I generally do not like talking about politics. This article only includes observations on the President’s poor brand image on the internet.
Businesses use marketing and branding strategies to increase sales. If you think about how sales are increased through successful marketing and branding, you will see that the same strategies can be used in other situations.
Good branding will establish trust. Good marketing will get people listening to your message. No company or person should leave their brand image up to others, especially not the opposition. You do not want your detractors’ messages about you to be heard by more people than your own.
Branding
Look at how the President is represented on the internet. Nobody in the administration has any control of the President’s personal brand. It seems to be in the hands of the mass media, conspiracy theorists, and fanatics that swarm around social news sites. Not good.
Marketing
How does the President’s message get to the people? The Press Secretary reads it in a press conference, where representatives of the media then listens, applies necessary spin, and publishes. The mass media does not work for the government and can say whatever they want. Therefore, they should not be put in responsibility of the President’s message. With this current system, the President’s message is given to the People much like a suppository — obviously not a good marketing strategy.
As a politician, it is important for the President to maintain trust with the People of America. Yet on the internet, all we hear about is what they [may] have done wrong. If people only hear negative things about a someone or something, whether or not the statements are true, they will not be likely to trust the given entity.
I do not trust or support President Bush. How can I? I have heard too much bad and not enough good. It is possible that my assumptions (built on what I have read/heard) are incorrect, but who is telling me otherwise?
Bush has his own branding entity – if you want to see tireless support for his policies, watch Fox News and much of the rest of the mainstream media. The federal government actually spent $1.6 billion in PR/propaganda between 2003-2005!
( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021301897.html )
It’s too bad (for Bush, in his own words!) that he’s not a dictator and that he doesn’t have complete control over every media outlet. Thank God for the Internet so we can see and put forth alternative viewpoints. What if the truth actually is too much bad and not enough good? To me, that is the sad, but unavoidable conclusion at this point. Most people aren’t aware of how stridently the founding fathers warned about how naturally the government would assume tyrannical power and quench individual freedoms if we let it. It’s happened at an alarming rate of speed in the last 6 years or so.
Great analysis. It would be very interesting to see politicians use the internet to promote themselves for something more than just asking us to vote for them. Right now I’m suscribed to Fred Thompson’s Twitter and it would be a great tool not just to win elections but to keep citizens informed about what he thinks he’s doing.