The 4 Words That Won the 2016 Election for Donald Trump, and The 2 Words That Lost It For Hillary Clinton

Note: This article was originally published on November 13, 2016 to my account on medium.com. This is a republished and updated version released on October 29, 2020. My political views are expressed in this piece.

It was Sunday, November 13th, 4 days after the election results came in and America let out a collective ‘What-the-f-just-happened?’. Personally, I remember wishing we could all go back to one week prior when the Cubs won the World Series and America let out a collective ‘What-the-f-just-happened?’ but in a much more joyful manner.

But there we were, facing the reality for the next 4 years: Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America.

4 years later, it still feels a little weird to say.

How did it happen? Well, looking at the situation purely from a branding lens, I have an idea. But before all that, a few disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: I did NOT vote for Donald Trump. I voted for Hillary. The closest I have come to endorsing Donald Trump was watching a few seasons of The Apprentice in the early-mid 2000’s and still thinking he was a jackass then, dressing in a suit and wearing a Trump mask for some costume day during my high school’s Homecoming Week in 2005, and rooting against him at Wrestlemania in 2007 in his ‘Battle of The Billionaires’ with Vince McMahon (where the loser had their head shaved, and hot damn did I want to see a bald Trump).

If YOU voted for Trump, this may help decode how and why you joined the movement. And while there is a slant on certain parts of this article given my political views, I'm not here to banish you to hell for your decisions.

Disclaimer 2: This is my explanation from a branding perspective, and I realize is an oversimplification of some of the more nuanced issues when it comes to a political race. Understand it’s a macro take.

Disclaimer 3: I was mulling writing this months before the 2016 election, however I didn’t want even one iota of my being to root for Trump just so I could say I was right.

Okay then, all that said, here’s

THE 4 WORDS THAT WON DONALD TRUMP THE 2016 PRESIDENCY

I’ve studied messaging for more than a decade. Around April 2015 I made an interesting discovery about slogans/taglines which explained to me how world-leading brands communicate themselves so effectively by communicating so simply.

It turns out there is a formula for effective and successful slogan communication, and I discovered it on accident because I was using it for over a year at that point without even realizing it.

This formula is why I was particularly interested when I saw Donald Trump announce his candidacy for President in July 2015 and proclaimed to “Make America Great Again”. (But even then I was like ‘naaaah’ he’s too much of a joke)

This formula is also why I was a little concerned when I saw Hillary Clinton formalize her campaign under the notion that America is “Stronger Together.” (But even then I was like ‘this should be a cakewalk for her’)

THE TAGLINE FORMULA I DISCOVERED

When I made the discovery in April 2015, I was in the midst of building my first business, where the slogan my cofounder and I used was “Discover Your Inner Awesome” (also what we would name our podcast).

It was a slogan that, when people heard it, they leaned in and said, “Oh that’s interesting — tell me more!”

Why did this resonate so well? I had to find out.

I soon saw that we were following the same pattern used by dozens and dozens of household names. Whether they do it intentionally or not, I have no idea, but here’s the incredibly simple, yet massively effective slogan formula:

BRAND = ACTION VERB + AUDIENCE ASPIRATION

Take a word that puts someone into action, and combine it with a word or phrase that your target audience aspires to. This is what world-leading brands do.

For the sake of this article, let's simplify and use B = AV + AA.

It works for the world’s beverage leader, Coca-Cola.

Coke = Open Happiness

Coke = Open (AV) + Happiness (AA)

It works for one of the world's adult beverage leaders, Corona.

Corona = Find + Your Beach

Corona = Find (AV) + Your Beach (AA)

It works for one of the world’s leading airlines, United.

United = Fly The Friendly Skies

United = Fly (AV) + The Friendly Skies (AA)

It works for the world’s consumer electronics leader, Apple.

Apple = Think Different

Apple = Think (AV) + Different (AA)

It works for the world leader in coworking (management and PR issues aside), WeWork.

WeWork = Do What You Love

We Work = Do (AV) + What You Love (AA)

It works for the emerging world leader in self-paced online education, Masterclass.

Masterclass = Learn From The Best

Masterclass = Learn (AV) + From The Best (AA)

And in 2016 it worked for Donald Trump, helping vault him to status of world leader, and Leader of the Free World.

Trump = Make America Great Again

Trump = Make (AV) + America Great Again (AA)

SO WHY DOES THIS WORK?

When I made this discovery, I noticed the formula popping up everywhere. I guarantee now that you know it you'll see it everywhere too.

B = AV + AA

How can something so ridiculously simple be so effective?

Because it piques the right amount of interest to generate brand preference. When you read or hear a tagline following the formula there's something inherent that happens inside -- you determine if you’re on board or not. The brand triggers an immediate call to action, and ties it to an ideal outcome — a dream scenario.

The combination of Verb with Aspiration forces you to ask yourself, “Do I want this? Yes or no?”

Do I want to Open Happiness?

Do I want to Find My Beach?

Do I want to Fly The Friendly Skies?

Do I want to Think Different?

Do I want to Do What I Love?

Do I want to Learn From The Best?

Do I want to Make America Great Again?

And because it’s a clean yes or no answer, using this formula also accomplishes 2 things:

1. It creates raving fans who get behind the dream scenario you’ve painted for them, which...
2. Draws an immediate line in the sand of who’s with you, and who’s against you. You spend very little time convincing people to just listen to you, enabling you to spend more time expanding upon your upfront message.

B = AV + AA

When I used to tell people the then-title of my podcast was Discover Your Inner Awesome, very rarely would I get a “Hmm…” response.

