Goods More Important than Leaders

"Ignore what the journalists ask, just tell what we had planned to tell," is the rule to which the British Conservatives stick to during election campaigns.  A domestic expert for political marketing remembered this rule when he was faced with the current reconstruction of the country.  Namely, since the end of the NATO intervention, the state television has begun and ended all its information programs with the topic of reconstruction.  A part of the precious television time has been devoted to the attacks on the opposition, and on promising the economic and social progresses, so it is not surprising that some people think that this is a sort of a pre-election campaign.  And, the elections, at least federal and local, will take place.  Since the date of the elections is determined by the ruling regime, Srdjan Bogosavljevic from "Strategic Marketing" thinks that it is quite normal that the regime has begun to make these campaign-like public appearances.  "A rough year is behind us, the bombs were really falling.  Whatever we think about it, something has been done about the ruins, some of them have been repaired, and that is enough for the regime to start a propaganda campaign," Bogosavljevic says.

His colleague Voja Zanetic does not think that this is a pre-election campaign, but rather a "post-war" and a "post-defeat campaign."  "By constantly repeating stories about reconstruction, the rulers want to hypnotize the people and persuade them that they have not been defeated.  They are doing this by demonstrating their power through constructing a bridge where it had once been situated."   

RECONSTRUCTION:  Marketing experts have different views on whether the regime is clever or too aggressive in this campaign.  While Dragan Djilas from "Ovation" agency thinks that this is the best campaign the regime has ever made, Zanetic assesses that the work that is under way, is something that the state should normally be doing anyway.  "It is normal for a state to repair bridges and roads.  This is, however, presented as a great success and perhaps that is the catch, if there is any."

Bogosavljevic says:  "To speak of aggressiveness means to speak of good taste.  If you have in mind that the majority of the Serbian voters are uneducated, and that precisely this group of people usually vote for SPS, then this campaign is not so bad after all.  It could be called aggressive if the people receiving the information had some other information, too, but this is not the case."

Experts we talked to particularly emphasized, not so much the success of the campaign, but the mistakes of the opposition.  Bogosavljevic thinks that the opposition parties made a mistake by leading negative campaigns informing people that the winter without heating was arriving, that the roads and bridges would not be repaired.  The opposition simply broke the basic rule of the propaganda, which says that one should advertise its product rather than attack the competition.  There is no use in saying that the rate of crime is very high in this country.  It is only sensible to mention it if the opposition promises to decrease that rate by three times once they get the power," Djilas stressed and offered an interesting proposition -- that the opposition should join in on the campaign for the country's reconstruction.  "They should also be present during the bridge openings.  They should say that it is good to reconstruct the road infrastructure, and should call on the regime to reconstruct the healthcare and economy, too.  If Milutin Mrkonjic of "CIP" can do it, why Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic cannot.  These are things to which the regime does not have an answer," Djilas claims.  So, an expert advice to the opposition is to accompany each attack with a positive message: "The regime is not doing it well, but we can do it better."

Zanetic admits that the opposition has done a good thing in the "business-to-business" communication, i.e. in relaying its message to the opponent.  "By uniting around the demands for early elections and by agreeing about the election conditions, the opposition did send the message to the regime that it can be unified.  This is rather a message to the competitor than to the voters.  To phrase it colloquially - the opposition now has a product it can advertise," Zanetic says.

THE ALBRIGHT FACTOR: Referring to that, Djilas points to another problem.  He says:  "The policy of the opposition is based on its cooperation with the international community, but in spite of its unification, it has never gotten anything from the West.  No matter how painful the truth is, the opposition parties should realize that these elections will not be won by the Americans or the European Union, and it is not opportune to play on the card of Madeleine Albright."

One of the experts singles out the current campaign of the GSS leader, Goran Svilanovic:  "He is doing the right thing.  He is introducing himself as a patriot and suggesting that cooperation with the world is a patriotic act, and to my mind, it is.  I think that this kind of a message can be successful."

