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Monday, Jul 6, 2009
Global marketing execs agree -- America's image is in the toilet. The cure? One presidential candidate has what it takes, they say, to save Brand USA.
By Jeff Yang
Read more: Marketing, Advertising, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Opinion, Barack Obama, 2008 election
March 3, 2008 | There's no way to put this delicately, so I won't: America's global image is in the crapper. Last year, the BBC World Service conducted a poll of over 26,000 individuals in the world's 25 largest countries and found that more than 52 percent thought the U.S. had a "mostly negative" influence on the world. Fifty-three percent of respondents to a survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs felt America could "not be trusted."
Which means that, on top of everything else it represents, the current presidential election is something like an ad agency review -- a chance to put a set of potential stewards for "Brand America" through their paces, to see the creative and strategic directions in which they'd take our product.
What's at stake is more than just popularity. As Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of the globe's second-largest ad agency, DDB Worldwide, notes, "How we're perceived in the world has profound implications. We rely on human intelligence to alert us to threats: We need friends willing to whisper in our ear that someone's planning to blow up jetliners ... Economically, the Commerce Department estimated that we've lost over $100 billion in tourism revenues since 2001. For every share point we lose in that sector, you're talking about $12.3 billion and 150,000 jobs, gone! The bottom line is that we need a world that likes America."| Candidate | Slogan | Unifying Theme | Underlying Values | If He/She Were a Brand... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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The Strength and Experience to Bring Real Change | Competence; experience; professionalism |   | |
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Straight Talk Express | Resilience; candor; courage |   | |
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Change We Can Believe In | Inspiration; inclusion; iconoclasm |   | |
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Faith. Family. Freedom | Earthiness; populism; humility |   |
Given the beating our image has taken during the last eight years, getting back to "like" is an uphill climb -- but not an impossible one. Over the past six months, I've seen this process firsthand, as part of a team of researchers exploring the tarnishing of America's "brand" in the global marketplace. The word from our network of immersed observers in 14 countries: Even as American politics and policies have become a lightning rod for global anger, America's core underlying values retain their appeal. The problem is that, in the eyes of millions of people around the world, we've simply stopped living up to them.
"The virulent strain of anti-Americanism we're seeing now can be ascribed directly to the fact that we've reneged on our promise to the world," says Dick Martin, former executive vice president of public relations for AT&T, and author of the book "Rebuilding Brand America." "That's why it's ultimately a branding problem. At its root, a brand is a promise. KFC is a brand that promises finger-lickin'-good chicken; America is a brand that promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But unlike KFC, we're not delivering."
"Brand America needs a relaunch," says Reinhard. "And this year, this election, is the best opportunity we're going to get."
Convention holds that presidents need at least 100 days to find their footing, establish their policies, and shift the nation out of the previous administration's inertia. But observers point out that because this cycle's presidential contenders are the most cleanly packaged and clearly differentiated since Kennedy and Nixon, America's makeover will begin even before inauguration. As soon as a winner is announced on Nov. 4, 2008, he or she will, for all intents and purposes, be Brand America.
So which of the candidates has a brand that best addresses the perceived deficits in our country brand?
Is it Brand Clinton, the name you can trust; familiar, experienced and rich with the mmm-mmm-good aroma of America's last big boom? Or Brand Huckabee, whose folks 'n' faith message promises down-to-earth values combined with hands-to-heaven purity? Is it Brand McCain, tough enough to get it done, an off-road vehicle unafraid of both traffic and muck. Or, perhaps, Brand Obama -- the think-different, just-do-it candidate who combines all-in-one packaging with big, streamlined ideas?
