Markets are Partisan -- and that is Good

It is a given that people dislike partisanship and President Obama won the election partly on the platform of moving county into a post-partisanship age. In his first significant legislative bill, he did not succeed in overcoming a partisan result – the bill was passed on a nearly straight party basis. Jay Cost, however, makes an interesting case against bipartisanship in Three Cheers for Partisanship! Briefly, Cost asserts that partisanship is a result of real differences in people’s views of things and that it is what gives political parties any useful identity. A majority of people are not well informed on the nuances of issues, but they do affiliate with a party based on its brand identity. Bipartisanship blurs this brand identity and is likely to confuse people on the different world views.

This rings true when you apply to business. In a “partisan” market, products vie for positions based on differences. It is these differences (often embedded in brand images, but also having real attributes) that help consumers choose. When choices become indistinct within some product category (or market) the consumer is put in a tough position. First, consumers are typically not well-informed on many products they buy. The positioning and branding of these companies (and products) help consumers make choices on all kinds of products. Without these distinctions made, imagine how hard it is to decide on the thousands of product (and service) choices made each year (I do this everytime I am in Costco!). Our minds would not only be confused but overwhelmed.

In cognitive psychology parlance, these brands help form schemas in our brains to allow us to make much quicker (but not always correct) decisions. In fact, the classic marketing book by Al Ries and Jack Trout says it all in the title—Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

Partisanship and Markets are both taking their lumps these days -- but there is another side that should be considered.