The 2012 presidential election cycle is just starting to pick up steam and with his 2% rating in national polls, it’s safe to say that only the most ardent political watchers have Republican candidate Jon Huntsman on their radar. Huntsman’s campaign staff is aiming to change that, however, with a branding campaign that The Wall Street Journal likens to that of a Ralph Lauren product launch.

1. Why Politics and Marketing Go Hand in Hand
By Christine Birkner, staff writer
cbirkner@ama.org
The 2012 presidential election cycle is just starting to pick up steam and with his 2% rating in
national polls, it’s safe to say that only the most ardent political watchers have Republican
candidate Jon Huntsman on their radar. Huntsman’s campaign staff is aiming to change that,
however, with a branding campaign that The Wall Street Journal likens to that of a Ralph Lauren
product launch.
Huntsman’s campaign includes a simple “H” logo reminiscent of President Obama’s “O”; a
slogan, “Generation H”; and a website that emphasizes the “H” theme, with sections called HTV
and the Daily HBlog, and campaign videos that emphasize both Huntsman’s foreign policy
experience as U.S. ambassador to China and his love of rock and roll and motorcycles.
Marketing experts say that Huntsman’s focus on branding is no surprise because modern politics
and branding have been tightly linked as far back as the 1960s with the election of John F.
Kennedy. “Politicians have always been accused of trying to sell themselves like soap, so this is
not new,” says Harris Diamond, CEO of New York-based PR firm Weber Shandwick, who has
worked on U.S. gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns. But whether you’re marketing a
candidate or a consumer brand, there has to be substance behind the flash, Diamond says.
“Today you have a much more knowledgeable consumer base, just as you have a more
knowledgeable electorate,” he says. “You have a tremendous sense of skepticism. It’s no longer
enough to say, ‘new and improved.’ Now we’ll ask, what’s new and what’s been improved?
[Consumers or voters] are going to say, ‘Why is this important to me?’ ”
According to Diamond, while Huntsman and his fellow candidates are focusing on creating flashy
brands, they might be talking to too small of a segment of the electorate. “The danger to them is
that that small sliver is not necessarily broad enough and it’s boxed them into positions that the
general electorate might have a lot of difficulty with,” he says. “A brand is successful [when] it
makes a promise to somebody. For politicians, their brand also has to make a promise. Just
putting somebody out and saying, ‘I’m young and hip,’ that’s not necessarily what anybody is
voting for. I don’t know anybody who voted for Barack Obama just because he was young and
hip.”
Gene Grabowski, senior vice president at Washington-based Levick Strategic Communications, a
firm that specializes in public affairs and reputation management, says that while blending
branding with substance is necessary in politics, branding usually wins. “If you have only
substance but no means to market your candidate, you will fail. If you have just the brand and no
substance, you are likely to fail but not guaranteed to fail. Branding is essential; it is politics
today.” He adds that the multimillion-dollar price tags that come with presidential and
congressional campaigns have risen over the years because of the need for branding and to get
messages out consistently with enough repetition through advertising and online efforts.
Marketing News Exclusives August 4, 2011

2. Like any other brand marketers looking to garner consumers’ interest, politicians should take a
cue from the leading consumer brand, Apple, and design attractive, relatable, authentic brand
attributes, Diamond says. “[Consumers] think what [Apple] gives them is cutting-edge. Politicians
need that same type of thought process to take place. Politicians have to come up with attributes
so that people can say, ‘He believes in the same things I believe in, he shares my concerns, his
values are similar.’ ”
For more on marketing’s role in politics and elections, read the Marketing News article “Marketer
in Chief,” available on MarketingPower.com.
Marketing News Exclusives August 4, 2011