BlackAsCoal
Gold Member
- Oct 13, 2008
- 5,199
- 530
- 155
WASHINGTON - Even I, old-media guy that I am, did not need the Harvard Business Review to tell me that, in the digital age, branding matters.
But I got the new issue anyway, with the cover that reads, "Social Media and the New Rules of Branding." According to B-school gurus, a company must create and vigilantly protect a clear, coherent message about itself if it wants to thrive in the word-of-mouth shark tank. From logo to language to logistics, it all must be of a piece. Consistency matters. A concise identity counts.
Which got me thinking about the Democrats.
As the lame duck tax debate slogs towards its inevitable conclusion -- nearly $1 trillion worth of extended and new tax cuts over two years -- I'm wondering: what does the brand "Democrat" mean?
If anything.
The Republicans don't have a cool logo but their economic brand is vivid. They're the folks who worship the market, or at least claim to. They always want to cut taxes. They pile up deficits while decrying them. They favor pat-a-cake business regulation.
These days, President Obama is trying to refurbish his own (campaign) brand. He and his aides know how crucial this is. After all, Obama was the first presidential candidate in modern times to have a concise, pictorial, non-verbal summary of what he said he stood for. You remember it: a wide, open road leading to a sunny future. Obama was the "O" in hope, the rising sun.
Well, voters remain deeply pessimistic. The tax-cut deal is nothing more or less than a strong effort -- a last-ditch effort -- to cheer them up, turbo-charge consumer spending and somehow reduce unemployment below 8 percent by 2012. No president since FDR has been reelected with an unemployment rate above that.
So Obama's brand now is: I'm a non-ideological, deal-doing, practical, adult in a sea of extremes and I will somehow get us on that sunny road. Now he's Barry the Cable Guy. He'll "git-r-done."
At least that's the pitch.
But that leaves Democrats trying to figure out who or what they are. It leaves them looking for leaders, ideas and symbols with which to sell their brand, whatever it now is, in the political marketplace.
Polls show that voter-consumers are suffering from what experts call "brand confusion." They can't stand the most visible personal symbols of the congressional party -- Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid -- and voters don't trust the Democratic brand on issues (such as jobs and the economy) as strongly as they used to.
And now comes the "Obama-McConnell tax bill".
Edited for Length. Copy Right Infringement.
'Democrat' Is No Longer A Brand
But I got the new issue anyway, with the cover that reads, "Social Media and the New Rules of Branding." According to B-school gurus, a company must create and vigilantly protect a clear, coherent message about itself if it wants to thrive in the word-of-mouth shark tank. From logo to language to logistics, it all must be of a piece. Consistency matters. A concise identity counts.
Which got me thinking about the Democrats.
As the lame duck tax debate slogs towards its inevitable conclusion -- nearly $1 trillion worth of extended and new tax cuts over two years -- I'm wondering: what does the brand "Democrat" mean?
If anything.
The Republicans don't have a cool logo but their economic brand is vivid. They're the folks who worship the market, or at least claim to. They always want to cut taxes. They pile up deficits while decrying them. They favor pat-a-cake business regulation.
These days, President Obama is trying to refurbish his own (campaign) brand. He and his aides know how crucial this is. After all, Obama was the first presidential candidate in modern times to have a concise, pictorial, non-verbal summary of what he said he stood for. You remember it: a wide, open road leading to a sunny future. Obama was the "O" in hope, the rising sun.
Well, voters remain deeply pessimistic. The tax-cut deal is nothing more or less than a strong effort -- a last-ditch effort -- to cheer them up, turbo-charge consumer spending and somehow reduce unemployment below 8 percent by 2012. No president since FDR has been reelected with an unemployment rate above that.
So Obama's brand now is: I'm a non-ideological, deal-doing, practical, adult in a sea of extremes and I will somehow get us on that sunny road. Now he's Barry the Cable Guy. He'll "git-r-done."
At least that's the pitch.
But that leaves Democrats trying to figure out who or what they are. It leaves them looking for leaders, ideas and symbols with which to sell their brand, whatever it now is, in the political marketplace.
Polls show that voter-consumers are suffering from what experts call "brand confusion." They can't stand the most visible personal symbols of the congressional party -- Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid -- and voters don't trust the Democratic brand on issues (such as jobs and the economy) as strongly as they used to.
And now comes the "Obama-McConnell tax bill".
Edited for Length. Copy Right Infringement.
'Democrat' Is No Longer A Brand
rolleyes
