This is an extract of an actual e-mail (dated 14/5/2009) to Dr Lau Kong Cheen, Brand Consultant with Temporal Branding. I shared my thoughts with Dr Lau after I read his colleague’s (Dr Paul Temporal) article: ‘Barack Obama has offered the world a master-class in brand creation, says Paul Temporal’. Dr Temporal is an author of many books on branding and marketing including the bestselling Asia Brands and…I urge you read the article, as well as others on their corporate website.
[That was a catchy and spot-on title. President Obama IS, INDEED, a master-class in brand creation!
The man-in-the-street can easily chant his mantras of ‘Hope’ and ‘Yes we can’. This is, interestingly, akin to ‘Malaysia Boleh’ or the melodic ‘Malaysia – Truly Asia!’ promoted successfully by the Malaysian Tourism Board. He has succeeded as described by Guy Kawasaki in ‘The Art of The Start’.
I am pleased Dr Temporal covered President’s Obama’s VALUES. These are intangible, yet intrinsic to the operating system of a leader. Values support beliefs, which in turn drive behaviors of worth. President Obama’s book ‘The Audacity of Hope’ focuses on values, and a clever mechanism for wordplay. Isn’t it audacious to be hopeful? Dr Temporal identified readily the values of ‘honesty, openness, integrity, professionalism, passion, patriotism – all complemented by a powerful brand personality – that of Obama: approachable, caring, understanding, warm, firm but fair, visionary, cool and cosmopolitan.’
Understanding the Target Audience: This was a clever device of modeling Dr Martin Luther King of his historic and stirring, ‘I Have a Dream...” speech which involved reinforcement by repetition. Rhetoric then assumes anthemic status and proportions. President Obama’s brand message was clear: ‘I connect with your pain, and we will ease your pain.’
An Overarching and Empowering Message: I agree that pronouns like ‘we’ and ‘ours’ carry the shared value of commitment (and identity through involvement and participation).
Multiple Touch: I summarise this as ‘high-tech, high-touch’ instead of ‘low-touch’. To reiterate, it is ‘think digital, act analog’.
Merchandise is still an effective spoke in the Marketing Wheel. A slogan, website address, or symbol goes a long way. Consumer commitment is in using the product. Interesting, we still applaud those who were revolutionists and revolutionary marketers (think T-shirts with Martin Luther King, ‘Che’ Guevara or Einstein).
President Obama has cleverly connected with Generation Y with the many online mechanisms and tools. I agree that the ‘Powered by Hope’ has aligned itself with Powered by Google or similar leading software. Although Nokia boasts ‘Connectivity’, President Obama is actively ‘plugged in’ into the community’s pulse and spirit.
More values identified: ‘Barack Obama has used these established techniques to attract friendship, loyalty and trust and to create a compelling and attractive image that few can resist.’ Values become important when these are violated or transgressed. Even though they are abstract definitions of emotional/rational things, they take on a new life when somebody does not comply with another’s values. That is the value of values, be it brand values, leadership values, value disciplines or shared values.
President Obama is the Man; and he is the Brand.]
Dr Lau Kong Cheen, Brand Consultant of Temporal Branding comments: ‘Values are important because it drives personality and personality drives behavior. That is why brands, particularly corporate brands need strong values to drive the personality exhibited by its respective touch-points. And for you a Leadership Guru, you train people to exhibit behavioral changes that are consistent to what these personality dimensions invoke. President Barack Obama is a leader with key values that many Americans can relate with because they are truly relevant to them.’
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