Is Julia Gillard a marketer?

So how would you rate our new Prime Minister as a marketer?

If you are locked in as a voter for either of the major parties, you could easily be biased. But if you look at the PM from a marketing point of view exclusively, how would you rate her?

Is her marketing of herself and her party going to be a positive in getting her to The Lodge?

Well, obviously, it's impossible to know for sure. My instinctive answer is that yes, I think she would make a good marketer.

For starters, her sense of humour would be a good thing around the office. Every marketer has failures at some stage, so being able to laugh is very much a bonus.

But let's look at some tried and true criteria.

1. Does she have a marketing personality with flair and drive?
2. Does she walk in the shoes of her customers?
3. Does she understand numbers?
4. Can she present well and communicate effectively?
5. Is she innovative in her thinking?

(When students achieve their Master of Marketing at Monash, and I see them pick up the certificate they have worked so hard for, I sometimes ask myself these questions. In the Monash scenario, my theory is that if you have your Masters and you can tick off all those five questions, there is no reason why you can't have a wonderfully successful marketing career).

So now, how do we rate Julia Gillard? If circumstances were different, would you give her a role in your marketing department?

Obviously, I don't know her personally, but from what I have read and from what I have seen in the media, I suspect most of us would say she rates fairly well against these marketing criteria.

My brief answers to the five questions above would be:

1. Yes, absolutely.
2. Yes - I think most people would say she talks in a language that they easily understand. She certainly seems to be concerned for ordinary Australians (however, I suspect that for thoughtful people, what she really stands for is not yet obvious).
3. Not 100% sure on this, but she obviously got the numbers right regarding her 'ascension' to the top job!
4. Yes, absolutely (my guess is that we are no longer distracted by the sound of the voice, which is grating when you first hear it).
5. Yes, probably – being the first PM in 60 years to not move into The Lodge was a simple day-one example.

You might feel my answers are simplistic. That's OK. Probably everyone will have their own perception of such a public figure.

If you'd like to put forward your own ideas on JG as a marketer, please go to 'Post a comment' now.