CAMPAIGN 2008: Buying Brand X: Americans now vote for presidents as if shopping for cornflakes…..

That’s the headline in a weekend article in The San Francisco Chronicle. Have no doubt that brands are the primary decision-drivers of some of our most basic choices and — as I am fond of pointing out — it is the all-important emotional association that will close the deal:

"If anyone had any doubt about how we choose the most important political
office in the U.S. … we do it by the brand rather than the ideas," said
Richard Levick, president of Levick Strategic Communications, a leading crisis
communications firm in New York. "We choose them as we do diapers or cornflakes
… we buy things emotionally.”

"If anyone had any doubt about how we choose the most important political
office in the U.S. … we do it by the brand rather than the ideas," said
Richard Levick, president of Levick Strategic Communications, a leading crisis
communications firm in New York. "We choose them as we do diapers or cornflakes
… we buy things emotionally.But as American consumers absorb as many as 5,000 advertising messages a
day, political campaigns must become increasingly savvy about how and why
successful brands cut through the clutter. "In an over-communicated age,
products and candidates both understand that they need to own something."

It’s a great article. Scroll down to the end for a savvy assessment of each candidate’s intended brand identity.