An Update on UNT's Green Branding

After a very successful Spring semester, my Brand Management students delivered 11 reports on how to make UNT go green. Three teams were asked to build a "super report" that was delivered and presented to UNT's administrators. The "Pathways to Green" proposal was very well recevied and had a huge impact at many levels. The document has been used by the Sustainability Council as support for the development of their own sustainability proposal. And after many iterations, Alyssa Ferrer's logo was adopted as the official brand image for the movement. I am currently working with Audhesh Paswan on a paper in which we explore what is it that people understand as being green. I'll keep you updated.

Obama the Brand

Many of you have asked me if I consider Obama to be a brand. As some of you know, I have been working on the topic of political candidates as brands for some time now. Traditional political marketing has argued that the political parties are the brands while the candidates are only the products. I completely disagree, and believe that candidates have become the brands while their parties have become an important brand association. I did some research back in Mexico before the 2006 elections and analyzed the brand image for the 3 presidential candidates that were running for office. My research concluded that candidates are in fact viewed as brands and that the image of the candidate is an important component of the voter's decision. I have written a paper that is currently under review, so please keep your fingers crossed so it gets accepted.

Al Ries, published a very interesting article about Obama the brand and the reasons for his success. If you haven't read it, I think it's worth it.

http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=132237