Marketing For Dummies (And We're The Dummies) 101

If you've not dropped by the new (old and new) Angry Black Lady Chronicles yet, do so.  Bon and I will often throw up pieces over there that we don't post here (our better stuff that we'd like to share) and we're both grateful to have the opportunity to get some wider audiences on our stuff.  There's an excellent crew of bloggers over there and it's a solid group effort.

The newest member of the Angry Black Borg is Leo Soderman, a photographer, dad, blogger, and a genuinely neat dude.  He's got some excellent advice on why the Left struggles with message, and why the Right is so good at it.

Marketing.

For example, let’s look at the ACA. Why, when the individual parts of the ACA are supported by the majority, is the ACA still not overwhelmingly supported by the average American? Because they haven’t been shown why it’s good for them. Piss poor job of marketing, frankly. The ACA allows kids to stay on their parents insurance much longer. And that’s where the conversation usually stops, with the assumption that everyone knows this is good. But this is where the conversation needs to start.

Explain why staying on the insurance is good for them. Explain that keeping kids on longer actually reduces healthcare costs because you will pay the same premiums and the risk pool is bigger, with younger adults that usually don’t need care. Explain that it allows their kids to go to school and not have to worry about getting sick. Explain that if they aren’t covered, they likely will not seek insurance, making the pool smaller, and that means more people that use the insurance are in the pool. Which drives rates up. In the end, being able to keep their kids on the insurance means more people covered while helping control costs. That’s more money in their pockets in the long run and better health for themselves and their kids. That’s what it does for them.

And that’s just one small aspect of ACA.

Do read the whole thing...and yes, I'm guilty of that myself.  I assume that the reasoning behind voting for President Obama is self-evident, and while I do explain various minutiae of the many individual reasons, the whole 30,000 foot level question of  "What's in it for me?" doesn't get answered as much as I'd like to.

I'm going to try to address that more as we head into the heart of the election season.

New tag:  But What Does It Do For Me?