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Full Circle applies firsthand knowledge, corporate marketing to political campaigns

By Joe Boomgaard | MSS
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Todd Mellema, left, and T.J. Carnegie, right, of Full Circle Marketing and Design, started Full Circle Political Marketing to help political candidates realize the most bang for their campaign dollars. PHOTO: JOE BOOMGAARD

GRAND RAPIDS — Politicians pour their hearts and money into their campaigns, but too often skimp on marketing, hurting their chances of getting noticed.

That realization was at the heart of the recent creation of Full Circle Political Marketing, an offshoot of Full Circle Marketing and Design, a Grand Rapids-based marketing communications and graphic design firm.

“Candidates throw their whole lives into this for eight months, and whether you agree or disagree with them, I feel bad if they’re not getting their message out,” said Todd Mellema, principal of Full Circle. “They either do it effectively or they’ll be ignored.”

The decision to start the political marketing company came after the firsthand experience of one company president T.J. Carnegie ran for office.

Based on his experience, Full Circle had inside knowledge of a campaign that it could link to its core competency of marketing and design.That’s a lesson that can be applied to any business ­— it’s best to have intimate knowledge of a subject before providing a good or a service, or suggesting advice. Carnegie and Mellema said Carnegie’s run in 2008 helped them craft how they deal with clients today.

“First and most important, like any other business situation, you need to understand the client and the district, and the message they’re trying to portray to the constituent,” Carnegie told Main Street Strategies. “It’s a real partnership that goes into it. Once we understand the strengths, weaknesses and the district, we can help them project the message in the best way.”

“As with corporate marketing, you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole,” said Mellema. “The client or the candidate can’t be Mr. Online if they’re not comfortable with Facebook and Twitter.”

Companies, like candidates, can’t be something they’re not or else the public will see right through them, they said. Therefore, it’s important to be true to oneself and plan a marketing campaign that plays off strengths that resonate with the audience, versus fitting the product to a message it might not fit with. In a sense, it’s as disingenuous for a pro-choice candidate to change his or her stance to fit an anti-abortion message as it is for a polluting company to practice green washing.

“We will not change the message based on the audience,” Mellema said. “But we will give the audience the message they care about. The thing we try to do with our clients is clearly articulate their value proposition. If it’s a candidate, it’s what do you believe and how can we say it in a way people will understand?”

These days, that means putting a message out in a mixture of traditional and new media that best suits the audience, based on geographical and demographical differences. Importantly, Carnegie said marketing campaigns need to be planned strategically, tracked, and analyzed for effectiveness, a tenet that holds true for any of Full Circle’s clients.

Full Circle, now approaching one decade in business, works with clients spanning the gamut from large consumer products companies to universities and hospitals and small businesses. Carnegie said regardless of the size of the company or contract, the team strives to bring tactics worthy of corporate America to any scale project.

Diversification is important in any industry and explains part of the reason why Full Circle went into the political arena, Mellema said.

“Part of this is diversification, part of it is seeing a need,” he said. “I hate bad marketing, and every election cycle, it drives me nuts. If a candidate is going to spend $3,000 to get something printed and get it sent out to 10,000 people and it’s junk, why not spend a little more money and have it be good? That’s not what the candidates are thinking about.”

To date, a dozen campaigns from state and local races have signed on with Full Circle Political Marketing, and the team is working with a handful of candidates on logo design. Since Mellema and Carnegie are both Republicans, their clients are also Republicans, although Mellema said the team is working with some non-partisan issue-based campaigns.

“It’s a great mix, and we enjoy marketing and working with people,” Carnegie said. “We understand and realize that we’re helping  to have strong leadership elected in this state. Ultimately, that will help the communities and business owners in the state.” MSS

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