Innovate, Baby, Innovate – Or Will "Me-Too" Prevail?

A look at Obama vs. McCain through Michael Porter's strategy playbook

Usually, marketers can learn a great deal from watching spin doctors and campaign strategists unfold their magic in the political realm, but if you have been following the development of the presidential election campaign recently, you are likely to conclude that the reverse holds true, too. The Obama vs. McCain race seems to mirror the old innovator vs. me-too question that keeps business leaders awake at night and filled a vast number of management books after strategy guru Michael Porter had introduced the concept in his seminal work.

McCain made a flip-flop, or actually, a U-turn, when he shifted his message from "experience" to "change." All of a sudden, content is king, independent of the credibility of the source and the quality of the delivery (in both aspects he may trail Obama). But if you thought that jumping on the "change" bandwagon may be quite a stretch for McCain, then the anointment of Sarah Palin as running mate is even more of a gamble -- a blunt attempt to appeal to Hillary Clinton's "18 million cracks in the ceiling" with which Republicans hope to fire up their party and gain much needed momentum.

The strategy is obvious: Mc Cain is hijacking the tenets of Obama's platform and distorting them for his own political purposes. Celebrity, change, and a fresh perspective -- all of these aspects of Obama's campaign are now copied by the Republicans. Democrats, watch out: In 2000, the Republicans stole the election; in 2008 they are stealing the election campaign!

Acknowledging the power of Obama's charisma, McCain chose to add a little bit of celebrity glam for his own ticket through the Palin factor. Realizing that voters welcome a Washington outsider (like Obama), he gave them an evidently under-experienced Alaskan governor, even if that undercuts his own "lack of experience" attacks against the Illinois senator. Recognizing that mainstream America is longing for "change," he simply adopted the message and used the word in astounding frequency in his acceptance speech, without providing any specifics as to how he would make this change happen. The "bringing change to Washington" message he now claims has been Obama's from the beginning, and one could say that -- through Obama -- McCain’s me-too talking points have been more thoroughly vetted than his running mate.

McCain obviously seems to believe that the messages that work for Obama will work for him, too. While this is questionable, it might still turn out to be a clever move as it distracts from the actual issues and reduces the difference between the two candidates to questions of credibility and popularity -- if the song is the same, it comes down to the singer. And that's probably the only remaining arena in which McCain may a have a fighting chance. If the Republicans seed enough doubt to mistrust the "cosmopolitan" "elitist" from Chicago, if Obama becomes "the issue," then the war hero McCain is an easy, feel good alternative for middle America -- no matter if his actual policies really offer any ideas for driving change (= "innovation").

It's classic Porter and a double me-too (President Bush employed the same strategy in 2004): Me-too means "a business seeks a lower-cost advantage in just one or a small number of market segments. The product will be basic -- perhaps a similar product to the higher-priced and featured market leader, but acceptable to sufficient consumers."

In translation, this means: McCain may not be the best candidate for this job, but still good enough for those Americans who don’t have the moral and intellectual capital to "afford" the true innovator in this race: Barack Obama.

Alas, if being the innovator is a disadvantage and in the end Me-too will prevail – what does that say about the competitiveness of America in the global economy? If the campaign is any indication, then "closing the innovation gap" (Judy Estrin) will be as difficult for a president McCain as closing the gap between the Republicans and the rest of the world. Thomas Friedman got it right when he mocked the "Drill, baby, drill!" chants at the Republican convention: if they were competent enough to save the future of this country, “Innovate, baby, innovate!” should have been their mantra.