With the 2024 election season heating up, President Donald Trump has warned GOP groups against trying to “usurp” the hard-earned goodwill of his brand. It’s an amazing thing to behold. There are candidates who envy the Trump connection with voters. Maybe they want to glom on to his positions or maybe they just his touch with voters. You cannot fake what Trump has with the people and, contrary to the belief of our betters, Trump supporters, in general, do not worship him nor is our intellectual capacity limited. That is why so many candidates and GOP organizations try to glom on to the Trump brand.

Citing Nikki Haley and the consulting firms she is working with Mediate wrote:

Donald Trump warned GOP groups about fundraising with his image without authorization, claiming some are trying to “usurp his brand” ahead of the 2024 race.
In a letter sent to the National Republican Campaign Committee and multiple firms — Tag Strategies, Red Spark Strategy, Prosper Group, IMGE, Go Big Media, Push Digital, Convergence Media, Coldspark, Axiom Strategies, and Targeted Victory — but Trump campaign officials warned Trump could boycott any group using his image without authorization. He also claimed fundraising of his name and likeness deprives him of “resources” to defeat President Joe Biden in 2024.

Go ahead and giggle snort, my brothers and sisters of the Right. “Branding” has become a joke. Everyone from social influencers to Meghan and Harry are trying to build their “brand”. I laughed so hard at South Park, especially the part when Harry opened his “Instagram loving bitch of a wife’s” flip top head and heard nothing but an echo. Branding should not be false. Branding that works best is authentic. Unless you are selling a consumer good, branding is not about a “product”.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3wX_r8r-cmY

Everyone from J school graduates to liberal arts students are using the term “brand”.

He managed to get "Trump," "indictment," "disgusting," "abuse of power" and "put in jail" all in the same tweet and still somehow ended up wrong.

But then, that is Rand Paul's brand. https://t.co/agdkzPqbnC

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) March 21, 2023

It’s like saying “think outside the box”, “deep dive” or “push the envelope”. Where did “brand” come from? About 2000 years ago, owners would mark their livestock or craftspeople would mark their work to show it was theirs. You could say, “That’s my sheep, not yours.” Or, someone could say, Joseph made that table, he left his mark on it. The word “brand” is almost that old:

Trouble At the OK Corral
The modern word Brand is derived from the word “Brandr”, a word from Ancient Norse meaning “to burn”. Around 950 A.D. a “brand” referred to a burning piece of wood. By the 1300s it was used primarily to describe a torch, essentially a burning piece of wood that is used as a tool. By the 1500s the meaning had changed to refer to a mark burned on cattle to show ownership. Individual ranches would each have their own unique mark so ownership could be determined if their animals were lost, stolen, or mixed in with animals from another ranch. Each brand had to be simple, unique, and easy to identify quickly – essential traits that are still common to modern logos.
The Mark of Quality
The 1820’s saw the rise of the mass production and shipment of trade goods. As products like ale and wine began to see larger batches and wider distribution, producers began burning their mark into crates and cases of goods to distinguish themselves from their competition. Over time, the brand evolved into a symbol of quality rather than ownership. Products that were perceived as high and consistent quality could command a higher price than their undistinguished alternatives. In 1870, is became possible to register a trademark to prevent competitors from creating confusingly similar products. Brands promised functional benefits such as Coca Cola’s 1905 slogan, “Coca Cola Revives and Sustains”. Brands themselves had become valuable.

Certain brands became known for their high quality. Think of Tiffany’s, Chanel, Royals Royce. Do you think of quality, beauty and longevity. Maybe, when Donald Trump began building the “Trump” brand that is what he was thinking. Trump’s father Fred was not known for the quality of his buildings or rehabs (Swifton Village, Cincinnati). When Donald Trump took over the company, perhaps it wasn’t only ego, but the desire to build the best and wipe off the smell of the Bridge and Tunnel Crowd and be one of the beautiful people in Manhattan. There is another view. That view is that Trump is an egomaniacal, intellectual dwarf and they have written a lot of books.

So, maybe that is why Trump spent 40 plus years building beautiful buildings and golf courses and putting the name Trump on everything. It takes a lot to wipe that Bridge and Tunnel smell off of a name.

Then Trump did something that caused the beautiful people and the blue noses all to laugh at him. He ran for President and won. That made those people very angry. Candidates who saw Trump as beneath them starting using his style and body language to try to win. Trump is a lout and a loud-mouth cretin. They are just like him but better.

Trump was right to warn candidates off of imitating his brand. For some, “brand” is not a dirty word, a get rich quick scheme. It is beauty, quality and longevity. It is who we strive to become.

Featured Image: James Cridland/flickr.com/crops/Creative Commons