The No. 1 Marketing Lesson Donald Trump Is Teaching Us While Running For President

by Ryan McMullen

It sure seems these days that the only way to open a story about Donald Trump is to continue to overuse the phrase “Love him or hate him…” and then move on with your thought.  It’s pretty much a given that he is a polarizing figure, so let’s skip the politically correct nonsense and talk about how he is, in real time, illustrating the single greatest marketing lesson everyone should know but few actually put into practice.

Candidate Trump continues to make headlines by saying things that are seemingly outlandish, ridiculous and offensive. Is he saying these things only because he loves to read about himself, or is he making calculated statements? Let’s review a number of more memorable comments throughout the years:

• “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
• “You know, it doesn’t really matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
• “Our leaders are stupid, our politicians are stupid, and the Mexican government is much sharper, much more cunning. [So] they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them, they don’t want to take care of them.”  

In just three very publicized remarks, Donald Trump has alienated the black population, Jewish people, women and Latinos. Also, I’m sure there are some collateral groups who overlap there, but let’s just stick to the directly offended.

How on earth can he possibly be competing to be the next president by saying these things? The answer is that he knows his target market. He’s not trying to win the vote of the aforementioned groups but rather is going after the portion of the population that is very conservative, is frustrated with politicians and appreciates his no-BS attitude, aka his target market. Strangely enough, these are the same people who consistently show up to vote.

The lesson here is that you need to market your business to your target audience. Are you promoting women’s clothes on ESPN Radio because you got a deal? Conversely, are you trying to sell jock straps on a mommy blog because you want to help out your neighbor? If you do not know who your target market is, you have no shot of effectively marketing your business to the ones who want to spend money with you.

How old are your customers? What sex are they? Do they have money? Are they educated?  Where do they live? You need to ask yourself all these questions and more. Once you know your target market, then you can begin to build an effective marketing campaign.

Only time will tell how Trump’s campaign will turn out, but there is no denying that he understands the value of knowing who his market is. It’s going to pain some of our readers to hear this, but take a page from the Donald Trump marketing guide because it will help you grow your business.

Ryan McMullen (ryan@stlouismarketinglab.com) is the owner of St. Louis Marketing Lab.