What President William Henry Harrison Can Teach Brands

I’ve been researching some obscure United States presidents.

People only remember William Henry Harrison for two things: his snappy campaign slogan, and the fact that he died after only 32 days in office– the shortest U.S. presidency ever.

Surprisingly, he offers some important brand lessons.

In 1840 Harrison became the nominee for the new Whig Party, and won the presidency by defeating the incumbent, Martin Van Buren.

What made Harrison a contender? He was already famous. In 1811, he’d defeated an Indian Confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in what is now Indiana.

Lesson 1: For a brand, there’s no substitute for fame.

Famous brands have an enormous advantage over non-famous brands. They have name recognition. Bob Hoffman, “The Ad Contrarian,” says the principle job of advertising is to create fame.

During the 1840 campaign, an opposition newspaper mocked Harrison as a rube who’d be happy sitting by a fire, drinking hard cider.

Harrison’s campaign strategists seized on this and portrayed Harrison as a simple frontiersman in contrast to Van Buren whom they portrayed as a champagne-sipping aristocrat.

What makes this funny: Harrison was born into one of the wealthiest and most politically prominent families in Virginia. His father served three terms as governor.

Lesson 2: “Brand story” is a tricky concept. You’re trying to forge an emotional connection with your target audience. Maybe you’re an aristocrat and a frontiersman. You have to decide which story to tell.

The Whig campaign handed out free hard cider in little bottles shaped like log cabins at campaign rallies. They also used rhymes.

Thanks to his famous victory, Harrison had acquired the nickname, “Old Tippecanoe.” Some marketing genius came up with the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.” (John Tyler was Harrison’s running mate.)

Lesson 3: Giveaways get attention and reinforce your image. Hard cider, log cabin-shaped bottles => simple frontiersman.

Lesson 4: Rhymes work. But today’s advertising agencies don’t use rhymes. They consider rhymes dated, uncool. That’s a foolish, elitist attitude. A clever rhyme, sticks in
your mind.

Was his dying so soon after being elected just a coincidence? Probably not.

He gave an inaugural address that lasted almost 2 hours, outside, on a cold, wet day. No coat, no hat. He caught a cold which developed into pneumonia, and he died a month later.

Lesson 5: Brand image is important, but there’s such a thing as being too macho. Wear your coat and hat, play the long game.

Lesson 6: Keep it short. People stop listening to presentations after 7-10 minutes. I think a similar rule applies to posts.

You hear the argument: Google gives more points to longer posts. Maybe so, but how many people will read the whole thing? We skim long posts.

Keep it short, be witty, make your point and get out.

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About Mark: I’m an illustrator specializing in humor, branding, social media, and content marketing. My images are different, like your brand needs to be.

You can view my portfolio, and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Questions? Send me an email.

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