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What can business learn from UKIP’s success?

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Are there lessons for the business world from this week’s local government election results?

The much predicted, but still spectacularly strong, results for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Thursday’s local government elections in England & Wales were largely the consequence of the electorate’s disillusionment and discontent with the three “old” parties and what has widely been described as “the political class”. The final results showed that all three parties lost votes to UKIP, but the greatest number of votes and seats lost were from the Conservative Party.

The reasons given for voting for UKIP by people quizzed by the media fell into three main groups of opinion. The first made up by people who voted for (or against) a policy position, expressing concerns over particular issues, usually immigration, crime and the EU (in that order of significance) and in some cases more local or regional concerns including HS2 in Buckinghamshire and wind farms across many counties. The second group were people who were fed up with politicians (or any and all colours) who they characterise as “all the same” and wanted to support a party (and particularly its leader) who represents itself as being not of the political class. The “plague on all your houses” brigade would no doubt appreciate the comment made by Nivarna’s immortal front-man the late Kurt Cobain who said “They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same”. The third group were the former Tories who compared their old party and this new party and thought that UKIP was “more Conservative than the Conservatives”. People commenting from all three groups used phrases like “they are people like us”. The reason for that last thought and in some respects to a lesser extent the other three as well was that the majority of people speaking, and for that matter voting, were middle class, middle aged to elderly and residents of country shires.

Each of these reasons for a changed or new vote reinforce lessons for business. First that companies, whether B2C or B2B focused, need to make sure they listen to their customers to keep products and services relevant to their needs. Businesses that fail often do so because they forget that they need to sell what their customers need, not hope that their customers will buy what they sell. Second that they must differentiate their product or service offering, and even more importantly their brand, from their competition. Third that the brand resonates with their target audience.

Woman Holding Blank Frame It is an old advertising adage that “people buy from people”. Customers buy products and services from companies who make an emotional connection with them. It may be that they identify with the company or more likely identify with the company’s personality, in other words with it’s brand or brands. It may be that they recognise the reflection of their own values in that brand or that they aspire to have or be associated with those values. When aspirational, it is usually a case of brand pride or envy.

The simplest demonstration of this is found in the car that people buy. They might be looking for functional attributes, particularly if they have sports equipment, pets and/or a young family to bundle into the vehicle. But outside those passing needs they tend to buy a logo. That’s how high-end German brands sell their cars. People are proud to have neighbours see their premium marque car parked outside, but not so brand-proud when the logo on the almost identical, and even much better value, car but not one that will be envied.

The clothes people wear, the technology they use, the cars they drive and the places they live say something about the kind of people they are, or at least want to be thought to be. The “people like us” observation from UKIP voters is almost identical to that kind of brand affinity in the commercial world. People invariably like politicians and brands that reflect themselves.

Core Bus

The lesson for business from all this is to make sure that products, services, brand, positioning and values resonate with target customers (and employees), and from the experience of the Tories in particular, for long-established companies and brands to remember what made them successful and why their customers love what they do.

The history of business failures is littered with case studies of companies who recklessly abandoned the core elements of success – most infamously Coca-Cola  changing their product formula, The Gap changing their logo, McDonald’s playing with diversification, and Ratner’s ” boasting” that their products were priced so cheaply because they were “crap”.

The comment from so many UKIP voters that they thought that UKIP “was more Conservative” than the real thing, would resonate with marketers in businesses threatened by “me too” brands, generic offerings and white-label own brand competition.

Furthermore from a communications perspective, UKIP has scored high this week in “selling” its message by communicating with absolute clarity and simplicity using Plain English vocabulary uncluttered, uncomplicated and undiluted by too much detail. Voters like straight talking and are surprised when they hear it.

The UKIP popularity ratings increased for example when the media challenged UKIP leader Nigel Farage putting to him that the Conservatives who had investigated his candidates and revealed some allegedly unsavoury and embarrassing associations  probably meant that they knew more about them than he did. Rather than squirm or defend the indefensible, Farage laughed it off saying that the suggestion was “probably right”. People like that kind of straight-forward honesty. Communications is most effective when open, transparent and credible. The most quoted comment from voters describing Margaret Thatcher was always the same one from fans and foes, “we always knew what she stood for”. Whether in politics or business than is money in the bank with a voter or customer relationship.

The other thought for business in this context might be to remember to focus on fighting and winning the war, not just the battle. However stunning UKIP’s results were this week it is still unlikely that their 30 per cent polling will win them a single parliamentary seat. Not only is this a reminder to think about the ultimate goal but also to understand the game and the playing field, even or perhaps particularly, when as in the case of UKIP’s challenge the game is unfair and the field most definitely not level for all players.

The lessons for the politicos may be more complicated. Basically although the headlines were all about UKIP it is worth noting the fallout for the other parties. All in all the Tories did not do as badly as might have been feared, particularly given the state of the economy, and nothing like as badly as the Lib Dems who can only consider their position to be terminal. Labour picked up seats but did not do anywhere as well as they should have – definitely a “school report” of:

CONSERVATIVES: Need to study their homework harder

LABOUR: Could do better

LIBDEMS: Not expected to be here next term

UKIP: Promising but getting above themselves?



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