand loyalty, it is the awareness, attitudes, and
behaviour of consumers that make up their opinions about products.160 This theory can easily be
159
160
Percy 2009, pp. 109-110
Percy 2009, p. 110
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transferred to the political scene in regard to voters. This is based on the assumption that voters are
loyal to a party through, for instance, their awareness of matters involving the party’s undertakings,
that they have a personal attitude towards party policies, and behaviour that coincides with party
legislations. Selecting the target audience is an essential part of developing a communication
strategy since the communication must appeal to the target audience.
5.2.2 Understanding Target Audience Decision Making
The next step in implementing the strategic planning process is to understand target audience
decision making. This involves recognising individuals who vote and to develop a Behavioural
Sequence Model (BSM), which in marketing is a method to identify the possible steps the target
audience takes before making a purchase decision.161 This could translate to the decisions a voter
takes prior to going to the ballot and casting their vote. The BSM model, first introduced by
Rossiter and Percy in 1987, deals with the decision process of buyer behaviour.162 Using this model
is helpful in determining the likeliness of marketing communication affecting consumers. It can also
help to develop a marketing communication strategy. In marketing, the model is used to establish
who makes the decision to buy a product. This decision quite often involves more than one person,
especially with high involvement decisions. This is also the case when casting ones vote in a
presidential election because there will always be something that initiates and influences decisions,
which the following will elaborate on.
In regard to the comparison between communication in the market place and political
communication, it is evident that there are differences. In political communication there is no
exchange of funds or services in an election. Casting a vote is quite different from purchasing a
product. However, as the following will disclose, there are many comparisons after all.
In this decision process the initiator is the voter who initiates interest in voting from
having been influenced by something. In an election what initiates this interest could be a candidate
in a TV spot.163 The voter is also influenced by other sources, such as the media and other members
of the community. Ultimately, it is up to the voter to decide who to vote for. Even though these are
small steps that lead to voting, the process can contain many influencers. For the efficiency of
marketing communication it is important to recognise that an individual is in a role when making a
purchase decision. The same can be said of individuals in an electorate who have the role as voters.
This is used excessively in marketing in political campaigns. In political TV spots the use of
161
Percy 2009, p. 138
Rossiter 1987
163
Percy 2009, pp. 138-141
162
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personal pronouns like ‘you’, ‘we’, ‘our, and the adverbial ‘together’ are words that involve people
in the message. These words are used in order to make people aware of their role as voters and that
they can make a difference. Governor Perry and President Obama used this tactic in several of their
TV spots to the point where it seemed standard rhetoric when making a political TV spot. Live
debates and other media material concerning the candidates also take part in influencing voters.
In marketing, it is necessary to convince consumers to buy a product or service by
creating brand awareness and a positive brand attitude. In high involvement decisions it is usually
not enough with a single advertisement. It usually takes many marketing initiatives in order to
create interest in a product. The consumer must be convinced prior to purchase by the influencer. In
comparison, in elections a voter goes through much of the same processes before taking an
important decision at the ballot. The high number of TV spots that Perry uploaded as well as the
numerous social media updates during his campaign is an indication that he was aware of the
importance of influencing voters by continuously creating awareness of his presence. Eventually the
voter will make his decision when the candidate has established brand awareness and a positive
brand attitude through a successful communication strategy.
5.2.3 Determining the Best Positioning
The next step is to discover how to best position the candidate in regard to marketing
communication and advertising in order to influence the voter.164 The positioning strategy helps to
establish how the manager should address the two core communication objectives of brand
awareness and brand attitude. In marketing, there is a way to establish the positioning of a brand or
product. This is done by asking - what is it? And what does it offer? Asking what the brand is
provides the link between brand and category need and establishes brand awareness. Asking what
the brand offers provides the link between brand and benefit and establishes brand attitude.
In order to position Perry it is necessary to ask – not what, but who is Rick Perry?
This is done by looking into his past, present and future. Perry put a lot of emphasis on his past
achievements in job creation as well as his disaffiliation with Washington, as opposed to some of
the other candidates. His past was also used against him by other candidates in an attempt to
discredit him, e.g. Michele Bachmann mentioning the HPV vaccine mandate during a debate.165 It
seems a political candidate’s past must be taken under assessment when establishing positioning,
because it determines who he is. As previously mentioned, former Republican candidate Herman
164
165
Percy 2009, pp. 161- 189
Madison, Lucy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20105175-503544.html Last viewed 06/02 2012
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Cain was unsuccessful in his campaign because of past indiscretions. Many of the other Republican
candidates have also had their past actions come up during debates and in the media. Republican
candidate Mitt Romney has been criticised for his past private endeavours on Wall Street and has
been blamed by his rivals for being a “job destroyer and tax dodger”.166 Also, Republican candidate
Newt Gingrich has had two adulterous marriages, which positions him poorly in the eyes of many
voters.167
The objective of positioning Perry, includes establishing what he offers. He conveyed
this message numerous times during debates, on TV spots, on his social media sites, as well as
during speeches and when doing interviews.
Perry’s positioning during the primaries was built on the political agenda he would
enforce if elected president. The rhetoric in this period particularly focused on past initiatives as
well as planned future initiatives.
