Click on Democracy
By Steve Davis, Larry Elin and Grant Reeher
295pp. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. $27.50.

As we gear up for another fun-filled election season, it is interesting to see how the Internet has changed the way we do so many things -- including politics. The art of marketing a candidate has been honed and perfected over the years to the point that good political commercials are as slick as any advertising. As the father of one presidential candidate quipped a few decades ago, "We're going to package Jack like soap flakes."

Focusing solely on the power of the Internet to influence elections, three academics have joined forces to examine the last big election in 2000. In Click on Democracy, the authors assert that the interactive nature of the Internet can elevate the political dialogue above the mundane sound bite into the more substantial discourse possible with the Internet byte. Somehow that may have been more wishful thinking than anything else, especially during the poisoned political atmosphere that prevailed three years ago, but the lessons they draw are instructive.

While the authors spend a good deal of time discussing the obvious ways that the Internet can impact the political process, especially by building communities and disseminating information, the aspect of particular interest to marketers will undoubtedly be advertising.

The same techniques used by small and big businesses alike to sell books and CDs online will also, it seems, work for pushing other fungible goods like candidates. Chalk up another one for technology.

In particular, e-mail marketing proved more effective than banner advertising when trying to raise funds or locate volunteers. And that should come as no surprise.

E-mail is more interactive, personal and intrusive than Web ads. It allows marketers and retailers to "get in front of" customers and prospects in a more concrete and forceful way. Recipients have to deal with e-mail messages, even if it means eyeing the subject line and then pushing the delete button. At the very least, candidates, like merchants, can be assured their advertising message "headlines" will be seen by likely voters.

By using e-mail -- especially HTML-formatted messages -- the political machine can stay "in front" of their electorate. Instead of waiting for a curious voter to visit a candidate's Web site, e-mail can be used to bring the site to the citizen. In fact, HTML and rich e-mail technologies effectively push a Web page into a user's e-mail box.

Even in these spam-ridden times, people pay some attention to their e-mail, and provided they don't delete it unread, e-mail messages are more likely to receive focused consideration than a banner ad. And with improved list management techniques, the targeting for e-mail campaigns can often be just as good as those for traditional direct mail. Of course, the number of qualified e-mail leads is invariably smaller, but the response rate is generally higher.

In the end, everyone knows that television advertising will still garner the vast majority of campaign spending. Undoubtedly effective and pervasive, television also plays into the desire of every candidate to see themselves as often as possible. But the game is slowly changing and no savvy politician, or retailer for that matter, can afford to ignore the Internet.

Let's hope they have something to say.