MEDIA & MARKETING:Barack Obama has already won - he's been named '2008 Marketer of the Year', writes Siobhán O'Connell

SENATOR BARACK Obama and Senator John McCain have been called many names in during their campaigns for the US presidency, but until recently, nobody was comparing them to a mobile phone or a computer.

With the election less than a week away, research into the candidates' brand strategies has compared Obama to Nokia and McCain to Apple. The study by US market research firm Synovate has summed up the brand strategy of the Obama campaign as being "you, you", because of the way he strongly associates himself to a handful of key issues.

Obama is seen to connect strongly with registered voters on four main issues - healthcare, the desire for change, the Iraq war and education.

Ged Parton, chief executive of Synovate's brand and communications practice, said: "Obama pins himself to a handful of key issues and makes himself accountable to them, in much the same way that a brand like Nokia sells itself on its key service attributes.

"This is about what 'you' - the consumer or the voter - is encouraged to buy into. It centres around what he can do to make your life better."

McCain's approach is to focus on the personal - himself, his experience and his military background. In the view of the Synovate experts: "This is a tricky strategy by McCain. It is a strategy used by brands like Diet Coke and Apple and is characterised by a confidence to shout about who they are, rather than explain their features or benefits.

"Like McCain, these brands simply put out their stall and expect you to work out why you should like them."

It remains to be seen which of the two brand strategies US voters prefer, but Obama has already won over America's brand builders. He has been named 2008 Marketer of the Year by the industry magazine Advertising Age, beating Apple, Nike, Coors, as well as John McCain, to the top spot.

The marketing industry loves big spenders and, on that score, Obama has been a godsend to US media outlets. The Obama campaign is estimated to have splurged $250 million on television advertising in the past five months, outspending such mainstream consumer brands as Burger King and Gap.

He has pointed the way for future elections with an internet fundraising campaign that majored in social networking and garnered donations from two million people.

In this last week of campaigning, every one of the three million people who registered on the Obama website has been receiving e-mails and text messages to get out and vote.

But it's not just the advertising spend that impressed Advertising Age. "Like many a number one brand, the Obama campaign simply acts like it's the category leader," says the magazine.

"One of the hallmarks of the Obama campaign is that it doesn't panic. He set the pace and stuck to it. As the economy melted and McCain's ad messaging went 100 per cent negative, the Obama campaign's decision to hang on to the 'more of the same' message was starting to look like yet another piece of smart marketing."

"How deep is your cut" isn't formally on the agenda for next week's national marketing conference, but it's sure to be a topic on the sidelines of the event.

In Britain, the latest Institute of Advertising Practitioners bellwether report found that cuts in marketing budgets through the third quarter were the most severe for nine years.

However, Malcolm McDonald, a marketing professor at Cranfield University School of Management, will tell the marketing conference that cutting promotional expenditure during a downturn is "disastrous".

He explains: "There are many examples of companies which slashed their marketing spend and then took years to get back to where they were."

McDonald is hopeful that the "new breed" of chief executive appreciates the need for strategic planning and pro-active vision that stretches beyond the end of the current financial year.

"Companies led by such managers are showing results palpably better than the old 'reactive' companies managed on a short-term philosophy," he says. "Strategy before structure should be the basic orientation."