Joe Rocco
In the early months of the presidential primary season, Scott Walker has peddled his narrative as the “aggressively normal” candidate.
He stumps about shopping the discount rack at Kohl’s. He tweets about haircuts and hot ham sandwiches. He’s applied his famous normcore brand of conservatism to his political strategy, playing it safe (and often boring) on the campaign trail and in the first GOP debate.
So far, pundits seem to agree his approach has been fairly consistent — and consistently bland.
But with a jam-packed field of 16 GOP hopefuls that includes contenders with last names like Bush and Trump, what will it take to sell the Walker brand to primary voters?
“This is always a classic problem for brands in a crowded market,” says Tom O’Guinn, a professor of marketing in the UW-Madison School of Business. “You’re always caught between trying to differentiate yourself and not excluding too many people from the market.”
The marriage of politics and marketing is nothing new. From the Lyndon Johnson campaign, which hired a New York advertising agency to create the famous “Daisy” television spot to defeat rival Barry Goldwater in 1964, to Barack Obama’s team beating out companies like Apple and Zappos to win Advertising Age’s marketer of the year in 2008, candidates have used the power of branding to win the hearts and minds (and votes) of the American people.
“We’ve all kind of become more or less comfortable with the idea of politicians as brands,” says O’Guinn, who studies the intersection of consumer behavior and politics.
And with that trend has come the creation of the campaign store, which allows voters to make political donations in exchange for wearable advertising and also gives candidates insight about their supporters through data collection on their purchases.
As campaigns have become more sophisticated, so has the campaign swag, with the 2016 candidates’ offerings moving beyond traditional T-shirts, yard signs and coffee mugs to include more creative lifestyle items like a cross-stitched throw pillow from Hillary Clinton’s camp, which declares “A woman’s place is in the White House,” or a bafflingly unbranded $75 guacamole dish from Jeb Bush.
With the rise of the idea of candidates as brands, it makes sense for them to have products associated with them, says Dee Warmath, an associate professor in the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology who studies consumer behavior.
“Bringing retail into the campaign trail is not to sell a product, but to connect people to movements and ideologies,” Warmath says. “They’re beginning to infiltrate the consumer’s life in different ways.”
So what does it all mean? What does a candidate’s swag say about his or her political strategy?
Gov. Scott Walker’s merchandise is “fairly underwhelming” but “consistent,” according to one marketing expert.
Let’s start with Walker.
From a branding standpoint, O’Guinn says Walker’s strategy is “fairly underwhelming — and not particularly good.”
His merchandise offerings — T-shirts, a baseball cap, a fleece pullover and some basic signage — are sparse compared to other top-tier candidates. And the imagery — limited to his name in block letters with the letter “E” stylized as an American flag — is far from iconic.
“It’s consistent with what he’s offering,” O’Guinn says. “He’s not taking any chances.”
Adds O’Guinn: “But that’s kind of Walker — nobody’s going to call this guy Mr. Excitement.”
It’s an approach that has served the governor well in the early stages of the race, when he consistently polled at or near the top of the Republican pack, both nationally and in key primary states like Iowa.
The Donald’s swag leaves “no mistaking who he is.”
But with real estate mogul Donald Trump gobbling up media attention with his Twitter tirades and controversial position statements while continuing to surge in the polls, perhaps Walker needs to take a more decisive approach.
“If I were running [Walker’s campaign store], I would be leveraging what he does best,” O’Guinn says. Because like him or not, Walker certainly has positions — he’s the tough, no-nonsense, anti-union conservative who uses phrases like “big and bold” and “unintimidated” to describe his ideals.
“You would expect to see more imagery that emphasizes that kind of persona than what you’re seeing in the store,” O’Guinn says.
As Walker continues to slide in the polls, he’s been scrambling to regain ground — and in doing so, has taken more than a few cues from Trump.
The previously inconceivable rise of the real estate mogul and reality television star has baffled pundits and rankled his opponents as the GOP field has been forced to contend with his bombastic — and, to some, offensive — rhetoric.
“There’s no brand like Donald Trump,” O’Guinn says. “There’s no mistaking who he is.”
Until a few weeks ago, his campaign store was an afterthought — probably because the businessman already had his own signature line of merchandise, selling everything from menswear to “natural spring water.”
Now, anyone who wants to “make America great again” can show their Trump support with one of his famous rope-brimmed hats or a “Team Trump” T-shirt.