Governor Perry was positioned as a Christian far-right social conservative with hyper
liberal policies. This positioning was a sensible choice due to his jobs creation record, which is what
conservatives are especially interested in. Perry’s positioning as a Christian was just an added bonus
in gaining supporters with Christian values. However, Perry may have taken it a step too far to the
point where his rhetoric on Christianity resembled propaganda. His statements on Christianity were
not just to have faith. It was for Christians to have more rights by joining state and church. Perry
went from preaching to propagandising in those statements.168 Also, his positioning as an opponent
to gays in the military and his opposition to using foreign aid to combat human rights abuses against
homosexuals in foreign countries created a lot of negative hype, as it always does when politicians
make statements that if implicated would limit the liberty of people.169 It seems that Perry had
found his audience, Christians and anti-gays. Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese
(2011) pretty much sums up Perry’s positioning in this quote, “It is bewildering that someone who
wants to be President of the United States wouldn’t want to see our nation be a global leader in
universal human rights. This is further proof that Rick Perry doesn’t want to represent the best
interests of all Americans – he wants to advance an extremist, anti-gay agenda that represents the
fringe views of a very small few.” 170
166
Hindman, Nate C. - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/mitt-romney-private-equity_n_1243021.html Last
viewed 17/02 2012
167
Ward, John - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/29/newt-gingrich-florida_n_1240392.html Last viewed 17/02
2012
168
Lacapria, Kim http://www.inquisitr.com/166215/rick-perry-strong/ Last viewed 17/02 2012
169
Saenz, Arlette - http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/rick-perry-says-human-rights-for-gays-not-inamericas-interests/ Last viewed 17/02 2012
170
See link above
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5.2.4 Developing a Communication Strategy
The next step in developing a strategic plan is to develop a communication strategy. The objective
here is to establish the brand awareness and brand attitude strategies. This should be in accordance
with target audience decision making in elections. It must be established whether to use a recall or
recognition brand awareness strategy depending upon how awareness of the brand is perceived. The
category need in marketing can also be used when comparing the policies candidates campaign on.
Also, the level of motivation and involvement is established here for the purpose of determining the
brand attitude strategy.
These next following sections will elaborate on the development of a communication
strategy in political communication by using examples from Governor Perry’s presidential
campaign. This is a continuation of the theory of branding in the market place and how it mimics
branding in political communication.
5.2.4.1 Category Need
The need that arises in a person for a product is similar to the need that arises for a voter in politics
in which the product is the candidate that fits the needs of the voter. The candidate’s attributes, such
as political agenda and capabilities as a leader is what the voter has a need for. The category need is
a perception, which can be established and even manipulated through advertising.171 An
advertisement has the potential to convince the target audience that there is a need for a certain type
of candidate. Perry kept emphasising the need for a new president and the need for a president with
a proven job record. Obama kept emphasising the need for change. It seems this aspect of branding
is particularly important in political elections, which is evident in not only the rhetoric of the
candidates but also the initiatives that are taken to get people interested in voting. The candidates
pursue the attention of voters for the purpose of informing about the importance and need for people
to come and vote. It is the objective of the advertiser to stimulate a need in people to vote for a
particular candidate and not just the overall category of voting for any candidate. This should be
done by exemplifying the candidate by pointing out the advantages and benefits of choosing this
particular candidate. This is known as brand-level communication effects and includes brand
awareness, brand attitude, and brand purchase intention.172
171
172
Percy 2009, p. 194
Percy 2009, p. 194
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5.2.4.2 Brand Purchase Intention
Brand purchase intention can be a communication object in a political campaign. 173 This is based on
the assumption that voters will have an intention to vote for a candidate. The intention to vote for a
candidate may arise from having viewed an advertisement. The voter may realise that this is the
candidate that they want to vote for and that is where the intent to vote occurs. This is not to be
confused with the actual act of voting.
The objective here is to somehow influence people to take the next step and show up
at the ballot. Perry and Obama both emphasised the importance of voting for the sake of change.
Since voting is a high involvement decision, the objective for the candidates is to evoke a definite
intention to vote. As mentioned, Perry and Obama partly used grassroots movements and
canvassing for the sake of getting undecided, uninterested people to vote. What they were pursuing
was to create intent to ‘purchase’. This large group of undecided, uninterested voters could change
the tide in an election if enough of them are given a reason to vote. Advertising could also have the
potential to stimulate brand purchase intention.174 It is especially important to stimulate and
influence brand purchase intention close to an election. This is done by advertising and canvassing
more than usual in the days before an election. Social media is especially useful in this regard since
it is possible to remind supporters that the election is coming up and that it is time to get to the
ballot.
5.2.4.3 Brand Awareness Strategy
According to Larry Percy and Richard Elliott (2009), “Brand awareness is the target audience’s
ability to identify a brand within a category in sufficient detail to purchase or use it.” 175 A brand is
identified in one of two ways. The one is to recognize the brand at the point of purchase. Another is
to recall the need to purchase a product. The comparability of this aspect of marketing to an election
is somewhat questionable. What is questionable is if it at all is possible to create a strategy that will
make the target audience recall or recognize a candidate, in the same way these strategies work with
products, or if the objective really should be to try and implement both strategies.
