Ronald Reagan the 40th President of the United States

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6th 1911 in Tampico, Illinois his Parents are Nelle and John Reagan, he has one older Brother named Neill. He attended and finished High School in his Hometown Dixon. After that he attended Eureka College in order to get a Degree in economics and sociology. During his College time he played in the school football Team and also acted in school Plays. After finishing College in 1932 he worked as a Radio Sports Announcer in several Places until he was hired by WHO in Des Moines to announce baseball Games for the Chicago Cubes. During the traveltime with the Chicago Cubes he took part in a screen Test which was awarded with a 7-Year-Contract by Warner Bros Hollywood. In the Next two decades he played in over 50, mostly so called B-Movies. He married twice, his first marriage with Jane Wyman ended 1949 by divorce, they had two Children Maureen and Michael Reagan (adopted). With his second wife, Nancy Reagan, he had also 2 Kids Patti Davis and Ron Reagan, their marriage held until his death, at the age of 93, at June 5 in 2004.(see Figures 1 & 2 below) Both of his Wifes were actresses and he was the first President which was divorced. Figure 1, Reagen and his 1st Wife Jane Figure 2, Reagan and his 2nd wife Nacy

He also served in the Armed Forces as a member of the Air Force from 1937 to 1945, he was not active in the World War II he stayed in the States in order to make over 400 Promotion Videos, his last Rank was Captain.

He started his political Career as a Democrat but during the 1950´s to 1960`s, as a worker for General Electrics, he developed more conservative sites and was therefore more attracted by the Republican Site. The following statements accompanied his entire political life: limited governement, lower taxes, anticommunism and free markets. He stated the following for his reason to change: „ I didn`t leave the democratic Party, the party left me.“[1] Before becoming the 40th President of the United States of America he was the Governor of California from 1967 to 1975, during this time he try to apply twice for the presidental candidate, but unfortunately finished both times second. His 3rd attempt in 1980 was succesful and he found himself in a race against the current President James Carter, which he won by one of the largest projections in the History with about 91% to 9% in electoral votes. (see figure 3 & 4,below)

Figure 3, State-by-State Results[2]Figure 4, Electoral Votes

He took office on January 21st in 1981 as the oldest President inaugurated at the age of nearly seventy. Sixty-nine Days after taking office he was shot by a would-be Assassin but quickly recovered and returned to Duty. This brought him a growing popularity because people were impressed through his grace and wit overcoming the accident.

His greatest success during his first period as President was to stimulate economic growth, increase employment and rigorously opposing the soviets by strengthen national defense through inventing a missile defense system against the threat of long-term missiles, he also managed to have a tax reduction and a huge reform package. This was very succesful for the American Economy but the United States are still struggeling with huge deficits today. Reagan managed to increase his election Numbers again by his re-election in 1984 to the highest ever in the american History of presidental Elections to 98% against 2% in electoral votes.(see figure 5) His Opponent Walter Mondale managed only to win 2 States, his Home State Minnesota and Washington D.C. During the time as President his Vice President was Goerge H.W. Bush, who became President of the United States in 1989 until 1993.

Figure 4, Election Sheet 1984

Ronald Reagan died at the Age of 93 at the 5th of July 2004 in Bel Air, California. He wrote in a Letter from 1994 that he has beeen diagnosed with Alzheimer.[3] Also his Son Ron mentioned that his Father maybe had the first Stages of his disease during his time as President.

II.Analysis with PESTLE, SWOT
and Marketing Mix

Pestle Analysis

| Description |
Political | – many scandals, e.g. Watergate, 1979 in Iran with hostages at the American Embassy – America was no longer the most Powerful Country in the world – Era of Cold War and the Vietnam War, where the U.S. supported South Vietnam lost and was occupied by North Vietnam | Economical | – slow economical growth – stagnating incomes – revolts against taxes | Social | – urban disorder – Student radicalism – Tumult of racist Conflicts | Technological | – development of Media Industry – many new Broadcast Networks and Series, e.g. CNN, Fox, Bill Crosby Show, M.A.S.H. – more live Presentations – Rise of Computer Industry, Apple & IBM from 750K in 1981 to 39.4 Million in 1988 – more and more Print Journalism → reach new Markets[4] | Legal | – more Immigrants |

Enviromental | – increase in Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide and average Temprature (see Figures 5-7) |

Figure 5, Average U.S. Temperatures 1900-2000Figure 6, Carbon Dioxide Concentration 1959-2010 Figure 7, Average Global Tempratures from 1880-2010[5]

Swot Analysis

| Description |
Strength | – presence at the Media through life as an Actor – education, Degree in Economy & Sociology – „the Great Communicator“ – Family Man even though he has been divorced | Weaknesses | – his switching from Democrat to Republican – maybe to radical in his economy plans | Opportunities | – make America powerful again by overcoming the recent setbacks – overcome the economy issues – the American People craved for a strong man | Threaths | – the soviet Union and outcome of the Cold War – lose contact to younger Generation because of his Age

Marketing Mix

| Description |
Product | – Ronald Reagan and his conservative republican way | Price | – Votes of the people to become 40th President | Place | – the United States of America |
Promotion | – his main Slogan for the election 1980 was „Are you better off than you were 4 Years ago“[6] – his main Slogan for 1984 was „It´s morning again in America“ |

Here are some examples of his slogans for the Elections 1980 & 1984.

