5 Brand Strategy Lessons from Obama and McCain

Now that the election is over and we can all calm down a bit, it’s time to reflect on the learnings on brand strategy from the Obama and McCain campaigns. No matter which candidate you favored, there are distinct differences in how Brand McCain was managed versus Brand Obama. Here are 5 important lessons.
Lesson 1: Know the Trends that Impact Your Customers and Your Brand
If there was one advantage that Brand Obama had going into the early primaries, it was embracing the trend of change. He was the first candidate to stake his positioning around it. Hillary Clinton jumped on the change trend, but much later than Obama. And by adding on “experience” to the change message, she left herself hanging in-between these two brand attributes.
How well do you know the social, business, marketing and design trends that are impacting your brand? Are you using these trends to help shape your brand strategy?
Lesson 2: Address the Emotional and Social Needs of Your Customers
Remember the early days of the campaign when most people insisted that Obama was merely a great orator but lacked substance in his talk? What he understood was that the Democratic candidate needed to first resonate with the customer base (e.g. all voters in the U.S.). Making the rational arguments of the political platform without keying into the emotional needs of the constituents has been detrimental to the Democratic brand since the time of Ronald Reagan. The economic meltdown obviously amplified this desire to turn a new page. Obama made sure that his brand first met the emotional and social needs of his customers, and only then did he specify how the functional elements of his plans would work. Sarah Palin obviously understood and strongly met the emotional and social needs of her customer base as well. The difference? Obama viewed his market as the entire electorate, thus extending his brand into many more sub-segments.
Can you map the emotional and social needs of your customers? Do you have specific plans to address these?
Lesson 3: Create a Clear Positioning and Stick to It
This was perhaps the most important element of the success of Brand Obama and the greatest failing of the McCain brand. Once Obama staked his positioning around change, he stuck to it. When his competitors attacked him on his lack of experience, his associations, etc., he and his team kept to their positioning and stayed on message. Brand McCain, in contrast, did not have a clear position. Was it experience and change? Was it old, but not too old? Was it conservative, but centrist (except for the Palin sub-brand)? The position seemed to shift week to week, as opportunities arose.
Do you have a clear and differentiated brand position? When your competitors attack you, do you react by changing your position, or do you hold firm to the value proposition you have taken to the market? 
Lesson 4: Use Social Networking to Create Brand Evangelists
It’s been well-documented that Brand Obama embraced the learnings from the 2004 Howard Dean campaign and heavily leveraged the social networking power of the Web. From acquiring donations to getting supporters to volunteer at a moment’s notice, to deflecting any unwarranted attack, Brand Obama fully understood how to use the Internet to take action. His site was well designed and easy to use. He used the power of social networking strategically. And it reinforced the emotional connection with his volunteers and kept them engaged as active evangelists.
Is social networking a core part of your promotional strategy or a mere afterthought? 
Lesson 5: Have a Design Strategy that Supports Your Brand Identity
Remember John McCain standing in front of the green screen and looking old and tired as he addressed his audience? Clearly someone was not paying attention as to what this would communicate about the McCain brand persona. What was the persona of the McCain Brand? The campaign theme was “Maverick”, but the persona seemed to be “loyal and experienced.” At the end of the day, the brand identity was confused and confusing. How many times did you hear, “Is this the John McCain of 2000 or the John McCain of 2008?” Then there was the $150K shopping debacle of Sarah Palin. It’s not that I begrudge her the clothes, and I certainly think it is the right of the RNC to spend their campaign dollars as they see fit. But it just was so contradictory to the brand persona that Sarah Palin and Brand McCain was trying to build. Once again, Brand Obama was disciplined in its identity and conveyed a persona of “youthful, forward-looking and presidential.”
Do you have a clear line of sight of when and where your customers meet your brand? Does every point reflect your brand identity?

At the end of the day, you need to manage your brand strategically, review and refesh it as needed, but don’t change your tactics every quarter, based on tactical goals.

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