November 13th, 2008
Learning from the Political Master
“Four years after delivering the speech called “The Audacity of Hope” that would launch him toward the White House, Barack Obama has become a case study in audacious marketing, an object lesson on why you should forget inherited notions of whom your audience can be.”
Thus begins the lead story in the latest issue of Advertising Age. This is a lessons-to-learn-from article that should be a must-read for all of us seeking to understand the power of new media on our marketing efforts, and its powerful impact on the brands we are creating.
We’ve read plenty about Obama’s inherent communications abilities. But less has been said so succinctly, so methodically, about what average everyday entrepreneurs, small businesses and companies can understand about his historic effort.
Here’s AdAge’s branding take-away (and I quote):
- A brand can be transcendent
- Throw out your assumptions about who your customer is
- Big brands and loved brands are not mutually exclusive
- Hard times call for innovation, not conservatism
- Never stop taking it to your competitor.
“Every Joe the Marketer who has blogged on “Obama’s Five Lessons for Brands” has hit on Mr. Obama’s obvious communications successes, such as his messaging consistency, his cultivation of community, his recognition of the importance of a digital strategy and so on. But what most miss or underplay are the ways in which the Obama campaign demonstrated its boldness, the trait that happens to be the most important for anyone trying to build a brand now, in a chaotic time when many will be tempted to shelve innovation and creativity to take up defensive postures.”
Think about this when you consider your own brand:
“Through it all, Mr. Obama somehow managed to be both Coke and Honest Tea, both the megabrand with the global awareness and distribution network and the dark-horse, upstart niche player.”
We should all be so smart!