There are factors in brand awareness that simply cannot be used in a political
campaign. These factors are for instance how consumers will recognize a brand by the package or
colour and that obviously is not possible with a candidate. A voter may recognize a candidate’s
173
Percy 2009, p. 197
Percy 2009, pp. 197-198
175
Percy 2009, p. 196
174
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name at the ballot and vote for him. If that is how the majority of votes are cast then a recognition
strategy should be used. However, it is more likely that a voter will recall the need to vote for a
particular candidate. This could be brought on by something the candidate says in for instance an
advertisement or at a debate. For instance, when Perry argues the need for a president with a proven
job record, the target audience may agree with his statement and value Perry’s political agenda the
highest and therefore vote for him. Conclusively, if one of these strategies should be used in an
election the most effective is arguably a recall brand awareness strategy. This is based on the
assumption that voters will be influenced by what the candidate says and recall the need for a
person such as him in the White House. This is opposed to voters simply recognising the
candidate’s name at the ballot. The recognition strategy is for low involvement decisions and
casting a vote in an election is a high involvement decision. Also, people will most likely not
inconvenience themselves by going to the ballot to vote unless they feel it is an important decision.
It should be possible to attract all kinds of voters, including uninterested, undecided, low
involvement voters. These voters may be influenced by a recognition strategy. That is why it should
be possible to use both recall and recognition strategies.
This leads the discussion to the importance of brand awareness when advertising. The
objective when advertising a candidate is for the voter to recognize the candidate and develop a
positive brand attitude. Recall and recognition strategies will be effective if there is a positive brand
attitude. In creating a brand attitude it should be considered to implicate recall and recognition
strategies. Implicating a recognition strategy in political communication is difficult to compare to a
recognition strategy for a product. A product has a logo, an easily recognisable label, and maybe a
jingle. In comparison, a political candidate has no visible or audible traits that the voter will
recognize at the ballot. The candidate has his name, which as previously mentioned should
preferably be short. He may have a catchphrase, such as Obama’s (2007) “Yes we can”. However,
in the end a voter needs to recall brand awareness at the ballot, unless the decision to vote is simply
based on the recognition of a name.
5.2.4.4 Brand Attitude Strategy
Brand attitude is important in an election. Voters will choose a candidate that they have a positive
brand attitude towards. According to Larry Percy and Richard Elliott there are several ways to
approach communication regarding brand attitude.176 What initially happened in Perry’s campaign
was the creation of a brand attitude. That brand attitude was Governor Perry as a presidential
176
Percy 2009, pp. 201-207
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candidate. The media helped to spread the message of Perry as a presidential candidate and thereby
increased the brand awareness. During the course of the campaign the brand attitude was also
modified and changed. In the initial stages of managing the campaign it was crucial to first
understand the attitudes of the target audience. It is evident that Perry’s political agenda was
targeted at a certain group of people and this did not change during the primaries. What did change
was the attitude the target audience had towards Perry. Also, there was a change in attitude towards
live debates from the Perry camp, following Perry’s stumble.177 The brand attitude was slightly
modified in order to convince the target audience that what they needed was not a smooth talker,
but less of them. The fact that it is possible to adjust the brand attitude during a campaign is
evidence that campaign strategies are always changing and can be modified to suit the situation.
The campaign strategy may be modified when the brand attitude changes. However, it is not always
the best strategy to do so. Changing ones strategy is an indication that things are not working as it
should. The challenge for the campaign manager is to decide whether a change in strategy is best
suited for the situation. When the media got a hold of Obama’s past run in with drugs, the strategy
did not change in any apparent way. In such a case it is probably best to simply move on and focus
on other matters.
Following Perry’s stumble a repositioning strategy was initiated. The strategy built on
Perry’s political objective to decrease the influence of government, including himself and others
like him. Perry’s (2011) argument was “If you want a slick debater, I’m obviously not your guy, but
if you want a clean House in Washington…and a part time congress, I’m your man”.178 This
strategy, it would seem, was unsuccessful. It simply made Perry look incompetent as a debater,
which is probably why he shortly hereafter returned to the debates to convince people otherwise.
Perry tried to move on. However, it seemed as if ‘the stumble’ never went away, which was evident
in the polls, as Perry’s popularity only seemed to diminish. The brand attitude was not as positive as
it had used to be. Eventually Perry dropped out of the race, which can be compared to when a
company opts out, due to e.g. a financial decline, and is bought by a competing company with a
more positive brand attitude and a stronger economy.
Perry was unsuccessful in maintaining a strong brand attitude. The objective for the
managers was to maintain the positive brand attitude, which now proved to be more difficult than
before. This is one instance where the difference between campaigning for a person and a product is
evident. The human factor and the increased possibility of making mistakes in live, unedited and
177
The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/rick-perry-stumbles-but-for-howlong/2011/11/10/gIQACORc8M_blog.html Last viewed 07/02 2012
178
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCRW5zGSG4 Last viewed 20/02 2012
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unrehearsed scenarios are the additional factors managers of political campaigns must be aware of.
Despite these differences there is still a lot to learn from campaigning in the market.
