How the Branding of Presidential Candidates Can Benefit Your Business
If you want to learn how to better brand your business, look no further than the current U.S. presidential race. Early on each candidate, wittingly or unwittingly, staked out certain “turf.” For Barak Obama it was the message of hope and change. For Hillary Clinton it was experience, and for likely Republican nominee John McCain, it was strength on defense.
Now here’s where it gets interesting and a bit messy, and where your business can benefit from observing others. Notice that John McCain was not doing well last year when the war in Irag was front page every day with negative news. He was for the “surge” when few else agreed.
His “stock” or his brand went down.
Then the bad news on the war front slowed down and he appeared to know something. His stock went up. Notice his position did not change, just the circumstances. Had things continued to deteriorate, he would not be the Republican front runner. He stayed with his strong defense message and when the situation changed, so did his fortunes. He tied his political stakes to his brand position of strong defense rather than adapting his message/position to try to fit the changing tides.
Barack was early on with the message of hope. He wrote a book called “The Audacity of Hope.” Hope is his “thing,” his image, his brand. Barack owns hope in the minds of voters.
Hillary positioned herself based on experience. Her question to the voters was “Who would you want in office on day one?” That’s a good question if you are positioning yourself based on experience.
Then things started getting goofy…
Barack’s message of hope and change got some traction, gained momentum and he started to win some states. So what is the Hillary brand to do? They did what many companies do… they try to copy their competition. In a recent rally, Hillary attempted to upstage Barack’s hope message by converting his “Yes we can!” chant to “Yes, we will!”
That doesn’t work.
Fundamental rule of branding and positioning… you can’t take someone else’s position. You can’t outhope hope, or outchange change. In boxing they say “You don’t hook with a hooker.” That’s their strength. But you can work on redefining the conversation so it speaks back to your strengths.
It comes back to consistency. John McCain consistently said he was for the surge. Unpopular. Then things apparently calmed down and so he benefited from the perception of wisdom. Initially it looked like he blew it… that he backed a bad idea. But rather than switch his “brand” to fit the trend of the moment, he stayed true to what he believed and he came out on top for now. He could easily have bombed out with that strategy, but he stayed with what he felt was right and remained consistent. The “market” rewarded him.
Barack has remained consistent on his message of hope and change. The market has rewarded him as well.
Hillary is the most at risk from a branding perspective since she is not sticking to her core position of experience. She’s is venturing out to tackle Barack on hope and in doing so, is taking time away from building her message of experience, experience, experience. Experience might not be what the voters want most this election cycle… but that’s her strong suit and the one she needs to play. It’s up to the voters/consumers. Whether you’re a nominee or a business, it’s vital to stay true to what makes you “tick,” what motivates you and keeps you running. When you veer from that message, you come out of alignment, and your message doesn’t resonate as well with your consumer… be it a voter or a buyer.
So watch the election this year from a branding perspective. Who’s staying most true to their message, their core value and central position? Even if they don’t outright win, the candidate or business that stays focused on their strengths will rise in the eyes of their following. They may temporarily lose only to come back and fight another day. But to shift and change, to try be other than what you are, is to invite certain defeat both short term and long term. So if you’re going to go out, go out strong and meaningfully rather than weak and vascillating.
Define your position, build the importance of that position, and stay true to that position.
That’s good branding… politically or otherwise.
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