Last evening, Sen. Barack Obama registered a convincing win in the Wisconsin primary. That makes nine in a row for the junior senator from Illinois who has campaigned on the themes of hope and positive change. Obama’s big win also meant nine straight losses for Sen. Hillary Clinton. And what was her response to failing yet again in her primary quest? She delivered a less than inspiring speech in which she repeated that she was the most experienced candidate, ready to lead on day one, the practical, solid choice for Democrats. Yawn.

If there is one thing we marketers know, if your strategy is not working, change it. And quickly. That’s why we call it "test and learn" in the marketing business. If Hillary Clinton were a marketing consultant, she would have been fired a long time ago.

And I don’t say that just because Sen. Clinton has lost nine straight primary contests to Barack Obama. She and her advisors have consistently violated, or ignored, a basic tenet of branding: brands are not just about the practical/rational benefits that they deliver to the user. They are also very much about the emotional benefits that they offer and stand for.

Most novice marketers have already learned that brands are built on emotional connections and relationships with consumers, just as they represent the more practical benefit of a "promise made and a promise kept, consistently over time." I have heard many times from women friends (and even men) that they use Tide laundry detergent because "my mom used it." A woman I formerly worked with said the familiar Tide scent "felt like home" to her. (You can’t make this stuff up! This kind of brand loyalty is what P&G lives for.)

We have a warm and fuzzy "relationship" with the iconic American brand Coca-Cola, which is why we complained bitterly and loudly when they threatened to take it away and replace it with New Coke (which reportedly had tested better in consumer taste tests). The emotional pull of brands is so strong that people across the world choose a deathly product — Marlboro cigarettes — over similar offerings just because of the classic American cowboy, independence iconography that the famed Leo Burnett ads created for this brand many years ago.

So, why does Hillary Clinton persist in her failed strategy of emphasizing only the rational/practical side of her brand? Who knows? It certainly is not working, especially against a candidate who so brilliantly speaks to the emotional, aspirational needs, wants and desires of voters. Once consumers satisfy themselves that a certain product or service delivers the basic attributes they require, all their decisions from then on are largely based on the emotional, aspirational side of the choice equation. The same thing is true in presidential politics. Once Democratic voters assured themselves that Barack Obama had the requisite credentials to be president (intelligence, experience in politics and public affairs, maturity, etc.), they then started to fall in love with his message of hope, renewal and change. All benefits voters (particularly Democratic voters) have been desperately looking for in this election cycle.

Which is why it’s all the more surprising that Sen. Clinton just does not seem to understand that her rattling off her professional credentials (her brand’s rational attributes) just will not win against a brand (Obama’s) that speaks so eloquently to people’s aspirational hopes and dreams.

It is probably too late for brand Hillary to change and successfully dial up her emotional attributes in this campaign. The great brands – like Tide, Apple, Coke and BMW — don’t keep changing their positioning and message every few weeks. They find that right mix of practical performance and emotional resonance, and then stick with it.

The fact is, Hillary Clinton could have been the candidate of hope and aspiration. She is, after all, the first woman to have a serious chance of becoming the president of the USA, the leader of the world’s last superpower. Hillary demonstrated in her impressive comeback win in New Hampshire that when she shows the emotional side of her brand , people respond positively.

And doing that again is probably the only chance Sen. Clinton has left to resuscitate her failing candidacy. But, she needs to make immediate changes to her marketing strategy and lose the experience-centric, "ready on day one," practical solutions brand positioning that she has been running on. If she does not start today appealing emotionally to voters’ common aspirations of hope and renewal (change), her next job will be back in the Senate.

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