America needs a Brand Champion

It’s July – we just had our Independence Day and we have been in a recession for years. Millions of people are and have been out of work. We are facing a debt and budget crisis. Our political parties seem to just be jockeying for positioning instead of getting real things accomplished. The people of America want and a need a Brand Champion.

Brand Champions don’t come up with catchy slogans or cool-looking logos. No, they understand that real results come from developing a brand promise that people can get their arms around, and they deliver on that promise by creating a great brand experience, consistently.

America is just like any other business or organization that needs a leader to take charge. Who will define what an organization wants to get accomplished, craft and create how that is going to happen, and execute that on a consistent basis. We need someone – anyone – within our government to step up and be our Brand Champion, and act as a leader who builds consensus and builds bridges. We need someone who has not just an idea or an agenda, but a real action plan. Someone who has tactics that will help us as a country overcome our problems, (debt and budget) and put people back to work. This requires a Brand Champion that all people, not just one party or the next, but all people can believe in, stand behind, support and have faith in.

Like other brands our Brand Champion has to be real, in that he can connect with his constituency with real ideas. He must use tactics that will show signs that we are making real progress. He can’t be all hat and no cattle, he has to deliver the goods and produce economic stability that helps businesses and the markets buy into his plan. This plan needs to work and signal stability, and with that stability, businesses can start to hire again: bringing down the unemployment rate, stabilizing the housing market, and generating cash into the marketplace.

America and I need a Brand Champion that we can believe in, whoever this Brand Champion is will probably get elected or re-elected this coming year. Whether that Champion is our current president or someone else, I pray that this Brand Champion stands up soon and leads the charge to a real plan that produces results, because that is what real Brand Champions do. They deliver real results through their leadership, consensus building and ability to get things done and execute.

Will our America’s  next Brand Champion please stand up, NOW?

Call me crazy, but I must admit I’m a sucker for political ads. Not only do I like to see how candidates position themselves, but how they position their opponent.

We are in the thick of election season, and it is getting ugly. We see ad after ad of candidates attacking each other and all I can really think is, who is their right mind would want to put themselves in a position to get bludgeoned, attacked, smeared and investigated on television, in blogs, in the paper and on flyers.

Let’s face reality: it is strategic branding at its finest. Planning, punching, counter-attacking, and going after your opponents, while positioning yourself to get the “mother load” of undecided votes.

What was once just a dance around the ring has turned into a full-on blood bath. With just a few short weeks until Election Day, we will find out the inevitable decision- which candidate will be victorious, and which one will be left picking themself up off the mat, wondering, “What the hell happened!?!”

Written by Michael Doyle, President, Brand Iron