What the GOP Can Learn From Greek Yogurt

For all the money and social media hoopla, the 2012 Republican field has failed to bring voters to the polls. Super Tuesday puts up half of the delegates needed to win. The nominee may take the top share of a shrinking market. Lessons from automobile, retail, and yogurt businesses show how to build and win a market at the same time.

Voter turnout in the primaries and caucuses has, with one exception, been close to 2008 levels. (South Carolina was the outlier, up 35 percent.) In Michigan, Mitt Romney's native turf, the vote was down by 5 percent.

All of the candidates have directed their spending and speeches at their core constituencies. The base, however, just isn't large enough. Social media and other marketing efforts haven't engaged the broader population, particularly younger voters. A recent AdAge article noted that "many of the most active young social-media fans are the least likely to vote."

So, what should they do? A few lessons from old-school marketing can be helpful.

Let your friends tell your story, particularly if it's something different. Yogurt was once peasant food, something you did with milk before it went too bad. Popularized by the hippies of the 60s, yogurt has become a mature product. Subsequent add-ins and new packaging made the product seem new, but overall sales were flattening.

A few years ago, Greek yogurt started to show up in the stores. Chobani, in particular, became enormously popular, primarily by people telling their friends. The company struggled to meet demand, but the scarcity didn't diminish the enthusiasm.

Contrast that with Mitt Romney's team's response to photographs posted on social media. The PBS NewsHour aired a story about Instagram photos of Romney in casual settings, as the father and grandfather. The scene showed a man at ease and happy, quite different from the all-business campaign persona. His team has failed to capitalize on these photographs, arguing that family scenes are private moments.

Remake your brand boldly. JCPenney brought Ron Johnson from Apple. Johnson crafted a new pricing scheme, branded the retailer with a new primary-color logo, and brilliantly navigated a conservative rebellion against the company's new representative, Ellen DeGeneres. Some companies would have been sold for parts or allowed to grind to a slow death, as is happening with Sears.

The Republicans would do well to show what works, highlighting examples of smaller governments that bring growth, take care of citizens, keep the populace safe, and show how their core values lead to good results.

Accept the good ideas your past. In the effort to establish their ideological purity, all of the candidates have run away from old ideas that were once part of a consensus.

Romney's New York Times op-ed essay in 2008, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," offered ideas that are pretty close to what happened. The automakers went through a bankruptcy plan that got old management out of the way, drew concessions from the workers, and, most significantly, made a commitment to new programs.

Romney wrote, "I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research -- on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like -- that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others."

As a result of the industry's near-death episode, the automobile industry has found new ways to profits and innovation.

There are no predictions for a large Super Tuesday vote. The nomination process is going to go on for quite a while. There's plenty of time for Republicans to showcase good ideas, old and new and unexpected, for the primaries and the general election.

Related posts:

• What Rick Santorum Can Learn From Ron Paul
• Republicans Target Marketing Guns on New Hampshire
• GOP Fumbles Social Media

— Karl Hakkarainen is an independent consultant who works with organizations and professionals in healthcare, law, education, and social services, for whom marketing is a novel and somewhat suspect venture.