Rebranding Ed Miliband
Force-7 was asked to contribute to a feature in today’s Yorkshire Post, asking local marketing agencies for ideas on how to rebrand Labour leader, Ed Miliband.
Here’s the article in all it’s glory, but we’ve included what our Creative Manager, Beccie, had to say in the feature below (cos the writing in the photo is pretty tiny and might hurt your eyes if you try to read it!)
The eager but awkwardly passive Mr. Miliband is doing himself no favours by attracting wave after wave of negative publicity surrounding his actions and the words that appear to fall randomly from his mouth.
What’s trending on Twitter will always go some way to influence and inform young voters’ (or should I say non-voters’) perceptions of the opposition leader… So it’s quite unfortunate for the Labour Party that Miliband’s successes are going unnoticed and it’s only his slip-ups that are making waves in the Twittersphere – cue #blackbusters and #edmilibandgameshows.
On paper, Ed Miliband is doing well. Labour has been winning by-elections under his leadership, and the Party is neck-and-neck with the Tories in the polls. It’s just that young people with no interest in politics aren’t aware of this - and why should they be?
It should be a piece of cake for Ed to take the Labour Party way into the lead amongst young people – surely whatever he offers will be more appealing than 1 million under 25s unemployed, £9,000 a year tuition fees and a society angry with the rioting minority?!
But all we hear about is Mr. Miliband’s “weak strategy”, “lack of credible policy” and tendency to agree with everything David Cameron says. Suddenly our three main political parties have all merged into one – Ed needs to step up as the alternative for the voices of unheard young people who aren’t impressed by the Tory government.
It’s a simple marketing rule – offer something different to your competitors. Honesty goes a long way too – if Labour admitted they’ve been wrong in the past, a new generation of voters would have much more respect for them – it’s the same with any brand or product. Labour should take a leaf out of Skoda’s book.
From my perspective as a young professional, not long out of Uni, Labour as a brand isn’t relatable. We like brands like Google, Apple, innocent and Disney – brands that are strong, bold, powerful, authentic, no-nonsense and stand by what they stand for. As soon as the world of politics catches onto this, young people might start to take notice and believe what the Labour brand has to offer.
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