Learning Lessons from

Crewe and Nantwich

 

Shane Greer

 

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Also in this section:

• Building local coalitionsDavid Canzini
• Why negative campaigning works Jonathan Upton
• How Boris Won: The Lynton Crosby Interview Iain Dale
• Ten ways to improve a speech John Shosky
• From Facebook to ballot box Jag Singh
• Campaign doctor Christian Schnee

In 1998 Kellogg’s decided to re-brand ‘Coco Pops’ as ‘Choco Krispies’ to bring the cereal into line with its continental counterparts in Spain and Germany. But as anyone addicted to chocolate cereal will tell you ‘Choco Krispies’ don’t appear on British supermarket shelves – ‘Coco Pops’ re-emerged. Why? After plummeting sales and a public telephone vote the cereal leviathan recognised the name change had backfired and the old name had to be restored to win back customers.  In a word, Kellogg’s understood the importance of flexibility.

 

Fast forward ten years and another leviathan running a different campaign has failed to heed the lessons which have gone before. I am, of course, referring to Tamsin Dunwoody, the Labour candidate and her campaign in Crewe and Nantwich. It has been argued Dunwoody lost to Edward Timpson, the Conservative candidate, due to the overtly negative campaign she employed, focusing on his affluent background, and such an analysis is difficult to disagree with. The truth, however, is a little more subtle. The Dunwoody campaign guaranteed its defeat by failing to reject the negative campaign when it became clear early on, that not only it wasn’t working, but was actually driving voters into Timpson’s arms. In a word the Dunwoody campaign lost thanks to an inherent lack of flexibility. 

 

One of the greatest virtues in life is the ability to learn from one’s mistakes and the mistakes of others. And here’s the lesson politicos of all stripes should take away from Crewe and Nantwich. Campaigns, political or otherwise, should operate like living, breathing organisms. A good one adjusts to circumstance, constantly asking itself what it can do better, and understands the importance of flexibility. A bad one acts like a train, consigned to a fate determined by an immovable track.

 

If your campaign hits on something which works, make sure you stick with it, but equally if something isn’t working and especially if it’s proving counter-productive make sure you dump it, quickly. Such advice might sound simple and obvious but, as the Dunwoody campaign illustrated, change doesn’t always come easily in politics.