“Trump’s Masterclass in Marketing: How Trump Leveraged Proven Marketing Principles to Win the 2024 Election”

In 2024, Donald Trump didn’t just run a political campaign; he launched a full-scale marketing movement. Love him or loathe him, one thing’s for sure—Trump’s approach to winning over voters felt a lot like your favorite brands winning over consumers. Here’s how he applied some tried-and-true marketing principles to secure his victory, and why his playbook might look familiar to anyone in the advertising world.

1. A Clear Value Proposition—Like Nike’s “Just Do It”

If Trump’s campaign had a tagline, it could have been something like, “I’ll fix it.” The message was simple and aimed directly at voters’ biggest pain points: the economy, safety, and national pride. Much like Nike’s “Just Do It,” which invites customers to achieve greatness in a few simple words, Trump’s message was clear, motivating, and easy to remember. Instead of weighing people down with policy jargon, he cut right to the chase, letting voters know exactly what they’d get with him.

Imagine the campaign team brainstorming: “How about ‘We’ll enact comprehensive economic and geopolitical reform initiatives?’” *Nah.* They kept it tight and relatable. Nike’s been doing it for decades, and it turns out, so did Trump.

2. Direct Audience Engagement—Taking a Page from Wendy’s Twitter Playbook

Wendy’s Twitter account has set the gold standard for direct, often humorous engagement with customers. They’ve created memorable moments with fans by roasting competitors, poking fun, and building a reputation as the sassy fast-food brand we didn’t know we needed. Trump’s direct communication on platforms like Twitter was similar—unfiltered, relentless, and always targeted right at his audience.

Whether they loved him or hated him, voters couldn’t ignore him, and that’s often half the battle in marketing. Like Wendy’s, Trump kept his messages quick, punchy, and often a little spicy. There was no “let’s wait and see” in his communication strategy; instead, he was straight in, hashtag and all.

3. Emotionally Charged Messaging—As Refreshing as a “Share a Coke”

Trump’s campaign tapped deep emotions—discontent with the economy, anxiety over safety, and hope for a better future. His ability to stoke these feelings made his base incredibly loyal and engaged. Remember Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, where they personalized bottles with people’s names? That was less about the Coke and more about connecting friends and family through shared moments.

Trump’s messaging resonated similarly, creating a connection with his audience that went beyond policies. Like Coke’s campaign, he didn’t just present himself as a candidate—he became part of people’s identities, hopes, and dreams.

4. Addressing Specific Audience Needs—Dove’s “Real Beauty” Meets Political Campaigns

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign revolutionized beauty advertising by addressing specific concerns and insecurities. Instead of idealized models, Dove showcased real people, speaking to women’s desire to feel valued and accepted just as they are. Trump, too, addressed distinct voter concerns, from economic worries to issues on immigration.

By appealing to each group’s unique priorities, he created a coalition that crossed demographic and social lines. Much like Dove, he didn’t make voters conform to a single message but tailored his approach to meet them where they were.

5. Us vs. Them—Harley-Davidson’s Rebel Identity Gets Political

“Riders Wanted.” Harley-Davidson’s rebel identity has attracted loyal followers who see themselves as outside the mainstream. Similarly, Trump created a distinct “us vs. them” narrative, positioning himself and his supporters as the champions of “real Americans” versus the so-called elites. This strong identity—like that of Harley riders—encouraged a sense of belonging and a common cause.

And just as you’ll see die-hard Harley owners with tattoos and customized bikes, Trump’s followers wore hats, waved flags, and joined a movement. It’s the power of a shared identity—and Trump tapped into it masterfully.

6. Emphasis on Stability and Trust—IBM’s Classic “Think” Messaging

In times of uncertainty, people gravitate toward brands that promise stability. IBM’s long-standing “Think” slogan exemplifies this—reliable, forward-thinking, and safe. Trump’s promise to stabilize the economy and restore traditional values offered voters a similar sense of security. His emphasis on economic growth and stability spoke to those seeking a steady hand during turbulent times.