III. Marketing Tools used before 1990

What were marketing tools before 1990? Let me show you some examples.

Most of the Marketing tools before 1990 were Pins, Wallpapers and Flyers. Why? Seems pretty logical, because you can see them everywhere in the Streets at Shops, at Billboards and the people who pinned them on their clothes. So they have been pretty much everywhere during the election campaigns. In the 1970-1980 there was a huge rise in the Industry for Computer, Radio and Television. The average Number of Radio used at home was 5.5, according to this you have been heard at almost every home in America. This was also a great adavantage of Ronald Reagen because of his past as an Radio Announcer an Actor he developed his voice to be more charming and nice to hear. There have also been two TV-Debates for the 3rd time in History which many people followed.

IV. Examples for Content Shaped with Online Marketing

If you think of how easy it is nowadays to post something on facebook or twitter and how many people you can reach with this statements compared to the time before 1990, were you have to fight hard for every single Person in order to get his vote, its amazing. For example Barack Obama has over 30 millions people who liked his facebook page and over 20 Million people who follow him on Twitter compared to over 43 million people who voted Ronald Reagan to President 1980 and nearly 54.5 million in 1984. Of course you cannot compare these number head to head because of the population number back in 1980, who was estimated 230 million to 2012 315 million. What i want to show is, that you have a huge advantage if you use the power of media today in order to reach people and to convince them of your political views and statements. Back in 1980 the spoken word was more powerful than it is today. Today I think the written word is more important because nearly everyboday has access to the internet and can find what you said in the last hours, days, weeks and months.

The Question is would Ronald Reagan have had the chance to become President nowadays? If you think about that he was nearly 70 years when he was inaugurated. I would say if he would have had a good marketing manager to make his Political views open to the younger generation and more present to the media today then there would be a chance. To sum up I would like to mention the greatest achievements of Ronald Reagan during his Time as the President of the United States. He won the Cold War against the soviet Union and he made America great again. He was able to manage tax cutes and overcome the huge inflation numbers from the 1970´s and also decreased the unempolyment and increased the economy numbers after stagnation in the 1970´s. This would have been not possible if he would not have been „the Great Communicator“[7] that he was designated and his handling with the media. He was one the most popular Presidents of the United States overall and the most popular after the World War II. (see Figure 8 below) America wanted a strong President after James Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon and that is excatly what he was.

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/reagan_ronald_w.shtml
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reaganomics.html

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-Ronald-Reagan-Seen-as-Best-President-since-World-W-2008-02.pdf
http://history.journalism.ku.edu/1980/pdf/american_decades_1980-1989.pdf American Decades 1970-1979 by Victor Bondi, A Manly Inc. Book
http://www.newsbatch.com/environment.htm

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-06/news/28534806_1_40th-president-president-ronald-reagan-hollywood-and-washington
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/us/ronald-reagan-dies-at-93-fostered-cold-war-might-and-curbs-on-government.html
http://www.presidentsusa.net/campaignslogans.html

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/alzheimerletter.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894529_1894528_1894518,00.html
http://uspoliticsguide.com/US-Politics-Directory/Historical-Presidential-Election-Results/1980-Presidential-Election-Results.php
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3914-2004Jun24.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ronaldreagan

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[ 1 ]. Time Specials 1962, The Crist Switch: Top 10 Political Defections [ 2 ]. http://www.historycentral.com/elections/1980state.html [ 3 ]. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/alzheimerletter.html [ 4 ]. American Decades 1970-1979 & 1980-1989, by Victor Bondi, A Manly Inc. Book, Pages 366 -386 and 431-444 http://history.journalism.ku.edu/1980/pdf/american_decades_1980-1989.pdf [ 5 ]. According to: http://www.newsbatch.com/environment.htm and http://www.eoearth.org/article/Global_warming?topic=49491

[ 6 ]. According to:http://www.presidentsusa.net/campaignslogans.html [ 7 ]. According to:http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-06/news/28534806_1_40th-president-president-ronald-reagan-hollywood-and-washington [ 8 ]. According to:http://www.ibtimes.com/ronald-reagan-voted-americas-best-president-world-war-ii-whos-worst-411594