remember these:

• Think about why you want to be a candidate.
• List the reasons to vote for you.
• Perfect your candidate profile.
• Define the focus groups of your campaign.
• Think about what kind of campaign reaches and convinces your focus groups.

Candidate Profile and Stakeholders

You will inevitably run into these two questions during the elections:

Why should I vote for a green candidate?
Why should I vote for you?

Which one of these questions is more important? For you, the first questions might be more meaningful for you have chosen to represent and promote green values. For many voters, the second question is, however, more significant because voters are more interested in candidates than they are of political parties. And even though the choice of a political party is important, you need to choose the best candidate from the party in the Finnish election system.

All candidates really put themselves out there. Electoral campaigns are like long job interviews in which all people who are entitled to vote in a specific municipality or electoral district can evaluate the candidate. The criteria are the same as in a job interview: Is the candidate suitable and qualified for the job? We get back to the second question: Why should I vote for you?

What People Expect from a Candidate?

Before you become an electoral candidate, you should think why you want to take part in the elections in the first place? If you don’t know, the voters will not know. Make the reasons clear to yourself right from the start. What ideas and themes you want to advocate in a city council, in the Finnish Parliament, or in the European Parliament? Even though you think that you might not get elected in these elections, it is important to define your goals.

What kind of member of a city council/Member of the Finnish Parliament/Member of the European Parliament would you be?
What areas of politics interest you?
What are the most important political agendas for you?
What fields of politics interest you the most?
What kind of role would you take?

When you have thought about these things, you can tell the answers to the voters. Then we are already talking about building your candidate profile.

Candidate Profile

Building a candidate profile begins by answering these two questions:

1.   What kind of candidate am I in the eyes of the voters?
2.   Who would vote for a candidate like me?

What kind of Candidate am I?

Your candidate profile includes the central themes of your campaign as well as the most essential information of yourself, for instance your gender, age, education, professional expertise, family ties, interests, hobbies, and style. Think about ways to bring these aspects forth in a natural manner, and how you could make yourself as unique candidate as possible.

Don’t overthink your profile. Keep it simple and honest. A candidate profile should be believable but also truthful. You can highlight your best features and leave other traits in the background. Voters create an image of a candidate based on their publicity and electoral campaign. Candidates can use for example interviews, adverts, event, texts et cetera to reassure that they are good decision-makers and that they are promoting important issues.

Your Profile as a Story

One way to outline your profile and set your goals is to make a story out of them. You can describe the following things in your story:

Who am I and where do I come from?
What defines me as a human being?
What is the most important thing to me?
What are my most important political agendas and issues?
What am I passionate about?
What group do I associate myself with most strongly?
What group do I identify with?
What are the most important political values to me? 

Here is one example:

” Candice the Candidate is a 30-year-old mother who lives in the suburbs of a big city. She is academically educated information worker and an active dog enthusiastic. Environmental issues, tolerance, matters of families with children and recreational activities are important to her. She is passionate about good animal treatment and questions pertaining day care issues. Candice’s support groups include her family and friends, but also her coworkers and other acquaintances from her working life, her dog hobby, and the academic community. She identifies herself with people with families that are living in big cities. These people really want to impact their environment but have only minimal time to do anything concrete about it due to work and family. She values equality, tolerance and universal human and animal rights the most. “

Photo

Using a photo in the elections is crucial. If the candidate is wearing a suit and a tie, it creates a whole different image of them than a picture of the candidate in a t-shirt with a picture of a cannabis plant. Is the candidate smiling or are they serious? It is a good idea to use the same official picture in all materials so that people learn to recognize you. You can use additional photos for example in social media and electronic brochures to tell more about you as a person.

Title

Another important and visible element in all campaign materials is your title. You should report your occupation or title for the official candidate list. You can usually pick titles more freely for your poster as a candidate of the Greens depending on which municipality you live in. Think about what kind of title best describes you. Are you for example Master of Political Sciences, Council Member, Stay-at-home Dad or Union Activist?

slogan

An electoral slogan crystallizes the essence and political agenda of the candidate. It is their story in a compact form. A good slogan is short, memorable, and clear; usually two or three words are enough. Slogan should not be a joke, but not too rigid either. Efficient slogans have motion, drive, humor, lively adjectives, and values presented in new and existing ways. If the candidate has a certain image or they are already known, it can be utilized in the forming of the slogan. If they already have a good slogan, it might be a good idea to keep using it. If, on the other hand, they cannot come up with a slogan, they should not try to force it. You can campaign without one too.

