The Write Angle TWA marketing, formerly known as The Write Angle

A New Brand For An Old Profession

What a few weeks in politics!

With a new Prime Minister about to take the helm and steer the good ship UK through the political Brexit storm, rather than capitalising, the opposition is fighting and raising questions about who should lead the Labour party.

The wider question is who would? Ms Leadsom bowed out of the race to no.10 after a backlash ensued from her misplaced and naive comments about motherhood giving you a bigger (and better) stake in the future.

I’ll bet a euro on the fact that the comms teams behind these power players are desperately trying to find some good news to share with potential voters and paint their subjects in a better light.
Brand perception for MPs is at rock bottom. Core values of integrity, selflessness and caring are all in very short supply as Gove did a Brutus on Boris and Blair was bloodied by the Chilcott report.

MPs are a certain breed. A brand born out of public school, privilege and unflappable confidence. Occasionally a shopkeeper’s daughter breaks ranks and rises to the top, but generally the experiences that shape MPs are unfamiliar and unreachable for the vast majority of us.

Voters are tired of the same old story. They want to see real people that put the country before their ambition. Corbyn threatened to break the mould with his straight talking, subway riding approach but he’s damaged his brand by a lukewarm remain campaign and so the knives are out. The vote for Brexit was a vote against the current brand of MPs that’s on offer for us.

We know the key to building a great brand is understanding your audience and showing how your brand can deliver a solution to an issue and build an emotional connection with you. ‘Brand MP’ needs to communicate humility, leadership, honesty, clarity and the real person behind the media training! It will be interesting to see if Teresa May learns the lessons and starts the shift change in brand perception of MPs.

Unless she does, brand choice will be limited and we’ll be stuck with Bullingdon Club alumni for years to come.