Applebee's America

I've finally finished Applebee's America (damn is it hard to find time to read these days). The book doesn't have much new to say, at least not if you've been paying attention to political/business strategy discussions or have spent any time reading about the GOP 2004 GOTV strategy.

In a nutshell - "Gut Values" connections, not policy proposals, are what win voters; people group by lifestyle affinities not ideology; and word of mouth trumps broadcast advertising. Essentially the book is a strategy memo about framing and community-building told in the language of cutting-edge corporate marketing.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I suggest reading it. If my last paragraph sounded very familiar, you can probably pass on this book. There are some good case studies, and a few rudimentary how-tos, but mostly the book builds an argument in favor of life targeting as a tactic. By far the freshest piece of information, to me, was the description of mega churches. Sosnik, Dowd and Fournier tell a good tale about the rise and practices of mega-churches, and their descriptions definitely broke down some stereotypes I was holding onto.

Also interesting to me was the discussion of Millenials - or what the authors label "Generation 9/11." Find out why after the jump.

Update: I realize I should have given this a little more introduction. This podcast is about a book - Applebee's America - co-authored by a republican strategist, a democratic strategist, and a journalist for the AP. The book tackles the idea of "values consumers" and how corporations like Applebee's have exploited community values to lure in customers and create profit. It then extrapolates how the political parties can use these practices to reach voters. What it's really talking about isn't necessarily values in the Republican "Family Values" sense, but rather the idea that you need to talk to people where and how they live - in the communities and lifestyles in which they move and operate. This podcast looks at the book from the Republican perspective. (Take this description with a grain of salt. It's in the mail, but I've yet to read the book).

Hat tip to Kevin, who managed to send this to me even though he's vacationing in Turkey. Why he's reading GOP.com in Turkey is beyond me . . .

Applebee's America (10 minutes)

This podcast is complementary to Fred's podcast of a Robert Putnam speech (below), as well as a conversation the two of us are having about "Living Liberally," or organizing the progressive movement by lifestyle and community involvement rather than policy issues.

The podcast is sort of a mash-up of Putnam and Malcolm Gladwell. Its interesting to hear the conservative take on these new (or rather very old) social trends and organizing tactics. Especially since, in some quarters - voter datafile integration of "lifestyle" factors and organizing faith communities - they are way ahead of progressives.