Trump wins a big victory! What brand marketing techniques did he use to make the American people collectively behave abnormally?
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Just now, according to the latest results from the United States, Trump defeated Hillary and was successfully elected as the new president of the United States! The 45th U.S. presidential election, which was full of ups and downs and a bloody plot like the real-life version of "House of Cards" and " Game of Thrones", has finally come to an end. Hillary Clinton, who is always a strong woman, was not elected. I can't help but say: Trump's successful election was due not only to his "unique personality charm", his opponents' repeated mistakes and his face known as the "golden ratio", but also to the first-class brand marketing behind it, which is definitely a model for us to learn from. This article will reveal the story behind Trump's success. “ It's very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.” –Donald Trump As one of the links in the campaign process, brand design has been frequently used in political activities. Because the visualization of election concepts can reduce the cost of understanding for voters and bring great value to candidates. Eight years ago, Obama’s “Change” campaign forever rewrote the visual language of American politics through the large-scale use of modern typographic design. Before this, design images were rarely used when people discussed political issues such as elections. “ When Obama ran for the first time, the whole country realized the importance of design to elections - a task that had been overlooked in American political history. ” wrote a commentary published in July in The Washington Post. Compared with conceptual political commentary and data research, design analysis provides visualization tools for political concepts and can quickly provide a panoramic overview of the election. In addition, social media is an important carrier for election image design. John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School, believes that "the candidates who perform better in election campaigns are often those who can make greater and better use of social media to promote themselves." Compared with the elections in 2008 and 2012, the proportion of social media advertising has further increased, expanding from Twitter and Facebook to more niche areas, such as photo social communities such as Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat, social news site Reddit, and even the video live streaming platform Periscope. Relevant data shows that among people aged 18 to 33 (the so-called millennials), 61% use social media to get political and government news. Therefore, it is feasible to analyze candidate design images from social media. Taking photos and videos from Hillary and Trump’s social media, we take a comprehensive look at the design image of the US election. Outstanding women and business tycoons The tone of the design image is often determined by the candidate's basic identity. Hillary is an example of an excellent woman. She graduated from Wellesley College and Yale Law School, and whether before or after her marriage, whether as First Lady or Secretary of State, she did not become a "political vase", but maintained a career independent of her husband Bill Clinton for quite a long time, and did it very well. This identity is reflected in the design, which highlights her identity as a political elite woman. Trump is a combination of a well-known real estate developer, a reality TV star and a best-selling author. He has been in business for decades and has assets of $4.5 billion. He has also produced various business and success books, including the reality show "The Apprentice" and "The Apprentice". All this labeled him as a "businessman", "rich man" and "winner in life", but he immediately started his political career. Such a huge span is staggering, but it gave him the label of a "political amateur" outside the system, which was unexpectedly helpful. "Trump's electoral advantage is unconventional, coming from his long-established celebrity status and partly derived from his outrageous persona," said political science professor Jean Schroedel. ▲Comparison of Hillary and Trump’s books The images the two men established through their writings are also proof of this. Apart from the election-themed books "United We Stand" and "Hard Choices", Hillary's books are mainly children's education books such as "It Takes a Village", which form an image of a former first lady, secretary of state, and political elite who maintains the love and affinity of a woman; Trump's works are mainly business-oriented, showing a "brutal cross-border" tycoon who turned from business to politics. The inherent identities of the two people constitute the image tone of the election, and the brand's visual elements will continue to evolve around their ideas. Let us now review their visual image from a design perspective. Basic image: Lively and lively versus conservative and commercial The logo is the absolute core of the design image. Hillary invited Michael Bierut of the famous design company Pentagram to design a logo for her. The