OWS Surviving the Winter

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How Occupy can survive winter of discontent

Kathleen Pender, Chronicle Columnist

Sunday, October 16, 2011(page 1 of 2) SINGLE PAGE
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A Wells Fargo worker watches Occupy SF protesters block the entrance to the bank Wednesday.
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If the protesters occupying Wall Street and other locales want to achieve something beyond media attention, they might take some advice from America's branding and marketing gurus.

I know that's asking a lot from a movement inspired by the anticapitalist, anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters. It's like asking a teenager to get fashion tips from her mother.

But the principles of marketing are the same "if you are trying to sell Coca-Cola or a new idea," says Russ Meyer, chief strategy officer with branding firm Landor Associates.

Meyer and other experts say the movement needs strong, credible leadership and a simple, clear message that motivates people to take action.

"Organizations that are powerful and effective, like Greenpeace, are very good at messaging, clarity, being relevant and different," Meyer says.

Neither brands nor social movements are built overnight, and this one is "very, very young," says Sarah Soule, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University. "I think that anyone would be hard-pressed four weeks into the civil rights movement to have said then which goals of that movement would succeed."

But with winter approaching, there is some urgency.

"Any corporate brand stands for something, whereas they don't stand for anything specific. In two, four, five weeks when it gets really cold, if they don't have a reason for being, even the most ardent people are going to go home," says Miro Copic, a professor with San Diego State University who also runs BottomLine Marketing. "What could be a powerful movement" could be squandered.

Occupiers at various times and places have demanded an end to corporate bailouts, wars, animal testing and lobbying. They have called for student-loan and mortgage forgiveness, single-payer health care, higher taxes on millionaires and corporations, and higher wages for the middle class. They want banks out of the brokerage business and Wall Street criminals in jail.

Sustaining a movement

While this come-one-come-all attitude has helped the movement to grow, it won't help it survive.

"Every brand needs to do two things," says Peter Sealey, adjunct professor at the Peter Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and former chief marketing officer for Coke.

One is to create awareness. Sealey gives Occupy Wall Street an A-plus on this test.

The other is to articulate a promise or benefit. At Coke the promise was "delicious and refreshing," he says. Sealey says the protesters fail this test. "They don't know what they want to do. It's a boiling cauldron of dissent."

The group needs "an organizational structure, a leader, an ability to say here are all the issues on our agenda, let's start with these two."

Having no focus "results in more people joining the mob. It also results in more disharmony," he says.

The Tea Party was successful because "it had one promise - lower taxes and smaller government. If you agreed with that, you could join," Sealey says.

Leadership first

Silicon Valley marketing pioneer Regis McKenna says the group needs to first identify leaders who can set goals and then deliver a simple message or find someone credible who can. "The biggest thing you need when you are a new movement is credibility," he says.

The leaders do not have to be famous, although "the shortcut is to get someone who is known," he adds.

Many celebrities - including rapper Kanye West, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, comedian Roseanne Barr, and actors Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo - have shown up at protests.

But Copic says celebrities can be polarizing. He would not make one the face of the movement "unless you could get someone like Tom Hanks," who has one of the highest Q Scores (which measures likeability) of any star.

"They need a person from within to be the spokesman," Copic says. This person should be "empathetic, articulate, and come across as an ordinary person."

Message clarity

Although it's up to leaders to develop a message, experts say some ideas show promise.

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