The remoulding of Miliband: can Ed make himself look more like a leader?

Like an understudy pushed on stage at the last minute, he’s desperately tried to impress his audience, the critics and his peers, but at ever count he’s come up short. At Prime Minister’s Questions his attempts to bring down David Cameron with a deftly- placed jibe have fallen flat and a much heralded speech setting out his vision for Labour turned out to be more of a whimper than a roar.

Elsewhere, union leader Len McCluskey has warned the party faces electoral disaster if it fails to oppose the Government’s public sector cuts and even Miliband’s own MPs have struggled to muster anything more than lukewarm support for their man.

It’s not easy being the opposition’s frontman and in an interview earlier this year, it was impossible not to feel a little sorry for Miliband as he talked about being plucked from near-obscurity to the top job.

“I used to wear big glasses and nasty jumpers,” he said. “There are times I wish I could just wear those jumpers again and not to have to worry about collars and stuff... I’m a serious person, I think my worst habit is excessive seriousness.”

So in a bid to help, we gave marketing companies a simple brief – how would you reinvent Ed Miliband?

Gary Bolton, head of public relations, Fred Marketing, Hull.

The length of time it takes to read a tweet is generally the window in which we have to catch attention these days, but this seems to have escaped the world of politics. MPs, and in particular Ed Miliband, persist with long, overly comprehensive answers to questions from rapier-tongued political commentators and yet, fail to connect with voters.

We would suggest the core of The New Ed Miliband – or Milibrand if you will – should be a straight-to-the-point approach which would redefine the model for all politicians to follow.

Ed needs to toe the line with the increasing number of journalists and voters taking to social media and commit to getting a more concise message across by answering questions in 140 characters or fewer. Just imagine what joy clear, straight-to-the-point answers would bring to huge swathes of the voting population and the revelation of a Labour manifesto delivered directly via Twitter.

During recent high-profile interviews with Andrew Marr and John Humphries, it wasn’t so much what the opposition leader said, but rather the length of time he took to say it. Numerous wordy waltzes around rambling roundabouts saw Ed declare on more than a dozen occasions (yes, I counted) ‘just let me finish the point’ and ‘this is what I’m going to say’. A more effective approach might have been just to say it quicker.

And so there, shining like a beacon of light from a smartphone screen, lies the answer. And of course, it’s a gift to the red-top sub-editor looking for the obvious “Ed confirms he’s a Twit” headline...

Marc Lawn, man-aging director of the Business GP.

The prospect of Ed Miliband making a speech conjures up images of playground antics. You can see the kids all lined up to taunt him, his Right Honourable colleagues baying for political blood because he just seems to be an easy to hit, slow- moving target.

But I genuinely believe there is hope for Ed. There is always hope, as long as you are prepared to really work at it, so here goes

1. Personality – Ed, for many, just lacks that spark, he is the sort of person that when you pull out the year book from school no-one can ever name… the quiet boy that was like vanilla – never stood out but never was offensive. Great qualities but not in the political world – he needs to develop some “edge” building on what he feels to be fundamentally true. Be passionate please Ed.

2. Purpose – Ed creates that awkward classroom silence. Imagine the teacher stood at the front saying: “Hands up if you know what Ed stands for?” The tumbleweed rolls around the aisles between the desks, until finally the teacher admits they have no clue either. My advice, keep it simple Ed, you can’t be all things to all men.

3. Performance – I can’t help but think that unlike many top performers, Ed is someone who would say “that’ll do” or “that’ll be okay”. I don’t see the obsessive compulsive nature which will drive him on. Ed, it’s not “too broken” and some work can really fix it. .

Kate Adamson, branding and media strategist, Stark Moore Macmillan PR

Clever people (and those in marketing) are fatally wedded to the belief that they can fool the general public into believing that a brand embraces and delivers on a set of values. It doesn’t. To rely wholly on presentation is a mistake. Eventually you get busted. When that happens as anyone in marketing will tell you, there’s only one thing that’ll save your brand. And that’s a break-dancing Mexican wombat in a pair of RayBans and an outsized sombrero.

Serial re-branding has become the knee-jerk reaction to anything which is failing and politicians are particularly guilty. But they are missing the truth about really successful brands, which is that they are simply the elegantly expressed, outward manifestation of the core values of the product. So actually, re-branding is only viable if the current brand is not adequately or successfully conveying those core values to its intended audience.    

When it comes to branding there are several key concepts, from what you stand for to what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it, but the real killer is “relative differentiation”: put simply, that brand “x” is different in a positive and compelling from brand “y”.

It’s about defining what you really, really want, believe and stand for. And communicating it as succinctly and powerfully as you can. Party leaders are the ultimate brand ambassadors. They are the tap dancing iguana, the knitted monkey, the break-dancing wombat.