final product, "Hillary H", is extremely simple - it is composed of only the first letter of Hillary's name "H" and a right-pointing arrow. Trump adopted a more conservative text-based logo. ▲Logos of Hillary and Trump Beirut explained: "'Hillary H' can become the basis of the campaign image system and effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of voters in each constituency." Jo Barnard, founder of London MORRAMA Studio, believes that "Hillary boldly chose to hide the first letter of her full name. This was risky, but it reaped a rich spread rate." Facts have also proved that "Hillary H" is a universal shape, simple but with great scalability. Design critic Annalisa Merelli also believes that "the highly open 'Hillary H' can release a sense of inclusiveness and participation to voters, and dilute her elitist identity that has been criticized." Journalist Jon Jones believes that "Hillary H" is a deliberate successor to Obama's design strategy: "Her design image looks like part of Obama's brand manual." ▲Influenced by Obama’s design strategy, “Hillary H” pays more attention to scalability, and a new logo will be released every major holiday. ▲Hillary’s arrow features and applications In terms of font, Hillary's logo boldly uses uppercase and lowercase letters, which is more lively and vivid than Trump's all-capital letters, suggesting the spirit of freedom, friendliness, interaction, innovation and youthful vigor. ▲Hillary and Trump’s Logo font application scenarios ▲The combination of uppercase and lowercase Hillary fonts is more dynamic and energetic Trump's choice of all-capital font was determined by his inherent design image. His real estate-based brand system is almost entirely capitalized, which not only highlights the value and noble characteristics of the industry, but also conveys timelessness, trust and reliability to consumers. The capitalization style was also continued in his election logo, but the serifs with a Roman classical flavor were no longer used. ▲The image system of Trump’s business empire Font proportions may also hint at a candidate’s authoritarian qualities and level of power. This can be seen from analyzing the size ratio of the names of the candidates and their vice presidential running mates. Judging from the 2012 and 2016 elections, the font ratio of the Republican presidential candidate is significantly larger than that of the vice president, while the font ratio of the Democratic Party is relatively close. ▲Font ratio of the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the two parties One possible conclusion is that the Republican Party prefers strong leaders and authoritarians. In addition to his strong rhetoric and attitude, Trump has also expressed admiration for Putin and even Saddam, and is more likely to prefer authoritarian politics. In addition to fonts, the overall color of the candidate is also worth analyzing. Hillary is dominated by the blue tone of the Democratic Party, and with her own identity as an "outstanding woman", the color she blends is first the light and youthful "Democratic Party blue", and then she blends the blue tone with diverse colors representing minorities, women, families and children, and even LGBT people. In contrast, Trump's overall color scheme emphasizes solemnity and appears rather bleak. ▲Compared to Trump's (right) solemn tone, Hillary's overall color is diverse and vivid From an overall visual perspective, Hillary, who has invested a lot of money, seems to have the upper hand. But once slogans and rhetoric are taken into account, how effective is the propaganda actually? Journalist Chris Cillizza thinks Trump's slogan: "Extremely smart." He wrote in a March commentary in The Washington Post, "Trump packaged nostalgia for America's former glory, disappointment, confusion and anger at the status quo into a concise four-word phrase, successfully capturing a large number of voters." Campaigning is always about the future and goals. Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" is firm on the specific goal of "American rejuvenation", which is more popular than Hillary's "chicken soup-type" slogan "Stronger Together" which only focuses on unity, equal rights, progress and international cooperation. In the later stages of the election, it was further condensed into the "#MAGA" hashtag on Twitter, which spread further. ▲"Unity is strength" and "Revive America!" "#MAGA" can be called the absolute core of Trump's propaganda system - past glory, masculinity, hegemony, national honor, Reagan's New Deal and other cross-domain political concepts have established associations and synaesthesia through this slogan and merged into Trump's image. Hillary, who invested a huge amount of money, did get the excellent design she wanted to copy from Obama. But the image that she spent a lot of effort to create was not as direct as a slogan that spread far and wide, and it failed to help her surpass Trump in support rates. Designers cannot be blamed for this failure; its fate was doomed when Hillary's team was obsessed with copying Obama's "design system" but ignored the applicability of the slogan. "Hillary Clinton prepared carefully and invested a lot