Dave Cameron seems to be making headway rebranding the Tory party. The Conservatives badly needed an overhaul and, for a while, came close to political oblivion. The Tories have drifted since their election defeat in 1997, getting through a staggering five leaders. By any measure a sign of desperation and weakness.
Cameron is a PR man by trade, having worked as communications director at Carlton. He knows the power of branding and is using sophisticated marketing techniques to re-position the party. he’s doing what Blair did 12 years ago.
Cameron recently launched a mini-manifesto, ‘Built to Last: The Aims and Values
of the Conservative Party’, putting forward a new “sense of direction” for the party. I’ve read it and, although it includes 50 policy proposals, It’s still a bit thin.
It doesn’t convince me they are right for government. it looks more like a corporate brochure, polished by PRs and ad-men. Each proposal carefully targeted at a different section of the market. It’s brochure ware, not a serious bid for government.
There’s an interesting credit tucked away at the bottom of the back page, “Designed by Perfect Day.” A quick visit to their website reveals a design and advertising agency with clients like McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Morgan Stanley. Under ‘Recent Projects’ are case studies covering their work for The David Cameron Campaign and the Conservative Party.
Perfect Day worked on the Cameron election campaign and their case study provides a glimpse of their branding strategy. Brand Cameron, it seems, is based on portraying, “the concepts of ‘honesty’, ‘vision’, ‘future’ and ‘optimism’.” This is classic marketing territory. It applies to soap powder, banks, oil companies and supermarkets and involves developing brand image, value-propositions, brand experience and recognition.
Cameron and the Tory Party are going through a classic re-branding exercise. It’s all about creating a new identity for the party using presentation and clever PR. The problem is they have started from a very weak position. We remember the ‘bad old days of Tory rule’ and the ‘nasty party’ label has stuck. You can just see Cameron surrounded by ad-men and PR executives obsessing over the new Conservative party brand wheel.
The Tories may look different, but it’s the same old party underneath. Cameron’s modernisation has made the old blue-rinse brigade uneasy, and Tebbit is already sniping about change. The new Conservatives just don’t seem convincing. They still look like a party of the past, not the future.
Would you really want Boris Johnson in government ? Just look at his website. He could choose any picture of himself to put on the front page. But, what did he go for ? A daft looking photo of him posing in front of a row of greek busts. hardly an image of a modern, forward looking man who understands the needs of contemporary Britain. He looks like what he is: an Eton educated toff with classical pretensions. We don’t want people like this running the place.
Cameron is a patrician Tory and a glance at the Shadow Cabinet reveals an over-whelmingly white, middle-class group of men. Many are bankers, army officers, career politicans, wealthy heirs and journalists. You have to question how much these people understand about the Britain of today.
The Tories are re-branding, but the bulk of the party remains unchanged. Cameron is currently ahead in the polls, but that is more to do with Labour failures than Tory achievement.
Cameron hasn’t been in parliament 5 years. Has he really got the stature and experience to run the country ? His team badly mishandled the relatively simple task of chosing a Conservative candidate for London Mayor. it doesn’t look good.
Going green, cycling to work (or not as it turns out), hanging out with Nelson Mandela, hugging hoodies and dog sledging in the arctic just aren’t enough to convince millions of people to vote conservative at the next election.
So yeah... 