new american brand launched : Brand "Joe The Plumber", the metaphor for the main street american

there is a new main street american - Joe The Plumber unveiled yesterday during the 3rd and last debate between obama and mccain.

he is now a celebirty. we are just wondering, with his new celebrity status, will mccain eventually owe Joe The Plumber an apology or will joe thank mccain?

After Debate, Glare Of Media Hits Joe
Plumbers Union, Tax Collectors
Notice

By Robert
Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 17, 2008; Page

"The real winner" of Wednesday night's debate, John McCain said yesterday at a campaign stop in Downingtown, Pa., "was Joe the Plumber."

That might depend on the definition of "winner."

Joe the Plumber, a.k.a. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio, is suddenly (sort of) a household name, featured in a McCain ad and sought after by networks news anchors and newspaper reporters.

McCain would like to meet him in person this weekend, but Wurzelbacher's got a date on Mike Huckabee's Fox News show and might not have the time.

But the emergence of Joe has allowed the state of Ohio to locate the man it says owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes. His motives for confronting Sen. Barack Obama at a campaign stop in his neighborhood earlier this week are the subject of intense Internet speculation. The city of Toledo is preparing a letter to his employer seeking to determine whether he is violating city codes, and the plumbers union is on his tail.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603614.html

obama-mccain 3rd and final debate : did not rock our world, obama on track to win election!

largely a boring debate. conclusion : it did not rock our world which means obama 's winning the presidential election is on track.

key points:

• mccain did much better than the previous two debates.
• but it was not earth shaking enough that he was able to turn the tides to his favor. mccain was not supposed to just be better, he was supposed to do an earth shaking performance that he can reverse the trend. that did not happen.
• obama held his own. no catastrophic blunders.
• we got to see in some areas sharp differences between the two. that's good for the voters.
• obama seemed cool and collected, unaffected and confident. he was able to answer all the attacks well - either killing them dead on its tracks or making it sound not very relevant.
• mccain though obviously more aggressive this time seemed unsure on how to pursue the attacks. the biggest weakness of mccain i think was that he did not have a clear and solid plan on how to manage his attacks. while making "joe the plumber" memorable in the debate, he really needed much more of those types. there were numerous attacks but they were hardly eloquent and hardly stinging. i think the weakness is on a weak line of attack and failure at eloquence.
• the ayers and acorn things were brought up but no fireworks there. it did not hurt obama. mccain did not score points. in fact in some ways that might have hurt mccain for bringing up some things that were really of no consequence.
• the race card was not brought up. not that we expected it. we also do not think if ever they want to bring out the race card, it won't be done in this debate at all.
• no miraculous economic recovery occurred during the time the debate was on. in fact wall street lost 700 points during the day.
• obama was not complacent and he answered the attacks levelled on him. the debate however became a little more personal than previous.
• obama did not blow-out. neither did mccain break-out.

given the above, this 3rd debate will favor obama on the whole and will do nothing to very little on mccain's standing. we are near the point of no return, obama is still trending for a win.







source of photo : http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-10-15-analysis_N.htm

what can derail obama's win of the US presidency?

we are 3 weeks away from the actual election - in a presidential campaign where anything can happen in a day, that is an eternity.

the point of view that obama will win the election is based on the trending as it appears as of today. some pollsters are saying obama's lead are solid, with very little changes occurring. while poll results may change day to day depending on what has happened just before the poll has been taken, my jurasic estimation is that this will continue to an uptrend.

the other major part of this point of view is based on the marketing and communication strategies and approaches both campaigns have employed. they are political moves or decisions to the campaigns, but to me as a marketer, i view them as marketing and communication strategies and tactics. those are the things i am reading mostly and the basis for the point of view that obama will win.

more on the above next in WAWAM!

for now, let me just enumerate a few things that might derail obama winning the US elections:

