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John Tantillo's Brand Winner... And Loser: Conan O'Brien and The Republican Party
Posted by The Marketing Doctor at 1/27/2010 10:55 AM 
Categories: Branding
Tags: late night prime time NBC positive brand vision Conan O'Brien John Tantillo GE Tonight Show marketing political brand Leno Republican Party Party of No the un-cola Scott Brown personal brand broadcast television
Categories: Branding
Tags: late night prime time NBC positive brand vision Conan O'Brien John Tantillo GE Tonight Show marketing political brand Leno Republican Party Party of No the un-cola Scott Brown personal brand broadcast television
Brand Loser… | And Loser |
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John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week:
Winner: Conan O’Brien
Loser: The Republican Party
Folks, without further ado:
The Winner
Conan O’Brien is our winner of the week for standing his ground, recognizing the changing television environment and getting paid an enormous amount of money simply to walk away from The Tonight Show.
Along the way, he also won new supporters and fans by showing that he cared about those he worked for, insisting that even his non-contract co-workers be taken care of under NBC’s multi-million dollar settlement.
As I’ve observed before, NBC’s mistake wasn’t that it was wrong about the traditional television model changing. Absolutely not. Broadcast television only makes sense if you have big, captive audiences. The Internet, hand-held devices, cable and TIVO are doing away with these.
No, NBC’s mistake was that it was either insufficiently bold or prematurely radical in repositioning its brand.
Once NBC decided to shake up prime time, they should have remained committed to the shakeup, keeping Leno on prime time and, if necessary, sending the affiliates, who were complaining about declining lead-in ratings, some of the cash they were saving by reducing their prime time programming costs with Leno. Surely, at the least, NBC could have stuck to its guns a little longer to see whether this prime time shakeup would bear fruit in the long-term.
Barring this resolve, it would have been better for NBC to have simply paid O’Brien the penalty amount for not taking over the Tonight Show as scheduled, keeping Leno at the helm.
But why pick O’Brien as a winner? After all, he’s banned from doing TV for months.
All along, Conan knew his brand when others doubted it. When the going got tough, he did nothing to his brand that would hurt his current Target Market; he might have even gained new followers. Conan knows he is not a comedian or entertainer for everyone, and so he builds on what he is. This is exactly what you want to do in marketing: add new customers without alienating your current customers.
Moments of crisis can show a) what a brand is made of and b) the depth of commitment people have to a brand.
O’Brien won on both counts. He came across as an entertainment brand that has legs and, moreover, one who many people (judging from the outpouring of support and the ratings spike) like very much.
The world really is his oyster now. He might be wooed by another network, or he might finish the job that NBC started: go where no talk show host has gone before—onto the Internet with a serious venture. A tech commentator in The New York Times made the point that many in O’Brien’s audience already connect exclusively with him via the web and don’t even know what time his show airs. With his NBC payout, perhaps he can control his own brand outside of any network involvement, building segments financed with corporate sponsorship or some other new business model that will become the future once the broadcast model has breathed its last.
Who knows what the future holds, but O’Brien’s brand exits this past week stronger than ever and sure to claim a big piece of it.
Stay tuned.
The Loser
In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory, many people might wonder how I can single out the Republicans as this week’s brand loser.
Easy.
The Republicans are on the verge of making the same mistake that the Democrats did when Barack Obama was elected: thinking that the victory was an endorsement of the party, when really it was an endorsement of a man and a new way of tackling the same old problems. In both cases, we saw an election of individual personal brands —not company brands (i.e., Democrats or Republicans). In both cases, the candidates, not the parties, were the winners.
Folks, once again: people buy brands, not companies!
For his part, the new senator is playing it smart. He’s distancing himself from the Republican status quo, calling himself a Scott Brown Republican.
But as for Brand Republican, there is the danger that its mangers will pat themselves on the back and continue to be the party of “No.”
In the wake of Obama’s election, the Republicans have lacked a clear-cut vision of the future. Being the party of “No” is simply not enough. This is like marketing a product because of what it is not instead of what it is. This strategy has been tried before. What about 7-Up…the “un-cola”? 7-Up might have gained some market share at first, but it never managed to gain too much momentum against Coke and Pepsi.
Successful brands have clear-cut visions of the future that are positive, not negative. End of story.
Reagan was not so much against big government as for small government and the wherewithal of the American people to make good choices if they were just left alone to do it. With a positive brand vision, consumers (read: voters) know where the brand plans to go and grow. Knowing this vision, they become a part of the brand’s growth through their support.
What does this vision involve? Well, it needs to be based on what the GOP has always stood for: equality of opportunity but no guarantee of wealth and happiness (i.e., we’re talking about our nation’s foundational values —“the pursuit of happiness,” not the automatic right to happiness).
In other words, Republicans need to make clear that they are not for government handouts, a nanny state, but that they are for a society that supports opportunity, a free market and individuals willing take roll up their sleeves and take risks. They need this kind of affirmative, concrete platform to build the future of the party brand.
Scott Brown just might be that transformational leader who can supply Brand Republican with this kind of foundational road map and the energy to get there. We will see. But until Brand Republican stops being a party in disarray, without a marketing vision, no amount of tea party enthusiasm and special election victories will translate into long-term electoral success.
And, remember, the business of entertainment and of politics is always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY -
One success does not a strong brand make.
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