Sunday, April 13, 2008

McCain takes a licking, but built Ford tough

According to a Washington Post story printed in today's Journal Gazette, Barack Obama's not the only presidental candidate with a differentiated brand:

A pair of market research firms in South Carolina polled voters there in April and September and concluded that if [John] McCain’s brand were a product, it would be part Ford pickup, part Wrangler jeans and part Timex watch.

“His brand strengths were identified as: trustworthiness, looks presidential, prepared for the job, has relevant experience,” said Mark Newsome, a senior vice president at Chernoff Newman, which conducted the surveys with MarketSearch. “He’s really resting his laurels on his own brand.”

But the firms also concluded that McCain’s brand has weaknesses: a striking lack of warmth and personal charm. And Democrats insist that there are opportunities to attack the building blocks of the McCain brand, especially his assertion that he is a moderate.

So, what about Obama and Hillary Clinton? What do you see as their primary brand strengths and weaknesses? And if their brands were products, which products would they be?

1 comment:

Brian said...

When I think of Obama and Clinton I think of Apple-Microsoft.

Obama seeks to reflect a different and better way of thinking. He's more charismatic, seemingly more attuned to what's next than what's behind, and comes far closer to having a certain cool factor than Clinton.

Clinton's brand is built more on experience, knowledge and process. She's intelligent, hardworking, unquestionably qualified, but also reflective of a bit more in-the-box thinking than Obama.hza