The World's Greatest Branding Seminar Is Free!

There’s a spectacular seminar on branding and marketing running in the United States right now. It costs millions of dollars to stage with public classes across the nation, and it continues until November 4. You’ve guessed the seminar’s title: it’s the Presidential election.

There are serious issues at stake, of course, and we don’t want to trivialize those. At the same time, who can miss the dimension of pure marketing? No one in business should ignore the daily lessons we are getting on building brands and winning customers, with instant market feedback from almost daily polls.

Here are some of the topics covered by the World’s Greatest Branding Seminar:

• Personal branding
• Message strategy
• Brand consistency
• Market segmentation
• Market research
• Public relations (use of free media)
• Online marketing
• Event marketing

To learn anything at all, you’ll have to set aside your own political passions and view the show from a detached, bottom-line point of view. It’s best to take a rather structured approach. So to help you get a handle on this free education service, here are eight questions you can ask as you follow the drama:

1. How can you best position yourself in the market as a respected, expert and likeable person? What builds that status and what damages it?
2. What is the power of a single, compelling brand idea? What is the cost of not having one?
3. How does the market brand you if you fail to brand yourself?
4. How do you identify the burning interests and concerns of your market?
5. What is the value of dividing your market into niche segments, and addressing the needs of each?
6. How do you match your message to the market’s needs, without losing authenticity?
7. How can you get the media to like your story, and what will turn them off?
8. How can you best use the Internet to generate excitement, build a brand community and spread your message virally?

The game is to apply these questions first to the election circus and then immediately turn to our own business. At first, the comparison may seem preposterous, but just keep switching your attention back and forth. You’ll find that exactly the same issues faced by world famous politicians apply to you and your enterprise.

And the winner? It’s you!