of money to win the campaign, but she still risks creating a dull and boring image." Barnard said, "Bernie Sanders, by contrast, is better at using motivational words and slogans. He will not build a high wall with the rules and regulations of 'brand design regulations' to hide his true self and isolate voters from the wall. More importantly, Sanders has been spending very little. In the real election, although Sanders failed to make it to the end, Trump used Sanders' inspiring slogans to tell Hillary what a real campaign is - designing a visual image is certainly important, but it is not everything. The political connection expressed in design As a candidate of the Democratic Party, Hillary's first priority is to integrate the "political legacy" of Obama, the Democratic Party. Therefore, she focuses on displaying various endorsements and supports within the party and connecting herself with other political elites to gain extra impression points. ▲Hillary's endorsement quote design. In addition to the Obamas, her supporters also include Vice President Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. It is worth noting that former Democratic President Bill Clinton is also an important figure in Hillary's image project - as a lover and husband, he highlights Hillary's "family" and "feminine" tender qualities. ▲Former President Bill Clinton plays an important role in Hillary's "family" image management Compared with the strategy of Democratic elites endorsing Hillary, Trump places more emphasis on designing an image dominated by himself. This is determined by his election strategy of drawing a clear line between himself and the Republican "establishment". In addition to emphasizing personal ability in his designs, he also exaggerated American colors and patriotism, and linked his ideas with former President Ronald Reagan. ▲The five-pointed star and the fluttering American flag are important visual elements of Trump’s posters ▲From ideas, slogans, visual elements to gestures, Trump resonates deeply with Reagan ▲Trump's campaign flyer design also focused on showing the image of him meeting Reagan when he was young, which became widely known as the election progressed. The battle of the sexes and equal rights issues As the first female presidential candidate, Hillary has never stopped promoting women's rights issues. From the famous former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, to LGBT leader Sylvia Rivera, to the American female Olympic athletes earlier in 2016, Hillary launched the "Women Who Inspire" campaign, sparing no effort to emphasize the importance of "half the sky" and trying to link the significance of women's rights progress with national honor. ▲Hillary Clinton’s “Women Who Inspire” campaign put a large number of outstanding female figures on social media It is undeniable that Hillary Clinton's becoming a female presidential candidate is a historic moment of progress for gender equality. But even Obama's publicity strategy in 2008 focused on "hope" and "change", and did not direct the public's attention to his "black" identity. Hillary's deliberate emphasis on her female identity did win the favor of most female voters, but it also limited the influence of her image to gender topics, making it difficult to rise to a broader level. ▲Hillary's "I'm with Her" series design calls the vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine by his name, hiding his male identity ▲Trump's "I'm with YOU" slogan successfully dispelled the values advocated by Hillary LGBT is another important front in gender equality and the focus of repeated tug-of-war between liberalism and conservatism. Due to their respective values, Hillary and Trump were destined to be in opposition from the beginning. Compared to Hillary's frequent promotion of LGBT equal rights, Trump is much more low-key - he prefers to stick to his own position: by opposing the "First Amendment" that legalizes same-sex marriage and protesting against the Democratic Party's liberal Supreme Court justices, he can not only integrate the conservative forces of the Republican Party, but also arouse the values of Conservative Power: maintaining family values, adhering to the Constitution and traditional ethics, and thereby achieving a comprehensive mobilization of the vast number of traditional Protestant people. ▲LGBT equality is an important part of Hillary’s image The 2016 election has become a "gender war" and "equal rights war" in the United States, not only because of the gender labels of the parties, but also because of the inconsistent values behind them. The rift began here: the value-oriented internationalism and equal rights issues seemed incomprehensible to white workers and traditional Protestants, while Trump's machismo, offensive nicknames and vulgar behavior also angered female voters. Ethnicity and mobility It is natural that gender equality extends to racial equality. For Hillary, this strategy can achieve effective extension of positioning, gain cross-cultural favor, and then establish an ideal value of "national integration". This not only conforms to the American concept of cultural integration, but also makes it easier for the Democratic