How to Fix the Broken Brand USA: A Mandate for Our New President
With only a few days before the biggest political battle in US history, these are my perspectives on the damaged “Brand USA” and what the President needs to do to fix it.
As a recognised international business expert, an American in Europe and author of Working with Americans, here are my top 3 tips for the first 100 days of the New Presidency regardless of who becomes CEO of Brand USA:
- Reassess the brand promise. For Americans, fix the country’s collapsing systems (bridges, healthcare) to rebuild confidence in the Washington’s ability to listen to its customers. For those outside of America, it means engaging your Business Development teams (Diplomats) with the overseas customers to reassure and reconnect.
- Rebuild trust. Like any brand in crisis – Samsung, Wells Fargo, Volkswagen – listening to your followers and heeding their advice is the only way forward. Much like the UK and Brexit, reassuring your biggest trading partners and inward investors that the government is stable, the legal and democratic foundations are unshaken, and that you are open for business without walls must be the key pillars.
- Deliver the plan. Activate a Brand USA strategy that coopts the business community as its brand ambassador to rebuild the country’s reputation as the place where the world wants to do business. Protecting the value of its brand assets must be a top priority.
The bottom line? While this most dramatic of Presidential races can be put behind us, the world’s largest economy now needs to pull itself together to refocus on its business brand and seize this unique moment in history, particularly as Brexit sees Europe looking for new profitable partnerships.
