by Capricorner
A Brand is the name of a product or service. It, expresses the identity of a company, or of a product, or of a service, marketed under that name. The identity is expressed in many forms, color, name, color combinations, symbol, slogan and so on. A legally protected brand name is called TRADEMARK. A Brand signifies what one should expect of the product or service marketed under the brand. It has a perceived value. When a consumer sees a pack of detergent on the shelve with the name AJAX the consumer knows what to expect of the product … cleaning power. Marketers are very careful with Brands. They ensure that the product or service marketed under the brand is always and in every way and form consistent with the “image” of the Brand. This secures a lasting impression of the brand in the minds of the consumers, which enables the marketers to introduce other products or services of a similar nature under the same brand, LUX toilet soap, bath foam and such. New products introduced under a well known Brand Name quickly gain recognition and acceptance, an economic benefit to the marketers. Brands “promise” benefits to the consumers and they “deliver”. Successful Brands provide specific benefits to specific consumers. They “target” their likely consumers. The so called “iconic” Brands have a very large acceptance among people. Their value to people is the brand itself … it enables people to associate with what the Brand represents. Examples: McDonalds, Starbucks, Nike, Harley Davidson. Such Brands create “communities” of people who are connected together by their acceptance and following of the brand, of what the brand represents to them. These “communities” may have a certain mentality, behavior, lifestyle, ways of expression, culture, a certain mode of bonding with each other. Example: the fans of a football team. A Brand therefore creates a group of people, linked by a shared belief in the Brand’s properties {real or perceived} and capable of collective action, such as the violence one sees among fans of competing football teams.
In politics the same principles hold true. People are conditioned to Brands. They not only buy and live with Brands, of products, of services, of venues of sorts, but also of politics, politicos, politicians, political parties, as well. They “buy” Brands of rhetoric, according to their moods and prevalent conditions (think of Hitler’s inspiring, steering rhetoric) Brands of political-economic concepts/models (think of fascism or communism) they buy whatever political parties “peddle” and their selections and followings of political “Brands” shape their lives and those of others and of future generations. Example: Soviet Communism and its impact in world affairs, to say nothing about Nazism and its repercussions. Just as there are Brands with worldwide recognition and acceptance, IBM, FORD, there are political personalities of worldwide recognition, but not necessarily of acceptance as well. Think of J.F.Kennedy and think of Mao Tse Tung. These Brands affect the lives of people and have a lasting impression on them. The persons seize to exist but their image, in the form of legacy or doctrine, may live on.
Greece is definitely a country of great believers in Brands. Just look around and you see it. Their belief and acceptance of brands extends to politics and indeed the politicians that flourish in Greece. Unfortunately for the Greeks Brands of products and services “deliver”, Greek politics and politicians do not, as is evident. Why then do the Greeks keep on “buying” the same politicians and their empty promises time and again? Presumably because they are fooled by the “packaging”. Unsophisticated consumers are fascinated, swayed by sophisticated packaging which may contain an inferior product. Greek politicos and political parties are great “marketers”, which leads to the conclusion that Greeks are unsophisticated “buyers” of “packages” with nothing in, or maybe there are no New Brands in the market and the Greeks will only “buy” Brands. Greek political parties and politicians carefully maintain the consistency of their image in every way and by all means, just like marketers do with Branded products. They also “target” their potential “buyers”, like Branded products/services do. In Greek politics there are “Iconic Brands”, with very large following and acceptance, whose value is the Brand itself enabling their “fans” to associate with what the Brand represents, thus creating “communities” of people with a commonality of ideas and of their approach to politics. The late Constantine Karamanlis was a political “Brand” of great stature. The party he founded elected his nephew, of the same name and personal image, to the presidency of the party, thus creating a “Brand extension”. When the time was ripe the son of the founder of the Greek socialist party was elected to the party’s presidency, another “Brand extension”. The daughter of another old Brand in the Greek political “market” is about to form her own party. The first two “promised” their way to electoral victories (for them the premiership). That they did not “deliver” makes the third hopeful. She, too, knows how to convincingly “promise”.
To build a Brand one has to spend a lot of money to inform “consumers” what the Brand stands for, what it can do for them. It is certain that there are Greeks who can save the country, now at the edge of the cliff, but who are they? Where are they? What do they believe in? What are their plans? … it takes money to inform the country, to explain their thinking, to “build their Brand”. Only the political parties have the means to make their voice heard, but “these” people are not to be found within the existing political parties. Greece, therefore, seems condemned, unless the business community comes to realize that Greece is running out of time and is slipping deeper into a pit from which it will take many years to climb out, with the ensuing repercussions to the Greek business community. Absent patriotic motivation the Greek business community may, just may, seek out and promote a “New Brand”, be that a person, or a political party, that is able to reverse the course to catastrophy and turn the country around, to the benefit of all.
The dearth of political Brands in Greece, however, may also be due to the fact that the Greek approach to politics is not so much ideology, but personal connection to the various politicians who seek votes for favors, hence the recycling of the same old Brands in the absence of New. If the business community decides to offer the country a “New Brand”, then there is hope for Greece.