In the market there are consumers, which is not exactly the same as voters. Voters
usually wait to cast their vote until Election Day, whereas consumers in most instances have the
possibility of purchasing a product right away. Though, there are still comparisons to be made.
There are four characteristics of brand attitude that can be used in order to understand consumers, as
well as voters. These characteristics tell us what the consumer/voter wants from the brand, what
they know and feel about a brand, the beliefs that make up the knowledge, and the relativity of
brand attitude.179 Following ‘the stumble’, the strategy for recovery was based on a belief that what
the voters wanted was to get a response from Perry. The managers of the campaign thought it would
make voters feel differently about the situation and that they should know Perry’s view of the
situation. It is only possible to speculate how Perry and his managers came to believe that this was
what the target audience/the voters wanted.
Now, that Perry was unsuccessful, it is possible to speculate that his initial positive
brand attitude was only relative and that the loyal supporters were also only relatively loyal. Perry’s
low scores in the primaries is evidence of this.
5.2.4.5 Cognitive and Affective Components of Brand Attitude
It seems that what the target audience knew and felt about Perry quickly changed. This assumption
is based on what the media started writing about Perry once they got to know him. This is also
known as the cognitive and affective components of brand attitude, i.e. the knowledge and feelings
associated with a brand.180 In the beginning of Perry’s presidential campaign there were plenty of
flattering articles about him. These articles quickly changed attitude once it became more
newsworthy to write negatively about Perry, following his debate gaffe in Rochester, Michigan. 181
Within the theory of the cognitive component there is also the element of belief,
which reflects the link between the brand and the consumer’s motivation.182 In the context of an
election it translates into the shared beliefs of the voter and the candidate. Since Perry’s political
agenda never changed it must mean that the beliefs shared between the politician and his supporters
also never changed. However, this does not mean that supporters will stay loyal. Especially, if the
candidate proves to be dishonest in his motives or like in Perry’s case show inadequacies in debates.
179
Percy 2009, pp. 203-205
Percy 2009, p. 206
181
USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-11-09/Republican-debate-michigan-herman-caineconomy/51145714/1 Last viewed 07/02 2012
182
Percy 2009, p. 206
180
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The ability to debate is especially important considering that eventually the candidate has to debate
Obama, who is known for his abilities as a good debater and speaker. In any case, the cognitive
component of brand attitude i.e. knowing and sharing belief in policies simply is not enough to get
the support of like-minded supporters when other factors, such as the ability to debate, are lacking.
What happened with Perry was that the affective components of the brand attitude
changed. The attitude towards Perry changed in the sense that the feelings that supporters had of
Perry were no longer as positive as when he first came on to the scene. Basically, his image had
changed, which caused a decrease in motivation for his supporters to stay loyal. At this stage a
drastic change in motivation should be initiated. It was not a successful strategy to apologize for
Perry’s inadequacies, which his ‘not a slick debater’ video basically was.183 However, it was an
attempt to change the motivation for supporters to keep supporting Perry. The objective of such an
advertisement is to take specific attributes, characteristics, or emotions and link them to Perry in
such a way that he is seen as uniquely satisfying the motives of supporters.184 The aforementioned
video was a textbook example of motivating supporters with similar beliefs as Perry.
Communicating a brand attitude has its benefits in that it helps to promote a brand and
it is possible to meet what potential voters are looking for in a candidate. What makes this concept
relative is that it is very difficult to meet everything that potential voters want. Trying to stimulate
the brand attitude by advertising will always have an effect on potential voters. If the effects of
Perry’s ‘not a slick debater’ video advertisement were positive or not is unknown. However, the
video has been watched by more than 600,000 on Youtube alone, which in any case is a lot of
potential voters that may be motivated by it.185
5.2.4.6 Motivation and Involvement
Motivation and involvement of voters are critical elements when communicating to the electorate. It
is important to understand that the level of motivation and involvement of voters is relatively high.
This is because of the importance of electing a president, which increases in importance when a
nation is suffering from a financial crisis. The target audience sees this election in both fiscal and
psychological terms due to the financial crisis.186 The fiscal aspects are for instance the threat of
losing a job or a further decline in the economy. The psychological aspects are for instance the
183
Youtube channel for Rick Perry http://www.youtube.com/user/RPerry2012?blend=9&ob=0#p/u/19/aiCRW5zGSG4
Last viewed 07/02 2012
184
Percy 2009, p. 207
185
Youtube channel for Rick Perry http://www.youtube.com/user/RPerry2012?blend=9&ob=0#p/u/19/aiCRW5zGSG4
Last viewed 07/02 2012
186
Percy 2009, p. 207
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belief in liberal economic policies and how implementing more of these policies might abate the
financial crisis. Other people may believe in more social policies and that the liberal economic
policies were the reason for the crisis. The objective for a Republican candidate in a primary
election is to motivate and involve the people that generally believe in conservative policies.
Perry’s communication strategy was to involve people who were discontent with the
current government and who were motivated because of a lack of jobs. Perry also catered to
Christians and generally tried to reach a large segment of the population that he figured would have
high motivation for electing a new president. The high level of involvement of the voter in this
election adds to the importance of knowing more about a candidate. If involvement is low people
may vote for a candidate simply because he is Christian. Most people consider this election
important because of the financial crisis which means that involvement is high. That is why voters
will have to believe in the capabilities of the candidate before supporting him.
