Politicians and Brands.
After analysing the results of the independent public survey we commissioned we’ve done a bit of a write up on the results. Feel free to share your thoughts on this too, always happy to hear from you all.
Gordon Brown and Volvo
It’s been tough times for traditional industries such as the automotive one; like the Labour party, people are asking: do the economics and business models really add up anymore?
Over the past fifty years, Volvo has been a leader in automotive safety technology but ask many people what it stands for these days and often the terms “boring, ”for old people” are offered. Likewise, the media and public have often defined Gordon Brown as cold, lacking personality and clinical. Gordon Brown and our Labour Government aren’t making that much money these days and neither is Volvo. However, Volvo, have just been taken over by new Chinese owners, and they may yet have fresh resources to reinvigorate their competitiveness. Could the Labour Party Machine also hope for such redemption?
After analysing the results of the independent public survey we commissioned we’ve done a bit of a write up on the results. Feel free to share your thoughts on this too, always happy to hear from you all.
David Cameron as Nokia
People know who he is and whilst he’s aiming for the cult appeal of the iPhone and trying to convince people he’s reinvented the brand, he still focuses too much on the functionality of his product rather building a brand people can believe in – just like Nokia. Basically, in aligning Cameron to Nokia, voters seem to be suggesting that he just represents the institution of politics and like Nokia, Cameron and his party appear to be still out of touch for many and not the most inspirational or glamorous offering they hoped him to be. Cameron and the Conservatives, like Nokia, are the establishment: big, inefficient and for some reason, still have a big part of the market.
Nick Clegg as The Co-operative
Is the rise of the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg a cry from voters for differentiation and a consequence of the “catch-all” approach adopted by Labour and The Conservatives?
Like politics, supermarkets are a mature industry with two main parties dominating the landscape – ubiquitous, and often seen copying each other. The Co-operative brand is a challenger to the established big brands, they have enough heritage in their own right but have chosen to stick a flag in the ground and say “this is what we’re about and what we stand for”. Possibly not too dissimilar to what Clegg seems to be doing in this election.
The Co-operative is currently demonstrating their ease with being inclusive through their recent partnership with Somerfield, again demonstrating to consumers that ‘big is not always beautiful’.
Voters were clear and have said Clegg is NOT the Tesco of Politics and nor should he aspire to be.