Just don’t wear your Trump swag while you’re out committing racially motivated hate crimes. The Donald wouldn’t like that.
The Democratic front-runner has an “evolved product strategy” but takes no “big risks.”
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, in comparison, has an expansive campaign store with dozens of shirts, accessories and signs, all carefully curated to reflect her persona and politics.
With a modernist design that evokes comparisons to Target and CB2, Clinton’s merchandise appears to be targeting young, stylish, upper-middle-class voters, O’Guinn says, while still reflecting diversity with an extensive LGBT section and multicultural models.
There’s an element of fun to her swag — the pantsuit T-shirt embraces her iconic and oft-parodied fashion choices, the “Chillary Clinton” can koozie and “Grillary Clinton” barbecue apron make good use of puns.
“Hillary has the most evolved product strategy by far,” Warmath says. “Her merchandise is much more about creating a connection between what people value and her candidacy rather than just being a campaign product.”
Clinton has maintained widespread favorable ratings despite national troubles with an email scandal, a crowded field of GOP challengers and significant grassroots support for Bernie Sanders among progressive Democrats. But with her merchandise, she’s making her case by appealing to a wide range of potential voters while asserting her status as a likely Democratic nominee.
Jeb’s products are a nod to both his presidential family and inclusivity, with an unbranded guacamole dish.
“This is a front-runner’s website,” O’Guinn says. “But it’s safe. There are no big risks here either.”
Jeb Bush’s campaign store has a remarkably similar feel to Clinton’s — another legacy politician with a big budget to hire web and product design experts to create a high-end experience for customers (er, voters).
He’s also got diversity among products and multiethnic models, though unsurprisingly, the Republican candidate has no LGBT section. But his tagline, “All in for Jeb!” reads with an air of inclusivity, O’Guinn says.
“He’s more inclusive than most of the people he’s running against, and I think that fits the narrative of his brand,” O’Guinn says. “He looks like a front-runner; he looks presidential.”
Perhaps in an attempt to court moderate or millennial voters, the Bush team also embraces elements of fun with the merchandise. He’s got a flat-brimmed hat like the ones that cool urban youth seem to like wearing and a hipster-esque T-shirt that pays homage to George Bush Sr. and the family’s macho Texas roots: “My dad is the greatest man I’ve ever known, and if you don’t think so, we can step outside.”
But perhaps the most brilliant item in the Bush campaign store is a simple guacamole dish, available for $75. At first glance it seems ridiculous — it’s not even branded! But it sends another subtle message of inclusivity and reminds voters of his Mexican-born wife. And perhaps most importantly, it creates a conversation, Warmath says.
“I can just imagine the dinner party — you’re using [the guacamole bowl] in a context when you’re engaging with other consumers,” she says. “It makes Jeb Bush a part of the event.”
Plus, who doesn’t love guacamole?
Feel the Bern’s “authenticity.”
Even Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described Democratic Socialist from Vermont and the anti-establishment champion of Progressives everywhere, isn’t above selling a few T-shirts.
His campaign store takes a characteristically stark, no-frills approach to its design and inventory — shirts, stickers, drinkware and yard signs, all at very low prices.
But in recent weeks, as Sanders has continued his notable surge in popularity, the store has expanded to include more items bearing his grassroots slogan, “Feel the Bern” (which works particularly well on a coffee mug).
“It has authenticity — one of the most important things a brand can be,” O’Guinn says. The unadorned website and simple designs underscore Sanders’ aversion to corporate greed and vulgar spending.
Another candidate who gets high marks for authenticity is Ted Cruz — even though his logo, a star-spangled flame inside the letter “C,” is a near-perfect ripoff of the Christian Broadcasting Network emblem.
Ted Cruz plays up his rebel image as a truth speaker.
But just like the candidate himself, Cruz’s merchandise is big on personality. Take his print, titled “Blacklisted & Loving It,” that depicts the Texas senator shirtless, ripped and tattooed with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He also plays up his devotion to the U.S. Constitution and uses grandiose taglines like “Courageous Conservatives.” His book is lavishly titled A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America.
“Out of all the websites, [Cruz’s] has more call to personality than any of the others,” O’Guinn says. “It’s saying, ‘I’m Ted Cruz, and I have the truth.’”
And for the young neocons, there’s even a Ted Cruz coloring book.
