An ad guy explains the election. Hillary: the packaged goods candidate

Hillary Clinton’s campaign tactics, public statements and brand promise are all a lot more understandable than Donald Trump’s, which I’ve previously written about.

In fact, Hillary’s campaign feel a lot like it could be for a packaged good’s company than her competitor. After all, Proctor and Gamble’s motto is “The Consumer is the Boss.” Hillary’s slogan is “Stronger Together.” Both are nice sentiments but neither of these things really mean anything. Thankfully that don’t really need too.

Proctor and Gamble makes stuff everyone has to buy. Hillary offers a service everyone has to take whether they want to or not. Like Tide, Hillary is the established product with a track record of getting the stains out or ducking sniper fire (I can’t remember).

But seriously, this provides Hillary a real marketing advantage. Everyone knows her brand already. It’s appears safe through massive brand recognition and a long market history. Trump’s brand recognition, while also high, is not in the politics market (just imagine Harley Davidson prescription drugs). So her well known category brand feels (feelings matter, facts don’t) safe compared to Trump’s.

It’s very smart to flex her established brand equity while calling out Trump’s challenger brand status. The best way to do this is exactly what she and her representatives are doing, calling him unstable, insinuating mental illness and a likeness to Hitler.

This is where the likeness to a packaged good ends. The type of flame war she’s waging couldn’t be sustained against multiple competitors and without getting teams of lawyers involved. But it is working well in the zero-sum market and limited time frame of a campaign. This leads me to believe, unless something unforeseen happens, it will only get worse all the way till November. Grab some popcorn, this should be interesting.

Posted on: August 15, 2016, by :