• catastrophic blunder - the uptrend on obama to me seem to be on a constant uptrend. what can derail that is any one catastrophic blunder from obama from now until election time. i don't know what that is, but for the trend to change course in a dramatic way that it will favor mccain, it will take one huge blunder on the part of obama. if obama stays the course and stays "clean" for the next 3 weeks, then obama's lead will grow and will ensure election in 3 week's time. obama should take lessons from john kerry on this one.
• race card - the fact is obama is an african-american, the first black presidential candidate of both parties. that in itself is already historical. mccain's campaign is getting nowhere, it not only has lost steam, it really was unable to reach any level of any meaningful threat to obama. depends on how desperate mccain may feel, but if it's crunch time, mccain may look for a hail mary pass and that can be the race card. the republican voter base are conservatives and middle america who may still be moved by the race card. the only problem there is its really hard to determine the impact the race card will have. will it take voters away from obama or will it backfire against mccain.
• US economy miraculously recovers - we don't think this will happen in the next 3 weeks. not even in the next 3 months. even the next 3 years is not a sure thing. the US economy on a tail spin seem to be favoring obama. more problems on the US economy seem to push more voters towards obama. mccain's chance on winning this election is therefore hinged on the US economy recovering to the tune of an economic miracle within 21 days.
• complacency - having it your way - the mccain campaign has already started the mud slinging strategy. when it got too hot, the obama campaign answered them. but on the whole, the obama campaign has ignored a lot of it. the obama campaign should continue this strategy of largely ignoring the mud and the negatives and being selective in what to answer strongly. they should not allow anything to get too out of hand.
• 3rd debate blow-out or break-out - this 3rd debate is important for both campaigns. we think the point of no return will be reached a few days after the 3rd debate. both candidates will need to avoid blunders in this 3rd debate. it is however easier for obama - at minimum obama simply needs to do more of the same. it is tougher for mccain because he needs to do try harder and be more aggressive. the window for errors is wider for mccain than for obama. if obama does not do a blow-out, he will be fine. but mccain needs to do a fantastic break-out to change the poll numbers to his favor.

compared to the marketing of brands, the marketing of presidential candidates is a much more volatile one. changes can occur often and from anywhere. also, compared to presidential campaigns, the marketing of brands seem to be on slow motion. but the marketing principles and what moves preferences are the same for both.

brands and presidential candidates both have brand equities. both use marketing and communication. one important difference though - once elected, voters are stuck with that presidential candidate for 4 years while consumers may see improvements or changes in their brands as quick as once a year.

more on this next in WAWAM!

barack obama wins the US presidential election - on the strength of a brilliant marketing effort and a marketing blunder by mccain

let's put things on the line here : i am calling it a barack obama win in the US presidential election. based on trending, it's no longer a question of "if" but a question of by what margin - a strong finish or a landslide.



looking at the presidential elections from a purely marketing standpoint, obama's win will be delivered through brilliant marketing and brilliant communication by the obama campaign and marketing blunders by the mccain campaign.

james carville was "The Man" during the bill clinton presidential campaigns, now i want to know who the marketing dude is of the obama campaign. the picture of this obama strategist whoever he is, deserves to be posted here in WAWAM!

james carville

geez, the election is 3 weeks away and we are already calling it an obama win. if obama does not win, well it's not the first time we have failed in our analysis.
just hope that readers of this blog will appreciate the courage of calling a winner this early. calling an obama win is based on an analysis of marketing and communication strategies and execution. and that is next here in WAWAM!


posted : october 15, 2008 12:32 pm manila time

answered : marketing blunder or brilliant marketing - the sarah pailin vp choice

on august 30, 2008, we posted this question on sarah palin - "sarah palin vp choice - brilliant marketing move or biggest blunder?" (read posts here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/US%20presidential%20elections)

since that announcement, the answer to that question had its peaks and valleys --- there were times it showed it was a brilliang marketing move, and yet there were times it looked a big blunder.

with just a few more weeks to go in the elections, it is nearing the point of no return. we think that will be just around the time of the 3rd presidential debate next week. this point of no return will be reached at the latest a day or two after the 3rd debate.

in WAWAM!, we have reached a conclusion and we have the answer to that question we posted - was sarah palin as vp choice a brilliant marketing move or marketing blunder? that is next in WAWAM!

vp palin - haste leads to marketing blunder?

the honeymoon is over on palin.

there is a part here that bothers me very much --- a presidential candidate chooses a vice president partner when they hardly met? not so much as talked face to face? is it that easy to get the job of US Vice President? and the job of US Vice President can be taken that lightly?

the miss universe beauty contest seem to take the no. 2 position more seriously than mccain did. in every miss universe contest we always hear the announcer say how important the runner up position is. but i don't see that resolve on this matter.

that leads me to think that palin seem to have been chosen purely on the basis of being an excellent marketing strategy. obama did not choose hillary, a female, so get one over the democrats by choosing palin. obama chose biden, a man older than obama, so why not get one over the democrats by choosing a much younger woman than mccain. mccain made a big deal of obama's inexperience, so why not get palin as VP, who has no experience and contrast that to biden who has a lot of experience.

the best marketing strategies are those that clearly differentiate versus all others in the same category. it's not only clarity, it is also discrimination and uniqueness. and those seem to be the overriding consideration in choosing palin.

as predicted, the next few weeks will be the most interesting and exciting time in the US presidential elections and that is not because it will be tight race. WAWAM! can't wait to see which marketing strategy worked the best.


