I found an interesting thought from Mitt Romney while reading an article about the reaction of the Young Republicans to Fred Thompson at their national convention.

Before arriving at the convention, Romney took questions from about 150 people in West Palm Beach. He said he would like to use the country’s leading marketing minds to help sell the idea of American values in the Middle East.

“People will give up half a day’s salary to get a Coca-Cola in some parts of the world. We market Coke well. We market McDonald’s well. We market our rap music, our movies, our jeans,” Romney said. “We market everything America sells brilliantly, but when it comes to marketing ourselves and what we stand for, we don’t do a very good job of it.”

That got me thinking on how we could expand on that idea. Here are just a few random thoughts that I’ve had so far:

• Selling “the idea of American values” needs to go beyond the Middle East. There is an urgent need to market those values here at home and in all parts of the world.
• What are those values? Seriously. I’m not a marketing expert, but what I do understand about the process is that you need to clearly identify what you are attempting to sell before you start developing a campaign.
• How do marketers operate? The concept of social marketing is one possible starting point, but it seems as if liberal thought dominates this form of marketing. Is this a case of conservatives ignoring this type of promotion, or is the model ill suited for promoting conservative values?
• What is the line between promotion of American values and propaganda? Is that a legitimate concern?
• Moving beyond these thoughts, what would such a campaign look like?

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.