First, congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama. Regardless of who you voted for, you had to be proud to see the new President-elect up there on the stage in Chicago last week with his incredible wife Michelle and the cutest two first kids ever, Sasha and Malia. What a great day for America, and for the world, too.

In the long list of historic accomplishments by Barack Obama in getting to that stage last week, perhaps none stand out more in my mind than the truly remarkable marketing campaign that he and his able team developed, managed and led. President-elect Obama really is our new Marketer In Chief. It’s not for nothing that Ad Age named him its 2008 “Marketer of the Year.”

What did our new Marketer In Chief Obama do to earn that title and the deserving accolades that have been rushing in from marketers around the world? For starters, he won, which is critical for the political marketer. There is no second place in presidential politics. And, he did just about everything right to ensure that win. Let me enumerate some of the key ways Brand Obama demonstrated its marketing expertise:

• Building the Obama Brand – Every brand marketing student should study what Barack Obama and team did to create Brand Obama, and then nurture, promote and protect it. Unlike his two key competitors, Senators Hilary Clinton and John McCain, Obama early on established a well defined and differentiated narrative for his brand, one that was clearly based on what voters (the target consumers) were actually wanting and looking for (change!). And, he consistently stuck to that brand positioning, especially when things got rough and difficult, and even when supporters were losing heart.
• Creating a Sharp Corporate Identity – The Obama logo was a classic almost from day one. (As many have already observed, the expensive new Pepsi logo is very similar, except not as strong.) The Brand Obama identity system was modern, clean, friendly and different. It complemented Obama’s “change” positioning, instead of fighting it. The only screw up (and it was a doozy!) in an otherwise flawless corporate identity roll out was the creation of the faux presidential seal based on the Obama logo. It made it onto one podium and then thankfully was banished. Let’s just hope that misbegotten signage doesn’t make its way onto eBay some day!
• Obamamania Marketing– If you’ve succeeded in building a powerful brand, you better have a great marketing plan and program to get it out there. Here again Team Obama excelled. They understood their target audiences, and segmented them effectively with tailored but consistent messaging. They built a truly integrated strategy, letting the ideas drive selection of channel, media and tactics (not the other way around, like so many marketers wrongly do). And, they embraced new media, particularly web based social media to huge and now famous effect. Another Harvard Business Case in the making.
• Weilding True Discipline – The Obama campaign was nothing if not disciplined. In the marketing world, that is an under appreciated virtue. This unique level of marketing and messaging discipline served then Senator Obama in a nearly two-year campaign, during which he was challenged constantly and sometimes brutally (as they say, politics ain’t bean bag). Years ago I worked on the Reebok global marketing business. As a brand and company, Reebok had almost no marketing discipline. Their arch competitor, Nike, was all about steely discipline and consistency. The result: Nike continues to grow as the athletic shoe and apparel industry colossus, and Reebok sort of faded away into irrelevancy in the past decade.  
• Sharing the Passion — Great brands have emotion and passion. People care about them. Here, too, Brand Obama shone during the long campaign. People just cared a lot more about Obama and his message and promise — and the man himself – during the general election. The only brand that got close to that level of emotional involvement was the relationship between Hilary Clinton and her supporters toward the end of the primary season.

As a marketer, I tip my hat to the master, Barack Obama, the new Marketer In Chief (and his world class team). As a citizen, my respect, thanks and support go to President-elect Obama, because he restored hope to a nation (and a world) that was sorely in need of it.

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