A new way forward : how to improve the marketing of conservatism to today's young Americans

Abstract

The political values and the attitudes toward politics of today’s young Americans are challenges to groups and organizations who market conservative ideas, principles, and values. Not only are the younger generations moving to the left, but they are also disengaging from the political process altogether. With this knowledge in mind, how are these organizations supposed to respond? How can they use the political attitudes and values of today’s young Americans to engage them in a way that encourages them to adopt conservative values? These are the questions that I attempt to answer. In this paper, I analyze the attitudes of today’s young Americans toward government and politics and use multiple recent polls to determine how conservative today’s young Americans are. I then examine the activities of three current conservative student groups and analyze them through a marketing lens. Finally, I use these findings and the recommendations of Lawless and Fox (2015) to provide my own suggestions for how these groups can improve their marketing of conservatism toward young people.