Lessons from 'Brand Obama'

Entrepreneur | 8/27/2009

Politics aside, most people would agree that President Obama is a masterful communicator. Obama is really our nation’s first public figure to adeptly embrace the full power of the new media buffet. This president is seizing both traditional and new media opportunities to deploy his messages in both an expeditious and ubiquitous manner.

True, Obama’s not perfect and he’s made several misstatements (as has his gaffe-prone vice president), but his errors are actually quite small when measured against the enormous volume of his communications activities. According to a recent story in?New York Magazine, Obama "has hosted 15 town-hall meetings; appeared in more than 800 images on the White House Flickr photo-stream; and held four prime-time press conferences, the same number held by George W. Bush in his entire presidency."

Communications (especially public relations) for any brand, be it a person or organization, is inherently a non-linear process. For decades now, we've been fighting for linearity by pursuing traditional pathways to key audiences, such as exhibiting at trade shows, pushing out press releases, meeting with reporters, etc. These activities still have purpose, but their impact will become diminished absent a broader strategic view of PR and its value.

What we really want is control over our message. Advertising buys control because you have final say over the content and where and how often the ad is placed--but it is openly biased, with commercial gain (sales) as the goal. PR, on the other hand, earns us credibility because seemingly unbiased third parties (i.e., media) are helping to propagate our message for us. PR is, in a way, a cloaked way to sell our wares without explicitly appearing to do so.

The Obama PR machine seems to be working for "brand Obama" and offers message control lessons for us all.

Transparent
The best way to get something is to give something up first. Transparency is no longer just a buzz word, but an imperative for businesses of all sizes. For example, Obama has committed to publish all executive orders and proclamations on the White House website, something unprecedented.

Companies often get in their own way when it comes to practicing transparency because they think it will mean they have to dispense trade secrets or data that undermine their ability to compete.

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