The LPC and the Permanent Campaign

Brian Gold, President, Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Jan. 2012

OVERVIEW The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) is not keeping up with the political tools of the age of the Permanent Campaign. The Permanent Campaign is the political ideology of our age. Sidney Blumenthal, 1980.
A significant reason the LPC has slipped to third place is that alone amongst major political parties in leading democracies we o lack the basic permanent campaign tools and data that all of our competitors have o lack an active executive or structure that will implement a permanent campaign no matter what the status of the Leader The following will give an overview of why the LPC must develop and implement permanent campaign tools such as o microtargeting o brand management o competitor intelligence, best practices, and strategy It will also suggest guiding principles AND Action Steps to take now The above can o be funded through targeted fundraising campaigns o pay for itself within a few years, or months
Disclaimer: All opinions and recommendations expressed in this document are solely those of the author. Endorsed for discussion by the Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta.

MICROTARGETING
"Voter identification and GOTV (Get Out the Vote) programs accounted for the margin of victory on some 40 Conservative MPs. Yes, you heard me. There are roughly 40 Conservative members[due to] our party's effective use of its data-base." Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein, June 2011 Tory Convention The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) is the only major political party in Canada to not fully implement microtargeting.1 Microtargeting first used late 1990s in Australia o adopted by U.S. Republicans for the 2004 election o U.K. political parties adopted it in 2005 o U.S. Democrats adopted it for Obamas victory in 2008 Conservatives started using it in 2002; the Democrats offered it in 2006 to the NDP and the Liberals the NDP said yes and we said no The LPC is the last major party within many leading democracies2 to not use it!

Liberalist is NOT microtargeting it is merely the platform for Predictive Voter Modeling
(PVM) which IS microtargeting The following May 2008 Politico article 3 excerpts sum it up best: The Democratic National Committee has now [2008] reorganized its data banks into one centralized file. [This is Liberalist right now.] The DNC and Republican National Committee now each boast one vast data coffer that merges
traditional voter statistics on gender, geography, or party identification with consumer and census data.Each party compiles hundreds of these data points on one voter, mines the data for patterns and labels a voter on a 1 to 100 scale to measure likely support. [This is the PVM which is

microtargeting.] A totally new paradigm - with PVM all political parties (except Liberals) are now targeting swing voters, not only their base!
"Without microtargeting we may not even have our two B.C. MPs right now." Ray Larson, Chair, Liberal Council B.C.; President, Saanich & the Gulf Islands Aware of its potential, the LPC BC and each BC riding association jointly adopted it for implementation in middle of the 2011 electionLPC BC is convinced microtargeting was essential for retaining our two BC MPs Economies of scale can be realized in the initial implementation of microtargeting (PVM) it requires an initial linking of gathered census and demographic data with Liberalist

1 2 3

Unless otherwise noted most of the data for this section is from talking to Ray Larson, Saanich & the Islands President and Chris Wylie, Strategic Telemetry. Canada, U.S., the U.K. and Australia. D. P. Kuhn DNC blunts GOP Micro Targeting Lead, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10573.html

Brian Gold, President, Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Jan. 2012 goldbrian@hotmail.com

o It cost the LPC BC and BC ridings together $80,000 for BC only So if each province does it separately it will cost $800,000 But a nation-wide linking of census/demographic data done once by the LPC would be a maximum initial cost of roughly half a million

Microtargeting not only wins majorities, it boosts fundraising and it will pay for itself.
The results [of using microtargeting] speak for themselves our targeting was precise and effective. We saved tens of thousands of dollars because our phoners and doorknockers got yess at a rate three or four times greater than with previous targeting methods. . The modeling not only paid for itself within two months, but it is now saving us money each month in voter contact. Eli Il Yong Lee, Executive Director, Center for Civic Policy, New Mexico The initial $ for microtargeting can be raised thru specific fundraising appeal Microtargeting is needed now we cannot wait until our 2013 Leader! o By then the Tories will have had over a decade head start o The Democrats caught up and surpassed the Republicans in microtargeting because the decision to commit to it was made by the Democratic National Ctte., NOT by the Kerry team or Obama team

At the LPC level microtargeting must be the responsibility of the new national

executive
Province by province implementation is a last-case scenario

BRAND MANAGEMENT
The LPC is the only major political party in Canada without continuous voter research, including brand research, outside of elections.4 "The Tory budget for voter research is $1-3 million per year and the NDP is in the 6 figures.ours seems to be zero outside elections" Liberal polling professional Brands exist in the minds of customers [e.g. voters] not in the minds of brand

managers [e.g. party members]. Brand Management for Dummies

Brands exist relative to competition. Customers [e.g. voters] compare brands relative to each other. The competition is constantly shaping your brand BrandMonitor

Thanks to Dan Arnold of Pollara and Ira Glasner of The Strategic Counsel for sharing their knowledge re this topic. As noted, the analysis and conclusions are my own.

