7 UNCOMFORTABLE REALITIES DONALD TRUMP REMINDS US ABOUT BRANDING

Here is another article I have originally published on LinkedIn as I run an experiment on readership and engagement.

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I am not for or against Donald Trump, but find him both refreshing and entertaining. I also find him strangely inspirational.

 As he attempts to find success in American politics (where anything less than winning 50%+ market share is complete failure), I see many lessons that could be applied to companies that would consider just a 5% share of their category to be a huge success.

 The following lessons not only serve as great guidance for Trumps-in-training as they seek to disrupt their respective category, but they also remind established market leaders where their weaknesses may lie.

1. Your message doesn’t matter if it isn’t heard: Being recognized is one of Donald Trump’s greatest advantages. What he says and how he acts ensures he gets regular prime time news (and late night talk show) coverage. Most voters can’t ignore Trump, while most of the 15-or-so other Republican presidential candidates can’t buy the attention he gets for free. In a world of finite attention, the disproportionate amount allocated to Trump means less remains for other candidates to deliver their own message to the masses. In a similar manner, potentially great brands and great products tend to be overly optimistic about building awareness and interest. In reality, it is likely that most will quietly die because they remain undiscovered and unheard in the noise made by other products fighting for the same awareness and interest.
2. Being entertaining is priceless: If it does nothing else, Trump’s polarizing nature makes him entertaining. People want to hear more of what Trump has to say, if only to have more reason to hate him. The rawness of Trump are almost always more interesting than blinding polish and predictable act of other candidates. Brands almost always win when they can generate interest that gets beyond the mundane function their product provides. Insurance companies and men’s hygiene products are among those that have embraced entertainment as a more valuable point of differentiation than trying to further tweak benefit statements or reasons to believe. Companies that are still producing formulaic 2-minute video that are excessively logical or excessively emotional don’t get it.
3. Being honest is being provocative: Trump speaks his mind. He is confident and unashamed and unapologetic about sharing his view of the world (or how successful he is). Ask him a question and you get a straight answer. Most other candidates have carefully crafted message tracks and rehearsed talking points or non-answers that tested well in focus groups, but generate little interest in the real world. In a similar manner, customers see through the corporate- or PR-speak still widely used by many companies as they pretend to be honest or caring or sincere (and not driven by profit maximization). Companies stand out when they actually act like human beings wanting to serve and satisfy their customer, willing to own up to their mistakes, and engaging in the messiness of relationships.   The sincere acknowledgement of frustrations or missed expectations is so powerful because it is so rare.
4. Appearance needs to be supported with substance: Eventually, Trump will get less and less attention for his ability to make inflammatory comments. He will soon have to move his focus beyond the problems he sees in America and start presenting the specific better solutions he has. Many marketing programs fail in a similar manner…they have a great message focused on a meaningful problem, but they don’t effectively communicate or actually deliver a better solution. It is important to remember that the superiority of a product needs to be proportionate to the expectations it has set, and the better a brand builds excitement, the more room there is to disappoint.
5. Standing for something is better than promising everything: In elections, there is typically a mathematical necessity of win a significant number of votes from the middle in order to win the majority. This causes many candidates to water down messages and make broadly appealing promises that are beyond their core agenda or even the control of the office they seek to hold. Trump’s focus on a prosperity message supported by his personal success is easily understood and believed by many. People can see Trump outmaneuvering or overpowering both countries and individuals that stand between America and that more prosperous future. Products often get caught up in a laundry list of promises that actually dilute and blur the believability and meaningfulness of each. Few products truly have the ability to be all things to all people. These products inevitably lose out to other products that appealed to specific shopper segments by focusing on single equities.
6. What offends one group typically appeals to another: Trump’s current popularity (he has a 10+ point lead in the polls as I write this, but before the first debate) is partially driven by apparent lack of concern for being popular. The more his inflammatory remarks insult one group, the more other groups speak out in support of him. Meanwhile, other candidates carefully avoid these firestorms, but simultaneously fail to grow a large enough core of passionate supporters. Many brands incorrectly choose the path of these candidates, trying to win a popularity contest by offending no one only to realize they ended up appealing to no one as well. Brands that polarize in the right way (like premium brands that project a exclusive, elitist or indulgent image) build a fan base because they are simultaneously unappealing to other customer segments.
7. Never forget that success is a long-term play: Candidates need the energy, funds and support to run a marketing machine that continues to build all the way to election day. But they also have the luxury of onlyneeding a plan to reach this finite, known deadline. Unlike campaigns that build up to this manic last-minute saturation spending, many new products apply an inverse pattern of huge launch budgets that quickly dwindle to almost no ongoing support. Companies often overlook the need to continuously generate awareness and interest as the path to purchase in their category unfolds over an extended time. When everyday is election day, brands can never stop campaigning.

I have no opinion or prediction on how successful Trump will ultimately be as a presidential candidate. However, I know his approach could be applied to many businesses and would probably achieve better results compared to what companies accomplish by sounding like obnoxious career politicians.