Ravi Sawhney, an industrial designer and branding expert, framed the 2016 election outcome directly the day after the vote. "Donald Trump connected with voters emotionally in Midwest states more than Hillary Clinton. Whether it was the result of psychographic research carried out by his staff (not likely) or simply a reflection of his brash, politically-incorrect communication style, the mogul's message touched an emotional chord with one powerful voting bloc — rural, mostly white, blue-collar workers in critical swing states in the South and Midwest. His 'Make America Great Again' message was designed to make white, working-class Americans remember better times, connecting with them emotionally and driving them to the polls."
The Psycho-Aesthetics Framework
Sawhney positions his Psycho-Aesthetics methodology as the underlying conceptual framework for the analysis. "Making an emotional connection with customers is the core principle of Psycho-Aesthetics, a seven-step product design methodology I write about in my book Predictable Magic and lecture on to MBA and design students at Harvard, Stanford, and business schools throughout the US and Europe. The central theme of the book and speeches — too many companies launch new products or services without carrying out enough research to understand customers emotionally."
Sawhney, the founder and CEO of RKS Design in Los Angeles, argues Trump's victory carries powerful branding lessons for corporate America.
First, before launching a new product, companies should carry out deep psychological analysis of their core customers — research that would reveal the emotional triggers reminding customers of joyful times and giving them pride of ownership.
Second, if their core customers can sustain a company financially, they should consider being as bold and memorable in their marketing message as Trump. Despite Trump's campaign talking points alienating many voters, the messaging bolstered white, working-class Americans to support him at the polls.
The Hooters Comparison
While Sawhney believes Trump's campaign rhetoric went too far, he compares it to the less-offensive but successful advertising campaign of Hooters. The restaurant chain's advertising attracts a specific type of customer while alienating others. The Hooters brand strategy has not hurt the company's growth — the chain is currently expanding internationally with 30 new restaurants in Southeast Asia.
The Broader Pattern
Most successful brands on the market — including Apple, Facebook, Uber, and Coca-Cola — have enjoyed substantial success by tapping into the emotional state of their customers and boosting their ego. These companies do more than fulfill a need. They take customers on a journey of self-discovery. Customers do not just love a company's products. Customers become part of a community that loves the brand.
The Lesson
Whether they opposed or supported the campaign, Sawhney argues, business owners can learn a lesson in successful branding from President-elect Trump's stunning victory. While his rhetoric was polarizing, the message connected emotionally with enough voters to deliver him the White House. The lesson for corporate America: know how your core customers feel, not just about your product but more importantly about themselves, and you are more likely to win their business and build your brand.
What Corporate America Now Has to Decide
The Sawhney framing lands on a corporate-brand strategy field that has spent the past two decades running on broad-appeal positioning. The Trump result puts a specific stress test on the assumption that brands should reach for the widest possible audience. Three operational questions every brand strategist should be sitting with in the weeks after the election.
Do we actually know the emotional state of our core customer? Most brand teams have demographic data, purchase data, and satisfaction data. Few have the depth-psychology data Sawhney's framework calls for. The teams that can build the emotional map first will operate at an advantage.
Are we willing to trade breadth for depth? Bold positioning trades breadth for depth. The brands willing to accept the trade will produce sharper positioning at the cost of losing some marginal customers. The brands unwilling to accept it will keep the marginal customers at the cost of positioning definition. Both are defensible strategies. Confusing the two produces the worst of both.
Can we sustain the position under pressure? Bold positioning attracts attention. Some of the attention is negative. Brands that take bold positions need infrastructure — communications, crisis-response, executive alignment — to sustain the position when the negative attention arrives. Brands without that infrastructure should stay with broad-appeal positioning until they build it.
The next several years of corporate brand strategy will be shaped by which brands actually run the experiment. The Sawhney framing is the roadmap. Whether the industry follows it, resists it, or produces some hybrid model will define the operating environment through the balance of the decade.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
