In Episode 103 of O'Brien Communications' Shaping Opinion podcast, Tim O'Brien speaks with Lee Hartley Carter about her book, "Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter." As the president of maslansky + partners, Carter focuses on language and messaging strategy and why it matters to consumers and voters.
On the podcast, Carter discusses the crisis communications strategies of companies like Nike, Starbucks, Boeing, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Carter claims that consumers have begun to show trends of supporting brands that align with their ideals and values. More than ever, customers care about showing brand loyalty to demonstrate their political beliefs to others.
Carter says that it is no longer good enough for corporations and brands to be "relying on facts alone to tell their story." With the copious amounts of information available online, people often seek out facts that confirm their previous biases. On social media, they are fed news that confirms their ideologies in an online echo chamber. Therefore, corporations cannot rely on facts alone to win over publics.
She also applies this rhetoric to political campaigns. For example, she notes Senator Elizabeth Warren as an outstanding communicator (before she dropped out of the presidential race). Carter says Warren was a notable candidate because she had a "master narrative" to her campaign that voters could relate to. She won people over with compelling messaging where other candidates did not.
On Warren's campaign site, she develops a compelling personal story in the "Meet Elizabeth" section. Warren is a progressive candidate, but many voters saw her as more approachable than fellow progressive Senator Bernie Sanders. This is detailed in her campaign "story," where she goes through an ideological progression after attending Rutgers Law School.
Though she ultimately did not win the delegates that she needed to stay in the race, she still had very persuasive messaging in her campaign. Unfortunately, this was mostly due to a lack of funding because of her refusal to accept support from Super PACs and billionaires. Instead, she honored each of her individual donors on her "Donor Wall," making each voter feel like a part of the Warren campaign team.
Many voters distrust the American government because of the involvement of Super PACs and lobbyists, so many middle-class voters would feel good showing their support for a campaign with a "grassroots donor wall." And while many other Democratic candidates have been running an anti-Trump campaign, Warren's campaign had a narrative of unity and a better economy for all. As Carter put it, people hardly ever "vote against someone, we vote for someone."
Ultimately, Senator Warren's campaign messaging was not enough to win her the Democratic nomination. Warren did not appeal enough to the political and cultural tribalism of Democratic voters. She tried to craft a "master narrative" that would bring all Americans together and beat President Trump in the general election. But her campaign did not do enough to appeal to the biases of Democratic Socialists and other Democratic voter groups in the primaries.
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