'Brand Obama,' in the Beginning

re: 'Brand Obama' in the Beginning

letterhead — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:55:28 GMT

To be honest, I think people underestimate how big of an effect this Identity has had on Obama's success. If you look at Hillary's campaign, the logo is passable at best, and there is little to no consistency in how her messages are displayed across platforms (web, print, banners, signage, etc). I know it sounds like a superficial assessment, but whether people believe it or not, this does have an effect on how the candidates are perceived.

A common criticism of Hillary is that there's little consistency in her personality from week to week (or day to day now), which shows in her brand (ask the average person to draw Hillary's logo on a sheet of paper and see how many versions you get). Obama has retained his composure in the same way we see his identity across all platforms with incredible unity.

People are skeptical of such well-defined brands (Obama the Starbucks of candidates?), but in the end, they work. Nobody questions what the message is. Whether or not you agree with it is a different story.

(then again, I'm a graphic designer, so I see everything this way ;)

re: 'Brand Obama,' in the Beginning

hotstuff — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:24:59 GMT

Obama has style.......AND substance,

speeches....AND solutions!

re: 'Brand Obama,' in the Beginning

fee2000 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:53:15 GMT

the thing is...Hillary had the advantage, because she came in with a brand already established...THE CLINTON BRAND...that's why she loves to point out 'experience'. Obama created his brand and stuck with it....i agree with letterhead when he says that Hillary had no consistency...whenever she got criticized...she changed her brand...not a good way to do business....

re: 'Brand Obama,' in the Beginning

beatpanda — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:04:25 GMT

Andrew, have you ever read a book called "The Cluetrain Manifesto"?

There are a number of concepts laid out in this book that defined the effect the Internet was having on corporate culture in the late 90's, and how those changes would begin to impact society as a whole.

Brands like Apple and Volkswagen understand these changes, and that's why, like your expert in a previous post said, "it seems like regular people talking to regular people". Incidentally, this is one of the central premises of the Obama campaign- a campaign owned by regular folks with regular concerns, and one that is accessible to everybody. This is part of the reason why the man opens so many retail field offices- it gives regular non-politicos a good excuse to get involved in the process. In Sacramento, the office was next to a mexican restaurant and a bar.

You probably also know that the Obama campaign focuses on voter-to-voter contract, trying to work his supporter's own personal networks to get his message out. Read the part in the Cluetrain about hierarchy vs. hyperlinks, and this strategy becomes obvious.

No matter how this campaign plays out, Obama has changed the way that presidential candidates campaign, and I think the Cluetrain offers a lot of clues to what shape that may take.

The book is free at www.cluetrain.com.