A godfather of mine in the world of private business once advised me to stay clear off active politics if I intended to last long in private consulting practice. I have therefore always resisted the urge to sometimes jump into the fray, though it has not been too easy. However, for this particular time I would venture quite close to the political arena, but not too close to be pulled into the dogfight. By the way, who can resist writing something about the greatest phenomenon to hit the global political arena for decades- BARACK OBAMA?
As the entire world jubilated, and is still jubilating, at the election of the first black president of the United States of America, I could not help but marvel at the expert use of one of professional marketing’s most potent tools-Branding. I must say I also jubilated like mad at the announcement of his victory. However, my ecstasy had more to do with just witnessing the excellent manner the man was branded, from the day he announced his intentions to run for the highest office of the world’s most powerful country all the way to his ascension to the White House.
Being a sales and customer care coach and also a student of business communications, I was more interested in the way Mr. Obama was branded and I must say I was overly impressed with those behind this masterpiece of a brand. True, the stage had been set for a change in the Democratic Party’s fortunes. There were signs that this was going to be the year of the Democrats. The Iraq war was out of favor with a majority of Americans. The global economic meltdown was not helping matters and to top it all, the outgoing Republican president was not the favourite of many people both inside and outside the United States. All these signs pointed to the fact that with a little push the Democrats were in pole position to grab the White House.
As a matter of fact, they had already grabbed both Houses of Legislature. But who could have thought that the ‘inexperienced’ single term African-American senator from Illinois could go all the way to the White House, beating along the way a political heavyweight like Hilary Clinton and a much-touted US war veteran, John McCain.
No matter who you are, what your political leanings are or whether you would have even voted for him was he standing for our December 7th elections, you have to admit that when it came to choosing the best-branded presidential candidate for this year’s US polls, there was no challenger to the Obama brand. I believe my colleagues in the world of advertising would agree with me that every element of Mr. Obama’s image was so skillfully thought out and executed to depict this history maker as the perfect candidate for the job of ‘the leader of the free world’.
True, Mr. Obama had some inherent advantages such as a charming personality, a consistently positive and unruffled demeanor, an amazing multicultural upbringing that appealed to lots of voters and most importantly one of the most exciting public speaking skills in this time.
However, these credits alone could not have sent him to the top. There had to be more. This is where the excellent branding came into play.
In every sense, politics involves an application of sound marketing principles. As in marketing, a product has to be created and positively projected (a candidate with an appealing message). Good use of advertising moves people to bind their aspirations to that of the ‘product’. Great sales strategies are employed to sell the ‘product’ and convert patrons to go out and win more
‘customers’ for the product. The Obama brand made use of all the principles of marketing in such a fluid way that would make many brand managers turn green with envy.
Political campaigning is a serious and complex business, as we all know. A successful campaign must be scientific and apply some tenets of marketing. For instance market research analysis must be applied for candidates to have a better understanding of the perception their voters hold about them. Brand strategies, that associate the candidates with the most desirable qualities, must be developed mainly to appeal to the final consumers, i.e. the voters. This is what branding professionals do.
All brand managers would tell you that managing a brand’s visual distinctiveness is an arduous task. The task becomes the more formidable when ‘the brand’ is as huge as that of a US presidential candidate. When one takes into consideration the fact that the market where this branding is taking place is a fiercely competitive and constantly evolving market, then one can begin to appreciate the immensity of the task that faced those behind Mr. Obama.
My readings revealed the identity of a man who was credited with much of the work on Brand Obama- David Axelrod, a Chicago-based political consultant. He was also the brain behind Harold Washington’s successful 1983 bid to become the first African-American mayor of Chicago. Together with a team of experts, they chose a combination of colours, symbols and even font types that would trigger favorable associations for voters wherever they appeared, whether on banners, print or the Web.
For starters, to establish a base with the Democratic Party they stuck with the conventional choice of red, white and blue, with blue being the dominant shade. Alice Rawsthorn, writing for the International Herald Tribune, the choice of a dominant blue was done in the hope of “persuading voters to shelve their doubts about Obama’s relative lack of experience.” The symbol was that of a sunrise, with the red stripes of the U.S. flag at the base. The sun rising at the start of a new day was an excellent choice for “Change We Can Believe In” campaign theme. The sunrise and the red stripes at the base formed an ‘O’ in the centre which obviously stood for Obama. Even the choice of typeface was used to portray a message. I was one of the invited guests to the US Embassy at Cantonments to attend the program put together by the Embassy for the Election Day and I have some paraphernalia including a breast button with the Obama logo on it.
Conventional branding advocates that a product is branded in such a way that it appeals to its main target. This however is not so straightforward when brought into political branding, where a candidate has to appeal to as many segments of the population (or target market) as possible. The understanding is that conventional images would be submerged into the mesh of
information in this hyperactive media environment. Therefore people are mostly attracted to images that stand out from others and directly speak to them. This hurdle was masterfully surmounted by the ‘brand masters’ behind President-elect Obama.
Mr. Obama was able to deftly appeal to lots of people from different backgrounds as possible. He was able to develop a different identity for different contexts. For instance, he appeared youthful and vibrant on MTV but serious and business-like when he met members of the Wall Street fraternity. One would say this is normal and expected of all political candidates, and I would second that. However, the skill is in doing it expertly without appearing fake, or as a politician is the differentiator.
