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We need more government not less


You don’t need decades of expertise in political communications to know that both major parties will face significant challenges in the next general election.

Indeed, a more telling insight into its likely outcome – a significant opportunity unique to Labor – can be gleaned from an ad adage more commonly used in FMCG:

The most difficult task in marketing is to grow a declining category.

It’s easy to build a business in a growing category; simply beat the competition and ride the wave. Ask anyone who makes burgers without meat.

But it takes marketing superpowers to turn around a category that people are abandoning in droves. The most notable recent example is Sipsmith Gin, which has defied the collapse of the global gin market to fuel not only phenomenal growth but a revival of the entire category.

Today, even Category Politics is in decline, and at present Labor is the only party strategically and politically capable of emulating Sipsmith’s achievements.

“Politics” – not politicians. People have always distrusted the motivations and character of politicians, but democracy rests on the belief that government itself can be an effective force for good in people’s lives, and that is currently under threat.

And this is not an academic problem: we know what happened in Europe in the 1930s and today in the upheaval zone of Africa, when democratic governments seem powerless to protect their people.

In the UK, this decline reflects six decades of declining voter turnout. Today, the level of voting among young people is so catastrophically low that it calls into question the democratic legitimacy of any government.

It’s not because of the old trope that there’s no point in voting because all parties are equal. This is because the government itself appears to be completely powerless as an entity.

In recent years the government has been unable to reduce inflation, stop rising energy prices, provide enough PPE to protect nurses, stop ships, make schools safe, reduce waiting lists, prevent industrial action, stop anti-social behavior or complete the railway.

Government – not “government”. Because while people are desperate to end the crushing victimization of the last 15 years, it makes no sense for anyone to believe that the solution lies in changing the party in power. That’s certainly what our research at Saatchi & Saatchi tells us.

That is the fundamental difference between today and 1997. Not only were we in a much better position economically and in terms of global influence; we believed that government could change things.

And it wasn’t just belief in Tony Blair’s agenda and charisma. Love her or hate her, Margaret Thatcher was the epitome of effective government. In addition, many people at the time remembered the government’s ability to defend the nation, provide the welfare state, and expand civil rights.

In 1997 people believed the UK government could do it. In 2023, he does not believe that any government has the power to make the slightest change.

That’s why “Politics” is a declining category.

And while the only avenue left open to the Tories is to bid for votes through a deliberate divisional strategy, Labor has more options.

Kier Starmer can play the same game; appeal to enough votes to get over the line and fight again for share of the declining market. Or he could fundamentally overturn the idea that government of any kind is ineffective.

Labor could spend the next year restoring British faith in the basic concept of effective government – convincing people who might not vote at all that politics can make a difference again.

This is a hard sell because it requires one of two things:

One is definitely a different and better product. Sipsmitha achieved this by restoring artisanal copper pot still distillation to London, but that is easier said than done in politics – especially with the lack of economic wiggle room available to any incoming government.

The second option requires a quality that has become almost mythical in politics: humility. Labor could restore faith in politics and underline its own maturity and readiness to govern by promoting real examples of effective government across the political spectrum – proving that governments of all stripes can change things for the better.

In marketing, this is called category work.

And it’s crucial because we have a new generation of potential voters whose only frame of reference is 15 years of national regression since the global financial crisis.

Rather than Labor focusing its energy and resources on fueling Tory self-immolation, this strategy would see it virtually celebrate the power and efficiency of big government.

Because while we desperately need rescue from another five years of stagnation, cruelty, and despair, we have a far greater prize ahead of us: the restoration of effective government, and with it, faith in our democracy itself.

This article originally appeared in Independent newspaper

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