Inauguration Day
Tomorrow Donald Trump with become the 45th president of the United States of America. I’m not going to make any political comments, but a branding comment. 
Strictly from a branding perspective, president-elect Trump did one important thing right: He had short, memorable messages about what his benefit would be to the American people. Try to remember the branding line of any of the other 19 Republican candidates. I bet you can’t remember one. And, Mr. Trump stayed on message consistently throughout the race for the presidency.
For years, effective causes have used branding lines successfully. But, if you don’t deeply and fully believe the tagline and can’t prove it again and again, the line will fall flat. It’s why most colleges and universities have abandoned the brag line of “a tradition of excellence.”
At the start, the red hats and “Make America Great Again” line seemed silly. But with time and consistency, the line developed a life of its own and the red hats could be seen all across the crowds.
A strong belief plus time plus consistency equals a strong brand.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.