Brian Gold, President, Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Jan. 2012 goldbrian@hotmail.com

 With their research budgets, the Tories and NDs know more about what Liberal means to Canadians than we do! We must retake our brand by researching and strengthening it!
Brand management research is relatively inexpensive. The Party needs to ensure it is begun, done consistently, and retains control of the Liberal brand. Historically the Liberal brand has almost always been entwined with the personal brand of the Leader who would also be Prime Minister. o The Liberal brand has now stood alone for five years as Leaders come and go the brands, Liberal and Leader have been disentangled this is an opportunity for improved brand management As custodians of the Liberal brand perhaps our most important asset the Party (LPC and PTAs) must take a consistent and active role in managing the brand, while the Leaders team manages the Leaders personal brand The Liberal brand will mean different things in various parts of the country. o Most voters do not distinguish between federal & provincial Liberals With provincial Liberal parties independent, the LPC has basically no alternative but to take a partially decentralized, regionally collaborative approach to brand management LPC PTAs can play a role in facilitating this approach

Nova Scotia Liberals a model: Liberals (provincial and federal) have conducted brand research and have compiled a NS Liberal brand Bible Brand management data is collected primarily by focus groups o Professional, custom study: 3~6 focus groups = $10K-$15K o Non-profits/govt bodies have do-it-yourself focus group guides [see http://www.westberks.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=494&p=0 ] PTAs can start gaining voter data re our brand right now!

COMPETITOR INTELLIGENCE, BEST PRACTICES, & STRATEGY

A good strategy involves a set of choices that positions a firm so as to create a sustainable advantage relative to the competition.A strong competitive position is one where even if the competitor knows the strategy they cannot (immediately) do anything about it. Michael Porter, Harvard Business School The Conservatives have an excellent strategic plan that has been systematically and successfully implemented for a decade. There is no similar Liberal plan.
4 Brian Gold, President, Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Jan. 2012 goldbrian@hotmail.com

The Conservative strategic plan is no secret Harpers former campaign manager Tom Flanagan published a book explaining it all in 2007. 5

o We must counter this by having our own strategy. Strategy is for winning against competitors so all strategy begins by understanding and studying the competition.
o By studying the competition we can understand their strengths and weaknesses, copy their best practices, avoid their mistakes, anticipate their reactions, and create a winning strategy o There is always a startling amount of competitor data easy to access if systematically collected6 The LPC needs to start systematic analysis of competitor intelligence on the Tories & NDs we must learn best practices from foreign parties & non-profits7 The LPC is behind its competitors both in efficiency and in strategy o Improving operational efficiency, e.g. simply getting caught up in permanent campaign tools is, conceptually speaking, a no-brainer

As we catch up to our competitors in the Permanent Campaign we have a further, strategic choice of positioning
o A strategy tool to conceptualize this is the production possibility frontier o Used for companies, it shows that when they have optimal efficiency they still make a strategic choice of cost vs. value o the following is a beta version for Canadian politics

We want to be on the frontier line, like the Conservatives are! as we improve efficiency (e.g. microtargeting) we get closer to that line: the strategic choice is which dotted line arrow to take to get there

Tom Flanagan, Harpers Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power, 2007. See especially the last chapter, The Ten Commandments of Conservative Campaigning. 6 Observation based on authors decades of experience in competitor analysis, best practices, and strategy consulting to the private sector and national governments, in East Asia and Canada. 7 This point may seem obvious, but the LPC has an inward looking culture. When Tory or ND campaign techniques are evaluated their effectiveness is often conflated with the awful policies they are being used to promote. The only foreign political party frequently cited are Democrats. Liberals rarely talk about best practices of non-profits.

Brian Gold, President, Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Jan. 2012 goldbrian@hotmail.com

SUMMARY
The permanent campaign dictates that improving operational efficiency with tools such as microtargeting, Liberal brand management, and competitor analysis/best practices is an endless process that cannot wait for a Leader to be selected and continues whatever the status of the Leader. Even overall strategy can be set without reference to the Leaders brand o The Conservative strategy has been formulated and executed by Harper and Harris Tories but it is not reliant on Harpers charisma Much of the routine implementation of permanent campaign tools should be the responsibility of the Party, particularly the LPC executive, and, to reflect the geographic reality of Canada, by bodies such as PTAs All of the following Action Steps should be executed with the following Guiding Principles foremost: o They need to pay for themselves within a few months or years o They can be the specific target of a fundraising campaign o Except for microtargeting PTAs can start the process locally

ACTION STEPS
At the LPC level microtargeting must be started by the new executive - Province by province implementation is a last-case scenario Through (at the minimum) focus groups (and partnership with provincial Liberals) we can start taking control of our brand now! Systematic analysis of competitors and best practices must provide the data for a long-term Liberal strategy, both nationally and regionally

Brian Gold, President, Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Jan. 2012 goldbrian@hotmail.com