Brand Reputation Strategy for David Cameron - Case Study Example

PR: Brand Reputation Strategy-David Cameron Facilitator Introduction David Cameron serves as the Prime Minister in Britain’s government. This position makes him a standout figure in the politics of the United Kingdom and a frontrunner for the same position in the elections set for this year. He seeks re-election as the British Prime Minister in order to accomplish other objectives in his career. Brand reputation revolves around the media perception and communication efficiency in the brand management team (Choi, 2007, p.23). The target of every brand (personal, commodity, strategy, or institution) is to become synonymous with the customers, their activities, lifestyle, and their communication. Every brand wants to stick in the mind of the customer as long as possible and get large publicity share. Unlike the past days where brands needed ancient existence to stick in the minds of the people, the present market presents an avenue for people to affect their brands through effective brand management and communication strategies, which run from managing the people interacting with the brand to managing the information shared about the brand. Brand management involves the process of enabling a brand to stick in the minds of the people positively and preventing any negativity about the brand from hurting its perception. Brand reputation management, thus, involves effective strategies to communicate the brand and constantly remind the people of the positive value of the brand. The purpose of this report is to develop a brand reputation strategy for David Cameron as he vies to be reelected as the Prime Minister of Britain. Brand Communication As a frontrunner in the elections, David Cameron heavily relies on the communication of his brand as a marketing tool for his strategy. The communication strategy thus stands as a central element of the brand reputation plan and the development plan to ensure that the candidate wins the next election. The social lives of the British people need to improve as well as racial tolerance (Wigfield& Turner, 2013, p.670). The campaign to strengthen immigration rules and improve the security of the people is also a central point that should be communicated to the electorate in order to maintain Cameron’s brand as a visionary leader. First, the communication team should communicate Cameron’s plans in a SMART model that attracts the people and tells them why they should elect a visionary leader like Cameron. The communication information should be Specific, tackling specific areas of Cameron’s manifesto like security and the Nati9onal health Service, which are important to the British people. Such specific issues touch the lives of the electorate directly with heath and security having posed notable challenges to the people in the past. Communicating Specific issues will therefore hit the emotional aspect of the people directly hence enhance their position in the campaign strategy. The communication team should also relay measurable strategies as Cameron faces development and stability issues (Watson, 2008, p.110). Understanding the parameters around the campaign strategies and the factors that people would want to change keenly affects the perception that the people will have on the communication strategy. For example, on the health issue, the campaign team should understand maternal health and the percentage of mothers who face complications during delivery or infantry. At this point, the team can pledge that the candidate will lower the percentage, outlining the strategies that will be implemented for the same. For example, if maternal death stands at 20%, pledging to lower the rate to 5% is a measurable goal worth evaluation within a set period. More so, a target that is measurable should be attainable meaning the communication team should avoid abstract ideas. There is no point in telling the people that they will be evaluated in terms of wealth yet different people put in different levels of commitment to their economic wellbeing (Clements, 2012, p.191). The brand management team should thus make the goals attainable like ensuring that the number of British people dying because of terror cases is lowered to zero. A promise to increase the number of people employed by the NHS from the current 1.6 Million to 2 Million is also attainable given the increasing interest from global groups to fund it. The communication of such goals also depicts the strategy as realistic with the manifesto touching on the basic challenges of employment and health of the people (Mcanulla, 2010), p309). This makes the candidate stand an upper hand as people see him as real. While communicating the strategy for David Cameron, the team should also set attainable periods within which the goals will be attained and the strategies implemented by the people in his leadership (Springston and Weaver, 2005, p.231). Cameron should be portrayed as a person with real time frames for his objectives. The goal to improve the security of the people and prevent terrorist related deaths may be tagged to a year while the maternal health and NHS employment goal may be tagged to two years. Therefore, a communication statement should show that the communication is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. For example, “I will increase the number of professionals employed by the NHS from 1.6 million people to 2 Million people within 2 years which will help lower maternal deaths from 13% to 4% within the same period.” The other objective that ca be outlined in the plan is to ensure that the number of British people who die from terrorism issues is reduced to Zero within a period of one year. More so, the Prime Minister can also pledge to increase the capacity of talent related activities like soccer and athletics through creation of other sports like beach soccer and beach volleyball within two years. All the goals are “SMART” thus the can serve as strategic goals for the candidate. Strategic