-------------------

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process

ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.


On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.


Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.


Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom.

While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCain’s judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions.


At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.




New Yort Times photo and article, parsed, read complete story here : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

palin as republican VP - brilliant marketing move or biggest blunder

are we confused? yes we are.

we are looking at this as a purely marketing move, in fact within the realm of strategic marketing – palin as the republican vp partner of mccain in the presidential election.

are we confused? yes, we are. oh, i said that already.

palin as republican vp is either a brilliant marketing move or a big marketing blunder.

it's brilliant as for now, all the good things that were with the obama campaign - obama being an african american, hillary as a strong contender, and all the goodies that went with that, specially the one on hillary and the great convention that just ended have just evaporated and moved over to the republicans.

this choice for now has stolen the thunder away from the democrats. "stunning" is a word often used to describe the choice of palin. i agree wholeheartedly.

that leads us to downside. she is an unknown, at least for now but we will get to know her very well in short order. and that is where the other part comes in -- it can turn into the biggest marketing blunder made in political history.

while we do not know palin much, we do know hillary very well. hillary, the other woman candidate is very much a known candidate, almost the opposite of palin. while we may not know palin yet, it's almost a sure thing that hillary would have a longer list of accomplishments and credentials.

it's possible mccain just took in the weakest leak in his campaign.

while we do not know yet if palin as vp choice is a marketing blunder, we did know before and we are much more certain now that obama not choosing hillary as vp is a marketing strategic blunder. pailin in the mix reinforces and makes obama's non-choice of hillary as a much bigger and more obvious mistake. (read posts in WAWAM! on biden as a good choice but choosing hillary a brilliant move : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/08/obamas-vp-choice-biden-is-great-but.html).

as of this moment - the US presidential election is in a flux. much more interesting days ahead. take your seats!

democratic convention - quick points for brand differentiation

• bill clinton was the best of the whole lot. he had power, he made sense, he had charisma and was the clearest and sharpest in delivering the differences between the two, Brand Obama and Brand McCain. he delivered a long list of quotable quotes. his whole speech was crisp and highly engaging from the first word to the last.


• what's with al gore? there was no drama in the way he delivered his piece. did he forget to go to the bathroom before he spoke and was in a hurry to get it done and over with? he had a lot of substance but the delivery killed the points.


• hillary is the up and coming. she can be forceful and interesting. her prospects for the next bid for the presidency are pretty good.


• joe biden underdelivered. or was that a case of over-hyping before he spoke?


• obama covered a lot of ground, the full breathe of what he was supposed to. but i missed the high soaring rhetoric. i thought it was not necessary for him to lose what he has been very effective with in the past.

over and above the performances of the main speakers, history was made today - the first african-american is running for the presidency of the USA. that alone puts the democrats in the win column.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Barack Obama hits McCain, sets tone for campaign with historic speech ---- read it here -->

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/08/28/2008-08-28_barack_obama_hits_mccain_sets_tone_for_c.html

mccain's obama attack ads - speed and strategy

i think mccain's advertising ad campaign is being run very well - very professional, admirable speed, highly consistent and well thought out strategy.

they are able to come out with tv ads within 24 hours of a new development on the barack obama side. we have seen two ads aired, one within 24 hours, the other within 48 hours of obama's announcement of joe biden as his running mate. and these are no oedinary tv ads, i think they are very effective and very well thought out ads.

this speed to airwaves is definitely creating momentum for the mccain candidacy as it is effectively removing steam and power from the obama campaign. polls show the mccain and obama numbers are getting much closer and that's because obama's numbers are slowing down if not shrinking while mccain's numbers have not changed or slowly improving. that may show the impact of the attack ads that the mccain camp has been releasing - they are chipping away on the strength of obama and slowing it down.

the ads are also very consistent on one strategy - the message of inexperience, lack of skill, lack of ability and weak leadership message the mccain campaign is portraying obama to be.

it's also interesting that the mccain ads are delivering that strategy and messages through a very effective way - the use of what the other candidates like clinton and biden have said previously about obama. it's very tangible and clear and creates a solid question in the minds of the voters about obama.





it is no surprise that these two ads carry the same message, they are on the same ad strategy that the mccain camp has decided to adapt for the attack ads.

