Barack Obama's Brand As The "Un-Politician" Must Be Promoted Otherwise He Is "Un-Electable," Says The Marketing Doctor
Marketing expert Dr. John Tantillo warns that Obama is in crisis and that he needs to push his brand in order to win nomination and election
Barack Obama's brand as the "un-politician" has successfully differentiated him from the other candidates in the past, but The Marketing Doctor says that he must continue to promote this brand if he is to "close the deal" on the Democratic nomination and the Presidential office.
"I am simply applying techniques that package goods companies use to evaluate the Obama brand," says Dr. John Tantillo, brand expert, psychologist and television personality also known as The Marketing Doctor. "If you use the package goods model, the Obama brand has been in crisis mode recently and must get back to promoting the 'un- politician' brand that he used so successfully in the past. It's much like the campaign that 7UP used in the mid-seventies to differentiate itself from the popular cola drinks of the time."
Tantillo advises that if Obama wants to attract his target market - now the general electorate and not the party activists - he must take a course in Marketing 101 and use what every undergraduate marketing student knows: to use the brand that has been successful in the past. For Obama, that brand is a candidate for change, the 'un-politician' who will help and go where no other politician has done or gone before!
From a branding perspective, part of the reason why the Obama-Wright problem has stuck around has been, up until this week, he wanted his brand to be all things for all people and this meant a very unnatural and ineffective brand extension into very radical territory (i.e., the views expressed by Reverend Wright). Tantillo says that Obama has forgotten the "un-politician" brand that Americans swooned over, and that the bottom line is that Obama is in a battle to differentiate his brand from Reverend Wright's and at this point he has to repeat these differences forcefully.
Adds The Marketing Doctor: "Basically, Obama has taken the position that he wants everyone to look beyond the controversy. This is an impossible aim until he has made it clear that his brand and Reverend Wright's have absolutely nothing in common. Because as long as the two brands appear to have something in common, every time Wright says or does something outrageous it will stick to Obama."
So what's the "how to" for Obama vs. Wright brand differentiation? Tantillo suggests that Obama hold a press conference where he builds up his brand and his brand only.
"Obama has to make it crystal clear that his brand is about something entirely different than Wright's and that Wright's brand is a broken brand. And that whatever his friendship with the man, Obama's brand has ALWAYS been different and better!"
About Dr. John Tantillo
An award winning marketing professional, lecturer and teacher, Dr. John Tantillo is a trained applied research psychologist who is internationally known for his expertise at diagnosing the factors that impact target markets. President of the Marketing Department of America in New York City, a member of the American Marketing Association and the "Cambridge Who's Who Registry of Executives and Professionals," Dr. Tantillo received a B.A., Magna Cum Laude St. Francis College, Brooklyn, New York, an M.A., Queens College of The City University of New York, Flushing, New York Experimental Psychology, and a Ph.D. Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York Applied Research Psychology. Dr. Tantillo appears frequently in the national media discussing marketing issues.
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