Each version Mr. Obama brought out looked familiar, but was also sufficiently unique to convince individual voters that he was ‘their man’. For instance, for those concerned about the environment, i.e. “Environmentalists for Obama” the logo was a green and yellow sunrise, whilst for little kids the “Kids for Obama” design was in hand-drawn lettering. As Oprah Winfrey put it, he was ‘The One’. The Obama brand, in every way, spoke to his target market that truly he was the man for the now. His brand communicated the fact that he knew how to steer the US through the new era, and the voters agreed.
Keith Reinhard Chairman of DDB Worldwide, a global advertising giant, is quoted as saying “Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand. New, different, and attractive. That’s as good as it gets.”
Great Brands Attracts Funds
Going through the blogosphere I came across a variety of views on Brand Obama. There are those who believe money played a great part in Obama’s election. This is true to a great extent but one cannot run away from the fact that it was the appeal of the brand that converted support into tangible cash. Followers of the Ghana Black stars will recall that it was only after the team acquired that great brand image that the money started flowing in. There is a lesson in here for candidates on our local scene. Brand yourselves well and you might be surprised where money will come from for your campaigns.
It is recorded that more citizens volunteered time and money to help the Obama campaign than any previous presidential candidate. He holds the record for total sunk cost in any presidential election in the United States. Some reports have it that Mr. Obama attracted more donors than the entire Democratic or Republican party. What makes this the more interesting is the fact that almost half of Obama’s unprecedented $639 million in funds raised from individuals came from small donors giving $300 or less. That was how appealing the brand was to the average ‘consumer’.
This huge cash flow ensured that Obama’s campaign outspent the competition by no less than four to one. Obama campaign’s Federal Election Commission filing shows that Obama spent a total of $467,000 on ‘Facebook’ – $370,000 in September alone.
Great Brands Attracts Friends
One thing Brand Obama had going for it was the large number of celebrity endorsements. All sorts of celebrities backed Barack Obama’s campiagn. Oprah Winfrey was one of the earliest and staunchest. Others included rap artiste Ludicris, movie director Spike Lee and actor Tom Hanks. In fact Obama was a ‘Hollywood star’ and I would not be surprised if a few movies are on the drawing board about his story. On a lighter note, even the fictional characters, Ernie, Big Bird and the entire bunch from the long-lasting hit TV show Sesame Street endorsed Mr. Obama. This meant that the brand was even appealing to little children. Senator John Kerry who ran for 2004 presidential race was also an avid supporter of Mr. Obama as far back as during the primaries.
But I believe one of the biggest endorsements for brand Obama was from Collin Powell. For a high-ranking Republican Party member to openly support a Democratic Party candidate against a fellow ex-military man was a real positive for Brand Obama. Powell who has a long history in U.S. politics and a strong brand image put the icing on the cake for Obama as the E-day finally approached. Another plus for the Obama brand was its global appeal.
A study of people around the globe by the globally-acknowledged Pew Research Center showed that the international community was so in love with Brand Obama. The results from countries such as South Africa, Jordan, Nigeria, Australia and many others can be found at the Centre’s website. In this global village we live in, branding professionals know that a brand holds an image in the marketplace beyond its current and immediate customers.
Great Brands Require Great Marketing
On the Obama campaign, Newsweek’s Andrew Romano writes: “Obama is the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand.” Others have likened the Obama brand to international brands such as Volkswagen and Apple which are meant to look transparent, open, accessible and democratic to a certain degree. These brands are essentially non-intimidating. The Obama brand appeared as natural as possible. As he said in his acceptance speech, his campaign was not hatched on the corridors of power in Washington or corporate boardrooms. It is however not easy to be able to project an identity that people are willing to credit with as being authentic.
How did Obama and his team manage to pull this feat off? By making use of good distribution avenues. Knowing that his greatest strength was from the young, roughly 18 to 29 years old who are used to the Internet, online social networks, and other forms of new media, the Obama team leveraged his website, the blogosphere, and even user-generated content and video games to engage not just donors and volunteers but all citizens. I will quote another writer on blogosphere: “From the imaginative campaign logo to the thirty minute infomercial, Obama’s communications were professional without being slick, attention-getting without being in-your-face.”
I am of the view that the brilliant strategy developed and implemented by the Obama team that will become a template for all future elections, both in the U.S. and abroad. In that sense one can confidently say that Barack Obama has changed the face of political campaigning all over the world.
For us here in Ghana, the lesson we can take is that one does not have to stoop low to win an election. Candidates can win without resorting to dirty politics. Presidential candidates need to adopt very scientific approaches to their campaigning. In a sense, they have to build a great brand. Some senior colleagues have debated me on this assertion stating that the Ghanaian political terrain is not ripe for such strategies. I would not go into that debate here, but to those who also buy into that belief, I will advise, “Never underestimate the intelligence or the political sophistication of the Ghanaian.”
Back to Brand Obama. I believe the brand has been expertly established but will however be met with one challenge that faces all great brands. As with new brands, the brand trust is there at the moment but the question is whether the brand values will remain consistent over the expected product life cycle (i.e. presidential terms). Some have started asking whether Mr. Obama will be a one-term or two-term president. Will Brand Obama meet or exceed expectations, or will it totally disappoint like some other brands? Like any other brand, Brand Obama has to deliver on any promises he made during the campaign, but will that be easy under these present global conditions? The bar has been set very high! By and by, we will know if this brand will stand the test of time.
This article was written in January of 2009 but still holds relevant information for those interested in making inroads on the political landscape.
Author: J. N Halm
