Unmasking Marxist Marketing

The 'Left' are winning! But why? Here I explain their very modern marketing techniques.

I think I’ve now got a handle on how modern-day Marxists are marketing their wares! This is important. If we can understand Marxists’ marketing, we come closer to devising how to counteract the Marxist agenda. This we need to do.

The Marxist agenda is old. As explained in my articles on modern-day Marxism the Marxists agenda targets the destruction of capitalism through the stirring up of constant revolution. It’s as straight forward as that! They want to tear things down. Destroy!

What I’ve investigated and reported on is the updated format, presentation and arguments modern day Marxists are now applying.

Photo by Kobby Mendez on Unsplash

What the Marxists of the current era have done is the wrapping up of their revolutionary agenda inside social and political issues that are causing big tensions in society. They have masked their agenda/s inside other issues. Palestine/Hamas is the current inflammatory issue but think trans/ LGBTIA and others!

I realised a core of their marketing technique in attending Marxism Conference 2023 and 2024. I’ll explain that further below.

But pennies ‘dropped’ when Mark Blair sent me some insights in the last few days. Mark is the one I’ve (affectionally) called an ‘old commie.’ I featured his highly incisive insights into the history and thinking of Marxists in my recent Substack post Old to New – Marxist Renewal. This has had high readership.

What Mark has now sent me is revealing. It exposes a key aspect of the modern Marxists marketing techniques. Let me explain. 

Product Placement

Here’s a link to a recent Twitter post of a SkyNews report on pro-Palestine demonstrations in the USA. Mark said to look at time post 0:04 and 2:00 in the video. Here’s what I found.

Look closely at the yellow poster at 0:04 and note the black stripe at the bottom. Poster at 2:00 is clear with the tag A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition. 

Now look at this from Australia. This is another SkyNews report this time on a Trans/LGBTIA demonstration.

Look at the bottom of 2:28 where it reads socialist.alliance.org and 2:46 (the left side banner) reads Socialist Alternative

Here’s another one from the Free Palestine facebook page.

Again, you’ll see the tag Socialist Alternative.

What is on display is ‘advertising.’ Yes ‘advertising’. And in advertising parlance this particular style of advertising is called ‘product placement.’

You’ll have seen product placement advertising heaps of times when watching movies, although you are likely not to have consciously registered that its advertising. You’ll have seen the star of the movie drinking from a can of (say) Cola done within the context of the story line. It’s supposed to and mostly does register subconsciously. This is powerful. Because when you feel thirsty and are looking for a drink, your subconscious triggers a memory and association to the brand of Cola.   

Now apply the product placement concept within demonstration activity. A demonstration is actually just theatre and when viewed on TV and so forth it’s just another ‘movie’.

Consider what a demonstration (theatre/movie) is. It’s action. It’s drama. It’s people united in passionate anger about something and that something is (always) the fault of some other group of people (drama!). There’s often violence (action) against the demonstrators (police or others) making the demonstrators appear as ‘victims’ (pathos). What the demonstrators chant about is almost irrelevant to the product placement, marketing opportunity.

The viewer of the demonstration (theatre/movie), whether an on-the-spot observer at the demonstration or watching on TV, phone or other has a reaction. The conscious focus is on the drama and action, but the subconscious registers the brand Socialist Alternative, Socialist Alliance, Answer Coalition or other.

Each of these ‘brands’ are in fact the brand of the organisers of the demonstrations.  Socialist Alternative (etc) are effectively like movie/theatre producers, directors, publicists and so on. That’s the ‘business’ they are in. They are highly professional organisers of demonstrations. And they don’t do this for no reason. They are selling something. They are selling themselves. They want people to join them. They want people to become Marxists and join them.

This is what’s happening in these demonstrations from a marketing perspective. Socialist Alternative, Socialist Alliance and (in the USA) ANSWER Coalition  are all Marxists activist organisations marketing/selling membership. But they provide a business service (demonstration organisation) to support the membership drives. I explain this in more detail below.

(Here’s ANSWER Coalition’s banner from their US website home page. April 2024. Note the visual connection made between Palestine and the traditional Marxist theme of ‘workers.’)

But I’ll focus on Socialist Alternative because they were/are the organisers of Marxism Conference (2023,2024 etc) where I’ve had direct experience.

Target audience

All marketing/selling is first about identifying target audiences. A business doesn’t market/sell to everyone. Car manufacturers produce and market cars to specific population groups based on profiling such as income, sex, geographic location, age, interests, biases, political orientation and so on. Enormous amounts of money and research are expended on identifying such groups. Take this example. I knew a fellow who purposely bought a car that would not make a ‘statement’ about him. He discovered that the car he bought was specifically designed for people who wanted a car that didn’t make a ‘statement!’ Ha!

Socialist Alternative (and the others) are doing the same thing. They market segment. They identify people groups who could profile as potential members.

In Socialist Alternative’s Statement of Principles they identify their target audiences as those suffering from oppression who are disabled, and/or young, and/or elderly, and/or LGBTIA/trans, and/or refugees, and/or indigenous and/or so on. It’s a pretty big list. But it’s still profiling for marketing and market segmentation purposes. 

But the targeting also includes people who might not be in one of these groups but who might image persons who are suffering and in these profile groups and empathise with them.

The Marxist Business Model

Now we can see how the Marxists’ business model works.

Marxists groups (Socialist Alternative etc) run demonstration/theatre production companies. When a suitable issue erupts, currently Gaza for example, Socialist Alternative is at the ready to organise demonstrations.

Demonstrations are big efforts involving marshalling, supplying banners, load speakers, communication systems and more, coordinating with police and government bodies on rally routes and security, and most importantly organising mainstream and social-media coverage. These activities require professional efforts by people who know what they are doing and have the experience, connections, and knowledge to organise properly.

