The 'Obama Way': Seven steps to success

Sweat the details: Planning strategy is one thing, but executing it with almost obsessive precision is another.

All winning campaigns must be able to do that, even ones that have benefitted, like Obama’s, from historical trends, including Bush’s travail and a near-collapse of the Republican Party.

But the Obama campaign has not missed a single detail — including, as a recent example, an unprecedented effort to win one stray Electoral College vote in Nebraska.

Understand your brand: Obama lacks a background in business, but you could never tell by looking at his campaign.

It has adapted and improved upon key techniques of modern, international marketing. One of them is branding through iconography.

His campaign is literally centered on a symbol. The Obama camp created that road-meets-the-rising-sun logo two years ago. And that’s just one part of a larger focus on visual sales.

Remember the stage for his speech at the Democratic National Convention? The vast set, covered in faux Greek columns and video monitors, was designed to embody the idea of a mass movement or a crusade for change.

And at a recent rally in Cleveland, the entire Obama family wore matching outfits, representing a united familial front by smiling and rocking out with Bruce Springsteen to “The Rising.”

Go digital:  Obama’s campaign devotion to semiotics is matched by and married to an innovative, envelope-pushing use of web-based and digital communications.

One example, demonstrated to me by Chris Stern of Bloomberg: an Obama applet for the iPhone, developed by a supporter in London. Among other things, it organizes all contacts according to key swing states, allows users to distinguish friends as Obama supporters, and lists (for those with GPS-enabled phones) local Obama meetings and events (complete with maps and directions).

The campaign’s texting efforts are perhaps better known. Enticed by contests, supporters sent in their phone numbers at major rallies. Electronic participation continued and hit new highs in August when the Obama camp promised to reveal their veep choice first via e-mail and text message.

Use caution: Speaking of vice presidential selections, Obama’s selection of Biden speaks volumes.

Given the range of choice, Obama made the safest pick — and one that he had reason to believe would yield a specific, tangible benefit: help in Pennsylvania (specifically, northeast, where Democratic turnout is essential).

So what's the bottom line? Pretty simple. If past is prologue, Obama and his circle are already very hard at work — and very far along — planning the details of his presidency.

The game plan will be comprehensive, detailed, clever and cautious.

That's good news, whether you’re for him or not. As Plouffe says, it's always better to have a plan. It's the Obama Way.

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