Party represented by Hillary to transform ethnic minorities into deep blue voting bases through the welfare system. However, the drawback is that the implementation process is too extreme. For example, they sympathize with minorities and immigrants who commit crimes and blame them on the social system, but ignore individual responsibility. Instead, they criticize local workers who are victims of the changing economic environment and are hostile to minority immigrants. They also label the police and other public departments as authoritarian and discriminatory in law enforcement. This double standard has led to a rebellious backlash against the "politically correct" culture by relevant groups, which has become Trump's voting base. The concepts of "political correctness" and "cultural diversity" are reflected in the design, which is to implement voter image management, maintain ethnic diversity, and avoid scenes dominated by a single white person. ▲Hillary's social media photos rarely feature white voters Counter-terrorism issues: Naked and covered On the issue of anti-terrorism, Trump did not hesitate to criticize "Radical Islam". In contrast, Hillary and Obama refused to comment on the connection between concepts such as "Islam" and "Muslims" and terrorist attacks. Trump always puts the word "Extremist Islam" in large letters on his designs, shaking Americans' fragile sense of security since 9/11, and is completely unconstrained by the taboos of "political correctness." ▲Trump attacks the concept of "radical Islam" on national security issues The reason why the Democrats refuse to acknowledge "radical Islam" is that once they do so, it will mean the collapse of the liberal values they uphold, and the concepts of "multiculturalism" and "world citizenship" that they have long promoted will be self-defeating. The fight for public officials and their families In contrast to Hillary, Trump easily gained the support of public service groups such as the military and police. He came with more than 200 years of American value inheritance, the great vision and roar of recreating the "City on the Hill", resonating with the glorious dream of conservative American male hegemony, and embellishing the brand design with a large number of visual elements such as the Stars and Stripes, camouflage, medals, and even fighter planes, battleships and cannons. The slogan "Make America Safe Again!" ignited not only the hormones of soldiers and police, but also the passion of the vast number of voters who uphold traditional values and patriotism. ▲National security elements in Trump’s social media ▲Trump posts patriotic content on social media on important dates such as National Day, Memorial Day, and the D-Day anniversary. In addition, Trump also focused on rallies for public officials and met with them directly to canvass for votes, thus achieving a good voter turnout rate. Hillary has basically no related rallies. ▲Trump often meets with veterans, law enforcement agencies, Coast Guard and other groups Unlike Trump, Hillary's entry point is "military and police families." Despite the commonalities among the families of military and police officers, there is still the possibility of differentiation among the individual identities of family members (such as relatives, spouses, ethnicity, etc.), and this is where Hillary's entry point lies. She knew that she could not fight Trump head-on among the military, police and patriotic groups, so she could only take a roundabout approach by amplifying Trump's inappropriate remarks and dividing the groups with different positions among her family members. A typical example is the incident involving the fallen Muslim soldier Khizr Khan. Hillary Clinton tried to highlight her concern for minorities and military families by attacking Trump's remarks for causing harm to the soldiers' relatives and ethnic groups. ▲ Screenshots of some Hillary Clinton's social media videos, showing her preference for reaching out to military families Hillary's design strategy was not without effect. The survey shows that nearly half of women in military families support Hillary, more than Trump's 43%. Working class anger The core essence of the 2016 election is the showdown between global media, IT finance and traditional physical manufacturing. The end of the Cold War in the 1990s and the rise of Internet technology accelerated the globalization of enterprises and capital, and a large number of enterprises began to move overseas. The focus of production has been dispersed to developing countries, which has led to significant differences in the industrial structure in the United States. The white working class has gradually lost its competitive advantage and has become a voter forgotten by the mainstream political elite. Hillary represents the global interest groups, and most companies with global characteristics support Hillary. Domestically, the Equal Employment Act allocated the remaining jobs to minorities and women, who were previously classified as inferior workers in the job market, making white workers increasingly depressed and desperate. Trump, who came from the real economy, soon became their savior. He achieved his goal with simple