If a rule of political marketing says that the one who holds the media wins the elections, then one should not be surprised that the majority of the marketing experts insist on this issue.  According to Bogosavljevic, the alleged pluralism of the majority of the newspapers, radio and TV stations in Serbia, just camouflages "the polarization of the media, which is more intensive than ever."   He adds: "As far as television is concerned, you have RTS and Pink TV where there is no room for the opposition, while "Blic" is untouchable among the printed media.  However, no one has ever made a survey on the way how "Blic" is read.  I have an impression that there is a possibility that some people  buy it for its entertainment part. "  As far as the radio stations are concerned, Bogosavljevic thinks that there is even greater chaos in that area.  On top of that, if you take into consideration that the radio has importance only during crises, and not during apolitical competition under normal circumstances, then the number of the people it can reach is almost irrelevant.

The experts, however, stress that the media barriers can be overcome.  Bogosavljevic says: "Seselj was very smart in using the local media, although they do not have so many viewers.  He, however, succeeded in simulating a network by airing the same interview on several radio stations at the same period of time."
Djilas stresses that one cannot say that the regime controls all the media, particularly not all the printed media, and that this gives a chance to the opposition to place itself.  All the experts give credit to Seselj for conducting his campaign, although his success is in good part due to other people's errors.

Zanetic point out:  "Seselj has a talent to speak in a simplified, understandable and powerful way, and this is something that any propagandist would recommend.  There is also something else.  When everyone is silent, the people vote for the one who makes the biggest noise and this has nothing to do with the media."

THE MEDIA:  Zanetic points out:  "The electronic media are the biggest mass media, but they are not the only way to pass one's message to voters.  There are other channels, too.  For example, there are people who propagandize your ideas, posters and advertisements, personal letters, etc., but all these require a lot of energy.  Television is much more comfortable."   Zanetic stresses that under the item of propaganda, the budgets of big companies include many other important issues besides television.  In short, everything has already been invented.  In all that Zanetic sees the error constantly made by the opposition parties - they are imitating Milosevic.  He points out that the opposition has never tried to work on forming an idea as a product of political marketing, but has rather insisted on leaders, who should only be the promoters of a well-packed and clear idea.  

Most of the experts have forgotten about the previous campaigns, and that indicates how significant they were.  Errors were made constantly, and the opposition's main mistake  was sending messages to the people who already share its ideas and policy.  "The vote already taken by the competitor is not important at all," says Bogosavljevic.  Djilas shares his opinion stressing that twenty percent of the voters will always vote for SPS and YUL, so the opposition should fight for the remaining voters.  "We should bear in mind that one-fourth of the voters will always vote for the regime, one-fourth for the opposition, one-fourth never votes, and one-fourth is undecided.  Naturally, the opposition should focus on them," Bogosavljevic says, and adds that in doing that, the opposition should not criticize the regime, but rather present its ideas to this group of voters proving to them that the opposition can do a better job.  

Zanetic says: "The opposition must be very careful not to make a mistake and think that these citizens are undecided because they don't have a candidate to vote for, that they are simply sheep who should be forced into the voting sheepfold of one party.  This is not like that at all, they are undecided because they don't want to choose between the bad and the worse."  Zanetic points out that one of the definitions of marketing is that it is the process of solving the problems of the consumers.  Translated into the marketing language, this means that the undecided voters will not be won by those who offer just any kind of product, but by those who offer the best solution.

ERRORS:  Finally, any marketing expert would tell you that so far no one has ever seen a well-conceived campaign in this part of the world.  The reason is above all the fact that none of the parties has ever made a thorough public opinion survey before commencing a campaign.  This is partly due to the fact that a survey of this kind would cost at least 50,000 DM these days, and partly because the people dealing with political marketing are mostly friends of the political party leaders.  That is why Djilas contends that he would never be doing a pre-election campaign in this country, while Zanetic stresses that he would do it only if he got heaps of money for it, and if he was given a free hand.  This is how Djilas explains what a free hand means:  "Imagine that someone tells Vuk Draskovic that his wife should not make public appearances and that she should not wear an expensive fur coat while distributing humanitarian aid.  Whoever tells him that, will not be working for him any more."   

There is one more thing that should be mentioned in this story.  Firstly, the agencies also opt for the winners, i.e. they avoid potential losers, and the losers are those who do not know and do not want to listen to the ones who know something about the campaigning.   Secondly, in this country, the agencies are directly connected to their clients, so due to their political marketing engagement, they might lose their clients from the economic sphere, who provide their bread.