Mark Wnek: A simple new strategy for the Conservatives

Looking at the dire state of the Conservative Party, it strikes me that applying some of the fundamental precepts that we in the advertising industry apply to the revitalisation of brands and products is precisely what the Tories need right now. To the outsider, aka the voter, the party is an irrelevant, directionless mess. For Iain Duncan Smith to say, as he said to David Frost last Sunday, that there is no magic wand bodes ill. I believe that there is a magic wand: it is a consumer-focused, benefit-driven communications strategy, single-mindedly and attractively executed.

The basic rules of communications strategy are: define your target market; decide what you want them to take out; and decide how you say it. The lifeblood of my business is focusing on the consumer by defining and redefining target markets. I do this by going out and talking and listening to people. A lot. This is square one for all communication. Yet I can think of no organisation – commercial, political or otherwise – that seems to be as uninterested in what real people think and feel as the current Conservative Party.

I've recently been doing focus groups with people of all ages who don't vote, a growing number. Contrary to party political lore, these people are far from apathetic. Most of them took part in one or other of the recent marches in London. They are incredibly interested in all manner of issues, from the economy to health, from education to Wall Street and Iraq. Many of these people hold views that aren't a million miles away from those of Conservative activists.

They're just sitting there waiting to be turned into Tory voters. In order to get them, the party's strategists have to focus on their dreams and illustrate how they can be of benefit to them. The Conservative Party used to understand this in the halcyon days when Charlie and Maurice Saatchi and Tim Bell had clout in the party.

The brand leader, Labour, understands communication. The Labour Party is a highly professional organisation. They understand that old-style party politics are dead. That's why they've stolen most of the Tories' ideas and much of their substance. They've also borrowed from the Liberal Democrats, the Americans and even the Beatles. And, like any professionally run brand, they've done so in a way that does not compromise core values, but, rather, rephrases them for the modern world.

They've then gone on to do what all successful brands do: encapsulate the complex soup of their vision and values in a single user-friendly, even moron-friendly, idea. Their idea is powerful, deadly, unbeatable. Also it's tried and tested because brands and products have been using it since brands and products began.The idea is new. New Labour.

If I were the Tory brand guardian, I would strongly recommend that new also needs to be its clarion call. The brand desperately needs to evolve in order to become relevant and attractive with a clear definition of its benefit to the voter. I would suggest something like "You don't need to be conservative to vote Tory". The fact is that nobody under the age of 93 who doesn't own a country estate is interested in being called conservative. Here's my slogan: New Tories, New Story. I would make new the centrepiece of every single utterance and communication.

In the early 1080s, I helped Guinness to come back to life in a steeply declining market partly by coining the phrase "Guinness, Pure Genius". This dark stout was something that was being drunk almost exclusively by Irish labourers and engineering students. I cast an enigmatic actor called Rutger Hauer, fresh from his success in Ridley Scott's movie Blade Runner. More than anything it was Rutger Hauer who made Guinness cool again. I have also had a lot of success with the late great Nigel Hawthorne and Tom Conti selling the Vauxhall Astra. Recently Richard E Grant has been packing them in at Argos.

In the 21st century, the spokesperson personifies and embodies the brand. This is something that commerce has long understood. It is as useless fighting the onset of presidential-style politics as it is bemoaning the power of the media: modern people in that shrinking space in their brain reserved for politics only have room for one face.

We brand-obsessives watched the Tories' last selection process with amazement: here's a Labour leader with perhaps one Achilles heel: he's a bit of a goody goody. The missed opportunity for casting a foil to this choirboy, someone rugged and real, someone you could have a pint with, someone with passion, guts and substance – namely Kenneth Clarke – staggered us. Sadly Mr Clarke, it seems, was tripped up by that abiding Tory obsession with small print. Something to do with Europe, as if anyone outside that party's inner core cares.

The Conservative Party needs to bring a crucial product to market. That product is, of course, the Conservative Party in power. Twenty years of experience in casting had convinced me that Ken Clarke was the only person capable of breaching the current wall of apathy blocking Tory voters. If only Ken were new; what they need is the new Ken. Or failing that, Rutger Hauer.

mark.wnek@eurorscg.co.uk

The writer is chairman of the advertising agency Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper