Michael McGuire: Why changing political party brand names can be a fraught and risky move

WHAT is a brand worth in modern politics? It’s a question to ponder after the state election, where votes went backwards for several parties who rebadged themselves, observes Michael McGuire.

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WHAT is a brand worth in modern politics? It’s a question to ponder after the weekend election where votes went backwards for several parties, observes Michael McGuire.

The Family First brand disappeared after being taken over by Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives, while for Xenophon it was the first election featuring his new SA Best tag. Another party, Dignity, which was previously Dignity for Disability, also tinkered with its name and managed to increase its vote, but its sole MLC Kelly Vincent looks unlikely to be re-elected.

Meanwhile, the old legacy brands of the Labor and Liberal parties managed to increase their stranglehold on the state’s polity, despite both recording lower primary votes than in 2014.

The Dignity for Disability brand brought Kelly Vincent a seat in Parliament, but she is unlikely to be re-elected under Dignity.

At the latest count the Australian Conservatives had picked up about 3.5 per cent, meaning its candidate, and one of its two current MLCs, Robert Brokenshire, is unlikely to be re-elected.

In 2014, while still known as Family First, the party picked up 4.4 per cent of the vote and it was hoping for something similar this time around.

Brokenshire said he believed at least some of the lost votes were because its old adherents were confused or unaware of the name change.

“I heard of voters at polling booths asking where the Family First candidate was on the ballot paper,” he said.

“It was not a mistake to go out and broaden the party but I think we had to work hard to let our core Family First voters know we had amalgamated.”

And that’s the problem. In such a crowded world, and with so few people paying close attention to the day-to-day shenanigans of political parties, getting the message through can be incredibly difficult.

Robert Brokenshire was a Family First MLC before the party brand was taken over by Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives.

One MP with experience of minority party life put it this way: “While you think you are resonating, it is amazing how many people have never heard of you’’.

This is partly because many MPs live in a bubble that excludes them from a proper understanding of how regular people think. But it’s also because of the endemic lack of resources and professionalism that is the curse of all minor parties so finding the means and method to consistently put the message out isn’t easy.

Even in the business world the decision to change a brand name is seen as a fraught and risky move.

American brand expert Brad VanAuken relates to brands as “identity systems designed to encode and decode brand information to and from people’s brains. If you change the system, the associations may be lost and will take a long time to rebuild.’’

There have been some wonderful marketing failures. In the UK, the 300-year-old Royal Mail changed to Consignia before a public backlash changed it back after a year. US clothing company Gap’s new logo only lasted six days. It’s still best not to talk about Vegemite’s iSnack2.0.

The establshed Nock Xenophon Team brand gave way to SA Best.

The case of Nick Xenophon is slightly different. Xenophon, ironically enough for the anti-gambling campaigner, had an each way bet.

He ditched the established Nick Xenophon Team in favour of SA Best for the 2018 election, in itself a cheap appeal to parochialism, but still wanted to keep his own well-recognised name involved.

The full name of the party was Nick Xenophon’s SA Best, but you could be forgiven for not noticing that.

Xenophon’s name was on SA Best corflutes, but in much smaller type and when you are whizzing by in a car at 60km/h it was not easy to see.

On the ballot paper, the party was listed as Nick Xenophon’s SA Best, but again in a smaller font.

But perhaps Xenophon’s biggest brand damage was to himself.

For 20 years, he had been the underdog, the battler, the honest broker. People liked him and that is an unusual asset for a politician.

But he undermined that by seemingly saying becoming premier was a possibility. Why else would you run candidates in 36 seats otherwise?

He made the leap from being “one of us” to becoming “one them” and only belatedly realised his mistake and again tried to reclaim his underdog status. But it was too late.