…and the implications for copywriters and marketers.
I’ve mentioned the discipline of “Socionomics” on the blog before and the idea that events are to a large extent driven by “social mood”.
Elections are obviously a very clear expression of the popular mood. So what can we as copywriters and marketers glean from the results of the U.S. elections?
Firstly, let me quote Bob Prechter…
“…observe that strong and persistent trends in the stock market appear to determine if an incumbent president will be re-elected in a landslide or defeated in one. In all cases where an incumbent was rejected by a landslide, the stock market’s trend was down. In the cases where an incumbent was re-elected in a landslide, the previous direction of the market was always up.”
Now, in the current situation the incumbent president was not standing for re-election. However, I think it’s fair to say that Senator McCain was very much viewed as a proxy for the incumbent administration.
The election results are a clear rejection of the incumbent party and hence confirm a negative social mood.
So, despite all the talk of “Hope and Change” the negative social mood trend shows no signs of ending just yet. That said, we may see some short term bounce.
If you’re interested in delving into this topic further, the “Socionomics Institute” is a great source of information. You have to register to get some of the material but the latest “Progress In Socionomics” newsletter is available free.
In this issue, the movie “The Dark Knight” is discussed, something I’ve commented on previously.