Yes Gulshan Modi seemed to embrace digital marketing – I thought his avatar’s speeches (Virtual Reality) to large audiences all around India was very impressive.

Yes Nicholas Trump was clever enough to appoint a smart guy (his son-in-law) to embrace & exploit big data, tailored messaging that caught the curve, the mood and the trend perfectly.

It is a conundrum, Chris, perhaps driven by perceptual bias/Selective perception – ‘we see what we want to see’. His audiences cherry pick the bits of Trumps rhetoric that they like. Even more frighteningly, Trump can go further and give completely different messages tailored and targeted at different target audiences and satisfy these mini segments of voters/followers.

The mainstream failed to appreciate that behind this facade Trump is no fool. Your article beautifully dissects the success factors of his campaign. It helps answer the question “How the hell did that happen?” because on the surface Trump is an idiot, a liar, misogynistic, venal, volatile and thin skinned and entirely unelectable. Normally when a politician tells a lie (look at the problems Phillip Hammond is having with Self-employed Tax) they get into a lot of trouble and have to row back. Trump punts out lie after lie like a demented scrum half clearing his lines. Meanwhile his voting base who vote for him because ‘they’re sick of lying politicians’ love him even more. Go figure as they say in the states!

Agree – we need to chew the cud and learn from Trump’s novice marketer, Jard Kushner, who learned very quickly the basics of today’s marketing: The Magic Marketing Formula (IRD) – well at least the IR bit! + Constant Beta + big data + fast-scaling & more… now whether they deliver what they promised is another thing. The voters trusted them sufficiently…..

Thanks Ze. Now your video from Professor Sandel is very powerful and insightful. I have included it in my ‘Why Trump Won – Part 2 post. Many thanks it was truly intriguing.