In an election there is a perceived risk in electing a candidate because of unknown
factors, such as the capabilities of the candidate and his ability to follow through on promises.
However, the underlying motivation for voting is positive, but only if the message is accepted as
true. In this case it is known as a high-involvement transformational brand attitude strategy.187 If the
motivation for voting is negative, which could be because of a dissatisfaction of the government, it
is a high-involvement informational brand attitude strategy. Arguably, supporters of Obama and
supporters of Perry can be divided into these two categories. Obama’s supporters have an
underlying positive motivation to support Obama because they accept his messages as true. In their
case a high-involvement transformational brand attitude strategy should be used. Perry’s supporters
have an underlying negative motivation to support Perry because they perceive Obama’s messages
as untrue. When motivation is negative it is necessary to inform the target audience, which means
that short messages would not suffice because of time needed to process the messages.
Some psychologists argue that motivation originates from negativity.188 As previously
mentioned, Perry has used some of the campaign’s most extreme anti-government rhetoric. This
could be a strategy thought out by the Perry camp for the purpose of attracting voters by adhering to
their negative motivation. In advertising and marketing it is said that there is no such thing as bad
publicity. Maybe that is what Perry was pursuing with his negative statements. One particularly
negative message from Perry was a video that received more than 700,000 ‘dislikes’ and only
60,000 ‘likes’ on Youtube.189 The video was anti-gay and against oppression of Christianity. These
187
Percy 2009, pp. 213-217
Percy 2009, p. 208
189
Youtube channel for Rick Perry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA Last viewed 07/02 2012
188
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messages are ‘strong’ messages to entice negative motivation in people that are passionate about the
subjects. If that is the reason why the video is called ‘strong’ is unknown. Strong messages get a lot
of attention, which is evident in the many views (more than 8 million) on Youtube that this video
has received to date.190 Also, several parody videos of Perry’s ‘strong’ video have been uploaded.
Conclusively, Perry’s strong negative messages are getting a lot of publicity. The question is
whether there really is such a thing as bad publicity when it comes to advertising in a political
campaign. There can be no question about the ramifications of ‘the stumble’ and how this bad
publicity really in fact was bad. The sort of negative motivation in Perry’s video may get 60,000
people to like the video, but at the price of getting 700,000 people to dislike it. Arguably, it does not
make sense to make a majority of voters dislike a message for the purpose of enticing a minority.
If all motivation is negative it makes sense to run a campaign based on the assessment
that being highly critical of the opposition will get the most rise out of people. It seems that running
a strictly positive or neutral campaign will not get the same respect as a candidate speaking his
mind and criticising left and right. Perry seems to have taken it a step too far by being strongly
negative towards groups of people among the electorate. He is basically alienating potential voters.
Perry’s radical and outright untrue statements such as “Obama’s war on religion” and “kids can't
openly celebrate Christmas” may motivate a small percentage of the population. However, untrue
statements or mistakes by candidates will be ridiculed in the media, such as on the Daily Show with
Jon Stewart.191 The more negative exposure a candidate gets the more voters will be discouraged to
support him.
In contrast, Obama was also critical of the former President George W. Bush and
criticised his opponent Senator John McCain in the 2008 election.192 However, these statements
were based on truths and at the same time commemorated his opponent’s wartime record. It seems
that Obama’s campaign messages of hope and change were strong messages without the same
degree of negativity as Perry’s. After all, Perry’s ‘faith’ and ‘strong’ messages in his video
advertisements were highly negative with untrue statements, such as ‘Obama’s war on religion’.
Whether or not the two candidate’s statements made a difference in the minds of voters at the ballot
is unknown. However, when looking at the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ of videos by Perry and Obama on
Youtube, it is obvious that Obama’s communication in his videos were liked more than Perry’s.193
Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here. After all, Obama was successful with his communication
190
See link above
Youtube channel for Comedy Central http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2O8ICDLkb0 Last viewed 07/02 2012
192
Youtube – Barackobamadotcom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv8eiDvrHJ4 Last viewed 07/02 2012
193
Youtube: Obama (2008) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtREqAmLsoA, Perry (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA Last viewed 07/02 2012
191
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strategy and Perry was not. This might be a hint that Perry’s target audience was not the right
choice in this campaign.
Perry is not alone in using negative motivation. The other Republican candidates also
use a lot of negative rhetoric, mostly towards the opposition, as well as towards each other.
According to a survey on Facebook, it is evident that the level of negative rhetoric from candidates
is quite high.194 Facebook users also speak negatively about the candidates and Perry experienced a
spike in negative chatter about him in the days up to the cancellation of his campaign. Political
chatter is generally charged with negativity. It could be negativity towards policies or politicians.
Conclusively, it makes sense to produce negatively charged campaign ads for the purpose of
inciting negative motivation. That is also what some of the more successful Republican candidates
have done. Mitt Romney spent more than $15 million on ads in Florida of which 92% were
negative.195 The ads mostly targeted Romney’s closest competitor, Newt Gingrich. Romney
eventually won the primary election in Florida.196
5.6 Setting a Media Strategy
In theory, setting a media strategy for a brand is the same whether it is for a product or a person.
