It seems that the days of mainstream political parties campaigning on ideological principles are long gone.  The lack of any articulated strategic substance to policies was a marker for this election, one seemingly driven by the need to use mainstream and digital media to spin party messages to their advantage (or not).

Politics, of course, is not the same as business and, whilst the political world cannot deny that appearances do matter, perhaps it should choose more wisely the approach it takes to what might be considered to be marketing issues. And, though politics and business are not the same thing, I can see several parallels between the "marketing approaches" of many politicians and some small businesses.

Short-termism: In the same way that small business owners can regard marketing as something that they only do when needs must, so too the politicians have treated campaigning as something that is only done in the run-up to the election.  The result is a panic-stricken clamour for voters' attention based on muddled messages - not unlike that achieved by businesses who wait until order dry up to do their marketing.

Style over substance: You can be as slick as you like in your use of the media (or, again, not) but it won't make up for the chances you've missed to build an enviable reputation based on demonstrable credibility.  The campaign for this election should have started as soon as the previous one was won/lost, with parties implementing a long-term strategy of building trust and ensuring on-going awareness of success (which there have been despite global economic problems).  Spin doctors, please note, intelligent people are far more impressed by integrity and capability than by weird smiles and strange finger-pointy gestures but it takes time and consistency of effort to develop.  Small business owners, you can learn from this too - snazzy gimmicks will not make up for any shortcomings in your credibility in the long term; so work on building a credible brand all day, every day.

Lack of vision: It's difficult for a small business to know how to make the right marketing decisions if they don't know where they want their business to go: if you can't visualise your destination, you can't see your route. What kind of vision did the party leaders create for Britain?  It's tough times and the realistic immediate priorty is coping with the economic situation but any attempts at being "positive" began and ended with vague claims about "change" with no real vision about what that change would ultimately look like when illuminated by the light at the end of the tunnel.

Emily Cagle also has some interesting observations on party leaders' positioning strategies in her article, Marketing Lessons from Brown, Cameron and Clegg.

So what should a small business owner do to make sure that when they want their customers' loyalty and support, they can avoid the mistakes we've seen in recent days?

1. Put marketing at the heart of your business strategy - without your customers you have no business so make sure they're at the forefront of your thinking and day-to-day activities;
2. Build a credible brand based on values that matter to your customers and excellent capability in your field;
3. Shout about your successes - there are too many great small businesses that are too shy to tell the world how good they are and spreading your good news keeps you at the front of your customers' minds;
4. Know what your vision is - once you know where you're going, getting there becomes so much easier.