John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week

Brand Winner...	And Loser...

Winner:  Sarah Palin

Loser:  Corn Syrup                                                              

Winner: 

I haven’t minced words when it’s come to my take on the Tea Party in recent months.  Here are a few:

The Tea Party is like a 500-pound gorilla in the room that’s ripping everything off the walls: its energy is awe-inspiring and its rage is understandable, but it’s unfocused. More than that, this gorilla is impossible to focus —meaning the only way to deal with the gorilla is to calm him down. The problem is, once calm, all the gorilla’s energy is gone and the force for change vanishes.  

To put this in marketing terms, can the Tea Party brand be effectively extended if it’s just a whole lot of energy, without a way to be channeled? I’m doubtful. Fact is, the core characteristics of the Tea Party movement simply seem incompatible with genuine political, institutional change. In many respects, the emotion of the Tea Party is negative, and its ideals are political “Uncola.” This reactionary approach has nothing in common with Ronald Reagan’s positive affirmation of the great potential of our country and the clear road map he presented for achieving that potential.  

If the Tea Party has a genuine, politically productive future, it will be discovered the moment a politically experienced visionary —someone who hews to conservative ideals but knows how politics really works— comes along. If this happens, though, it will be the members of the Tea Party supporting him or her and not the other way around.

It’s not surprising that this past week saw some major primary wins for Tea Partiers and I hold by my belief that in terms of actually getting elected to office these people have a long way to go.

But the real winner out of all this aren’t the candidates, it is Sarah Palin. 

Somehow the brand of the former governor of Alaska is stronger than ever, despite leaving her job before her term ended and unending media scrutiny much of it unflattering..

Bottom line, people like her.  A lot of people.  Who she endorses gets a leg up.  Now it might be that we are seeing a kind of Obama effect with Palin.  She might be a fad for the right and even center, the way Obama was a fad for the left and center.  But if she is, she’s another very powerful fad and this alone might sweep her into contention for 2012.

She’s also beefing up her intellectual-policy credentials which is evident when she speaks about both domestic and foreign policy issues. 

Fact is, she has a strong brand that appeals to people and speaks to them and the times we live in more vividly and compellingly than anyone else in the field right now.

But it’s early days and there could be “brand blowback.”  One test will be to see what happens to her brand when (not if) some of the candidates she’s endorsed turn out to be duds.  Will their failures stick to her or will she have that Reagan Teflon?  Also, will she reach saturation too early to be a contender for 2012?  In other words, will people get tired of her?  They didn’t get tired of Barack Obama even though he was stumping for several years before election night.  However, Palin has arguably been stumping for longer (four and a half years as of 2012 compared to President Obama’s two and a half).

Still, she’s an impressive brand.  Hats off for now.

Loser:

In all my years of marketing, I have never heard of a major player being as stupid as the following.  The Corn Refiners Association has decided to change the name of their embattled lead product corn syrup to corn sugar.  Besides the fact that it could take the FDA a long time to decide in their favor thus creating years of negative publicity, this is simply marketing at its worst. 

A brand is more than a name.  Corn syrup is still going to be corn syrup no matter what it is called.  So unless the Corn Refiners are somehow able to alter corn syrup for the better so that some or all of the health concerns connected to it are addressed (and then do a name relaunch), this name change will fail.  It is the equivalent of a questionable individual in hot water who decides to change his name and hope the trouble he created won’t catch up with him.

Like this individual, the Corn Refiners require a case of universal amnesia.  Maybe the people behind the name change idea are simply cynical.  Do they think that consumers won’t connect the dots? 

Even if this is true and many consumers won’t make the connection between corn syrup and corn sugar, the association is missing the point.  Those forgetful consumers don’t matter.  The consumers who do matter are the one’s for whom corn syrup is an issue.  These consumers are sophisticated and read ingredients.

And this is the key to why the name change is so utterly stupid.  Corn syrup is not really a retail product.  It is an ingredient product.  Its presence is only known to those who look for it and those who look for it are going to be following this story.  They are going to know that corn sugar is the new name for corn syrup.  Just like people pursuing the fellow with the name change, those who are concerned won’t be thrown off the scent that easily. 

In fact, for these people, the name change might actually serve to ring more alarm bells.  After all, you’re drawing more attention to the “undesirable” ingredient.  If you kept the name the same, even the sophisticated consumer might still have a margin for purchasing the product based on other factors.  In other words, today they like Coca Cola and while wary of corn syrup, its presence in their beloved drink is not a deal breaker.  However, draw attention to the fact that there might really be something wrong with the ingredient and you’re likely to lose a sizeable number of these consumers too.

What probably happened here is the corn syrup people are very concerned that the food industry will start using reduced quantities of corn syrup and even promoting this reduction (i.e., 25% less).  So they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too by the poorly thought out name change.  If I were the corn syrup folks this is what I would do.  Corn syrup is already an integral part of the food supply and nothing short of radical government intervention is going to change that.  I wouldn’t draw any more attention to my product, expect the food industry to reduce their use but hope for the best and start developing a healthier corn-based sweetener that will deserve the new name it gets.

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