Did politics compromise Trump brand?

SAN FRANCISCO — It has been said that politics and business cannot mix. One will suffer somehow. Too bad Donald Trump was too in love with himself he thought he could break the rule. Now it seems his political adventure may break his business.

It took years for Trump to build the image of desirable luxury for his properties. Now he will find out that rebuilding reputation lost during this blistering presidential campaign is an uphill drive. The latest surveys are showing that Trump will most likely lose to Hillary Clinton and the bitterness of the political battle will likely linger on years after..

The Trump brand image has been affected by the hateful campaign season. Young and Rubicam, had been studying Trump’s consumer brand for many years via surveys and other market research tools. In its most recent survey ending Sept. 30, they found out the Trump image experienced sharp declines in favorability compared with just six months earlier... This was determined by responses from 1000 people representing various segments of the US demographic..

Y&R reports that Trump’s antics, which seem to have generated media excitement, eventually started to bore the public. Indeed, even Republicans are finding Trump boring, according to the Y&R survey as reported by CNN. Trump’s worse performance is among political independents. They found Trump 31 percent less unique, 17 percent less fun; 37 percent less dynamic, 30 percent less distinctive from just 90 days ago.?

The findings of Y&R  are significant given their expertise in reputation management. They advice top corporations and leaders in business and politics. Y&R’s main tool is a continuously updated data base established in the 1990s called Brand Asset Valuator. They have gathered BAV data on Trump for more than a decade enabling them to track significant changes over time.?

Y&R noted Trump has until lately, consistently scored well on measures of prestige and luxury. This means Trump and his businesses appealed to rich people who could afford his high-end hotels and play at his expensive golf courses.  Trump also appealed to people aspiring to one day be able to afford his offerings.

The Trump brand started falling after he questioned President Obama’s birthplace. Up until then, Trump could afford to brag about a premium attached to Trump real estate projects. Data on his faltering image suggest he has inflicted real damage on the Trump organization’s single most important asset... its brand image or reputation.

Because the brand is synonymous to his personal image, anything Trump said or did impacts on the corporate brand image for better or for worse. People started to feel less loyal to his brand after he started to be openly political. Other brands he was associated with felt the negative drag and this led Macy’s, Univision and others to drop him.?

His newest hotel in Washington DC reports poor bookings so that its rates are being reduced, The New Yorker reports. Travel+Leisure reports too that bookings at Trump Hotels plummeted 59 percent in the first half this year. Indeed, the group’s new hotels will be called Scion rather than carry the Trump name. CNN Money reported that event planners are purposely avoiding the Trump hotel.

“I’m not recommending the Trump property,” the owner of a Virginia-based events planner told CNN, “just based on his character, and his actions and the things he said over his political campaign.” Two of DC’s most prominent restaurants scrapped planned properties to be housed inside the hotel, an article in ThinkProgress reports.?

Trump’s daughter Ivanka recognized the danger to the brand. The New Yorker observed that Ivanka, in a Fortune conference of the most powerful women, complained not about the mistreatment by media of her father but of the Trump business.  The New Yorker noted that Ivanka seemed to have intentionally aligned herself with the Trump brand rather than Trump the politician.?

When she was asked about the controversial “locker room” conversations of her father that demeaned women, The New Yorker reported that her response was accompanied by a look of desperation. “My brand was launched far before the presidential cycle commenced and will continue long afterwards. I’ve always tried to maintain complete separation between that and the campaign...”

If tracking polls are accurate and Trump loses the election, his brand could suffer even more. One Manila-based property developer with an agreement to use the Trump brand for one of its condo developments may have to reassess the benefits of doing so.?

Politics does seem to poison business. The Filipino politician who thought he had successfully mixed business and politics is Manny Villar. But even then, Villar faced conflict of interest situations. One example is the C5 extension road scandal. It probably contributed to Villar’s failed bid for the presidency.?

There had been suggestions in the past for some of our top business tycoons to run for president as some sectors of the public believe private sector efficiency could be introduced to the public sector. But both Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Manny Pangilinan wisely declined to enter the ring. Given the viciousness of our electoral contests, the damage to the overall brand is certain, even after the election. ?

As for Trump, his decision to enter politics is probably the worse business decision he has made. The only way a business tycoon could enter politics and still be able to protect the business brand is to totally disengage from it, the way Michael Bloomberg did. Of course he returned to his business after his term as mayor of New York City.?

In the end, it is easy to suspect Trump’s presidential run was largely driven by a desire to test the limits of his oversized ego. But the consequences of failure, or even if he won, would be considerable both to his ego and his business.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.