Marketing wizards roped in for the making of Hillary 5.0
IMAGE-MAKERS ARE SKETCHING WAYS TO REFRESH WELL-ESTABLISHED HILLARY BRAND
I s Hillary Rodham Clinton a McDonald’s Big Mac or a Chipotle burrito bowl? A can of Bud or a bottle of Blue Moon? JC Penney or J. Crew?
As she readies her second presidential campaign, Clinton has recruited consumer marketing specialists onto her team of trusted political advisers. Their job is to help imagine Hillary 5.0 — the rebranding of a first lady turned senator turned failed presidential candidate turned secretary of state turned likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
Clinton and her imagemakers are sketching ways to refresh the well-established Hillary brand for tomorrow’s marketplace. In their mission to present voters with a winning picture of the likely candidate, no detail is too big or too small — from her economic opportunity agenda to the design of the “H” in her future campaign logo.
“It’s exactly the same as selling an iPhone or a soft drink or a cereal,” said Peter Sealey, a longtime corporate marketing strategist. “She needs to use everything a brand has: a dominant colour, a logo, a symbol ... The symbol of a Mercedes is a three-pointed star. The symbol of Coca-Cola is the contour bottle. The symbol of McDonald’s is the golden arches. What is Hillary’s symbol?”
Clinton’s challenge is unique. Unlike potential Republican challengers of relatively middling fame who are introducing themselves to a national audience for the first time, Clinton is almost universally recognised. Love her or loathe her, potential voters know who she is after more than two decades in public life.
Or they think they know.
Authenticity
As Clinton and her advisers conceptualise her 2016 image, her own history shows the potential for peril.
In politics, authenticity can be a powerful trait, and it is one that sometimes has escaped Clinton. In her 2008 presidential campaign, despite some raw displays of emotion, she often came across as overly programmed.
In 2016, a challenge for Clinton will be adapting to the political moment with a fresh image while remaining true to her settled identity.
Ahead of her campaign launch, Clinton has tapped some of the Democratic Party’s star strategists as well as two of corporate America’s branding wizards: Wendy Clark, who specialises in marketing ageold brands such as Coca-Cola to younger and more diverse customers, and Roy Spence, a decades-long Clinton friend who dreamed up the “Don’t Mess With Texas” anti-littering slogan as well as flashy ad campaigns for Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart.
Clark took an unpaid leave in January from Coca-Cola, where she is president of brands and strategic marketing for carbonated beverages in North America, to help Clinton in what Clark called “a passion project.” Spence is co-founder and chairman of GSD & M, an Austin, Texas-based corporate ad firm, and has experience in politics, including with Clinton’s 2008 campaign.
Clinton’s words suggest that her 2016 campaign will stress economic fairness — the level playing field for the middle class implied by her Twitter message last month praising Obama’s State of the Union address. “Now we need to step up & deliver for the middle class. #FairShot #FairShare,” Clinton wrote.
But the plans for Clinton’s rebranding are not yet clear, nor are the influences of the Madison Avenue sensibility Clark and Spence bring to her operation. Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill declined to comment on the branding strategy or the specific work of Clark and Spence.
People familiar with Clinton’s preparations said Clark and Spence are focused on developing imaginative ways to “let Hillary be Hillary,” as one person said, and help her make emotional connections with voters.
“I just want America to know the Hillary Clinton I know,” said Jerry Crawford, a friend and the Iowa chairman of Clinton’s 2008 campaign. “I want as many people as possible to get to know the woman I’ve seen behind closed doors. She’s bright, disciplined, quick to throw her head back and laugh — just a very, very attractive person.”
Spence and Clark have been credited with creating three-dimensional personalities around otherwise dull consumer brands. At CocaCola, Clark spearheaded the “Share a Coke” campaign to put names such as Brittany and Zach on soda cans, a marketing move that boosted sales among millennials. Spence helped DoubleTree Hotels make the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies the chain serves guests upon check-in an icon for its sales pitch of warm comfort for beleaguered travellers.
But Fred Davis, a Republican advertising guru, said that if Clinton’s rebranding “seems like a craven attempt to try to put fresh paint on an old house, then it will backfire.”
“I think most voters are actually pretty intelligent, and they’ll see through any blatant attempt to change,” Davis said. “Her only hope, to me, is not a rebranding, but it’s actual policy positions and ideas that are fresh and new — and because those are fresh and new, voters might think, ‘Wait a minute, I’m going to give her another chance.’”
Some Clinton allies agreed. They said Clinton’s paramount challenge is to answer two questions: why she is the right person to step into the Oval Office, and what she would do when she’s there. If she does that, they said, her image will take care of itself.
Peter Sealey | Corporate marketing strategist ❝ The symbol of a Mercedes is a three-pointed star. The symbol of Coca-Cola is the contour bottle. The symbol of McDonald’s is the golden arches. What is Hillary’s symbol?”