What our politicians need to learn about brand building
Tayburn's Jane Hughes on why our politicians need to better differentiate their brands if they want to win outright majorities in future.
Was it just me or did all the parties, with the exception of single issue parties like the SNP, BNP, Socialists and Greens, sound exactly the same? Despite tuning into the televised debates, following it online and watching a succession of candidates kissing babies, to me, there wasn’t any originality or substance that inspired me to pledge allegiance one way or the other.
Heated debates and political rallying aside, I didn’t see anyone laying their cards on the table with meaningful detail on their policies. I appreciate parties have to satisfy myriad stakeholder audiences, so they can’t have pin-point precision when it comes to their ‘propositions’, but surely they should have had something that distinguished them from their competitors?
Was it not obvious for someone, somewhere amidst the pre-election melee to suggest developing a series of targeted propositions that could be underpinned with real commitment to effect the change the party promised and build a solid political reputation? A by-product of building that reputation is trust and in light of all the spin, political enquiries, expenses and the financial crisis, if a party can counteract all its failings by implementing, and standing by solid values, then it will regain the public trust it desperately needs to restore.
What was made clear to me in this election was not how branding could have helped any of the main political parties succeed, but how the lack of it failed to help any of them win.
If politics is to pick itself up off the canvas it needs to take a leaf out of the book of business and differentiate better. It needs to target key audiences with key messages that are not littered with ambiguity. Just as with all good brands, political parties need to focus more on substance and communicate exactly what that substance is with flair. They need to deliver the values their brand promises and not rely on talking a good game and hoping the public are too stupid or ignorant to notice the difference.
Jane Hughes is business director at brand design agency Tayburn