Does the USA Need a Branding Firm?

The issue of America’s image abroad was a campaign platform for Barack Obama, who said in a foreign policy speech in April, “We all know that these are not the best of times for America’s reputation in the world.”

That’s not to say that the last administration was unaware of the nation’s image problems.

According to New York Times writer Jim Arango, shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a number of very senior media executives, including the heads of every major studio, met several times with White House officials to discuss how the entertainment industry could help improve the image of the United States overseas. One of the best ideas to emerge, the participants agreed, was to distribute American TV shows and movies to foreign audiences — especially in the Muslim world.

It worked … sort of … but not the way they expected. “In the last eight years, American pop culture, already popular, has boomed around the globe while opinions of America itself have soured,” Arango writes. The latest (2006) data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows that the image of the United States remained negative in the 24 countries in which Pew conducted its surveys.

Bryce Zabel, a TV producer and participant in the 2001 meetings with the White House, argued then that the United States needed to regard itself like a consumer brand.
“Products like Coca-Cola are far more effectively branded around the globe than the United States itself,” he wrote in a memo that was circulated around Hollywood.

Maybe the next administration should consider a pro bono partnership with an experienced branding firm or a public relations/marketing firm with expertise in corporate identity campaigns to do for the USA what has been done for other long-term quality brands that care about their image and reputation.

Making the Most of Search Engine Marketing

New York-based Advertising Age recently released the 2008 edition of its Search Engine Marketing Fact Pack, an overview of the top search engines, keyword use and “everything else marketers need to know to connect with consumers.”

It’s filled with interesting data. For example, a recent survey of advertisers revealed that they were robbing Peter to pay Paul. When asking which budgets they were diverting to fund search marketing programs, “magazine advertising” was the number one answer, accounting for 32 percent of replies, followed by “website development” (22%) and “direct mail” (17%).

Also worth checking out in the Fact Pack are the industry-specific rankings of the top websites and search terms. Among the sectors addressed: business information, banking, stocks and shares, telecommunications and healthcare. … all valuable business intelligence for branding and marketing firms and public relations consultants.

Kindle’s Powerful Branding Strategy: Word-of-Mouth

Abbey Klaassen wrote an interesting article last month about a public relations/branding strategy that enables Kindle devotees to become ambassadors for Amazon’s wireless reading device.
This brilliant branding strategy takes social networking and consumer product reviews to a whole new level … to the real world!
None of the Kindle enthusiasts work for Amazon, nor do they receive any remuneration for their efforts.
Klaassen describes one such ambassador, Cindy Longo, who has shown off her Kindle to about 15 people in the Chicago area. She has even set up a special email address to handle requests for demos. Longo reports that she not just motivated by the urge to be of service. “I love my Kindle,’ she had said, “and if demand remains strong, authors/publishers will be motivated to make their books available in Kindle format.”
According to Drew Herdener, senior PR manager at Amazon, some Kindle owners reported that they couldn’t use their Kindles in public because strangers were asking to see it. Meanwhile, prospective Kindle buyers were asking where they could see the product. Amazon message board put the two together.

Even those of us at sophisticated, successful New York branding firms can learn a thing or two from this savvy Seattle-based online retailer.