Barack Obama: A Brand To Believe In?
By Kevin Clancy and Ami Bowen
May 12, 2008
BaraCk Obama. Now there's a guy who seemed to be bringing change to the political marketing world—at least, until recently. As we've watched, the onetime shoo-in for the Democratic nod has been, if anything, scuffing his shoes in a months-long
scuffle with Hillary Clinton. No doubt, there's enough cash in Obama's campaign war chest to pay for some fancy political analysts, and we're not here to pretend to be them. Rather, we'd like to offer some advice. As marketers. Sen. Obama, if you'd really like to cinch this race, it's time for a brand extension.
Nearly a year before the first presidential primary, Hillary Clinton was way out in front with a 20-percentage-point lead. She was the front-runner. Challengers? Not a chance. Remember those days?
Then, last October, Obama took the wraps off ads featuring the campaign slogan "Change we can believe in." And that did it. His people nailed the messaging strategy with that promise, capturing all the stirring emotional and aspirational attributes ascribed to the candidate, as well as the key word itself: Change. With a seal of approval from Oprah Winfrey—the doyenne of positive change herself—Obama started buying TV ads like Oprah buys clothes. And he never looked back.
For awhile, this emotional appeal worked. Obama stuck with his message—"change"—and it resonated with voters. He made up the difference in the national polls and he started winning primary races. Suddenly, Obama was the man to beat.
But that was last year. Since February, the two Dems have been running essentially neck-and-neck. Even though Obama picked up at least 94 delegates after last Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, which nudged him to within 200 delegates of the nomination, some in the Obama camp are still wondering why it hasn't been easier for the guy to just seal the deal. His team's knee-jerk reaction: Spend more on advertising and go negative. After all, that's what the standard campaign handbook says to do.
Our suggestion: lose the handbook. The solution for Obama can't be found in the political canon, but a basic marketing textbook might do. Obama needs to grow his brand by broadening its appeal beyond his core without jeopardizing his brand equity.
Now, people have only one vote, of course, so you can't exactly "increase volume" among a particular voter segment once you've hit your maximum share, as it appears Obama has. However, there very likely is a good-sized group of voters currently in the Clinton camp who could be convinced to switch allegiances. Brand switching can and does happen even in the most well established categories when there's a highly motivating reason driving it. One of the most motivating things a brand can do is identify an area of dissatisfaction; a serious need or problem where neither competitor is currently offering an adequate solution. Marketers call this "white space." Bring a solution to market that taps into this area of opportunity and a brand will see its competitors' customers defect.
Two areas of dissatisfaction? This one's not hard: It's the economy (stupid!) and, of course, it's Iraq. Now obviously there's at least some concern overlap within the Obama and Clinton target groups when it comes to these issues. But think of it as a different way to segment the market; they've got this sort of psychographic/demographic segmentation going on right now, so let's divvy up the voting population based on the policy issue of primary concern to them.
We'd bet that if Obama did a bit of research, he'd find there are many proclaimed Clinton voters who are not very happy with her past track record or policy position on Iraq and would be open to jumping ship to Obama if he appealed to them with a "solution." He could approach it much like a brand's line extension, keeping his original emotional positioning and extending it to a specific issue. How about: "Iraq: Change We Can Believe In?" He stays uplifting; he's invoking the "change" positioning that's been so powerful; but he's focused on the issue on which a big group is going to make a decision.
Sen. Obama, if you want to win this thing, don't mess around with political marketing as usual. Stay true to your positioning strategy, extend your brand in a way that motivates switching and, whatever you do, don't go negative (though we're sure it's tempting). That's some marketing advice you can believe in.
Kevin Clancy and Ami Bowen are chairman and vp, respectively, of Copernicus Marketing, Waltham, Mass. They can be reached at kevin.clancy@copernicusmarketing.com and ami.bowen@copernicusmarketing.com.
brandweek.com |
