Party brands: Democrats are "weak." Republicans are "extreme."

Neither political party has a popular brand.


-- April polls showed Democrats with a net favorability of minus 21.

-- April polls showed Republicans with a net favorability of minus 26.

Yikes!

My May 2 post was titled "How Democrats can win elections." I said that some of the positions that were identified with the Democratic brand should be abandoned because they did not express the party's core values. Moreover, they were unpopular with voters. Democrats, I said, had adopted positions that even most Democrats don't like. Get back to its roots, I said. Get real. Get popular again, and win elections.

Mark Dennett commented on that post and then agreed to share his observations about the parties's brands. I consider him an expert on branding and product positioning. He developed America’s first frequent flyer program (1980) while he was a senior airline executive. He was a founding partner of Medford’s Laurel Communications, a respected Northwest ad agency. Mark’s career also included being an author (Powershift Marketing), an adjunct college instructor at Southern Oregon University, an award-winning broadcast writer/director/producer, blogger, and a successful internet entrepreneur. Today, as a semi-retired marketer, he still conducts a limited number of research projects (www.DCGResearch.com).

Guest Post by Mark Dennett

 

Peter asked me to give my thoughts on the current brand of the two major political parties. I am certainly not a branding guru, but over the years I’ve worked with dozens of firms on branding, and I have been fascinated by why it is so hard for a business to create and maintain a brand.  

 

First, it is pretty easy to create a brand. You just need to understand positioning. This term, invented in the 70s by Al Ries and Jack Trout, is simply a statement of why the public should support you. As they state in their book, it is “a brief written description of the customer benefits offered and the value position to be occupied that makes your brand clear and promotable.” It’s hard for me to discover the positioning of the current Republicans and Democrats. 

 

Some of us are old enough to remember Republicans’ historic brand: small government (stay out of our lives), live within your means (balance the budget), welcome immigrants, and support free trade. Well, that brand is gone. Vanished. In fact, in 2024 the national Republican Party couldn’t even come up with a platform, which is basically a very long-winded positioning statement. They simply stated that whatever Trump wanted was what they wanted. Bye, bye Republicans. 

 

So now the Republican brand is the Trump brand. Of course, if you read Peter’s blog (May 2 post), that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Trump has always been a better marketer than politician. He knows that marketing in its purest form is just finding out what is important to people (their hot buttons), then promising it. In politics the promise is always more important than the delivery.   

 

Trump understands positioning. While he may be tainted, besmirched, and in every other way discredited as a human being, he is very consistent with his positioning: “The world and America are in trouble, and I alone can fix it.” This may reflect more of a cult identity. Many MAGA believers see him as above human, and thus beyond the reach of pesky "facts". That is called charismatic authority. He worships his brand and keeps building monuments to it. (Spoiler alert: The Iran War might become his “Waterloo.”) 

 

Now let’s look at the Democratic brand. Their historic brand focused on protecting the working man, and supporting unions, environmental regulation, green tech developers, and guaranteeing a social safety net. Even the perceived Bernie conflict is overstated, as many of his ideas were in Kamala's platform.  But I do believe that the Democratic brand has been hijacked by infighting, which makes their brand look weak and ineffective. Aging (some would say ancient) leadership is focused on personal power and wealth. They appear in constant conflict with young liberal elitists who are even more out of touch with the mainstream. 

 

A recent NBC Poll shows that Democrats are not happy with their brand. Republicans are not happy either. 

 

·      Only 62% of Democrats questioned viewed their party positively. 

 

·      Only 37% of Republicans questioned view their party positively, with 51% seeing the GOP in a negative light.  

 

·      Overall, 30% of registered voters view the Democratic Party positively, compared to 52% who view it negatively. Hard to win a national election with those numbers. 

 

Peter outlined four ways that Democrats could pivot their brand (May 2 Post) to better match Democratic voters. I agree with Peter. But because of the brand failure of the two established parties, wasn’t he really providing a blueprint for winning the third force in American politics: Independents? 

 

For purposes of this discussion, I am grouping Independent, Green, and Libertarian party members with unaffiliated voters who register to vote without joining any political party. Today this is the largest voting group in America.

 

In 2024 Edison Research did a national survey of 22,900 respondents that is representative of the national electorate in terms of gender, age, race, and geography. It clearly shows that people are turning away from the two party system. Many are just not voting.  

 

·      There were 4.3 million fewer votes cast for president in 2024 than in 2020. 

 

·      Republican voters decreased by 3.5 million.

 

·      Democratic voters dropped by 11.2 million. 

 

·      But 11 million more people who identified themselves as Independents cast ballots in 2024. 

 

Independents are not really a voting bloc. There is a lot of diverse political thought in this group. It goes from green to libertarian, which is left to right in the extreme, and then it includes the center, which is different from either of them. These inconsistent characteristics make it hard to call this a “voting bloc.” Could they be? Well, they do share one belief: They reject the two-party duopoly system. But this does not unify them in any identifiable way. 

 

To explore if they could become a brand, I looked at some research from The Independent Center – THC (https://www.independentcenter.org/insights). While not exactly peer-reviewed research, it does provide some interesting discussion points. 

 

After analyzing Independent voters with their proprietary AI technology and polling techniques, THS believes they have discovered recurring themes and words. THC believes Independent voters are more cohesive in their worldview than either Democrats or Republicans. Meaning, Independents take a holistic approach, connecting issues and thinking deeply about tradeoffs. So, if you are going to build a voting bloc, according to THC research, your brand needs to recognize the following:

 

Independent Voters are Fiscally Focused – Words like competition, equal opportunity, merit, fairness, and choice arise repeatedly. In their own way, Independents seem to navigate between the left and right views of the market economy. 

 

Independents Voted with Affordability and Inflation in 2024 – The candidate most capable of addressing these two key issues got their vote. That turned out to be Trump. They will pull support if affordability and inflation are not prioritized.

 

Independent Voters are Socially Tolerant – Their take on social issues is distinct. They favor gay marriage and LGBTQ+ rights, but they take them as a given. They’re settled. And they don’t think men should compete as women against women. 

 

Independent Voters Believe in Maximizing Choice – Independent voters view choice as an essential part of their belief system. When asked what could make government more effective, the answer is always the same: more choice and competition. THC got the same answer when they asked about choice in politics. People want more choices. 

 

Current Pew Research also supports these THC assumptions. Their research shows that Independents tend to believe in autonomy, fairness, and tolerance. They value the freedom to pursue personal and family goals while respecting others’ choices. 

 

One last thought. Years of doing marketing research has taught me that few people really have brands they love. So they are often forced to choose the “least objectionable” one. It is like watching TV. You looked through all your streaming choices and TV channels (if you still have TV channels) and can’t find anything you really want to watch. Do you turn the TV off? No, you choose the least objectionable program and binge watch. 

 

As long as Democrats and Republicans struggle with their brands, the battle for the “least objectionable” brand will add power to Independents. If they vote. That is the big question. Since neither party has enough base support, Independent voters are in a powerful position. Yes, current gerrymandering battles are certainly hurting our democracy, but Independents if they vote will determine the midterm results. 

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