Political Branding

Branding in politics is not a completely new phenomenon; by contrast in its wider sense branding has been present for a long time in this field. Some branding techniques such as slogans and visuals played an important role already in the past in establishing strong branded identities for politicians and their political parties. More recently some other tools like celebrity endorsement, merchandising and internet were used to contribute to this kind of  brand building.

In the last elections in the US, in 2008, Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign changed the landscape concerning the use of internet in politics as well as the fund raising. The public’s support to the ‘Obama’ brand was not translated only in votes but also in dollars. In total, $650m of funds were raised to cover the expenses of his campaign, which is considered to have been the most successful political campaign in recent times. Obama relied not only on big donations but also on thousands of small contributions by people that were engaged to this purpose primarily through social media. Obama just as many big brands do nowadays embraced new technology. He was present in social media and engaged a lot of people there especially young Americans. In depth research, constant monitoring and feedback evaluation were useful in order to give the target audience back what they desired and needed, meaning hope and a vision towards change. Losing a bit of control was not a big issue because his messages were strong and clearly articulated and eventually were spread by his online supporters quite effectively. He was consistent and repeated those messages in every occasion online and offline. He was there to defend what was good about his ‘product’. Obviously media training was also part of his campaign preparation. Each time he was speaking in public he looked confident and relaxed, something that added to his image a much more trustworthy aspect than that of his opponents.

Obama did not just happen to be the right person in the right place. What helped him stand out was the effective use of political communications and branding techniques. However when the ‘product’-in that case the candidate-promoted has quite a few strong points, then success is more likely to come.