Marketoonist Tom Fishburne adds the following commentary to his own work:
It’s common for marketers to exaggerate the importance of their brands in consumers’ lives. Brand positioning statements are often written as if consumers constantly think and obsess about the brand. Social media from brands can make it sound like every consumer is a cult follower.
In reality, even “brand loyalists” have complex lives completely separate from our brands. Brands can play important roles, but we should be careful not to overstate how much consumers give thought to our brands.
Quite. Now, for those of you who are sceptical of what the polls say about the actual support for the central policy options ‘offered’ by our leading political parties (or ‘brands’), here’s the answer. You don’t and cannot ever own even your most loyal voters lifes. They have other lives, and choices to make.
And they don’t eat, sleep and drink politics like you (and I) do, and are often given to thinking in contradictory modes about the same issue. The Freudians [hey, what do they know! – Ed] call it Cognitive Polyphasia. Getting the brand across powerfully is only the first job.
Doing something that usefully progresses you towards your more prized political objects without losing them again is the real and substantive test of politics.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty