Darth Trump and the Trump Family Brand

Like many others, I don't believe that Donald Trump ever thought he would become the Republican candidate for president, when he launched his campaign sixteen months ago.

I believe that all he was interested in was getting a lot of free publicity, and boosting the Trump brand.

So I thought it might be interesting to look at how that brand is doing after all that has happened and all those scandals.

And as it turns out, the answer is not so good.



Now that many Americans regard him as a cross between Darth Vader and a dangerous sexual predator, his brand is suffering. 

Before Mr. Trump entered the race, adding the Trump name to virtually any product or service increased its perceived value, according to Brand Keys.


But that added value has been significantly diminished since the video surfaced. The perceived added value in TV and entertainment, a category with which he’s closely associated after “The Apprentice,” fell 13 percentage points as of Oct. 9, while the value of the Trump brand dropped 8 percentage points in real estate and 6 percentage points in country clubs and golf clubs, according to Brand Keys.

And now he has a new enemy. Not the Rebel Alliance but his own former customers.

Across the country, voters alarmed by the tenor of Mr. Trump’s campaign and the emerging accounts of his personal conduct are engaging in spontaneous, unorganized and inconspicuous acts of protest that take direct aim at perhaps his most prized possession: his brand name. 

In more than two dozen interviews, they described creative methods of punishing his economic empire and expunging the once-esteemed reminders of him from their lives, closets, golf bags and bookshelves over the past few months. They have thrown out — or cut up — Trump neckties, called off stays at Trump hotels, even stopped imbibing Trump wines.

And although he may recover some ground after the election, and find a new way to promote his products, now that his son-in-law is looking at setting up a Trump TV network. 

It remains to be seen whether that network will ever get off the ground or how popular it might be...

On the news of Trump TV talks being underway behind the scenes, a reminder of what you’ll get. pic.twitter.com/GW4BZlGQEw

— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) October 17, 2016

My guess is about as popular as Ezra Levant's late but not lamented Fox News North...



And if Darth Trump's original intention was to boost his brand.

And flog his crappy outsourced products.

I think one can safely say it was a yuuuuuge or galactic failure...



Trump, just another name for Con artist and hustler.

And a candidate and a brand to be avoided at all cost...