There are differences such as longevity and placement of marketing material. A candidate will
advertise profusely in the state where an upcoming primary election is held and spend millions of
dollars in each state on getting audio and video files played in broadcast media. It is unlike how
campaigns are usually done in the market place for products. However, it does not differ when
planning what communication channels to use. Once it is clear what should be prioritized in terms
of perception of brand, the media strategy can be set. The communication strategy is what helps to
develop the media strategy.
This final step in developing the strategic plan is to select media that can deliver the
possibility for voters to process the messages from the candidate in the most efficient way. This
must all be consistent with what the candidate needs in terms of brand awareness and brand attitude.
It has already been established that the brand awareness strategy in an election is a
recall brand awareness strategy, which means that all media is appropriate to use when advertising.
It has also been established that the brand attitude strategy is high-involvement and in Perry’s
Dongen, Rachel Van – Politico http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71642.html Last viewed 20/02 2012
Karl, Jonathan - ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/the-statistic-of-the-campaign-romneyssingle-positive-ad-in-florida/ Last viewed 20/02 2012
196
Cillizza, Chris – The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/mitt-romneys-floridasweep--and-how-it-changes-the-presidential-race/2012/01/31/gIQAfNuCgQ_blog.html Last viewed 20/02 2012
194
195
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campaign it was arguably an informational brand attitude strategy that should be used. This is based
on the assumption that voters are interested in being informed and that they have an underlying
negative motivation for voting for Perry. The negative motivation would be to get rid of Obama. In
a high-involvement informational brand attitude strategy such as this, broadcast media should be
avoided because of time needed to process message. However, it is accepted to use broadcast media
if both high- and low-involvement voters are the target audience.
There are some noticeable differences between a high involvement informational
brand attitude in the market place and in politics. One difference is that in the market place the price
is what makes it high involvement. In politics it would be the importance of electing a president. In
both cases there are exceptions where some people will not see it as high-involvement to for
instance buy an expensive car, as well as some will not regard voting for a president as particularly
important. If that is the case then all media is appropriate. Arguably, a presidential candidate may
use broadcast media to motivate low-involvement voters. Written public relations marketing
material, newspaper articles and long debates are preferable for high-involvement voters that
demand information.
It seems that the general notion in presidential elections is to use a high-involvement
informational brand attitude strategy. Perry’s short Youtube videos were not particularly
informative, which could be because he wanted to motivate a low-involvement target audience.
There is nothing wrong with trying to motivate through short messages as long as there is additional
information for high-involvement voters. Obama has also made short motivational videos with
simple messages for the 2012 election. One example is a video criticising Republican’s anti-Obama
initiatives for the last three years as well as in this election.197
A campaign in an election is considerably larger than for any product, which makes
this theory of marketing limited in covering all bases of such a massive undertaking. However,
these theories will guide the campaign in the right direction and if the general belief is that people
have high motivation and involvement to participate in elections then the objective should be to
abide to these findings. In terms of choice of media it would be prudent to only use broadcast media
for the purpose of enticing people to get involved and to find out more by e.g. visiting the
candidate’s website.
197
BarackObama.com http://www.barackobama.com/videos?source=primary-nav Last viewed 09/02 2012
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5.3 Chapter Summary
In this chapter the objective was to discover the possibility for using brand theory in political
communication and to determine if it in one way or another was used in Perry’s and Obama’s
campaigns. There is at no point an indication in the material on the two candidates that actual brand
theory was used. However, it is apparent that brand theory to a certain extent can be used in the
development of a campaign strategy. It is likely that the two politicians and their managers are
aware of using brand theory. Many of the strategies that have been used in the campaigns resemble
strategies that could have been developed using brand theory.
The choice of target audience is a very important aspect in developing a campaign
strategy. Perry chose a far-right conservative political agenda, which seems to be the standard in
Republican primaries. This strategy gained Perry a target audience that are strongly conservative
and loyal GOP followers. In Republican primaries this is the audience to cater to, which is what the
other Republican candidates also did. Gingrich and Santorum were arguably more to the right
politically and were more successful than Perry. This is evidence that Perry was not too far right.
The dislikes Perry’s videos received on Youtube could very well be from people outside of the
target audience. It could also be that individual pieces of Perry’s communication strategy were poor
choices. The findings in the analysis indicate that Perry had selected a target audience and
understood target audience decision making.
Governor Perry’s positioning as a Christian far-right social conservative with hyper
liberal policies seems deliberate. It seems like his political agenda was planned, which it should be
when campaigning for the presidency. It also seems like Perry’s sudden interest in talking to
Christian leaders was planned. This was possibly for the objective of retaining the support of
Christians. Conclusively, Perry had made a strategic plan to position himself. This mimics brand
theory positioning.
