Thoughts from the Inside (Beltway and Otherwise)

This evening, as I was exiting the Gallery Place-Chinatown movie theater, my friend and I strolled past an Urban Outfitters. If you haven’t been to Gallery Place-Chinatown, Urban Outfitters is of course one of the dozen or so chain brand names populating this recently ‘redeveloped’ neighborhood of DC. Along with Legal Sea Foods, Potbelly Sandwiches, Starbucks, Fado and McDonalds, Urban Outfitters occupies its customary spot on the sidewalk menu of Main Street America. Anyhow, in its window dressings was a huge display of Obama shirts, posters, and other stuff. I was paused and scanned the entire window with a look of confusion and wonder. This is the place that sells those stupid “Ithaca is Gorges” shirts!

The window dressing at Urban Outfitters delivered a sudden dose of reality…Barack Obama has become a brand name. (http://search.urbanoutfitters.com/?q=obama)

Now, let me be clear about something: I have recognized and pontificated many times about this fact both during and after the Election – Barack Obama and barackobama.com are the most successful start-up business of the last 3 years. But, the Urban Outfitters display crystallized it into a sobering reality that prompted a trance of deep self evaluation and reflection.

What does it mean to have been one of the ‘early ones’, if you will?

How long will the Obama branding last?

Will the success of Obama branding help or hinder bringing the change we’ve sought to achieve?

Is anyone else having these same thoughts?

For those folks who dedicated themselves to Obama for America early in the primary season – those first 6 months – when Barack was down 20-25 points in every poll, seeing an Obama ’08 bumper sticker or t-shirt was like the highlight of our day…”maybe they can volunteer!” we would think to ourselves. Hell, that lasted really until Barack hit the hot streak in February. Now, you can’t go 10 minutes in Seattle, Denver, Chicago or Washington, DC without seeing an Obama sticker. The contrast is stark even across these many months.

The truth is, I don’t have answers to any of these questions. They are just questions that have popped up in my mind and found themselves as subtle themes in conversations we have around town.

Here is what I do know…

1. Case studies on OFA should be done in Business and MBA programs around the country for how to run a business, develop a brand and display executive leadership

2. The Obama brand seems to deliver a message of optimism and a mission to folks, which can only help continue the progress we are making and deliver the change we seek

3. There are about 6,812 different Obama t-shirt styles available on the streets of Washington, DC.

If you have any thoughts on this post or others, please feel free to post your comments. Storytelling is a collaborative relationship between narrator and audience.

-NFK