In this space on Aug. 3, 2015, we wrote about Donald J. Trump’s fledgling campaign for the presidency. Our focus was not necessarily on politics nor on policy, but on the Trump brand and how that brand could be impacted by the brand-name candidate’s conduct of his presidential campaign.
Quoted here are excerpts of what we said 15 months ago.
“What does the Trump brand stand for? What is its worth, its value? To consumers, there is a difference between worth and value. Worth is mostly associated with cost, while value is synonymous with importance, benefit and usefulness. We suppose one would have to calculate the worth of the Trump brand by comparing the retail cost of Trump-branded items — dress shirts, ties, greens fees, hotel room rates and office space leases — with competitors in the same categories. Their value, though, is derived from the brand name’s importance to the purchaser’s desire to be associated with the name and its perceived character.”
The it-seems-so-long-ago column also described Trump’s campaign as a “presidential boomlet.” We were wrong. A passing political fancy would have left the brand fairly unencumbered. But the same bullying, boisterous hyperbole and mendacity that catapulted Trump to the Republican nomination, and a real shot at capturing the Oval Office, has also tarnished the Trump brand among his consumer audience.
Make no mistake: Trump’s consumer audience is quite different from the political audience supporting his candidacy. If the majority of his political audience were of the demographic makeup that could afford to purchase his goods and services, then the brand would be aggrandized. However, Trump properties are ultra high-end (except for the clothing), while his campaign constituency is not. There is a palpable disconnect.
More from August 2015: “The FEC [2015 financial] filing also states that Donald Trump has ‘involvement’ in 515 business entities, with 264 of them branded with his name or his initials. In a 2014 report provided to Business Insider, of the $8.7 billion in [Trump’s] net worth, $3.3 billion of that amount was ‘represented by real estate licensing deals, brand and branded development.’ That means applying the Trump name to the deals and developments, purportedly increased their value. So Trump himself values his name — his brand — at $3.3 billion.”
Not anymore.
The Fiscal Times and Business Insider writer Hayley Peterson summed up the dilemma in an Oct. 12 story. Five key findings:
• Consumers’ perception of the Trump brand has tanked since the tape of the Republican nominee speaking crudely about women surfaced, according to a survey by Brand Keys.
• His brand value dropped 8 percentage points in real estate and 6 points in country clubs and golf clubs in that period.
• Jack Ezon, president of the travel company Ovation Vacations, told The Boston Globe in September that business was down at least 30 percent at several of Trump’s properties.
• Last year, the Trump name could increase the perceived value of products and services anywhere from 20 percent to 37 percent. That’s because the Trump name at the time stood for “wealth, luxury, and glamour, and for some, wretched excess,” wrote Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys’ founder and president. Now, in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” tape scandal, the added value of the Trump name has dropped precipitously, according to the firm’s Oct. 9 poll of 1,536 registered voters across the U.S. For example, the added value of Trump’s brand in TV and entertainment — the category where its added value is highest — has dropped from 43 percent to 30 percent between June and the most recent poll.
We noted in that column last year, “All in all, it is estimated that Trump has so far lost over $78 million in fees, licensing and general income since his June comments about the permeability of the nation’s southern border and the rectitude of Mexican immigrants.” In the period following, even more damning and damaging comments have been made. As Trump often says, “You know what I’m talking about.”
On the eve of the election, a great deal is at stake for brand USA. And a great deal of worth and value is on the line for the Trump brand. It’s probably too late to salvage the latter. The former, the future of the country, however, is quite another matter.
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Craig Douglass is an advertising agency owner, and marketing and research consultant. He is president of Craig Douglass Communications Inc. of Little Rock. Email him at Craig@CraigDouglass.com. |