In developing a communication strategy there are a number of aspects which must be
fulfilled. In brand theory a category need must be achieved which in politics translates to the need
that candidates should evoke in voters. Similarly, the candidates should evoke intend for people to
vote, which both Perry and Obama did through canvassing, advertising, and on their social media
websites. Next is for the candidates to create awareness of their participation in the election. This is
done by using a recall strategy, which is when the voter recalls the need for voting for a particular
candidate. Another important aspect of campaigning is to develop a positive brand attitude and
preserve it throughout the campaign. This includes preserving positive cognitive and affective
components of the brand attitude, which Perry was unsuccessful at achieving. Motivating and
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involving supporters was achieved by adhering to their negative motivation. It seems that Perry
used a high-involvement informational brand attitude strategy because his supporters were
motivated by negativity towards the government. When motivation is negative the voter demands
information.
In setting a media strategy it was concluded that all media is appropriate. However,
broadcast media should only be used to motivate low-involvement voters. High involvement voters
will need time to process the information given, which makes broadcast media insufficient. Written
public relations material would be preferable for such voters.
6. Conclusion
The objective of this thesis was to determine what communication strategies are particularly
effective when campaigning for the presidency of the U.S. By using brand theory from the market
place it was possible to analyse Governor Perry’s campaign in the primaries. Perry and his
managers were successful in a number of aspects of campaigning. According to the findings in the
analysis Perry had successfully created a positive brand attitude as well as brand awareness in the
beginning of the campaign. Prior to that, Perry had already chosen a target audience and positioned
himself as a far-right social conservative with hyper liberal policies. Perry’s main selling points
were his ability to create jobs and that he was unaffiliated with the government. These points were
strong messages in a time with a recession and dissatisfaction among conservatives towards the
government.
Perry’s use of social media was another aspect of the campaign that was successful. It
helped to reach a large number of supporters. It was and still is an inexpensive tool that can reach
people in their homes. It is a communication tool that can be used to send messages to the electorate
and supporters alike. Perry focused on political propaganda in his updates with only few updates
concerning other matters than the campaign. The length and frequency of the updates matched the
standard when writing updates on the different social media sites. Therefore, all things considered,
an effective use of social media.
Social media, advertising and canvassing helped to make people aware of the election.
It also created a need as well as intend for people to go vote on Election Day. Initially the cognitive
and affective components of the attitude the target audience had towards Perry were positive. This
was achieved by focusing on the political agenda. Only Perry’s rivals and the media could have a
negative influence on what the majority of the target audience knew and felt about him by
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mentioning past mistakes from his work as a governor. Though there was mention of past mistakes
it never seemed to disturb the course of the campaign.
A particularly interesting part of the analysis was the motivation and involvement of
Perry’s target audience. Perry definitely catered to the negative motivation that voters have for
getting involved in the election. Arguably, Perry catered to both high- and low-involvement voters.
This is based on the short videos with simple messages, which provide low-involvement voters with
enough incentive to go and vote. Primarily voters are involved on a greater level and will seek out
information on the candidate. This is why it is necessary for all candidates to provide information
on their political agenda for high-involvement voters. Perry’s participation in the debates as well as
his social media updates and articles on his website was a way to provide information. What also
provides information on a candidate is by advertising through the media.
In setting a media strategy there are a number of aspects to consider. These aspects are
based on the communication strategy. Choosing which media to use is solely dependent on the
target audience. In this particular campaign it was possible to use all sorts of media. The content of
campaign videos is quite important in that the messages herein are what will define the candidate.
The videos should entice high- and low-involvement voters. Perry’s video ‘strong’ created a lot of
hype and critique. It was not apparent if it had a positive or negative influence on the primary
elections. However, it may have been partially to blame for the outcome.
This leads to the discussion on what mistakes were made during the campaign that
turned Perry from being a favourite to win to being the loser of the primaries. It seems that the
biggest mistake during the campaign was Perry’s stumble in the Michigan debate. Political
commentaries agreed that it could very well doom his campaign.198 It seems it did.
Dave Carney and the other managers had no control over this and can therefore not be
blamed for it. They did however choose to announce that Rick Perry would not attend any debates
any more, only to disregard the announcement shortly after. The Perry team also released a video
about the stumble, which just seemed to remind voters of Perry’s inadequacies in debates. Perhaps a
more effective strategy would have been to disregard the stumble and improve Perry’s debating
skills in the next debate.
Arguably, Perry’s ‘strong’ video was bordering on too extreme statements on gays
and Christianity. However, the other Republican candidates make similar extreme statements. The
candidates must all think that the conservative target audience are not discouraged by such
statements.
198
Wemple, Erik - The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/rick-perry-stumblesbut-for-how-long/2011/11/10/gIQACORc8M_blog.html Last viewed 24/02 2012
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The comparison with Obama’s campaign was surprisingly similar. The political
agenda was of course very different. Democrats and Republicans are generally very far apart
politically. However, this thesis was about the communication strategies and how to optimize a
campaign. Both candidates used new technology, such as social media. In determining positioning
their plan was to be Washington outsiders and to start a grassroots movement. They both also
campaigned for change.
Despite these similarities there were also several differences. This was particularly
evident in their choice of target audience. However, that comes with being from two opposite
parties. The main difference was the two candidates’ capabilities in debates. Obama showed that he
was a capable leader with the presence of a president. Perry never convinced the electorate of his
ability to be able to lead the country.
All things considered, according to the analysis, Perry’s campaign was very well
planned and executed. There was nothing wrong with the new technological way of campaigning.
