The Obama administration states their losses in the midterm elections are due to a communication problem, they were too focused on getting things done and not enough on communicating what they were doing and how it was helping the country.
I’m trying not to come at this with a particular political point of view. This is the classic is it the marketing? or is it the product? problem. Let’s just skip that question.
At the very least you can say it is a difficult marketing problem because the unemployment rate remains high, the economy is in the doldrums and health care costs continue to rise.
Imagine giving someone a medicine and after taking it for a while, the patient feels much worse.
You would have to be coming from quite a position of authority and trust to be able to get a patient to accept that:
a. they would have felt much worse if they didn’t take the medicine.
b. if they keep taking it all will be well.
Few companies are in a position to be able to make a sale in those circumstances.
So if there is a takeaway here for marketers, it is this: Some marketing problems are tougher than others.