How Joe Biden Can Rebrand America

6 min readNov 11, 2020

A marketing analysis from an Australian perspective — and the importance of global perception

Joe and Jill Biden. Source WikiCommons

Groundhog Election Day is over, and America has a new president-elect.

There are a lot of articles that will dissect the results by looking at political and cultural issues, but let us take a different tact in this article. I am not a political analyst, but I am an experienced marketer, so let us look at this result through a marketing lens and see how Joseph Biden Junior can rebrand America. An America that, no matter which side of the political fence you sit on, has changed its brand dramatically over the last four years. And with a new leader at the helm in 2021, it will change once more.

So what should Joe Biden and his team look at in the ways to rebrand the USA? If he was the President of Marketing for Brand USA, what should his marketing strategy be?

Global Perception Is Reality

When I studied marketing with dreams of running the world’s best brands, I learned the golden rule of marketing — perception is reality. No matter how good your product is or how great your advertising is, whatever consumers think of the brand is the reality. If your product is expensive but consumers think it is cheap, then the reality is, it is cheap.

And the global perception of the American brand is that it is fractured and alarmingly less democratic than it used to be. (That’s democratic with a small d). A recent eupinions survey found that only 5% of Europeans thought the U.S. election would be completely free and fair and more than half found that democracy in the U.S. was “ineffective.” The general sentiment that the U.S. is the global superpower has faded. The Atlantic has described the feeling towards the U.S. as, “Where once the U.S. might have played mediator or imperial savior, today it is often absent, disruptive, or simply unclear in its goals and commitment.”

A recent Pew Global Attitudes Survey found that Trump is thought less likely to do the right thing concerning international relations than even Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.

Biden will need to set up restoring the brand image on the world stage. It seems he will make commitments to universal freedom, human rights, and climate change, and this will help with the global perception.

Brand Health

It is a lot harder to measure the brand health of a country, but the BAV Group releases an annual brand equity and perception report of the Best Countries. When it was first measured in 2016, the U.S. was ranked second. In January 2020, when the most recent report was released, it had slipped to seventh.

Using this measure, the brand health has dropped. It will be interesting to see how COVID and other events that occurred across 2020 in the USA will affect the next report ranking and whether at present it is even lower than seventh.

Biden’s first marketing move will be to shift the perception of Brand USA both domestically and globally. To restore the brand health and rebuild the brand equity.

Tone of Voice

The tone of voice relates to how the brand speaks to people. In effect, what is the brand personality? And for a country, the tone of voice is largely tied closely to that of its leader. In this regard, the president is like the brand’s mascot. The way they appear and the way they talk is a direct representation of their brand.

Donald Trump has a unique way of speaking. His speeches are often conversational in style and full of non-sequiturs. He can ramble on, and inevitably, the topic comes back to himself.

Trump often uses sales techniques when he speaks. One of his favourite terms is “many people,” often after a statement that may be untrue. By using the term “many people,” it makes his comments sound more trustworthy. “Is he reading cognitive science? No. He has 50 years of experience as a salesman who doesn’t care who he is selling to,” says George Lakoff, a linguist at UC Berkeley. When he refers to himself or an achievement of his, you can bank on his favourite marketing terms being used: “many people say it’s the best or the greatest or hugest.” Trump is an overt salesman and tends to put his personal brand ahead of his countries.

Trump’s repeated use of nicknames — such as Sleepy Joe — is also an old advertising tactic. Repetition leads to recall and a strong association, whether it is true or not. If an advertisement repeats a claim often enough, it will stick in the consumer’s mind. If he says Sleepy Joe enough, then he is putting it into people’s minds that Joe is old and weak.

The Biden tone of voice is very different. He has what the New York Times described as a “choppy speaking style.” In the past, he has made serious gaffes in his debates and speeches, which has harmed his own brand. One thing he does do is projects a more serious, calm, and considered tone of voice. In times of rising anxiety and a shifting brand, it may be the tone that is needed. He doesn’t have the attention-grabbing speech-making style of an Obama or a JFK or even a Trump, but his tone is perhaps what is needed now.

A move from the me, me, me, to the we, we, we. Biden appears to want to move the brand focus away from its leader and to the country itself. He will position himself as the wise elder statesman with the cool head that can reposition America.

United States of Brand Advocates

One thing the USA has always had is passionate brand advocates. Citizens who are deeply patriotic and will staunchly defend America as the greatest country in the world. Having travelled to over 100 countries, I have never met a population more proud of their country than Americans.

And brand advocates are what every business wants. Recently the brand advocates stand divided. As TIME magazine said, “Trump has engineered a lasting tectonic shift in the American political landscape, fomenting a level of anger, resentment and suspicion that will not be easy for his successor to surmount.”

The challenge for Biden is to bring his fractured target audience (and his target audience is 320 million Americans) together. Or at least closer together. The red MAGA hat that is closely associated with the current brand will disappear and is unlikely to be replaced. Again, it seems the leader will focus less on his personal brand than that of his country.

Biden will focus on making America great again but without that tagline. His website pushes the America first stance that Trump loved. His plan for America’s future is made in all of America by all of America’s workers. He understands this issue is important for his constituents and will leverage this to ensure that the U.S. continues to have passionate brand advocates.

Making Americans proud again will be a key marketing objective.

The Final Thoughts

I’m not American but have always looked up to the USA. As an Aussie, we are heavily influenced by the U.S. economically, culturally, and often politically. We are both former British colonies, and we have followed the U.S. into war, adopted much of its language, and looked up the Uncle Sam like a big brother.

As a marketer, I am interested in how Biden can rebrand his country. I think we can all agree it needs a new direction, a new campaign, and a new brand refresh. The world will be watching on to see how quickly, and more importantly, how effectively he can do this.

Just because there is a new president doesn’t mean the brand automatically reverts back to what it used to be. The next few years will be a fascinating marketing case study for Brand USA.

How Joe Biden Can Rebrand America

A marketing analysis from an Australian perspective — and the importance of global perception

Global Perception Is Reality

Brand Health

Tone of Voice

United States of Brand Advocates

The Final Thoughts

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Written by fazle rabby

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