We have discussed in the previous blog post that marketing President Barack Obama was no different than marketing soap. But what other downside has this political branding strategy caused?

Zavattaro (2010) concluded that the second downside that a branded president faces is shifting political branding from a platform-centered approach to a candidate-centered one, which shifts the marketing from substance to image.

The writer explains that, traditionally, “the product is made up of party image, leader image, and policy commitments, but Brand Obama has effectively negated the need for party image and policy commitments by being a strong personality. Political marketing, then, could switch its three-part focus to candidate-centered efforts to reflect this move toward presidential brands.”

Research is done to discover how can a political brand be distinguished from the other especially in determining what he/she should say and do to influence the public rationally and emotionally.

Political marketing has reduced politicians into sound bites “as constituents rarely look beyond packaged advertising to, say, full speeches.” For example, the candidate’s speech advisors are currently concerned in how they can create an immediate impression as of the first few seconds of the speech. Also, with the booming of social media, the reliance on sound bites has increased. To illustrate, a Tweet can only contain up to 280 characters which ‘obliges’ politicians to quickly make a point. So “soundbites in this case, are written down and sent out to the masses.” This immediate impression forced the political brand to sacrifice the substance for the sake of the image.

Obama made smart use of social media to engage in a dialogue and connect with the people. “After all, “the charismatic candidate is someone who gives a great number of voters the feeling that they will personally benefit through the candidate’s election […] Obama did, and continues to do, just that.”

Check the next blog post for the third, “most dangerous” implication!

Source

Zavattaro, S. M. (2010). Brand Obama: The implications of a branded president. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 32(1), 123-128. Retrieved from Brand Obama: The Implications of a Branded President on JSTOR

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