Note, before reading the following you should know that I worked and voted for Barak Obama for president. With that as an important caveat, here’s my brand lesson from the Obama victory.
JFK, the president to whom the current president-elect is most often compared, once said:
In this case, the President was talking about a defeat (The Bay of Pigs).
But let’s consider Kennedy’s quote in the context of Senator Barak Obama’s historic presidential victory over Senator McCain last November 4th.
Today there are many “fathers” being offered up explain Obama’s victory.
Most attribute the “father” of the Obama victory to history. Specifically, the timing of the market meltdown and economic crisis. Others say the “father” of the Obama victory was, in fact, a woman — namely, the McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a running mate. Still others say the “father” of the Obama victory was technology. In this case they were talking about the incredible online money and organizing machine that the Obama campaign was able to build.
All would-be “fathers” list their reasons and point to alleged “causal” relationships between one action or development and Obama’s surge in the polls in the last 30 days.
But could the “father” of the Obama victory be simply this — of the two, he was simply found to be the better brand?
He won every debate … and by wide margins. Could it be that people simply looked at both brands and said to themselves,
“Hmmm, I’ll take that one.”
Could the brand lesson from the Obama campaign be … start (and end) with a good product?