The Brand Factor

The blogosphere is always full of amusing little in-fights that remind me of happier days spent in the playground having my close family insulted and of course responding in kind.

[For the record I would like to say to a certain K. that it is in fact you who are so ugly you give Freddie Kruger nightmares and consequently I imagine any girlfriend you now have, who is charitable enough to sleep with you, is so fat that when she goes camping the bears have to hide their food.
Some wounds never heal.]

Anyways,

Over on Comment Central, one of my favourite blogs, Danny Finkelstein is having an argument with Janet Daley about the Tory brand.

Mr Finkelstein believes the Tory brand was corrupted and consequently David Cameron's modernisation project was a necessity. He cites polling evidence that suggests people are more likely to support a policy on say immigration if it was not associated with the Tories.

Ms Daley seems to disagree with the idea the Tories needed to modernise and has headlined a response to these polls with the insinuation that they are misleading and thus 'New Tory' is a mistake.

I am sure Mr Finkelstein is right about this. I think he effectively wins the debate by citing those small public polls called the last three general elections. If you're out of power for so long it's probably because people don't like you. Any government given more than one term will probably do enough to be voted out given a half decent opposition.

The interesting aspect to this debate on how much people dislike the Tories, is the power of brands.

It reminded me of two things.

Firstly a conversation I had with a friend who works in P.R. who told me that 'Virgin' was an example of near perfect P.R. branding. Most people in Britian like Richard Branson. We like him because we think he is a boy 'done good'. We don't resent him for being rich and allegedly having his own Island with an outdoor toilet that faces the Pacific. Fair enough we say.

The result of the Virgin brand means the company doesn't actually have to provide any better service than its competitors as anyone who has travelled on, or waited for, Virgin rail may already know. Because people like Virgin they buy it regardless of whether it tastes any better, moves any faster, or provides a better deal.

The second thing I thought of was another point by Mr Finkelstein in a post about the Damien McBride/ Derek Draper scandal {link below} and Labour's reprehensible 'Red Flag' website.

Mr Finkelstein pointed out that sometimes people who feel morally superior often allow the ends to justify the means. And so perhaps Labour were behaving so badly because they were up against the 'nasty party'.

The moral of this story is don't believe your own or anyone elses P.R.. It ruins the proper competition we need as citizens and consumers to ensure we get the best service, value and representation.