it also builds very strongly and i would say very effectively on the split that occured within the democratic prty brought about by the long drawn, bitter and highly passionate campaigns waged by clinton and obama. to this day, the clinton supporters are still clinton supporters and continue to be obsessively so. now, obama is saddled with an extra task of winning over clinton supporters within his own party on top of the the general voters and going against mccain voters and supporters. he has some extra baggage to get over with.

if obama loses the election, it is very possible that clinton's dogged determination to stay in the democratic nomination process will be tagged as one of the key reasons for it's failure to win. clinton held on to it too long and too strong. it was the fear many were saying then and it's possible that its effects are now showing.

the convention in denver will put into the arena new messages and bring out new arenas, it will be interesting to see just how much power mccain's attack ads truly have in this election.

next in WAWAM! ---- what can the obama camp do?

mccain's "we're number 2, we try harder" gambit or why the paris-obama-britney threesome should just be a fantasy

this tv spot by mccain reminds me of many things, a couple of which are - the threesome fantasy with paris and britney. and that makes me hate obama. oh, wait a minute, it didn't really happen, they just appeared in the same ad. oh, well, i hate him just the same.

another thing is this ad campaign by avis many years ago that became some kind of a textbook discussion in the ad industry where avis, being the 2nd largest brand in the market had the ad campaign that was based on "Avis, we're number 2, we try harder" selling line.

in some ways that is what the mccain tv spot does - mccain admits his opponent is hugely popular. like what the article below says, obama is not just a celebrity, he is a rock star in politics

going through this route is asking the audience to go through a long and round about way to get them to conclude this rockstar is not as good as he actually is. aside from it's a round about process, the dangers one faces in trekking through a long route is what most of us fall into - we can get lost and not reach the destination at all.

in my mind, it's simple - why put a powerful and strong thought into the ad, that of obama being a rockstar, then spend the rest of the ad to remove it or discredit it? why not dispense with the first half and just go straight into the last half?

that wasn't the first time that mistake was made in this ad.

the second time was the threesome reference to paris and britney. and the tragedy of it is that it happened at the beginning of the ad.

paris and britney appeared in the ad just a few seconds, 2 to 3 seconds for both of them and yet that is what most of us remember. the press and tv certainly remember that part very well, it's played up and written about in all reports on the matter. in other words, britney and paris' 3 second inclusion in the ad became the issue, not the rest of the 27 seconds of the ad.

it's a tragedy that it happened in the first third of the ad because my guess is most people who watched it got so shocked by their inclusion into a political ad, that the brains stopped processing anything that was said or shown in the ad after seeing their two faces. who wouldn't? a threesome with paris and britney will make hearts stop pumping blood or pump more blood, depending on the gender of who owns the heart.

the point is - you get so confused, so disoriented that you miss the whole message of the ad.

look, a threesome in any ad will get my vote, but not in this kind of threesome. and as mccain, a non-entity to obama's rockstar status, will know, trying harder in this way just might get him in the number 2 spot during the election in november.

i don't think the inclusion of paris and britney in the ad added anything or made a single contribution to the sale. all it did was put a polarizing element in the ad.

there is a third point here, one of irony. with this mccain ad, the presidential election in the US just became real ugly and the irony of it is, it was ushered in by two beautiful faces of hollywood. makes you wonder - maybe perhaps that is the reason why mccain is number 2?!


===============

The celebrity backers of Barack Obama say they are not like Paris and Britney.
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:04 PM PDT, July 31, 2008

TO HOLLYWOOD it smacked of desperation.That's why the reaction to a new John McCain ad attempting to portray Barack Obama as a kind of mindless celebrity -- likening him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears -- drew collective yawns and shrugs of irritation from politically active members of the entertainment industry.

"I didn't think McCain could look silly," mused Norman Lear. "But that ad diminishes him and makes him look silly."Just for a start, industry types say the ad is wrong: In the Hollywood lexicon, Obama is not a celebrity. He's a rock star. (Note to McCain strategists: That's the difference between Jessica Simpson and Bono.)

Then there's the small inconvenience that Paris' parents, Rick and Kathleen Hilton, are supporters of McCain's Republican presidential bid. According to federal campaign records, they gave the maximum $4,600.No word on their plans for the general election, but this much is certain: Their daughter has never paid to attend an Obama campaign fundraiser. (It's unclear whether she's even met the senator, or whether she's even registered to vote. The same goes for Spears.)


read the whole article here :
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-cause1-2008aug01,0,4172463.story

john mccain's threesome tv spot of obama + britney + paris, woohoo!

this IS an IQ test : after viewing the ad, what do you remember?