and clear "explosive" phrases such as "withdraw from TPP", "revive manufacturing" and "better jobs, higher wages". Although these measures seem absurd to economists, Schroeder points out that "the disillusioned working class feels that their concerns have long been ignored by the elites and is therefore more willing to tolerate Trump's crazy rhetoric." ▲The merger of the working class and conservatism has led to hostility towards multinational trade agreements and even globalization An example of Trump's anti-globalization is his declaration to abolish Obama's "TPP Free Trade Agreement". Once finalized, this agreement will cover 12 countries and is generally considered to be extremely harmful to the interests of American workers. Even in the TPA vote, 84.0% of Democratic lawmakers rejected the White House's request. Under Trump's threats and pressure from within the party, Hillary also had to readjust her labor policies. Clarify the close ties with multinational financial conglomerates such as Wall Street. The politics of fierce accusations The similarity between elections and business is that they are both wars of public opinion targeting the minds of the masses. The clashes between Hillary and Trump on multiple issues pushed the intensity of the 2016 election public opinion war to a new level, becoming "accusation politics." Hillary's overall strategy is to "Expose the 'REAL' Trump," which means exposing Trump's words, deeds and experiences in an attempt to use Hillary's rich political achievements to suppress Trump's image as a "political novice." Therefore, we can see that Hillary's team prefers to use a comparative approach to directly demonstrate the gap in experience and ability between the two sides. ▲Hillary Clinton used a lot of contrast techniques, using Trump to highlight her rich experience in governing. In addition, Hillary will also design promotional materials for specific groups. For example, the "Why Children May Be Trump's Downfall" video released in conjunction with Time magazine shows housewives a collection of Trump's offensive remarks, implying that Trump is a bad role model for teenagers and is not worthy of being elected president. Trump, however, was more comfortable in his attacks. Thanks to his "non-establishment" status, he does not need to show off his political achievements when attacking. He only needs to point out the problems facing the United States - the "Rigged System", which is the "dark side" of the collusion between the elites of the two parties and multinational capital and the media. Therefore, black is used extensively in the color scheme to create the suffocating scene of Rigged System. The scope of the attack is not limited to Hillary, but covers the entire Democratic Party’s top leadership and political system, including the Obamas. ▲Trump’s image design for Hillary is mainly red and black Both teams are well versed in attacking tactics. But Trump did a better job. He focused on exposing the numerous problems and ills in the United States, weaving a dark curtain of dilapidated industrial scenes, dark political inside stories, and challenges to traditional values, and spreading it out before the eyes of the American people. It collided violently with the impression of "the chosen country" and "the city on the hill" that they had been taught since childhood, and expressed the sense of crisis and worries in the hearts of dissatisfied voters. History Review Basic electoral concepts determine the candidate's brand image. The style of political image design is determined when candidates select their platforms and voters, and the rest is the selection and execution of design elements. Looking back at the election process, both Hillary and Trump's campaign teams demonstrated professionalism and built a consistent propaganda system and designed image based on their own political views and voter spectrum. However, Hillary's design was much less efficient in terms of resources invested and returns. The rise of social media has eliminated the discourse advantage of transnational capital and traditional media. With the help of new channels for voicing their opinions, lower-class white people and the working class have flooded into the public opinion field where left-wing youths once shouted "Long live LGBT". Although Trump’s visual image is a bit old-fashioned, he successfully integrated the target group through his slogans. His image is a hodgepodge, filled with the realism of the Reagan era, nationalism, the cry of powerful hegemony, and the reckless roar of traditional white patriarchy. All of this has been constantly sublimated and echoed in the constant "MAGA" on social media. Hillary must realize that elections are not the same as design. It is not possible to get a good voter turnout by spending a lot of money to build a "brand system" and creating an overwhelming amount of high-quality design and publicity campaigns. What is more important is the cry that inspires the minds of voters. Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising Author of this article@ Unit has you compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! |
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