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We v. I: Demorcratic Primary Branding Revisited
  by:  |  Feb 26, 2008
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Last updated on September 22nd, 2017 at 11:03 pm

As I’ve discussed previously,  the Democratic presidential primaries have represented a classic exercise in personal branding.  The two primary candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have created their own brands of experience and change respectively.  As the campaign reaches its end, it has become obvious that Obama’s representation of himself as a brand of change is the more powerful brand.  However, a second brand difference is coming to the forefront as the campaign winds down and that difference is proving to be a major factor in helping Seantor Obama’s success.

This second branding issue has been one of Senator Obama taking a position of being collaborative with his supporters while Senator Clinton presents herself as being removed from her supporters.  Senator Obama has shown an astonishing ability to engender a feeling of empowerment in his supporters.  As this article notes, what Senator Obama has been very successful in doing is creating a collaborative feeling with his audience.  Even his oft-repeated catchphrase “Yes, we can” is designed to be collaborative.  As the article notes, Senator Obama elaborates on this concept on the front page of his site by stating that ” “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I’m asking you to believe in yours”  Senator Obama is placing himself very clearly as part of the same group as his supporters.

Senator Clinton is the opposite.   Her campaign is built around her ability to succeed if given the opportunity.  If she is elected, she will go to Washington and do what needs to be done.  As opposed to Senator Obam’s message of “Yes, we can,”  Senator Clinton’s message is “I can, if you let me.”  Looking at her website, the primary reference to her supporters is a request for donations to “Drive Hillary to Victory.”  The emphasis here is plain, the victory will belong to Senator Clinton not her supporters.  Their support is appreciated, but they are not part of the process.

So how does this translate to business?    What it shows is that the best way to engender loyalty from a potential customer is to allow them to feel like they are part of the process.  The goal is not to tell the customer how good your product or service is  or what that product or service can do, but rather to show the customer what the your company can do for the customer.  If you can make the customer feel like an intrinsic part of the process and create a feeling of collaboration, then the liklihood of the customer working with your company increases exponentially.

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