As the dust settles on Donald Trump’s triumph in the US election, it’s interesting to consider the roles the Trump brand and the media played in his victory.
UK disbelief
There is an overwhelmingly gloomy view of the result this side of the Atlantic, with memes featuring the Empire State Building in tears or leaving New York altogether.
Brexit levels of disbelief.
Au revoir, US of X!
Much has been written about the respective campaigns and Harris’ ability to raise record amounts of funding across a young demographic and seemingly be leading the way in communicating with the electorate: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/kamala-harris-presidential-campaign-branding/
But it’s easy to over-complicate the role of the brand in capturing the hearts and minds of the people, many already disillusioned with the Democrats. Trump is certainly a divisive character but the clarity and consistency of his positioning, and the saliency of his key brand assets are evident.
This was clear on our recent summer holiday to the US. A Trump victory could make a lot of fat cats even fatter (not by literally eating cats, or dogs), but it appears he has become the champion of the ‘working man’ (quite different from Labour’s ‘working people’ - whatever that means?!) and even more importantly - 'it’s the economy, stupid!'
Reagan remix
The Positioning Slogan
Trump essentially remodelled an old Ronald Reagan slogan ‘Let’s Make America Great Again’, to ‘Make America Great Again’. And has had enormous success with it.
There is a huge degree of flexibility in this positioning slogan - we’re going to ‘Make America Wealthy/Healthy/Great (insert adjective here) Again’.
Tapping into an idea that things aren’t very good now, and there was a time in the past when they were better that we should reclaim. This resonated with a lot of people.
Stylish MAGA hat?
The Key Brand Asset
The key brand asset of Trump’s support was one of the purest symbols of American identity - the humble baseball hat - red and emblazoned with the MAGA slogan. Arguably not the most fashionable of items but nonetheless, probably one of the most salient and effective political assets since the turn of the century. In fact, it’s brand extension into ‘Musk Black’ is an intriguing development!
I remember once preparing a big pitch for a major global beer brand. We shared it with our Chairman and he said: “Great work, but what does it look like on a baseball hat?”
A view from the country
MAGA’s iconicity reminded me of cycling around the countryside during BREXIT, well away from metropolitan London, and how prominent and dominant the ‘LEAVE’ posters were. It was the same with Trump’s campaign.
Direct, immediate, easy to understand and parody. Delivered more convincingly, more consistently, more of the time.
The next dimension - Dark MAGA
No Hope?
And what of the Democrats? We all recall the famous Barak Obama ‘Hope’ iconography, it captured perfectly the mood of time. Alas, this time the Democrats did not. ’Turn the Page’, ‘We’re Not Going Back, and finally ‘Joy’ simply did not ring true to a large part of the electorate who were fed up with inflation, jobs and the economy.
Hope springs eternal
Changing Media Landscape
Lastly, as my US friend/correspondent Scott aptly puts it, the mainstream media is not representative of the country. There are clearly two different medias that do not meet in the middle - the traditional media (CNN, New York Times, Washington Post etc.) and an entirely different, sealed ecosystem that is predominantly pro-Trump (The Daily Wire, Substack, online influencers, Elon Musk - a future President?).
So love it or loathe it - the saliency of Trump’s positioning and key brand assets is something we can all learn something from.
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