From J. Robert Smith
What's notable about Sarah Palin's book tour, which starts midweek, is where she's not going. She's not going to L.A. or New York, Boston or San Francisco. She's going smack-dab to the middle of the country. Fly-over country, liberals call it. And it's a shrewd move, not only in selling books, but positioning herself for a presidential run in 2012 if she chooses that path.
It's a strategy right out of the late Sam Walton's playbook: go where there's demand and the competition ain't. Walton, who could have run and won political campaigns, built Walmart into the behemoth it is today by opening his discount stores in small towns in the heartland, towns that the eight-hundred pound gorilla K-Mart ignored.
Walton conquered the discount retail category from the heartland out. He didn't so much clobber K-Mart as steal a march on it. Palin may just prove that a heartland strategy does more than sell blenders and books. It may be the foundation for winning a national election.
Walmart started in the middle of the country did it? Interesting as it may be. Walmart took time to develop the clientele it has today. What Sarah Palin is trying to do is futile for a presidential campaign, or selling books. Go to New York where there are a lot of people. Go to Indianapolis where people seem to like you. Don't go Wyoming where your closest neighbor could range from 10 miles away. Power is in numbers. People also love hand outs. Give them something like Masters Golf Tickets or 2012 summer olympics tickets for the first people to show up. Once you get them there, they're yours.
Posted by: Blake | 02/18/2010 at 02:58 PM