The traditional way of campaigning, where the gift of gap is what wins the election, was what Perry
lacked. To become the President of the United States is a vigorous competition where a simple
stumble in a debate is enough to rule a candidate out. Governor Perry will have to stick to what he
is good at, which is to govern his home state of Texas.
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7. Bibliography
7.1 Books:
1.
Butler, D. & Kavanagh, D., The British General Election of 1987, London,
Macmillan, 1988
2.
Downs, A. - An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row. 1957
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Heywood, Andrew - Political theory: An introduction. Third edition. Palgrave
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Holzner, Steven - Facebook marketing: Leverage social media to grow your business.
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Knapp, Andrew and Wright, Vincent - Government and Politics of France. Routledge,
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12.
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Mcguire, William J. - Personality and attitude change: An information processing
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McNair, Brian - An Introduction to Political Communication, Routledge; 5 edition,
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McNair, Brian - Renewal: A journal of Labour politics. Media power in an era of
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Plouffe, David - The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack
Obama's Historic Victory, Viking, 2009
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Rasmussen, Scott & Schoen, Doug - Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is
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Rossiter, J. R. & Percy, L. - Advertising and Promotion Management. New York:
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7.2 E-books
1.
http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=1923&locid=47 U.S. Voting
qualifications
2.
http://ftp2.census.gov/govs/cog/2002COGprelim_report.pdf 2002 Census of
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Mcguire 1969
4.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42042.pdf Garrett, R. Sam 2011
7.3 Websites:
1.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/08/rick-perry-and-his-eggheadsmoneyball-meets-campaigning/ Bingham, Amy, ‘Rick Perry and His Eggheads’ –
‘Moneyball’ Meets Campaigning, ABC News
2.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/rick-perry-says-human-rights-for-gaysnot-in-americas-interests/ Saenz, Arlette 2011 - ABC News
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http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/13/nation/la-na-gop-candidates-20110914 West,
Paul 2011 - The Los Angeles Times
5.
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2012/01/new-hampshiremath-gingrich-santorum-perry-paul.html Zorn, Eric 2012 - Chicago Tribune
6.
http://codebluepolitics.com/ Code blue politics
7.
http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm United States Elections Project
8.
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/candidates/obama-mccain.html The New
York Times
9.
http://governor.state.tx.us/initiatives/natl_health_care/ Office of the Governor: Rick
Perry
10.
http://hbr.org/2010/03/one-cafe-chains-facebook-experiment/ar/1 Dolakia, Utpal M.
and Durham, Emily. One Café Chain’s Facebook Experiment. Harvard Business
Review,
11.
http://techpulse360.com/2009/08/12/facebook-says-its-click-through-rates-do-notmatch-those-at-google/ Techpulse 2009
12.
https://twitter.com/#!/TeamRickPerry Twitter
13.
http://www.barackobama.com/videos?source=primary-nav BarackObama.com
14.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12889048 Shiels, Maggie - BBC News
15.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/07/a_stadium_to_ma.html
Helman, Scott 2008 – The Boston Globe
16.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071128_366355
_page_2.htm Bloomberg Businessweek 2007
17.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20105175-503544.html Madison, Lucy
2011 - CBS News
18.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/politics/main531460.shtml Grace,
Francie 2009 - CBS News
19.
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Gillman, Todd J. 2011 - Dallas News
20.
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21.
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22.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/may/01/mondaymediasection The Guardian McNair, Brian 2006, The Culture of Chaos
24.
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25.
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Ward, John http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/mitt-romney-privateequity_n_1243021.html Hindman, Nate C., 2012
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SETUPS (Supplementary Empirical Teaching Units in Political Science) Voting
behaviour 2004 election
27.
http://www.inquisitr.com/166215/rick-perry-strong/ Lacapria, Kim
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28.
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29.
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30.
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31.
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1&Itemid=20 Medina Party
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(2010) – The New York Times
34.
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York Times
35.
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37.
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38.
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39.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/10/us-usa-campaign-perry-fbidUSTRE8090EK20120110 Reuters 2012
40.
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41.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rick-perry-the-best-little-whore-in-texas20111026 Taibbi (2011) - Rolling Stone
42.
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43.
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Tribune
44.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-11-09/Republican-debatemichigan-herman-cain-economy/51145714/1 Kucinich, Jackie and Page, Susan 2011 USA Today
45.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-milessquare/2011/08/rick_perrys_eggheads031734.php Sides, John, Rick Perry’s
Eggheads, Washington Monthly
46.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/rick-perry-stumbles-but-forhow-long/2011/11/10/gIQACORc8M_blog.html Wemple, Erik - The Washington
Post
47.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/rick-perry-betrays-a-greatamerican-principle/2011/07/13/gIQA0cCNCI_blog.html The Washington Post
48.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/mitt-romneys-florida-sweep--andhow-it-changes-the-presidential-race/2012/01/31/gIQAfNuCgQ_blog.html Cillizza,
Chris – The Washington Post
49.
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52.
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Youtube channel for Rick Perry 2012
53.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=c6tmsxdSUkY
Youtube channel for Rick Perry 2012
54.
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Youtube channel for Rick Perry 2012
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Master thesis
55.
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56.
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58.
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