THE SAVORY OBSERVATIONS AND USEFUL ANECDOTES OF AN
Artful Realist
My name is LAURENCE VINCENT. I'm a brand strategist, author, speaker, photographer and lovable nerd based in Los Angeles, California. When I'm not writing here about brands and things that inspire me, I look after The Brand Studio at United Talent Agency. I believe brands must stand for real value; and that people value brands that fulfill a promise through artful experiences.
Wild GOP race an example of questionable brand attachment
After the Tuesday Republican primaries in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado, a lot of election watchers are scratching their heads. Is this one of the most unpredictable primaries in history? Do we not have the “right” candidates? Are voters simply more fickle than in years past? All of these questions are being tossed around frenetically by pundits and the talking heads of media. I believe the data tells us we have brand problems afoot. One brand force that wouldn’t surprise a corporate marketer is driving the volatility for politicians: Brand attachment.
Forget likability and the favorable/unfavorable poll data. There’s a mountain of evidence to suggest that likability is a very poor predictor of consumer behavior. Many consumers claim to like brands they never buy. In contrast, attachment has been proven to be a strong predictor of purchase behavior and long-term loyalty. We measure attachment by how much a consumer views a brand as part of their own identity—how much they see themselves in it, their values, their life. Looking at the various polling data, voters are having a hard time seeing any of the candidate brands as an extension of who they are. Worse, the GOP brand is fragmented, creating two different sets of values to facilitate brand attachment. Before a voter can project their Republicanism into their self concept, they have to struggle with which kind of Republican they’re attached to. In consumer branding, we’d call this a band dispersion problem-when a master brand means so many things that it becomes less effective at attaching itself to any consumer identity.
Like any good brand, the candidates and the GOP have to focus on the promise of their brands and be comfortable being disliked by some of their constituents. Here’s why. Even though they might not like the brand at the moment, if a voter can seetheir values in the candidate’s brand, they’ll stay the course. They’re attached. A lot of voters didn’t “like” Bill Clinton before and during his presidency. The same is true for George W. Bush. But many voters identified with the values of each candidate brand and they cast their votes accordingly.
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Copyright 2012 by Laurence Vincent
