占领华尔街运动将向何处去？

发表时间：2011-10-16 12:20

看到这个周末一个月前从美国爆发的“占领华尔街运动”已经席卷了全球，不仅在美国各地，在欧洲各个主要城市也引发了大规模的游行集会的一系列新闻报道，让我想起60年代在美国那影响了一代人，最后导致美国从越南撤军的反战大游行。

呼喊着“我们代表99％”、“华尔街需为一切危机负责”、“将金钱踢出选举”、“要工作，不要战争”、“重塑美国”等口号，目标直指华尔街毫无节制的贪婪、美国政府不负责任的放纵，以及民生维艰的萧条现状。示威者将不满的怒火喷向深陷贫富悬殊、金权交易、党派恶斗、战争泥淖的美国政治经济制度和社会体系。表达着他们要求“改变美国不公平不合理的政治经济制度”这一明确的政治诉求。

不过，看到在一些城市的示威游行引发的纵火，抢劫，暴乱，也让人深思，这场运动将向何处去，最终会达到什么样的后果？

有人说这只是一些乌合之众的小打小闹，成不了气候？我倒不这么看。

从这场运动的影响范围越来越广，参与人数越来越多；从前两天很多共和党候选人对这场运动的贬低和攻击，到这两天的纷纷改口；从纽约市被迫收回周五对占领华尔街运动的清场令，到麻省州长去探望这些抗议者；从美国将在今年12月 31日从伊拉克彻底撤军。。。我看到了这场运动的潜在威力，我看到了它对美国大选，对政府及两党政策的可能影响。。。

当然，如何掌握火候，控制这场运动的方向，让它不仅仅是一个泄怒的场所，不只是为了在媒体前露露噱头，不让它被少数人操纵变成一场暴乱，而是把它成为一场和平，持久，觉有影响力的运动，让更多的人参与进来，也是对这场运动发起者和组织者的挑战。

今天旧金山记事报有一篇文章“How Occupy can survive winter of discontent”，对运动的发起者和组织者提出了以下一些建议。

Sustaining a movement
Leadership first
Message clarity
Call to action

我想如果这场运动的发起和组织者真能做到以上几点，有明确的领导和组织结构，有统一的目标和行动纲领，这场轰轰烈烈的民主运动就能在大选之年，为早日结束战争，减少金权交易，党派恶斗，贫富差距，为改变美国不公平不合理的政治经济制度发挥一定的作用。

《How Occupy can survive winter of discontent》

By: Kathleen Pender, Chronicle Columnist

If the protesters occupying Wall Street and other locales want to achieve something beyond media attention, they might take some advice from America's branding and marketing gurus.

I know that's asking a lot from a movement inspired by the anticapitalist, anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters. It's like asking a teenager to get fashion tips from her mother.

But the principles of marketing are the same "if you are trying to sell Coca-Cola or a new idea," says Russ Meyer, chief strategy officer with branding firm Landor Associates.

Meyer and other experts say the movement needs strong, credible leadership and a simple, clear message that motivates people to take action.

"Organizations that are powerful and effective, like Greenpeace, are very good at messaging, clarity, being relevant and different," Meyer says.

Neither brands nor social movements are built overnight, and this one is "very, very young," says Sarah Soule, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University. "I think that anyone would be hard-pressed four weeks into the civil rights movement to have said then which goals of that movement would succeed."

But with winter approaching, there is some urgency.

"Any corporate brand stands for something, whereas they don't stand for anything specific. In two, four, five weeks when it gets really cold, if they don't have a reason for being, even the most ardent people are going to go home," says Miro Copic, a professor with San Diego State University who also runs BottomLine Marketing. "What could be a powerful movement" could be squandered.

Occupiers at various times and places have demanded an end to corporate bailouts, wars, animal testing and lobbying. They have called for student-loan and mortgage forgiveness, single-payer health care, higher taxes on millionaires and corporations, and higher wages for the middle class. They want banks out of the brokerage business and Wall Street criminals in jail.

Sustaining a movement

While this come-one-come-all attitude has helped the movement to grow, it won't help it survive.

"Every brand needs to do two things," says Peter Sealey, adjunct professor at the Peter Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and former chief marketing officer for Coke.

One is to create awareness. Sealey gives Occupy Wall Street an A-plus on this test.

The other is to articulate a promise or benefit. At Coke the promise was "delicious and refreshing," he says. Sealey says the protesters fail this test. "They don't know what they want to do. It's a boiling cauldron of dissent."

The group needs "an organizational structure, a leader, an ability to say here are all the issues on our agenda, let's start with these two."

Having no focus "results in more people joining the mob. It also results in more disharmony," he says.

The Tea Party was successful because "it had one promise - lower taxes and smaller government. If you agreed with that, you could join," Sealey says.

Leadership first

Silicon Valley marketing pioneer Regis McKenna says the group needs to first identify leaders who can set goals and then deliver a simple message or find someone credible who can. "The biggest thing you need when you are a new movement is credibility," he says.

The leaders do not have to be famous, although "the shortcut is to get someone who is known," he adds.

Many celebrities - including rapper Kanye West, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, comedian Roseanne Barr, and actors Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo - have shown up at protests.

But Copic says celebrities can be polarizing. He would not make one the face of the movement "unless you could get someone like Tom Hanks," who has one of the highest Q Scores (which measures likeability) of any star.

"They need a person from within to be the spokesman," Copic says. This person should be "empathetic, articulate, and come across as an ordinary person."

Message clarity

Although it's up to leaders to develop a message, experts say some ideas show promise.

"Great brands can be summed up in three or four words," Meyer says. He sees potential in "We are the 99 percent," because it focuses the discussion on the income gap and how it has been growing. "I'm seeing 'I am the 99 percent' a lot on Facebook and other social networks. I think there is something there," he says.

Copic says the group's message could be "the American dream is dead," followed by a few facts to support it.

This sums up the protesters' key points: Wages are low, the median income is down, millions can't find work. On the other side, companies are reporting record profits, CEOs are making several hundred times the wages of the lowest-paid employee, companies are holding billions of dollars offshore instead of creating jobs here, and all these banks got bailouts and are doing nothing with it.

"We used to be the land of opportunity. Our opportunity is dying. It's kind of like that song 'American Pie,' " he says.

Call to action

Finally, leaders need to tell supporters how they can help. Should they write their congressman? Boycott a bank? Donate money?

"Frustration without an outlet tends to peter out at a certain point," Copic says.

I asked Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace, how he gets supporters to act. He says when Greenpeace runs a campaign, "we ask where is the individual we want to target, what do we want, what message influences them."

Radford says that movements are different from campaigns. Social change is "often nonlinear. Sometimes people just stand up. It's not exactly how you would plan a PR campaign."

The student movement in the 1960s didn't have a leader for a long time, he says, even though the media kept asking, "Where is your leader, and what is your one demand?"

Another TiVo?

Radford says Occupy Wall Street "should evolve naturally, and the many leaders on the streets will bring more clarity to it over time."

Copic fears if it takes too long, it could turn out like TiVo. Like many tech companies (except Apple), it had a superb product but didn't know how to market it.

"Nobody knew how to describe it. If you asked early adopters why it was cool, you might get four different answers," he says. TiVo itself struggled to define it. "Their initial ad campaign was 'Program your own network.' "

Even though its product is superior to other digital video recorders and its name is used generically, it has a small share of the DVR market.

"It was a huge missed opportunity," he says.

Soule advises the group to "leverage their connection to organized labor" because "unions are highly organized and know how to launch sustained movements and articulate clear goals."