It was either, “Whoa! I could use that! Where can I download?”, or “So like personal development stuff right? Yeah, I’m not into all that.” And that was perfect because if someone already knew they weren’t into personal development, I didn't need to waste any time trying to convince them. They weren't my audience, and that was okay.

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BONUS: Jason Voiovich joins Startup Hypeman: The Podcast to unpack the social media and digital strategy that also helped fuel Trump's 2016 campaign. LISTEN HERE.

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Trump created raving fans with Make America Great Again.

Right off the bat, people were either with him or against him. And those against him, people like me, STILL ended up talking about him, because we would go and say, “Screw that! America is already great for reasons x, y, and z!” (even if we didn't wholeheartedly believe it). Or, we'd say "He just means Make America HATE again," OR, we'd say "No — it’s not great, for reasons a, b, and c! We’re right, and you’re wrong!”

Either way, we kept him relevant and inadvertently promoted his message for him, all the while pushing his supporters even further into his corner.

B = AV + AA

WEAKER TOGETHER

Now compare that to Hillary Clinton’s 2016campaign slogan, Stronger Together.

It was, ironically, a weak message.

An adjective attached to an adverb.

At that, “Stronger” is a comparative adjective, and we didn't know what we were supposed to compare it to. Rather than get people on board right away, and create the audience she wanted, she lost time on a person having to assess what level of strength we already had, and what level we were trying to get to. There was too much grey area.

“Together” could have worked as a fine Audience Aspiration, if it were tied to something that called to action.

Hillary’s campaign perhaps would have seen more success if they had gone with something like “Stand Together”.

You’re either sitting or standing, independently or with others. Clear yes or no.

With that message she could have played to the birth of our nation taking a stand together against Great Britain, people standing together to see MLK speak in Washington, Rosa Parks taking a stand (even by sitting) to band together in the civil rights movement, and America standing together in the wake of 9/11.

Or they could have found a completely different way to say “Stronger Together” while still communicating the same message.

B = AV + AA

You could see how Trump using the formula, and Hillary not using it drastically affected each side’s followers.

EVERYONE in the Trump camp during the campaign season continued to harp the message “Make America Great Again”. It was their battlecry, and their justification in the face of opposition. How many times did you see a Trump supporter being interviewed, when asked a question that challenged a Trump policy, say “Yeah but he’s gonna make America great again,”?

I can’t think of even one Hillary supporter who went around saying, “Yeah but we’re Stronger Together.”

And remember how this formula draws that clear line in the sand? Do you know the number of times in 2016 I said, “More like Make America Hate Again”?

All of us who said that only drove deeper loyalty in the Trump camp, like in this video below.

Clear line drawn.

Admittedly, there were times when I forgot what Hillary's campaign slogan was, because it also got muddled with this message

and this one

and this one

which put Donald Trump’s name literally front and center. And if you saw a zoomed out photo or video of people holding this sign, you'd either see a bunch of signs that said "Love Trumps", or because their hand covers part of the bottom (like in the background of the above photo) you'd see "Love Trumps Hat" (and what does Trump's hat say? MAGA).

FEEL THE BERN

You can even take it back to the 2015-2016 Democratic primary and Bernie Sanders, who followed the formula with “Feel The Bern”. It was a play on words where “Bern” represented “Burn”, and feeling the burn meant being on board with a political revolution. Remember how many in the Sanders camp went around touting “Feel the Bern!”?

Bernie didn’t win the primary, but his supporters stayed in his corner even after he lost, and many of them voted for a 3rd party candidate on election night or stayed home altogether, taking key votes away from Hillary.

B = AV + AA

But She Technically Won, Right?

Granted, she did win the popular vote, and yes there was some form of outside election interference, but the reality is that while the sentiment for those who opposed Trump when he won was disappointment, shock, anger, and sadness, had Clinton won the sentiment would not have been elation.

She didn’t have a slogan that created that target audience like Trump did. Many voted for Hillary because there was no other option. The reality is that had Clinton won, America would have let out a collective sigh of relief. Relief that we didn’t elect Trump.

Stronger together was a weak campaign promise. Trump focused on fanning the flames of his raving fans who wanted to Make America Great Again. He knew exactly who his audience was, and concerned himself only with rallying them.

Meanwhile Clinton, well-meaning in her efforts, tried desperately to appeal to everyone, over every issue. Listen to rapper Killer Mike in this video during the primaries talk about how he liked Bernie Sanders’ consistency, as opposed to Hillary jumping around all the time:

When you try to mean something to everyone, you mean very little to anyone.

And So We Got Trumped

With no raving fanbase like Trump, the most qualified woman in the world to be President of the United States got buried and bullied out of the Oval Office in 2016 by The Apprentice.

BRAND = ACTION VERB + AUDIENCE ASPIRATION.

Election night 2016 passed, and Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States.

The Election of 2020: What Comes Next?

Where does that leave us today? Well, this time around Trump has redeployed MAGA, alongside its step-brother, KAG -- Keep America Great, which also follows the formula.

However, this time around I'm far more skeptical of its success, mainly because Trump carries with him 4 years of a presidency filled with controversy, unfulfilled campaign promises, and embroiled in a poorly managed pandemic.

Yet, despite all those things, and perhaps even if Trump does lose the 2020 election in a few days, do you think his base will abandon ship or go down with the captain?

I think they'll go down with the captain, shouting 4 words on the way:

Make America Great Again.

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I run Startup Hypeman, where I help CEOs and founders craft a scalable narrative that drives company growth and category leadership.