Political Party Personification & Your New Push

“Imagine the Party was a person…”

This was the instruction given by a market researcher to a focus group in the English town of Crewe. In a room of what claims to be the world’s first ever railway hotel, built perhaps in the 1830s.

She gave the assembled panel of swing voters the task to ascribe a personality to each of the two main parties.

The framework supplied asked them to consider a number of attributes. These included;

Where they live

Their job

What they do for fun on a weekend

What they’d cook on Come Dine With Me

Their favourite drink, and

Their (current?) song

The findings were interesting as the party of the Right were pretty consistent. Whereas those of the Left had shifted.

Many answers raised an eyebrow. The reality hit dish; lambshank versus quinoa. Jobs depicted were doctor or the well-educated as opposed to a public sector worker or student. And as for the weekend fun, they set dinner parties and dogwalks against going on a demo march.

I touched in this concept in ’17 when looking at ‘Psychoanalytical Questions‘ of the nascent Nation branders. Generally I’ve a lot of time for understanding buyer IAOs.

It can be a useful exercise with a salesteam getting to grips with anything new. Mainly a fresh product, but also readily adaptable for market and buyers beyond that presently approached.

A new slant I caught from this was the additional instruction to state if any of these aspects were changing. A before and after. Back-then versus tomorrow.

I’ve always liked a quick round-the-room for a couple of minutes levity such as, “if this [insert your choice] was a car, which would it be…?”

Here, there’s a raft of options to mull through. Which would make for an entertaining hour for team play.

It’s the kind of sales department equivalent of playing with crayons. So can be a useful mood changer. Good for altering the flow and format of conference afternoons or day-long jaunts.

The idea is to then take results further. Different traits suggest different selling treatment is required. Can you duly match how they buy to your best-sell?