Communications Plan The strategic communication plan for the brand (David Cameron) can be summarized diagrammatically as shown in figure 1 below. Figure 1: Brand communication strategy for David Cameron First, the environment should be screened and analyzed in order to understand the factors that the people in Britain consider pertinent in their future lives. Uncovering areas such as health and safety will greatly help in brand management for the people. Analytics are entirely important in the strategy as they help in understanding the view of the people on the candidate and developing strategies that can help in improving the perception of the people on Cameron. Once the environment in Britain is well evaluated and scanned, the next step involves developing a strategy for each of the populations in order to generate attraction from different specific groups (Lloyd, 2006, p.19). The plan should be geared towards an optimization strategy that ensures the current positive brand image for Cameron is maintained while the people with different perceptions are effectively converted to develop a positive attitude towards Cameron. However, the plan cannot be implemented on the whole population haphazardly; there is a huge need for the British people to be segmented in order to handle different groups uniquely depending on their current attitude. Segmentation paves way for tailored message creation. For example, in areas where health is an issue, the message to them will be reduction in maternal health especially the areas bordering water bodies. For the areas on the borders of the country, security and immigration messages should make up the bigger part of the campaign message. The message is then delivered to the people through multichannel alienation dictated by the preferences of the people as identified in the screening stage. In places where people are vastly young, the social media is preferable to print media while the scholars will prefer the print media and the internet to audiovisual media and social media (Greyser, 2009, p.591). Finally, the message is evaluated for effectiveness to ensure that the target market has a change of mind and the brand of David Cameron is maintained with the people more anxious to see his leadership in the highlighted areas. Post campaign analysis is important to know the effectiveness of the strategy and the perceptions of the people after initiating the brand awareness plan. Communication Strategies As much as the communication team will develop an all-round brand reputation management scheme, the main concern that the candidate should have is how the information will be communicated. Three major strategies can be implemented in communication of the message. First, the campaign team should adopt strategic repetition of the message for the people to internalize it (Laskin, 2012, p.366). This involves delivering the message to the target audience repetitively while considering that they may be bored hence using different media. When a message is communicated repeatedly, the people internalize it and understand it deeper hence; it is easier to convince them that the message represents the truth about the brand. However, the message should be framed on print, the internet, through talent, sponsorships, tours, public addresses, and other media to enhance a proper communication mix. The communication team can also adopt a multichannel communication strategy, which will ensure that a vast market is within reach of the information. Personalized communication through different media will help in making the people accustomed to the brand than making them hearers of the brand. For example, among the people living on the border, documentary clips on the dangers that they face and the strategies that Cameron will implement to reach out to them will adversely help in making them aware that they are included in the manifesto (Hucker, 2008, p.448). For the sports people, sponsorship of sports events and attending some of the sporting events and occasions like soccer matches will greatly help in facilitation of Cameron’s brand as a supporter of sports. The print and audiovisual media should not be ignored in the campaign as they help in making a permanent footprint of the candidate on the people. The communication team should also lodge a public cleansing and conventional communication strategy. This strategy works very well in enhancing personalized communication with the electorate and making them understand the candidate on a closer analysis. The people in Britain will not vote David Cameron because he has been a Prime minister before. They will vote him because they identify with him and they can associate with his plans on a personal level. This communication strategy has several aspects that the communication team may consider (Cohen, 2011, p.19). First, the show-knit strategy is a communication strategy through which the youth and other people who make majority of the electorate are reached personally and convinced about the strategy. It develops a following base, which is closely related to the brand and can expand it to other people. Second, the communication team should initiate network marketing for the candidate and ensure that the people who can convince the fellow electorate easier than the communication team market the candidate. The bond among the electorate is very strong hence; they can easily affect each other’s decisions. Public rallies can also help in placement of the candidate as part of the conventional marketing strategy. Communication Media Selection The brand of a person is always closely associated with the media used to communicate it due to accessibility, reach, and quality assurance factors that affect the brand. However, during market screening, David Cameron will discover that majority of the electorate are youths who have access to specific media hence need for wisdom in selection of the marketing mix. The communication team should effectively utilize social media as a marketing tool