Branding in Politics

Experts agree that Obama´s election victory is largely due to a unique and innovative election campaign which managed to convince voters. The huge efforts to raise funds to cover the costs and the extensive and comprehensive use of social media are considered the main innovations Obama introduced into his campaign. (Qualman, 2009, p. 64; Waters & Lester, 2010, p. 241; Harfoush, 2009, pp. VIII) They agree on the fact, that “Obama” can be considered a powerful brand: “Brand Obama is a real marketing phe-nomenon. He´s not only making politics cool, he´s outpacing Google and iPhone, the icon brands of this century”, states David Jones, CEO of one of the world´s biggest advertising agencies. (Euro RSCG Brand Momentum Study, 2008)
The target of this paper is to analyze from a marketing point of view the mechanisms which helped Barack Obama turn the game around – against initial odds. For this purpose, we will first of all deal with the theoretical bases of brand management. We will examine in detail the characteristic features of a brand in order to answer the question as to what extent the comparison of President Obama to a brand is justified. The subse-quent analysis of the functions of a brand has the purpose to explain in what way brands are capable of increasing a product's (or person’s) perceived value to the customer (or voter).