So, what happens is that, today the big issue is Gaza. Several months ago, it was trans. In several weeks/months it might be renters’ rights. The list goes on. Socialist Alternative flip between any issue that has immediate currency.

With each of these issues there are groups of people who are passionate and inflamed about the specific issue and are not Marxists. For example, certain middle eastern communities are incensed by events in Gaza. Segments of the trans and LGBTI communities are impassioned about their mistreatment. What Socialist Alternative do is respond to each issue as it hots up and move in to provide the resources and expertise to organise demonstrations/theatre.

Each ‘oppressed’ group don’t necessarily have demonstration/theatre organising systems permanently in place. They may be able to organise large groups of passionate people/demonstrators quickly, (as is currently witnessed over Gaza) but once those issues die down so does their organisational capacity dwindle. Socialist Alternative, however, has a permanent organisational infrastructure that can be enlivened quickly and dedicated to the issue that is ‘hot.’ The quid pro quo is that Socialist Alternative can prominently ‘product place’ their brand.

This process enables Socialist Alternative to become involved with groups and individuals who are not Marxists or interested in Marxism and introduce Marxism and Socialist Alternative to them.

What then happens is that Socialist Alternative conduct membership ‘spotting’ activities.

‘Spotting’

‘Spotting’ (a term I use) is a marketing technique I’ve witnessed several times. The most recent I observed were at Marxism Conferences 2023 and 2024. 

Quite often you may see advertising for ‘get quick rich’ schemes. This may involve ‘investment’ offers in some new product, invention or other. They may offer an investment or business training program. Often the products are genuine. Often, they can be forms of pyramid selling.

A standard technique is to invite people to a ‘free’ seminar to ‘discover’ secrets from an investment or other ‘guru.’ If you attend the seminar, you’ll sit in a large room with other attendees. The ‘guru’ is introduced with some fanfare and excitement. The guru then spruiks the wonders of the ‘secret to success!’ Unbeknown to the attendees, they are being watched by ‘spotters.’ These are people from the ‘get rich quick’ business who watch the body language responses of the attendees to the guru’s spiel. Once the spiel is done and the guru leaves, the spotters move in on the people who displayed interested responses and the sales pitch proceeds.

Photo by Product School on Unsplash

The pitch is one-on-one between the spotter and the target in which the spotter engenders more excitement around the product and seeks to ‘bond’ with the target. The object is to get the target to ‘sign on the dotted line’ committing to purchase the product.  

This is exactly what I saw in operation at Marxism Conferences 2023 and 2024. In every session it was clear that Socialist Alternative members were present. Over three days these SA members would watch reactions of attendees. The SA members would move in and ‘befriend’ likely targets. I was approached several times by SA members, but they quickly worked out that I wasn’t a prospect.

Here was the ‘spotting’ technique on display at the conferences. And that’s when the penny dropped with me about what the Marxism Conference were/are all about. Discussion about Marxism was/is the context, but the conferences are primarily marketing events.

The same thing occurs at demonstrations. Socialist Alternative members actively participate in the demonstrations and associated activities. They buddy up with other participants searching for ‘targets’ who can be ‘sold’ the Marxist agenda and membership of Socialist Alternative.

But more, in these days of active social media, Socialist Alternative monitor social media traffic related to the demonstrations. They use social media algorithms and so on looking to ‘spot’ likely individuals who can be ‘sold’ on the Marxist agenda and Socialist Alternative membership.

Damn good marketing

There’s nothing sinister about this marketing operation of Socialist Alternative, and their fellow traveller organisations. In fact, what they are doing is impressive and highly sophisticated.

It’s so good, that’d Id speculate that numbers of the people involved in Socialist Alternative and so on, hold highly paid jobs in marketing companies and large corporations and government entities. Their ‘day job’ involves designing and implementing marketing of soap, beverages, services and so on for corporate or government entities! Their ‘love’ job involves designing and implementing marketing of Marxism and Socialist Alternative. But that’s just my speculation!

Yes, Socialist Alternative still do the old-fashioned stuff like working in unions and using union resources to stir up traditional class warfare wherever they can. Marxism Conference 2024 had sessions by Socialist Alternative members who are union officials. They reported on their union activities. But trade union membership in Australia has collapsed to around 12 percent of the workforce with the future looking even dimmer. The biggest number of union members are over 55 years of age, comprising around 20 percent of that workforce demographic. That is, unionism is literally on a membership death trajectory.

Socialist Alternative are very intelligent in recognising the changed environment and adapting their organisation and marketing strategies to survive, grow and succeed in a changed marketplace.

And Socialist Alternative are succeeding. This is evidenced by Socialist Alternative’s success in setting up the Victorian Socialist Party in 2018. And then achieving 8 percent of the first preference votes in 11 of the state seats at the 2022 Victorian state election.

I contend that their voter success in Victoria at least is a direct outcome of their highly effective marketing as I’ve described above. Particularly the product placement at demonstrations triggers a subconscious response for a quantity of voters in the privacy of the polling booth. It’s no different from feeling thirsty and having a subconscious response to a particular brand of Cola. The word ‘socialist’ has become subconsciously familiar equating to passion and causes to which some voters respond. At the 2022 Victorian state election that number was close to 50,000 voters. Expect that number to grow.  

Learnings.

What Socialist Alternative has done and is doing, is to apply modern marketing techniques in a free-market, capitalist economy to their product. Their product is Marxism. I suspect that these marketing techniques are also being used globally by other Marxist organisations.

For those of us who see massive danger in the Marxist agenda, as I do, it’s essential that we recognise the modern Marxists marketing techniques. We need to learn from them if we are to learn to counteract them. Let’s be truthful to ourselves. Currently we are flummoxed and flailing.