because it vastly reaches out to many people (Moloney, 2003, p.278). However, while developing a social media strategy, the team should consider the fact that the media has very little limitation hence the brand may as well be spoilt on the same media. This means that the team must be ahead of the game and counter any destructive posts and tags with positive developments in Cameron’s manifesto. The teams should also consider a major social media campaign to gain traction and following from majority of the young people in Britain through effective social media ads about David Cameron and his development plan. Traditional media should not be ignored in the communication mix. As much as the use of traditional communication media has reduced with the onset of social media, many people still trust the credibility of any information transmitted through these media. The communication team should heavily invest in audiovisual communication of the brand and pushing the brand strategies (Moloney, 2003, p.278). The communication through documentaries and publicly aimed clips on the plans of David Cameron for Britain will help in making his strategy stick with the people. More so, the communication team should position David to get as much space in the print media as he possibly can through positioning him in places with access to the media such as sports events and social gatherings for the benefits of the society. The communication team should also utilize the media that make people more accustomed to information about the brand in a way that they will own the brand and promote it willingly to other people, making them to understand and comprehend the message better and more concisely. Personal selling for the candidate and networking marketing of David’s strategy and development plan through the shoe-knit strategy that will make people more accustomed to the message that the candidate is carrying to the rest of the country (Moloney, 2003, p.278). When people own the message, it is easier to convince them about the strategy hence the easiest way to sell the message is making the people to own it and act as agents of the candidate. Brand reputation Protection Development of a brand reputation for the candidate is the first stop in winning the hearts of the people. However, the most challenging endeavor is maintaining the reputation over the period when the candidate will be serving the campaign trail to the time of election and after the elections. The best strategy to defend a brand is always being on the offensive. Developing trust works best in protecting the brand hence Cameron should utilize this strategy (Stacom, 2012, p.28). When the people trust David Cameron as an honest and diligent leader, altering their beliefs will not be easy. This will play to his advantage because it means that he can rely on the people to protect time all the time, as they will have an emotional attachment to their best candidate. Development of trust among the people is not easy hence; it will draw down to the initial strategies to boost the brand in the market. The other strategy that can be utilized in protection of the brand is increased personalized marketing and development of fresh energy every time (Yang, 2005, p.63). Interaction with the people on a closer level has higher chances of making them defend the candidate in times of reputation attack than alienating the candidate from the people. This strategy mainly deals with keeping up to speed with the movers in the market. The social media and phone communication is the mover of the economy hence the candidate should remind people of his strategy for them through mobile applications, ads, and the social media. Database and data management can also help the candidate in keeping the brand afloat. David Cameron heavily relies on the communication of his brand as a marketing tool for his strategy (Argenti and Druckenmiller, 2004, p.370). The communication strategy thus stands as a central element of the brand reputation plan and the development plan to ensure that the candidate wins the next election. The social lives of the British people need to improve as well as racial tolerance. The campaign to strengthen immigration rules and improve the security of the people is also a central point that should be communicated to the electorate in order to maintain Cameron’s brand as a visionary leader. This information should be kept in different databases using written, audiovisual, and print media. Conclusion David Cameron serves as the Prime Minister in Britain’s government.Every brand wants to stick in the mind of the customer as long as possible and get large publicity share.The campaign to strengthen immigration rules and improve the security of the people is also a central point that should be communicated to the electorate in order to maintain Cameron’s brand as a visionary leader.Therefore, a communication statement should show that the communication is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. As much as the communication team will develop an all-round brand reputation management scheme, the main concern that the candidate should have is how the information will be communicated.David Cameron heavily relies on the communication of his brand as a marketing tool for his strategy. The communication strategy thus stands as a central element of the brand reputation plan and the development plan to ensure that the candidate wins the next election.The best strategy to defend a brand is always being on the offensive. Developing trust works best in protecting the brand hence Cameron should utilize this strategy. Reference List Argenti, P.A. and Druckenmiller, B., 2004. Reputation and the Corporate Brand. Corporate Reputation Review, 6(4), pp. 368-374. Choi, J., 2007. Elaborating the concept of public relations roles and a test of its utility. Michigan State University. Clements, B., 2012. Exploring public opinion on the issue of climate change in Britain. 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