Who’s winning the branding campaign amongst ALL US presidential candidates, Democrats and Republicans included? Barack Obama… hands down. I watched his speech in the New Hampshire primaries after finishing second to Hillary Clinton and it’s the first time a politician has given me goose bumps during a speech since seeing former President Bill Clinton speak to a standstill audience at a fundraiser here in Vancouver in 2001.
The Obama camp did a smart thing very early. They identified a simple theme or core value – “change” – that the Obama brand would stand for, and since then have repeated consistently in every speech, every verse, and every message. His message proved to resonate so strongly amongst Iowa voters that they pushed Obama into the number one position, and sent all the other candidates into me-too mode during the New Hampshire debates, each trying to deliver their own version of a change message. All rang hollow against the candidate who first brought the message to the masses. In Obama’s speech yesterday, he further evolved the message with an emotional, Martin Luther King-like sermon that was summed up in a three-word catch phrase, “Yes we can”. Watch and see this phrase repeated over and over again during the rest of the campaign, not so different than a company tagline.
What Obama has got over the other candidates, besides his charisma and likability quotient, is that his message is clear, concise and comes across as authentic. As other candidates try to re-tool their message, Obama is evolving his. A very effective branding campaign, one that many small business owners should consider when evaluating their own company brand.
4 Comments
January 9, 2008 at 11:39 p
Building a brand on vague promises won’t work for small business, where you have no choice but to offer a specific and well-defined product.
January 12, 2008 at 5:04 p
I hope Obama wins the election. He looks a little young but he’ll probably make a great president.
January 12, 2008 at 9:20 p
Young? I don’t care if he’s got a tongue piercing and jailhouse tats.
“Probably,” however, is not a ground for thinking he’ll make a “great president.” Anyone would consider himself lucky to make a decent president. You claim a lot based on what seems true to you “probably.”
March 30, 2008 at 2:36 p
He does the talk thats for sure. As being president only time will tell. Sometimes he seems to thread the fence on hard topics. Anyway I don’t want to see the republicans get back in or Hillery. Guess Obama is my choice and not to excited about that either.