How did the CEO candidate straight from central casting wind up with such a muddled brand?
Mitt Romney is a brilliant man who made his fortune and his reputation in the business world. As the venture capitalist at Bain Capital, he proved a deft manager at working a balance sheet and fixing broken companies. In hindsight, though, it was a good thing that Romney didn't go to Procter & Gamble straight out of Harvard Business School all those years ago. How could a guy with a TV pitchman's good looks who spent so much time in business know so little about managing a brand - in particular, his own personal brand?
Romney finished a weak second behind John McCain in yesterday's New Hampshire primary. Now, two years into the campaign and millions later, the key question remains: What does Brand Romney stand for? Good looks? Expediency?
The best brands - whether we are talking soap or tires or presidential candidates - do better. Take, for instance, the Grateful Dead, Harley-Davidson, and Romney's alma mater, Harvard Business School. All three brands, says Glenn Rifkin, coauthor of "Radical Marketing," share important characteristics. Maybe most important among those, he says, is an obsession with what he calls "brand integrity."
The mantra, says Rifkin: "Be true to the brand."
Rifkin cites the example of the Grateful Dead, a brand tattooed prominently on the forearms of many a Harley-Davidson biker.
"They believed deeply in the music they played. The music was the thing," says Rifkin, who has written well about technology and management from his Acton home for years. "They didn't try to look for hits. Over 20 or 30 years, they believed deeply in the music. Great brands will do that."
Romney is no Deadhead, that is for sure. He was prochoice before he was not. He has become famous - or infamous - for his relatively recent shifts to the right on other social issues such as gay rights and guns. With "change," whatever that is, now the issue of the moment, Romney is suddenly running a "Washington is broken" campaign. All brands, to be sure, can embrace a certain amount of change. McDonald's can expand into fancy coffees and take on Starbucks, but there has to be some basic set of values that consumers - or voters - can understand and trust.
Most of us earn our reputations; Mitt Romney certainly has, too.
The Romney people are not stupid. They understood their candidate, for all his Hollywood-perfect packaging, had brand shortcomings from the beginning. In a confidential campaign strategy document unearthed by The Boston Globe's Scott Helman last February, a consultant talked about the "Primal Code for Brand Romney," urging him to position himself as a foil to Massachusetts Democrats such as Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. They noted his reputation as "Slick Dancing Mitt" or "Flip-Flop Mitt."
Michael Maccoby, a consultant and instructor at Oxford University's School of Business in England, focuses on different types of personalities that succeed (or not) as leaders in his new book, "The Leaders We Need." He calls Romney the "productive marketing type" - "flexible to the point of being protean, marketing types are decisive when adapting to changing situations."
"Negative traits include a lack of center, insincerity, disloyalty and superficiality," adds Maccoby, who is not aligned with any campaign.
Romney could have been a great governor if he had actually wanted the job and not been constantly positioning himself for the next job. Running for president is something else. All the early planning went well - the strategy, putting good people in place, raising lots of dough. He was the private equity manager analyzing his next deal. But he has failed to define himself as anything beyond a corporate approach to government.
To be successful, all presidential candidates need three things: strength, conviction, and empathy. Mitt Romney will have to define his brand as more than Mr. Negative or Mr. Flip-Flop to get where we wants to go. Some semblance of conviction and empathy wouldn't hurt, either.
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.
