Republicans, Building Strong Bodies Twelve Ways

Careful brand management, supported by a cleverly crafted advertising campaign, can be highly successful in convincing consumers to pay remarkably high prices for products which are inherently extremely cheap to make.
- Wikipedia - “Concepts” Section in their article on Market Branding. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand)

The Republicans are struggling to find a road to the future. Obama’s decisive win, the Democrats increase of their majorities in both the House and the Senate, and the very real possibility of further increases in 2010 have gotten the Republican’s full attention. As they tank up the Chevy for their long drive through the wilderness, they are unfolding a map marked “branding” on the hood of the car and hoping to find the road back. But to find the right road back, the Republicans need to understand two things, first the theory of brands, and second the function of a political party.

People react to a brand at two levels. One level is their experience using it. The second is their psychological perception of a brand, regardless of whether or not they have used it.

A person’s direct experience does more than anything else to determine how they feel about a brand. Whether or not a passenger thinks an airline flies the friendly skies is determined entirely by how he or she is treated by the gate agent and flight attendant. If the treatment is rude, no amount of advertising will change the passenger’s opinion.

The Republicans have to change how the American people experience the Party. Whether it is the fiscal collapse and the failure of the bank bailouts to slow foreclosures, the war in Iraq, the explosion of the size of government and the squandering of the surplus, Americans do not like what they experienced when they tried the Republican brand.

The psychological perception of a brand is not determined only by direct experience with a brand. People have a perception of a brand without experiencing it at all. Drivers who have never driven a Lexus have the psychological perception that it is a luxury car. Similarly, people who have not been directly effected by the Republican Party, those people who still have jobs, homes, have not been drowned in a Hurricane or sent a family member to Iraq, view Republicans hard hearted and interested only in themselves and a narrow group of corporate executives.

While Bush has been the face of the Republican party, the other faces the Republicans have shown haven’t been good for them either. Whether it is Rove smearing a war hero like Max Cleland, Duke Cunningham writing his bribe rates on the back of his business card, or the Republican controlled House and Senate squandering the surplus, peoples’ perception of the Republican brand is negative.

People are also very sophisticated when it comes to branding. They know when they are being told something is different from their experience of it. No amount of advertising could make people think “New Coke” is the real thing. The more the Republicans market themselves to Americans differently than how they are perceived, the less people will trust them.

Republicans then, have to understand that a Political party is a group of people who share a philosophy and a set of values. A political party is all about interests and is not something that can be sold like cereal. A party is strong only when it is aligned with the values of a wide and diverse group of people. To survive, the Republicans have to figure out what the values of Americans are. I don’t mean examining “value voter” issues like how hard line to be about guns, God, and gays, but to truly understanding what Americans’ hopes and fears are, and the direction history moving. Once they have figured out these things, Republicans will have to translate that understanding into actions consistent with a philosophical framework.

So what should they do? They should operate like the “shadow government” in Great Britain. First they should step off the stage and lower their profile and let the Democrats make proposals on a wide range of issues. Then the Republicans should designate a spokesperson for each major proposal and layout substantive counterproposals that achieve the same goals while staying true to a philosophical frame work.

Rather than talking about fiscal responsibility, they should respond to the stimulus package with one that will achieve similar results and demonstrate a new care with the nation’s money. They must recognize universal health care is coming regardless of what they do. Republicans need to propose health care reforms that will truly put health care within everyone’s reach, but at a lower cost and with greater efficiency than what the Obama administration proposes.

Only when they follow this road will peoples’ image and experience of the Republicans improve, drawing likeminded voters back into the party. If they don’t take this road they will continue to drive aimlessly in the desert with their dwindling constituency in the back seat whining “Are we there yet?”