Thatcher dropped her voice and upped her clothing budget: Kennedy never wore a hat. But it didn’t change their beliefs or their values. They embodied and amplified them. The public knew what they stood for.  

And ultimately that’s why an Ed Mil-rebrand won’t work. Not because we don’t know what he and his Labour Party stand for. But because they don’t.

Beccie Deighton, creative manager, Force-7, Hull

The eager but awkwardly passive Mr Miliband is doing himself no favours by attracting wave after wave of negative publicity surr-ounding his actions and the words that appear to fall randomly from his mouth.

What’s trending on Twitter will always go some way to influence and inform young voters’ (or should I say non-voters) perceptions of the opposition leader… So it’s quite unfortunate for the Labour Party that Miliband’s successes are going unnoticed and it’s only his slip-ups that are making waves in the Twittersphere – cue #blackbusters and #edmiliband-gameshows.

On paper, Ed Miliband is doing well. Labour has been winning by-elections under his leadership, and the party is neck-and-neck with the Tories in the polls. It’s just that young people with no interest in politics aren’t aware of this – and why should they be?

It should be a piece of cake for Ed to take the Labour Party way into the lead amongst young people – surely whatever he offers will be more appealing than 1 million under 25s unemployed, £9,000- a-year tuition fees and a society angry with the rioting minority.

Suddenly our three main political parties have all merged into one – Ed needs to step up as the alternative and be the voice of unheard young people who aren’t impressed by the coalition government.

It’s a simple marketing rule – offer something different to your competitors. Honesty goes a long way too – if Labour admitted they’d been wrong in the past, a new generation of voters would have much more respect for them. It’s the same with any brand or product and Labour could do worse than take a leaf out of Skoda’s book.

From my perspective as a young professional, not long out of university, Labour as a brand isn’t relatable. We like brands like Google, Apple, Innocent and Disney – brands that are strong, bold, authentic and stick by what they stand for. As soon as the world of politics catches onto this, young people might start to take notice and believe what the Labour brand has to offer. 

Nicola Cooper, Evolve Marketing Services, York

The rebranding of Ed Miliband may be a bit academic, with his primary supporters the unions calling time on him. However, he is still out “fighting the good fight”, but the problem is all too often he gets it wrong. His attendance on the Andrew Marr Show earlier this month was embarrassing, and it demonstrated the problem with Ed – he just looks out of his depth when playing with the big boys. Ed hadn’t had the opportunity to develop his place in the public eye before being fast tracked (ahead of his arguably better-looking brother) to become leader of the Labour Party, as a consequence his image feels particularly manufactured and laboured. He just looks like a round peg in a square hole.

What to do with Ed? In terms of physical appearance perhaps I would start with a haircut that at least doesn’t look like the one he had in his school photos. A politician’s dress sense is pretty much a uniform so not much real room for improvement there. So the only real opportunity for rebranding Ed s to work on his delivery.

The overly practiced performances lack any sense of realism and therefore sincerity. Throughout his interview with Andrew Marr (who looked like the school bully) he was constantly shouted down and kept retreating to continue with his speech. It was only when he became angry towards the end of the interview that we saw a spark of real personality and strangely enough his voice pitch changed and it sounded like for once he really meant what he was saying. I guess if all else fails then someone might try a modern day re-enactment of Alexandre Dumas’s great novel…The Man in the Iron Mask…and when no-one is looking switch Ed for older brother David.

Liam Swift, artistic director, Attract, Sheffield

What the general public thinks of the Government, is the biggest problem current politicians have. The biggest problem Ed Miliband and the Labour Party face is that they are not trusted. There is no brand without a promise. There is no brand without trust. When Coca Cola changed their recipe, loyal customers saw it as a sign they had broken their promise and boycotted the brand. It’s exactly the same when politicians promise us one thing to get our vote and then renege on the deal once the election has been and gone.

Media training unfortunately won’t help Ed. In press conferences you can tell he is using his training by his use of hand gestures and diplomatic responses, but often the result makes him appear fake. Would it hurt him to be genuine? No. Brands can’t survive without credibility and it might just bring him the respect he needs.

When the public dislike what is going on, it is too easy for Ed Miliband to side with them. A refreshing change would be to see Labour, banning the phrases, “We wouldn’t do that” and “David Cameron is wrong” and instead working with the Conservatives and Lib Dems, rather than against them, to help solve the current crisis and regain the public’s trust.

This would be the fresh approach or “rebrand” politics needs. If Ed Miliband and the Labour Party can promise and show a change in politics then they might win votes. However they will only keep those votes and if they keep their promises.