A panel of executives discuss building and selling the Barack Obama brand at the Seventh Annual Marketing Forum hosted by The Economist in San Francisco.
Speakers include: Jim Margolis, Senior Partner, GMMB; H. Buford Barr, Lecturer in Marketing, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University; and Andrew Rasiej, Founder, TechPresident.com.
Moderated by Martin Giles, Senior Business Correspondent, The Economist.
Bio
H. Buford Barr
After 30 years in the high-technology business, Buford left the corporate world to focus his energies on academia, continuing education, corporate training and helping reconcile what is being taught with what is being sought by business in marketing, branding, advertising and public relations in particular.
He currently teaches undergraduate and MBA courses at Santa Clara University, where he has been associated since 1989. After 18 years at San Jose State University Professional Development program, Barr resigned to focus on his role at SCU.
In 2008, Buford received the Extraordinary Achievement in Teaching Award from the Leavey School of Business. This was the second time he was recognized with LSB's highest faculty achievement award as he received the honor in 2006 as well. He was recognized by the students of SCU's Accelerated Co-operative Education Program (ACE) with its Outstanding Faculty Award in 2006.
Martin Giles
Martin Giles is a Senior Business Correspondent for The Economist based in New York City, where he covers a range of business and financial issues. Prior to taking up this role in 2008, Mr Giles spent ten years on the commercial side of The Economist Group, latterly as Executive Vice-president of the Group's North American operations.
Prior to joining the commercial side of the company, he was editor of The Economist’s finance and economics section, and previously spent time as a reporter in both London and Paris. Mr Giles earned an MA degree from Oxford University and has an executive MBA from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
He is a trustee of a British charity that supports students who wish to become financial journalists and sits on the Advisory Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Jim Margolis
Jim Margolis, a senior partner at GMMB, has worked for years at the intersection of politics, advertising and advocacy on behalf of candidates, foundations, government agencies and corporate clients.
In presidential politics, Margolis served as a Senior Advisor to Barack Obama in his campaign for the White House, leading advertising efforts for Mr. Obama as part of the core strategic team. GMMB also served as the lead agency for Bill Clinton’s first race for the presidency.
Nationally, Margolis has earned one of the best win/loss records of any political consultant in the nation. Today, Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Governor Jim Doyle (D-WI) are among the statewide elected officials who count on Jim for strategic advice and paid media production.
Overseas, Margolis has helped direct presidential and prime ministerial contests in Latin America, Africa, Central America and Asia.
Andrew Rasiej
Andrew Rasiej is a social entrepreneur, futurist, and the founder of Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference and community website focusing on and promoting the intersection of politics and technology.
He is also the co-founder of techPresident, an award winning group blog that covers how the 2008 Presidential candidates are using the web, and how voter generated content (a term he coined) is affecting the campaign.
In the 2004 Presidential race he served as Chairman of the Howard Dean Technology Advisory Council. In 2005 he ran a highly visible campaign for Public Advocate of New York City, running in the Democratic primary on a platform to bring low cost wireless internet access to all New Yorkers.
He writes a bi-weekly column for www.politico.com and he appears as an expert on the Internet and politics on major media channels including CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, FOX, BBC and SKY News.
Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com, argues that ever since he was elected, President Barack Obama has stopped effectively using the internet.
By using a traditional top-down approach, Rasiej says, "I think they're squandering a huge opportunity."
Activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. In advanced industrial economies, marketing considerations play a major role in determining corporate policy. Once primarily concerned with increasing sales through advertising and other promotional techniques, corporate marketing departments now focus on credit policies (seecredit), product development, customer support, distribution, and corporate communications. Marketers may look for outlets through which to sell the company's products, including retail stores, direct-mail marketing, and wholesaling. They may make psychological and demographic studies of a potential market, experiment with various marketing strategies, and conduct informal interviews with target audiences. Marketing is used both to increase sales of an existing product and to introduce new products. See alsomerchandising.
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