Like IBM’s promise to “Think” (and, implicitly, “We’ve got you”), Trump’s message implied, “I’ve got this under control.” It was a reassuring promise in uncertain times—exactly what IBM has done for businesses for decades.

7. Consistent Messaging—Geico’s “15 Minutes Could Save You 15%”

Trump’s campaign hammered home the same themes repeatedly, whether it was the economy, immigration, or national pride. The result? A cohesive, memorable brand that stuck with voters. Think of Geico’s “15 Minutes Could Save You 15%.” That message has been around so long, you could probably recite it in your sleep.

Consistency builds familiarity, and familiarity builds trust. By the time Election Day rolled around, everyone knew what Trump stood for. In the end, it was the persistent, drumbeat repetition of these core messages that helped him stick in voters’ minds.

In a nutshell, Trump’s campaign in 2024 was a classic case of smart marketing principles applied to politics. By using clear, consistent, and targeted messaging, he was able to capture attention, build loyalty, and drive engagement. He took some of the world’s best branding lessons, put them into political terms, and—like any good marketer—kept his message straightforward, memorable, and impossible to ignore.

Love it or hate it, his campaign was a masterclass in how brand loyalty can turn into voter loyalty. And hey, if nothing else, it’s proof that sometimes winning is as much about the strategy as it is about the product.

Restaurant Marketing in the Pandemic

The pandemic isn’t over, and its effects may be felt for years to come. How should restaurants and other food-service providers prepare to succeed in a whole new world?

KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • People are spending more time than ever on social media. Restaurant marketers should increase their presence on social channels to match.
  • Restaurants should regularly and conspicuously broadcast their COVID-19 safety measures to reassure leery guests.
  • Restaurants should explore cook-from-home meal kits and ready-to-go cocktails to broaden menu appeal.
  • Look into menu engineering to ensure the maximum impact of every order.

To walk into a local restaurant is, in many ways, to walk into the heart of a community.

And right now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more restaurateurs across the country have been forced into challenging positions, working harder than ever to prevent their hometowns from losing what makes them special to so many people. Some have been around for hundreds of years; others optimistically opened at the start of 2020, but nearly every restaurant has struggled to get by in a year riddled with uncertainty.

Following the U.S. government’s enforcement of shutdowns in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, four out of five restaurant owners weren’t sure they’d be able to survive the pandemic, even with stimulus assistance, putting 11 million workers and an entire trillion dollar industry at risk of financial ruin.

In a survey released by the James Beard Foundation and Independent Restaurant Coalition, independent restaurants reported laying off 91% of their hourly staff and nearly 70% of their salaried employees at the height of the pandemic.

Between just the months of March and May, research from the NRA (not that NRA–the National Restaurant Association) indicated that the restaurant industry had lost 120 billion dollars in sales. With restaurants re-opening, they now face limited capacity and other obstacles that could make it hard for them to turn a profit. To keep our cities’ unique spirits alive, restaurants must smartly navigate the terrain of a new, post-pandemic world.

Working with extremely low profit margins already—the average restaurant profit margin is between 2% and 6%—restaurants now more than ever must budget as wisely as possible. This means only spending on marketing when it is absolutely necessary, and when its effects can be accurately measured.

Many restaurateurs are scaling back campaigns significantly, but a cost-effective way to reach patrons is by being active on social media. With many people isolated at home, social media will become an even more crucial tool for restaurants to engage with potential customers.

72% of respondents in a survey indicated that their social media consumption had risen during the pandemic, with 43% of them claiming they’d been posting more frequently as well. Posting on social media now will generate more views for restaurants than ever before, and the likelihood that people will respond or make additional posts about restaurants is also at an all-time high. 36% of American diners follow restaurants on social media, with 39% of them doing so to determine if they want to order food from the establishment. This will likely only increase, making social media one of the most vital instruments to a restaurant’s success. Nearly half of U.S. diners have tried a restaurant for the first time because of a social media post made directly by the business, and 22% made the decision to return after further social media engagement.

Obviously social media posts can be very effective—if they’re done right.

21% of diners claimed posts discouraged them from visiting certain restaurants. Only by providing click-worthy content on the right kinds of platforms can restaurants expect to see a difference in their sales. While Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform for restaurants (91%), Instagram has recently exploded in popularity. In 2018, a measly 24% of restaurants reported using Instagram, but by 2019, that percentage had grown to 78%.

Quality posts on Facebook and Instagram will help maintain positive relations between restaurants and their audiences, and the importance of a good reputation is not to be underestimated. When discovering new restaurants, 59% of restaurant-goers rely on friends’ recommendations.

When one thinks of restaurants, surely they think of food. But a meal is far from being the sole reason why people patronize restaurants.

Many go out to eat for the atmosphere, the experience of visiting a new place, and the opportunity to meet people. Other times they go simply for the convenience of not having to cook for themselves. 90% of Americans don’t like to cook, and they’re willing to shell out extra money to avoid doing so. Since the beginning of March, “take out” search interest on Google has increased by 285%. “Restaurants near me” had been the most popular “near me” Google search since 2015, but consumer behavior quickly changed in 2020, with focus shifting towards “Delivery” as a result of COVID-19. There was a 650% increase in search interest for “Is food delivery safe” across the U.S. as people sought new ways to patronize restaurants.

Many diners still want restaurants’ food, they just need assurance that restaurants are taking the proper precautions to keep their customers out of harm’s way. Perhaps the biggest hurdle restaurants are facing currently is marketing to diners who’ve spent nearly an entire year hunkered down at home. An emphasis on safety is possibly the only way restaurants can win back the business of customers highly concerned about COVID-19. Going out will always pose a risk, but restaurants that make a visible effort to protect their customers from COVID will best manage maintaining strong reputations within their communities.

One safe and easy way restaurants can remain engaged with people who may be too fearful of dining in is to host online cooking classes and other types of virtual seminars.

Another alternative restaurants are adopting is the sale of at-home meal and cocktail kits, so that people can make restaurants’ dishes in the safety of their own homes. Despite people’s impartiality to cooking, 41% of consumers said they’d buy a make-at-home meal kit from their favorite restaurant if it was offered. If cooking habits are changing following the stay-at-home orders of 2020, this could be an area of importance for restaurants to capitalize on. A vast majority of millennials would rather spend money on an experience than a “thing,” and these experiential options will preserve the goodwill of restaurants even when offering an in-person experience remains a challenge.

If restaurants simply provided food to people and nothing else, they wouldn’t be as popular as they are.

Restaurants that will succeed in the post-pandemic world will continue to find ways to sell experiences to their patrons rather than just another meal. They’ll also continue to find new, more efficient ways to sell in general.

One tactic that’s not new but is receiving renewed attention is the concept of menu engineering.

With menu engineering, many restaurants have figured out how to maximize their profits through the strategic reconstruction of their menus. A fusion of psychology, data, and design, menu engineering can increase a restaurant’s profitability by as much as 20%, and a growing number of restaurants are embracing the practice. Requiring a thorough analysis of restaurants’ ingredients cost and sales numbers, the objective of menu engineering is to create infallible restaurant menus, so that every food and drink item is as popular and profitable as possible. The deliberate placement of items at certain locations on the menu also increases the likelihood of guests selecting specific things. When menu engineering is done correctly, a restaurant’s bottom line is fine regardless of what customers order from the menu, minimizing financial risks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a challenge to businesses of all kinds, but hardly anyone has been hit harder than the restaurant industry.

Restaurants that devise new ways to remain afloat during this tumultuous time will ultimately become stronger, more resilient businesses in spite of the hardship they’ve had to endure. As long as there are people, restaurants will continue to survive along with us. They’re a staple of life, and if 2020 reminded us of one thing, it’s that life is sometimes unpredictable.

