How Obama got his branding right?

Whether you are selling a politician or a product, your objective is exactly the same: build a brand in the prospect’s mind.
Firm beliefs: US presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s strategy of focusing on one word, ‘change’, worked brilliantly.

In the case of the politician, the brand can transcend several generations. There have been 38 presidents of the United States. Six of them have been related: John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Bush and George W. Bush.

Currently, Hillary Clinton is trying use the Clinton brand to do the same thing that George W. Bush did. She may well succeed. Clinton launched her campaign by focusing on “experience”. Not a bad idea, because it’s a word that differentiated her from her chief rival, Barack Obama.
While Clinton was clever, Obama was brilliant. He focused on the word “change”, a concept that matched the mood of the American public, yearning for change after seven years of Republican rule. Obama’s theme: “Change we can believe in.”
Almost immediately, Clinton realized her mistake and jumped on the change bandwagon. Her new theme: “Countdown to change.”
It’s too late. Today, Clinton looks like a follower instead of a leader. But, still, the Clinton brand is very strong so she still might achieve her goal. (Look at the power of the Gandhi brand in India.)

When George W. Bush ran for the Presidency in 2000, he called himself, “the compassionate conservative”. His opponent that year was Al Gore. What word did Gore try to pre-empt? I don’t know, and most voters didn’t, either. After he lost the election, Gore focused on a single concept, “global warming.” Today, he is one of the world’s best-known individuals, and a winner of a 2007 Nobel peace prize. Most politicians and companies ignore one of the most fundamental concepts in marketing: Own a word in the prospect’s mind.

If you want to run for office, if you want to launch a new brand, if you want to jump-start your business career, the first question to ask yourself is: “What word do I want to own in the minds of my prospects...” That would be an easy question to answer, except for the last part of the question, which is “... a word that nobody else

* Article taken from Al Ries Publication.

OOH - Out Of Home Media

What is OOH?
One of the most difficult task for today's marketers is to reach the target audience without a wastage. Newspaper and Television forms the spine for any media plan but to reach that last leap, more and more media planners have started using OOH as an effective tool in their media plans.

OOH - Simply put, Out of Home media is a form of advertising/promotion that you come across when one is out of their homes. Billboards on the highways to promotion signage outside shops to digital screens in supermarkets & malls to mobile vans, etc all of these forms the part of hugely potential industry.

OOH slices 1.5% of the total advertisement spends of Rs. 207,095 mn industry in India says a research conducted by Zenith Optimedia. And this is expected to grow rapidly in coming years.

Unorganised Play
OOH industry in India is still in a very nascent stage. The industry today is fragmented and dominated by unorganised players. And as a result, it leads to a few problems like measurability and accountibility, costs, and availibility of the sites.

There are local players operating at different sectors and dominating the market, but since they operate locally, the national learning goes for a toss. Like one will find Bright Advertising in Mumbai, HET in Ahmedabad, so on and so forth.

Bigger players have started chipping in the industry, but they are busy ramping up the number of sites across different locations.

Biggies
Quite a few biggies have started pitching for OOH and currently in a phase to acquire sites.
Times OOH - The Times group has started its division Times OOH. Times OOH has already acquired sites at Mumbai and Delhi airports and they are extending their network to other cities like Kolkata, Pune, etc.

OOH Media - OOH Media claims to be the largest out of home television company. They are mainly into employing LCD screens at different locations like offices, malls, cafes, clubs, etc

Ogilvy Activations - A division from O&M specialises in OOH home activities for its client to achieve the last mile for their existing clients. They have started pitching individually for OOH campaigns as well.

There are many besides these players, a recent news broke in that Mr. Rupert Murdoch is all set to share OOH slice with its News Outdoor Group India. It has already bought bus shelters in Bangalore. Other players includes Jagran Solutions from Dainik Jagran Group, Laqshya Media, Madison's Madison Outdoor Media Services etc.

Reasons for Growth
The traditional media like newspaper and television are the back bone of any media plan but skyrocketing prices of these media and a lot of wastage pinches marketers hard. Hence marketers and media planners of the world started looking for alternative options. Growth in internet OOH and radio advertisements is one of the result of these shortcomings of TV and Print.

The another advantage which has been very well leveraged by marketers is localisation of the advertisement campaign. OOH allows marketers to reach and communicate with target audience with local taste in local language.

As compared to other media, OOH provides not just cheaper but effective solutions for marketers. With the technological advancement, not just static billboards but very effective audio-visuals helps the marketers to reach their target audience in newer and attractive fashion.

Further, a study conducted by Neilsen Media Research shows that there is a high recall of slogans on OOH media.

And one of the most important reason is the involvement it generates among the audience makes it really effective medium.

Consolidation

The process has been initiated in Mumbai to consolidate the OOH industry and introduce benchmarks and measurability factor. The biggies are coming together to work upon parameters like, costs, sites, measurability and benchmarking similar to other media.

But in short, OOH is here to stay and there is a long way to go ahead. It is very effective and efficient mode of communication, but it will always be used as a support medium alongwith TV and Print.