John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week:

Winner: Google             

Loser: Brand Obama

Sunday brought a historic legislative victory for President Obama and a major change for Internet behemoth Google. Only one event was good for the brand involved (hint: it didn’t happen in Washington). 

The Winner

Google.  

After months of speculation, Google has announced that it is no longer going to censor service in China.

As a result, they are redirecting their search operations to freer Hong Kong and hoping that they will still be able to grow their Chinese search base, despite inevitable push back from the Communist government.

This is excellent branding.

Why? Because Google is a company that began with its “Don’t Be Evil” slogan and must be guided by it. Other international companies might be able to play it looser with authoritarian China, but that’s because people buy brands, not  companies. In other words, most international companies are in the business of moving products, and it is the products themselves that interest the Target Markets —not the way the companies maneuver behind the scenes to get those products to market. 

But Google is the product. The search engine itself as well as most of the services that Google is involved with depend on the impression that Google isn't “evil” and is doing its best to make the free flow of information and unfettered access to the Web a reality for its users.

Being seen as a participant in censorship to the extent demanded by China was simply not consistent with Google’s core brand features.

Moreover, Google’s company image is what has enabled it to develop other brands (i.e. products and services) and generate as much good will as they have. The massive book scanning project or its YouTube business would be harmed if they were seen as tampering with the user’s experience.  

This high-visibility stand which will certainly hurt Google’s search engine in China, at least for the short-term, will pay dividends for the Google brand in the long-term because it will reassure all of the search engine’s devoted users around the world that Google is putting the effectiveness, quality and freedom of their search first, above all other concerns.

Now that is marketing!

The Loser

On Sunday night, a major piece of legislation was passed without one Republican vote —this hasn’t happened in modern times.

Politically, Barack Obama managed to pull something off with health care reform that no one had been able to do thus far. This is an achievement.

Unfortunately, it is a brand-damaging achievement. To push through this game-changing legislation, the President had to align himself so closely to the Democrats that his image as an outside “change bringer” is virtually ruined.

Fact is, Obama has now cast his lot with the Democratic old guard, and the Republicans are now positioned as the hardened opposition. Forget all about bi-partisanship. Even if it were possible before, that window has closed now. (With their talk of repealing the legislation, the Republicans are signaling that they risk becoming the party of “no” which isn’t good for them either —but it’s easier to fix than Obama’s problem.)

From a marketing perspective, the fundamental problem for the president is that by turning to the old guard Democrats, he has turned his back on significant segments of his Target Market. Fiscally conservative Independents and Democrats, as well as the many cross-over Republicans who voted him into office, are not seeing the man they voted for occupying the presidency. They’re not seeing Candidate Obama in President Obama. This is political bait-and-switch, and it alienates a wide swathe of those who were supporters of Candidate Obama.

Bottom line, the die has been cast. Obama and the Democrats are joined at the hip. What’s next?

President Obama needs to put the pedal to the metal if he wants to have a chance of re-election in 2012. This means that he might as well start pushing every piece of partisan legislation he can because he won’t be getting his reputation as a new kind of politician back anytime soon. He can only hope that the legislation he passes (Wall Street regulation, immigration, etc.) works and makes those Target Markets he’s done such a good job of alienating happy again.

And, remember, things are always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.