You have made good progress when you have come up with a slogan, written out your profile into a story and thought about the political themes that go with it. It is then time to plan practical action: concrete communication and marketing choices.

looks

The look of your brochures, web sites, and other materials tell a lot about you as a candidate. The most essential feature of them is their color. Green, for instance, is a natural color for a green candidate. Many voters choose their candidate from a specific party. It is then arguably a good idea to keep to the colors of the party. However, if you wish to use some other color, think carefully what the color tells about yourself. Is red, blue, or maybe orange a good color for your profile? Also remember to keep the party logo visible on all your materials, particularly, if you choose to use other colors than greens. 

Note that the product you are selling during the elections is you. The appearance of your brochures reveals much about you as a person. Do not hide behind your themes. Your name and photo should take more space on brochure than your slogan. 

Themes

Campaign themes are extremely important. However, they are always connected to the profile of a specific candidate. There are multiple issues that Green candidates would like to improve, but you can only have one or a couple of them as the focus of your campaign. The candidate should be able speak about these focus themes naturally, believably, and with expertise. It is crucial that the themes are important and suitable for the candidate. In most cases, candidates find their focus themes for example through their occupation, hobby, or life situation.

skills and expertise

You need to have suitable skills and expertise to create a convincing candidate image. Every candidate should be able to deliver a competent picture of themselves to their voters. People should be able to see you working in a city council, the Finnish Parliament, or the European Parliament. 

Capable and professional candidate knows at least these things:

– Election program, agenda, and themes of the Greens.
– Activities of the Greens in candidate’s own electoral district.
– Municipal, national or EU-level decision-making criteria (depending on the election)
– Opinions and answers to most central topics of the elections

Expertise arises from well considered answers. It is advisable to add well-thought reasoning behind your answers in voting advice applications. People often read them, and they are free advertising of your skills and expertise. You should also have some longer texts about your opinions on your web sites, in addition to shorter claims and demands. Moreover, it is worthwhile to shape your themes into concrete goals.

It is also important to think about whether you are an expert in your own field or are a so-called expert by experience. Are you communicating through facts or values? Do you wish to be seen as an expert or as someone the voters can easily identify with?

Most often the best way is to convey something between these. Try to be reliable, plausible, and at the same time someone that voters can identify with. Tell for example something personal about yourself to the voters. It is then easier for them to identify with you.

Who votes for a candidate like me?

When you have figured out what kind of candidate you are in the eyes of the voters, you can also think about who votes for a candidate like yourself. What is your target audience like?

What features impact the choice of a candidate?

– Age
– Gender
– Where you live
– Education and occupation
– Political experience 

There are various focus groups of different sizes. When you are choosing yours, take the following into consideration:

•   Don’t choose too many focus groups. Two or three focus groups are enough. 
•   The chosen focus groups should somehow be connected to the candidate. When you are choosing a focus group, think about how they see you and would they accept you as one of their own?
•   A good focus group is not too wide (for example “women” or “all people in a specific city”)
•   A good focus group is not too narrow either (for example “one-eyed lumberjacks who live in Huhtasuo”).

For example “students”, ”dog enthusiast”, ”pensioners”, ”athletes”, or “culture activists” are possible focus groups. Citizens of specific parts of a larger city or municipality can also form a good focus group. The candidate should show their focus groups that they are concerned and interested in their matters and that they are part of the same group. The candidate can use their own profile and electoral themes to do so. 

You also find specific focus groups with niche marketing for instance in trade journals, web sites, or through organizations and unions.

A candidate who has run before, should make sure that their campaign can reach their old voters. The goal is that the voters recognize the familiar candidate and think that they are still worthy of their vote. The candidate should not irritate the old voters or core focus groups by introducing foreign themes for them without a good reason.

Only after you have defined the message of your campaign and chosen your focus groups, you can start to think about media choices and for instance where you wish to carry out your street campaign. The candidate needs to be visible in the environment of their focus groups and other possible voters.