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“Different Strokes for Different Folks”: Implications of Voter Micro-Targeting and Appeal in the Age of Donald Trump

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Political Marketing in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management ((Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management))

Abstract

Despite the 2016 US Republican presidential contest being considered by many as “one unlike no others”, this chapter posits that its outcome can be attributed, at least partly, to dynamics that had affected the unfolding of previous American electoral contests. In their chapter, Raynauld and Turcotte explore contemporary political messaging and marketing tactics deployed by candidates running for the presidential nomination. As the Republican electorate was fragmented due to different factors, candidates engaged in hyper narrowcasting in order to reach out and mobilize specific groups of voters. Through the statistical analysis of polling data from key primary states, Raynauld and Turcotte conclude that by occupying narrow political “lanes”, Republican contenders collectively weakened their chances of winning, thus allowing Donald Trump to secure the nomination.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Spencer Kimball from Emerson College and all student members of the Emerson College Polling Society for sharing their polling data as well as providing insights on their work with the authors of this chapter. The authors would also like to thank Emerson College, which provided funding for the polling work throughout the Republican presidential nomination contest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication Studies, Emerson College, Boston, MA, USA

    Vincent Raynauld

  2. School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    André Turcotte

Authors
  1. Vincent Raynauld
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  2. André Turcotte
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vincent Raynauld .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

    Jamie Gillies

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Raynauld, V., Turcotte, A. (2018). “Different Strokes for Different Folks”: Implications of Voter Micro-Targeting and Appeal in the Age of Donald Trump. In: Gillies, J. (eds) Political Marketing in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59345-6_2

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