What’s next for the Obama brand?

photo by distillerymedia

I was in NYC last weekend watching folks line up to buy Obama shirts at the farmer’s market and thinking about how all this is going to end. I’ve admired the brand, the way they have built it and managed it but I also realize that it’s not a “brand” that is probably going to last. Think how strange it would be to see folks walking around town in Bush 04′ tee shirts everyday.

As a voter in a democracy, I certainly hope that I’ll continue to be proud and affiliate with my elected official but will I wear his likeness? No, while I’m willing to do that during a campaign I’m far less likely to do so once they are actually in office…which is an interesting issue for a brand.

From a brand management point of view, it’s a huge opportunity to transfer the equities of the Obama brand into brand America both domestically and abroad. But that effort requires different tools than the ones that have been used to date: buttons, tee shirts, posters and hipster Obama belt buckles (although Joe the Plumber could probably use one).

Fashionable Politics

The Washington Post announced that Obama has taken on a Target-like strategy to bring some (more) panache to his campaign. Coordinating with designers to create custom Obama merch that will be available via the web for trend-setters across the land.

“Now it is enthusiastically and abundantly about style. The Barack Obama campaign, which has been actively courting the fashion industry, has coordinated some 20 or so designers who are creating official merchandise for the candidate’s Web site. It is the first time, as far as Seventh Avenue long-timers can recall, that a quorum of the fashion industry has organized its financial resources and creative energy around a single presidential candidate.

The mix, available online next month, ranges from T-shirts to tote bags and will lend a bit of runway panache to the Obama brand. The list of participating designers, which includes Derek Lam, Isaac Mizrahi, Tracy Reese, Charles Nolan and Diane von Furstenberg, covers the full spectrum of the market, from high-end to inexpensive. Other names have been bandied about but not confirmed: Beyoncé, Russell Simmons, Michael Bastian, Vera Wang.”

Invesco Just Won the Election Lottery

invesco field at mile high

Originally uploaded by pbo31

With Barak Obama and the Democratic National Committee selecting Invesco Field as the host of the Democratic National Convention, Invesco just hit the jackpot. Granted, they might not want to be seen as political, but they’re certain to be mentioned thousands of times over the next couple months and featured prominently in the actual coverage of the event earning them a windfall of free publicity.

The loser, of course, is the Pepsi Center which was all game to get the coverage themselves. It’s a shame that Pepsi moved away from the “Taste of a New Generation” since it would have seemed so appropriate.

article here: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/obama-picks-stadium-for-acceptance-speech/

Obama Claims Victory, I Claim Exhaustion

Obama in Dallas – Reunion Arena

Originally uploaded by slight clutter

Is it really over? I’m still scared to walk outside thinking that it might all be a hoax and I’ll start seeing ‘Hillary Third Party ’08’ signs outside my office. (BTW, he’s 15 delegates away after today’s super-delegate deluge, he’s mathematically clinched.)

A beautiful, strategic, divisive campaign that’s been a beauty to watch. Remember Iowa? Remember NH that kicked off the Year Of The Tear? Edwards’ long stories about ordinary Americans that made one think he was trying to take over This American Life from Ira Glass. Beautiful stuff.

Now the real fun begins as Obama tries to heal the wounds with women and bridge the gaps with Hispanics and rural Americans.

Just in Time for the Election…

I got GPS! Trust me! I know where we are…
though there is no road showing here.

Originally uploaded by – Tony X.Q –

…or for the relaunch of Vista, or for your local Mitsubishi dealership. I’m just saying, next time you are contemplating a purchase that you know you probably shouldn’t make, don’t drink the water.

“Researchers in Switzerland theorized that people playing social trust games might change their behaviors if given doses of oxytocin, since the chemical might artificially enhance their willingness to trust someone. Indeed, they were right: subjects dosed with Oxytocin were willing to trust people even after they’d been explicitly told that those people had behaved in untrustworthy ways in the past. People who had not been dosed did not trust the “untrustworthy” people.”

hat tip to reader Jeffluence

What If Hillary is Pushing A Third Party?

Hillary Clinton 1

Originally uploaded by Angela Radulescu

I recognize the absurdity of this question on the surface. The Clintons built the modern democratic party, right? Why would they turn against it? Well, they may if they truly see that as their chance to win. They feel alienated by Howard Dean and rue the day they installed him at the DNC. They feel as though they still have the best credentials in a general election and the ability to connect with women, blue collar voters and moderates. This still may be a long shot but it might explain why they are still in the race taking advantage of the press coverage and trying to build momentum. One would have thought it crazy for Joe Liberman to go it alone as well after the party turned on him just years after being its candidate for Vice President.

