Creating Brand Identity for Political Brands
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Brand identity is the most important element of a brand as it’s all about giving life to a brand to be alive. In creating identity many pay extra attention to the symbols, the colors and the words but hardly pay any attention to what really goes into it. But creating brand identity is going way beyond mere symbols and logos and colors. If the brand is something which has no life, by creating identity, you can always give life to a brand.
Talking of creating brand identity it is a loosely comprehended concept in marketing and branding, in which many seasoned marketers also think that it’s about logos, colors and mere presentation of intangible elements. Before talking of brand identity, one must understand what could be referred to as a brand… brand is a collection of symbols, hopes, promises and emotions which are directed towards the society for it to be accepted. Brand identity is the way in which the marketer or the creator wants his/her audience to see the brand. In other words, the image that is expected to be created in the minds of the consumers. What is created may not be perceived as it is hence there could be a gap between what’s created (Identity) and perceived (Image). Brand creators should make sure that the gap is eliminated or minimised if the brand is to perform.
By taking a look at the well-known political brands which have had a natural death over the years and the new political brands which have come up, it’s quite evident that, what matters the most is the soft aspect or the intangible aspect of the brand which is assigned to the people factor of the brand. United National Party was formed by great national heroes such as D.S. Senanayaka and the Sri Lanka Freedom party was formed by the Silver Bell of Asia – S.W.R.D Bandaranayaka. Both parties were continuing their good work thank to all the strong personalities behind the party. In the process we could see the emergence of many other parties including JVP. As opposed to the points of parities (Similarities) of all the other parties, JVP brought in a point of difference which was not received well by Sri Lanka. If you look at the reason, it’s about having a point of difference in the absence of point of parity. In other words; they brought a clear differentiator which was not supported by similarities what other parties offered such as freedom and respect.
However, SLPP as a party came out so strong during the elections held in 2018 due to the personalities such as Hon Mahinda Rajapakse who was then the leader of the party. With the win of the Pradeshiya Sabha election ,SLPP went on to face the Presidential election with the current president Hon Gotabhaya Rajapaske as the presidential candidate. What we need to understand is that although there are so many other new parties come into play, they are hardly heard of or hardly wining any election or seats. What’s evident is that the individuals carry the credibility of the party than the party itself. United National party assumed to be with a block vote based of about 40% of the voters in Sri Lanka but the general election recently concluded showed that it was a myth. The vote base of UNP had casted their vote for SJB which was led by Sajith Premadasa. If people actually casted their votes for the party or the symbol (Elephant) UNP would have won a similar number of seats as much as SJB did. Hence, it’s important to understand that what matters the most is the policies and the people behind a party than the history of the party or the colors and symbols of the party. Hence it’s high time that Ranil Wickremesinghe appoints someone to lead the party without messing it up anymore.
Applying the same to brands such as Odel, Dilmah, the fact remains is that, these brands were highly connected with the owners of the brand. The way owners committed themselves to the brand and the way they conducted themselves indirectly or directly helped the brands to grow. In other words, brand personification takes place in political brands more than any other category of brands. This dependency of service brands on people and celebrity brands on people can relate to political brands as well. In the absence of the key personalities or the persona, the brands can die a natural death. Applying the same to JVP it becomes more obvious that, having people with no substance will not create strong political brands.