You Have More Power Than You Think

It doesn’t take many of us to change everything

I wanted a Tesla the minute I drove one. The cars were accurately marketed as fast, sporty, and smart. But when Elon Musk flirted with Nazi rhetoric, gutted key government departments, and unleashed a stream of predatory bile on X, I couldn’t keep pretending the man behind Tesla was just “eccentric.” Last weekend I said goodbye to my Model Y.

We hear a lot about the power of marketing. How it can shape choices, drive trends, and, when done right, create brands with an almost gravitational pull. What we hear less often is the other side of that equation – the power of consumers. Selling my Y in protest was a small gesture, but it was one I could do. And that matters.

Photo by Liam Edwards on Unsplash

The Two-Way Dynamic

Users, also known as consumers, citizens, and people, are most often represented as data points or anecdotes. We’re told that 35% of moms prefer a certain peanut butter, or that an executive earned a promotion for choosing the right software vendor. But what we rarely hear is an honest reckoning of users’ power in the marketing relationship.

It’s easy to assume the power dynamic is one-sided with marketing as the boss and users following directions. But that’s not how this type of influence works. Every day, people push back in ways both quiet and deliberate. Recovering alcoholics tune out beer commercials. Parents set screen-time limits to curb their kids’ exposure to digital targeting. Dieters avoid the chip aisle.

Sometimes the resistance comes from personal goals or self-imposed limits, but often people resist marketing to exert control.

Consumers who fear a company is too dominant will redirect their spending, ignoring marketing offers in order to restore competitive balance. Buyers can stop purchasing non-essential items to signal that something has gotten too expensive. When a product update causes a sales drop, consumers are sending a simple message: We don’t like what you’ve done.

These are all acts of resistance. They may not make headlines, but they work. And their power isn’t limited to peanut butter or phone upgrades. They work in politics as well.

The Political Parallel

The political equivalent of a consumer is a voter. The branding strategies are nearly identical, only the products change. Instead of selling shoes or timeshares, political marketing sells beliefs, philosophies, and policies. What they want in return is votes and donations. Of course some care about their constituents and the communities they serve, but the underlying transaction is universal: I sell you my vision and clout; you give me your support.

Because of this, the relationship between political marketing and voters is just as reciprocal as it is in business. Constituents can send signals.

Low turnout among key demographics is a form of protest. So is casting a ballot for a third-party candidate with no real path to victory. And just like consumers, voters can disrupt a party’s financial engine by withholding donations.

Our ability to influence politics isn’t just about shouting the loudest or raising the biggest war chest. Hopefully Musk learned that lesson in Wisconsin. The real power of citizens lies in expressing themselves through their actions.

Political marketers, just like corporate ones, adjust their positions based on what we accept, reject, or ignore.

Right now, we’re seeing evidence that voters of all persuasions (except those who support Trump regardless of what he does), are no longer passively accepting what’s being marketed to them. They’re paying attention.

Town hall meetings across the country are turning tense. Everyday citizens, including people who might have once been brand-loyal Republicans or reliable centrists, are angry about the country’s direction and are openly challenging their representatives.

Traditional Republicans, meanwhile, are watching in shock as their party aligns itself with Russia. The party of Reagan, the party that once prided itself on standing against authoritarian regimes, sided with Russia and North Korea at the UN, echos Russian propaganda in its Ukrainian negotiations, and left Russia untouched in its new tariffs.

Hand’s Off demonstrations gathered millions of Americans across the nation on Apr 5, protesting everything from environmental rollbacks to immigration raids to cuts in civil service. Those notably large crowds paled in comparison to the outcries on social media once the Trump tariffs took effect on Apr 9. By tanking both stocks and bonds simultaneously, the administration managed to alarm nearly everyone except its most die-hard and fact-ignoring supporters.

These increasingly widespread incidents and expressions point to a shift.

The Shift

For years, political marketing has operated on the assumption that voters are predictable. You could segment them, stir up their fear, and target them with texts or emails, and most of the time, they’d behave as expected. But people are starting to break that mold.

They’re less comfortable being locked into categories, and they’re challenging political brands they once aligned with. Liberals are questioning the need for endless regulations, and conservatives are wondering why the government needs to police gender. Democrats are angered at longtime leaders and are searching for new blood, while Republicans openly criticize their party’s leadership at the DOJ, the Department of Defense, and the Treasury.

This shifting behavior can be tracked and quantified. Young people, who have the least to lose and can change direction more quickly than the rest of us, are walking away from Trump. The most recent Economist/YouGov poll shows Trump’s approval rating among voters under 30 has dropped from +5 to -29 points in the few months since his inauguration. Slides this significant rarely reverse course; instead, they grow as they expand to other age cohorts.

A shift like this doesn’t just impact campaigns or election cycles. It forces a recalibration of power. If enough voters reject their party’s direction, that party has to adjust or risk collapse.

From Passive to Active

Dissatisfaction has been a constant in American politics, so signs of it are not surprising. What happens next is the important part. Does this frustration spike and dissipate or does it start turning the gears of real change?

If people like us, who make the whole system function, move beyond dissatisfaction to recognize and exert our power, we’ll start to see politicians adjust their messaging or policies in response.

Pete Buttigieg, Jasmine Crockett, and Governor Janet Mills of Maine are among the early movers in this transformation, with the governor showing some serious spine in asserting, “I have spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weakness….I don’t care what the President says about me. I care what he does for Maine’s people.” AOC and Bernie Sanders drawing tens of thousands to their rallies is similarly notable.

GOP leaders have begun to wake to this shift as well. Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski are starting to consistently point out the Trump administration’s missteps, as Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney have for years.

What scares political marketers most isn’t our dissatisfaction or even our individual outrage. What scares them is defiance repeated at scale. Because when the crowd shifts direction, the brand has no choice but to follow.

Your Turn

While we wait for these shifts to gain ground, we can contribute by taking small actions aligned with our beliefs, like I did when I sold my Tesla. What actions can you take? Here’s a starting list. I’d love it if you’d add more in the Comments section.

1. If a politician texts you asking for $$ without offering clear and concrete steps they’re taking to make your life better, block them. Note: “owning the libs,” or “making MAGA pay,” does not lower the price of anything.

2. Avoid visiting locations whose governing actions threaten your rights. Before planning that vacation to Florida or California, ask if you are happy giving those state governments your money.

3. Yes, listen to the views of those who have a different perspective than you, but don’t hide or disguise your views. Share them freely and be ready to back them up when questioned.

4. Finally, let’s remember the words of that sly instigator, Sheryl Crow, and find some small joy in the real power we hold:

   It’s the best of times
   It’s the worst of times
   Might not change your world
   But I’m changing mine

   The breaking news reports
   Our best days are behind
   But not mine
   Whoa, not mine

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If you’re new here, one of those algorithms probably guided you. In that case, I recommend you confirm who I am, where my expertise lies, and what biases I may bring to my posts. If you want to read more, my foundational post, The Hidden Influence of Branding in American Politics is a good starting point.