Whether we’re prepared for that unpredictability is up to us.

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One Hour Ads, OR 3 Things We Learned at Texas Marketing Summit

Last week, nearly half of us chairs loaded up the cars, and headed east to Houston for the very first Texas Marketing Summit. The summit featured some world-class brands, some fabulously knowledgeable panelists, and one of the greatest buffets in hotel history. For us, it represented a proverbial microcosm of the very business we’re in, the context of which consists of: 1) a target audience with a need, 2) media, and 3) competitors/clutter. We thought it was the perfect opportunity to flex our right brains and make a splash in an environment where everyone else was trying to do the same thing.

We brainstormed for a couple of weeks prior to the summit in search of a breakthrough idea. The theory went that all of the other sponsors/vendors would fill their booths with the usual boring pens and stress balls—they did—leaving an opportunity to do something a little more memorable. A month or so before the summit, we had our idea: “One Hour Ads.” In lieu of a traditional booth, our team would set up a green screen backdrop, bring improv actors, and then film and edit a video spot for any brand who wanted one. All in an hour. One. Hour. Ads.

At the Summit

All-in-all, the day itself went extremely well. We think it may have had something to do with Tilted Chair being the summit’s first sponsor—thanks, Will—but we found ourselves situated right next to the buffet line. We also had about double the booth space of any other sponsors, which was nice. Space and location, two commodities that are like gold at a conference like this.

We kicked things off at 8am, and took turns attending panels/manning the booth throughout the day. 10 hours later, we’d made eleven spots—should we have named it 55 minute ads? Nah—some amazing new contacts, and had an absolute blast. Here are the three things we learned while rocking the summit.

1. Clarity comes first

When expressing a new idea, clarity of intention is of the utmost importance. We thought “One Hour Ads” was pretty simple and self-explanatory, but it became abundantly clear early on that we needed to adjust our pitch to attendees. Several booth visitors thought we were debuting a new concept for a creative agency, in which one hour ads was all we did. A new agency model, of sorts. Hmmm. Interesting idea, but not what we were shooting for.
As a full service creative advertising agency, our approach lacked clarity. Easy fix, though. The new pitch went something like this: “We’re a full service creative agency. Today only, we’re offering one hour ads.” Voila! Attendees finally got it, and our unique hook was anchored in something clear and intelligible. Clarity achieved.

2. You do you; not everyone will get it, and that’s okay

One hour ads wasn’t for everyone. It certainly wasn’t for our neighboring booth, but maybe that was just the endless looping bumper music. Of the several hundred attendees and who-knows-how-many companies represented, we were approached by 11 to make ads. Might seem like a paltry conversion rate, but every one of those 11 contacts represented a meaningful impression. We talked. We laughed. And perhaps more importantly, they got a little taste of the Tilted Chair flavor of creativity.
“One Hour Ads” was truly an expression of Tilted Chair thinking and culture. Those potential clients who didn’t “get it” wouldn’t be a good fit for Tilted Chair, and vice versa. On the other hand, those who were willing to take a risk and laugh with us got it. As a culture match filter, “One Hour Ads” worked beautifully.

3. Get people talking about themselves

The greatest conversationalists ask questions, and get people talking about themselves. It’s easy to forget, but every one of the world’s most ubiquitous and popular brands is nothing but an organization of people. People love to talk about themselves—their lives, their struggles, their hopes. Businesses are no different.
Our exploratory questionnaire for “One Hour Ads” asked a simple question, “What is your biggest marketing challenge?” That was it. That was enough to get people talking about themselves, their businesses, and their challenges. We took it from there.

Summ(it)ing it up

There were probably other lessons to be learned, but these were certainly the most memorable. Whether we add clients to the roster based solely on this adventure remains to be seen—my guess is, we will, ;)—but that’s not even really the point. We learned a lot from the whole experience, and that alone was worth the cost of entry.

Oh, what about those ads? Well, here they are:

Be unmistakable.

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