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John Tantillo's Brand Winner... And Loser: Disney and The White House
Posted by The Marketing Doctor at 9/8/2009 6:09 PM 
Categories: Branding
Tags: wholesome Ron Bloom Disney Peggy Noonan brand portfolio Democrats John Tantillo brand White House Marvel Target Market indoctrination branding Transformers comics marketing Nicholas Kristof marketer Tantillo competition Brand Land acquisition demographic Van Jones Republicans school speech corporate brand Obama
Categories: Branding
Tags: wholesome Ron Bloom Disney Peggy Noonan brand portfolio Democrats John Tantillo brand White House Marvel Target Market indoctrination branding Transformers comics marketing Nicholas Kristof marketer Tantillo competition Brand Land acquisition demographic Van Jones Republicans school speech corporate brand Obama
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Brand Winner… |
And Loser |
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John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week:
Winner: Disney (and Marvel)
Loser: The White House
Folks, here we go:
The Winner
Very rarely in Brand Land does the Marketing Doctor see a company get it so right when they acquire another company. But last week Disney nailed it with the acquisition of Marvel Comics and Marvel’s thousands of franchise-ready characters and story lines.
Barron's does a solid analysis of why the acquisition makes sense.
Basically, the key point in this acquisition (and any brand’s expansion) is to always build on your core, and not to extend into areas that clash with this core. Marvel is Marvel, and Disney is Disney, and together the depth and breadth of their newfound brand portfolio is what makes the new corporate brand one that will stand the tests of time and changing demographics.
Remember, it’s all about your Target Market when you speak of brands.
At bottom, Marvel’s comic universe is pretty wholesome and unobjectionable (just like Disney’s), although arguably a little more adult-oriented —and this is what its Target Market expects. What we’re seeing is the behavior of a wise brand that wants to continue its magic, even as the young demographic that has traditionally been its bread and butter ages. In an era when The Transformers can be a hit among twenty-somethings, the Marvel acquisition will provide Disney with a wealth of options to reach its maturing fans.
Well done. And they say that marketing isn’t a science —poppycock!
The Loser
Not so well done has been the White House’s handling of President Obama’s nationwide school speech.
There’s nothing wrong with a President optimistically and motivationally addressing the young of the nation. This is not Kim Il Jung indoctrination —we simply don’t live in North Korea.
So are some people making a mountain out of this mole hill? Absolutely.
Should these people simply be dismissed as irrelevant or foolish? Absolutely not.
And this is why the Obama White House is the loser of the week. Bottom line: the school speech debacle is a symptom of an underlying issue. The Obama administration is not recognizing that 1) it is, in fact, under attack, and 2) the opposition has relevant concerns that are fueling this attack.
Let’s look at point #1. Brands can come under attack both deservedly and undeservedly. Fact is, initially realizing that you are under attack is more important than knowing why you’re under attack.
Simply said, when you are in the marketplace, whether political or commercial, you must realize that the competition —let’s face it, your enemy— will not simply stand in awe of your new idea or tactic. They will poke holes in it and/or improve upon it —and if you haven’t dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's, you’re in trouble. Even if you have taken care of every last detail, you’re still going to have to be responsive and adaptable if you want to outflank your competition. An experienced marketer knows this, and both plans and reacts accordingly. An inexperienced marketer attacks the competitor for daring to be a competitor and dismisses the attack as irrelevant or unfair, rather than treat it as a substantive threat. This is not good when playing where the stakes are as high as they are at the White House.
The White House has simply not understood that it is under attack. Peggy Noonan just wrote what is possibly be the definitive take on why this might be happening. Hint: it has to do with the age and inexperience of many of those White House staffers who might have just needed a little more failure in their resumes and a little less early success.
You cannot defend your brand if you are not aware that it is being attacked. In this case, the White House walked into a situation, eyes-wide-open, that any seasoned politico would have seen a mile away. Obviously (and here is point #2), if more than fifty percent of the electorate isn’t quite sure if your health plan might pull the plug on granny, or whether you really are some kind of socialist, there will be a highly flammable moment when it comes to addressing their kids when they are not around. Hint: Obama and Co. needs to remember their brand and their Target Market; it’s not just the Dems who took them to the big time.
This is not rocket science —but, unfortunately for the White House, it appears too many people there might indeed be fully qualified rocket scientists who have not even minored in common sense.
Obama's team should have known better. Folks, it’s the “egghead effect,” and we’re probably going to see it pop up across most, if not all, of the White House’s initiatives.
When you have Nicholas Kristof in the Times suggest that the White House is missing some basic human realities about Afghanistan and making many missteps as a result, and Van Jones back to the position he had held in the first place… you know you’ve got trouble.
The White House needs to do at least one thing pronto: Bring a dozen people in who are old hands at the job of governance. People who, in the words of one of LBJ’s Texas handlers, at least once ran for Sheriff. Unfortunately, the selection of Ron Bloom, a union insider, to “invigorate” manufacturing just seems like more of the same —and, again, I guarantee you’ll hearing about it from the opposition.
And remember, it’s always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY -
Don’t let intelligence get in the way of common sense when it comes to branding.
While I agree that the White House staff needs to understand that they are under attack I disagree that there is validity to the attacks - reasons yes, political and perhaps personal. As Secy Clinton said if Obama walked on water they'd say he couldn't swim. How you fight this is not clear because to fight back aggresively impacts on the other characteristic of the Obama brand i.e. non-confrontational civil discourse, leading to rational change. ,
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