Obama Controversy Proves There is No Local Marketing Anymore

jesus & walther

Originally uploaded by chaos & career

Much ado is being made by national media about local marketing as of late. First it was Absolut’s campaign in Mexico that depicted the country owning half of America ‘in an Absolut world.’ National media (okay, Fox News) decried it as an assault on our sovereignty and folks started calling for a boycott of the brand all the while missing the point that no one really wants to live in Fresno and we might just want to give it back.

Then came the Obama fracas about how bitter Americans turn to guns and religion and rant about foreign trade deals. And despite his likely correctness on the issue, it isn’t something that one would want to come out and say as Pennsylvania and Indiana gear up for their primaries. Unless of course you were in San Francisco giving a campaign fundraising speech that was closed to the media. Because in San Francisco people are likely to agree with you.

Both of these cases point to the new difficulties of local marketing and delivering messages based upon segmented consumer sentiment. In the local markets where both those messages ran, it signaled clear strategic intent to align with the feelings of the market. But when those messages become national, or global as they are tending to do, they wreak havoc. This is especially relevant for advertisers who use digital media and broadcast to the “world wide” web.

Answers are short on how to move forward. Alienating national audiences is a road to disaster and but marketers (conventional and political) can’t ignore the need to connect to local constituencies in relevant ways. For local brands, creating controversy can be a way to get noticed following a strategy of “who cares that people are talking about you as long as they are talking” since local brands tend to suffer most from lack of awareness. For substantial brands like Absolut and Obama, more care needs to be paid to how local messages will play out in the national media… since as of late there is no such thing as local anymore.

Why Politics is More Fun Than Corp. Marketing

The thing that so entices me about politics is that politicians are hyper-aware that someone is going to lose. Several people, in fact, and quickly. They play the game knowing that for them to win they have to knock out the other guy without maiming themselves in the process.

Conventional marketers seem to be in the game to win enough market share or cool points to keep playing. They don’t appear to be thinking about what it would take to knock the other brand out of the race. Positioning themselves as the best brand and depositioning the competition as well as possible doesn’t seem to be the goal.

We’ve reached a point of collusion in the political race where Hillary and John McCain see Obama as a threat to both of them. HRC and McCain both have a better chance against each other at this point than either have against Obama so it makes sense for them to do the full court press to ensure that he doesn’t make it past this round. But should the former two frenemies both make it to the next round, what will happen when Hillary’s attacks on Obama have wound up bolstering McCain’s position?

And in relation to this ad, who goes to bed in a pants suit and eyeglasses? HRC is your answer to that one, apparently.

Hillary’s Last Stand

Kangaroo fight

Originally uploaded by Pascal Vuylsteker

The Caucus ran an interesting piece today on Hillary’s campaign and the strategies that are taking shape for her last stand in Texas and Ohio. They mostly read like more of the same plus some fighting.

A sample:

1. Use two upcoming debates between now and March 4 to draw a strong contrast with Mr. Obama. “We’ve seen dramatic changes when that’s happened,” said Mark Penn, her chief strategist and pollster. (Translation: expect her to unload everything she has on him.)

2. Hope “new information” about Mr. Obama will emerge and discourage voters from supporting him. (Translation: see above.)

I’m an Obama supporter through and through, but regardless, I hate to see bad strategy. Hillary’s campaign manager seems to be telling her to double down, that it’s now or never and to add some harsher criticism to the mix. The rub is that if she loses even one of these states she’s also going to erode her remaining goodwill with the Democratic party and come off looking rather petty come the convention. Not to mention that the Hillary campaign has already started to go negative and if anything, Obama has seemed to come out above it all.

Looking back to the Hillary Tear in NH, mentioned in a previous post, the real momentum gained from that moment came from her really articulating why she wanted the job. That it wasn’t just politics to her and it wasn’t just about winning. The tear got all the press but it was the message that she was in it for the voters, not for her own self-interest, that stuck. If I were looking for an answer on Hillary’s long quiet plane rides, that’s where I would look. Give voters a real chance to decide who is better equipped, add in some of that emotion, and if it doesn’t go her way then take a slow step backward and preserve the Clinton brand.

Obama Has His Designs on the Presidency

print080129-shepfairey-3of3-20080129-110401-lg1Originally uploaded by distillerymedia

The artist Shepard Fairey has endorsed Barak Obama. While this is about as insignificant as it gets, it warms my heart to see some beautiful work come out of a political campaign that isn’t trying to sell the Chevy trucks version of America.

Article in Creativity here.