Politics varies from consumer marketing because of the seat bonus. In politics, there is a winner (50% + 1, or a plurality, depending on the race), and one or more losers. The winner gets 100% of the seat, the losers get 0%. In contrast, in a consumer market, market leaders and niche players may all have profitable businesses.
Messaging Voters
Targeting messages to segments of the voter base are critical to winning a race. Traditional political messages from before personalization would focus on which groups you can win. With targeted messages, you can reach people with the messages that most appeal to them. Your plans to support families are important to parents, but not so much to single people, and you can choose to reach them with their messages.
Marginal Gains always Matters
If a segment of the population favors your opponent, you may still want to message them. The difference between losing a segment 80%-20% (0.6/voter) and 70%-30% (0.4/voter) cuts your opponents advantage by 1/3. Similarly, Going from winning a group 60%-40% (0.2/voter) to 70%-30% (0.4/voter) doubles your advantage there.
When running a data driven campaign, we don’t focus on “who we win” but rather, how to we can partial voter advantages with our messaging, and how to we most cost effectively market to gain voters.