Obama brand essence

My point – several posts back – was that Obama – as brand – is about them, the people, or it, the moment, while Hillary Clinton – as brand – is about me and you ("I am fighting for you. I will never let you down." "More people have voted for me." etc.). Her brand essence is first person. His is third.

The front-page profile in today's Times illustrates the point: Obama "trains the eye not on him but on his crowds. 'I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and'— he mimes the motion, hand over hand — 'I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much as on me...It’s like I’m just the excuse.'"

Thus, even when the scene is adulation of "me," Obama instinctively sees and reflects on "them." This orientation is the essential power of his political brand.

brandsinger