No matter what we may think about Donald Trump, the one thing that has not gone unnoticed by me is his tireless marketing skills. This guy knows how to command a bounty in media attention. Now politics aside, looking at how Mr. Trump has been able to on almost a daily basis garner some media to cover him and his views as he runs for President of the United States is fascinating. How is he doing it? How is someone who is best known in New York and marginally know elsewhere for his casinos and penchant for putting his name on any and everything he produces, able to garner so much press and attention? Not because he is a novelty, Ben Carson is just as out of the box as he is and does not get as much press.

…Mr. Trump’s USP is proposing to give the people what they want.

“Make America great again“, this is Donald Trump’s USP (unique selling proposition). Hearing the American people complain about America’s falling standards as compared to the rest of the world, he saw his opportunity. Using one of the most pivotal principles of business, Mr. Trump’s USP is proposing to give the people what they want.

As a business man, Mr. Trump promotes his products as the best in quality. He fancies himself as a great individual, in fact all that he does and represents he packages as either the best or the greatest. That strategy has obviously worked for him in his business ventures, so it appears that he is adapting it to his bid for the presidency. Americans complain of wanting to return to the good old days. Mr. Trump quickly framed his USP in a manner that promised this, simple and straight forward. Unlike the other candidates who speak and focus on the individual elements of the American economy and culture that need to be improved, Mr. Trump has stuck with this one phrase. While he has not given any tangible information on how he will help to make America great, the public is still on board. Well to be clear, he has not given tangible information on the who, what and when to make it happen either.

What Mr. Trump has done is use his why in a cunning manner. Again, using his marketing skills, he has proceeded to create a need in the public that may not have been there at least not to any great extent. He helped escalate the public’s fear, irrational or latent. He awakened their hate and cultivated their ignorance and propositioned it back to them as being strong and becoming aware. Now, he can now sell them the cure or the fix, and that is to elect him as president a strong, no nonsense, unafraid individual.

Some may argue that Mr. Trump’s message is to build a culture of hope and optimism and bring back greatness to America. It appears all he has really managed to do is to build a brand of hate and fear mongering. The old adage that no publicity is bad publicity is definitely apparent here, at least to the extent it is getting him noticed. The question is, is he getting the kind of brand recognition he wants? Will the culture he has built for his bid for the White House sustain him? Will it bring him the ultimate success? In my opinion this is doubtful. In marketing at some point people stop focusing on the hype and start looking for the plan, the promise, concrete traceable steps of execution. But for the time being I say, well played Mr. Trump, let’s see if you can win the game.

Caroll Atkins
CarollAtkinsCreatives.com