Every day, in the halls of business schools, the mantra of “show me the numbers” rings loud and often. As important a lesson this is for Marketing MBAs, there is one piece of the puzzle the numbers can’t explain; the power of a persuasive brand.

Take an example from this year’s presidential elections and the sudden “movement status” of the Obama Campaign. Is Senator Obama’s record more conclusive than his opponents? Is his track record more substantial?

No matter the answers to those questions, none of them explains this:

This video is a classic example of a brand being more persuasive than logic, alone. In fact, you can safely say that this kind of evangelic marketing can compel even the hardest of hearts warm to the idea that there is something more to politics. The same goes for business.

Not to downplay the importance of numerical evidence of marketing returns in any way, the Obama campaign is the clearest representation I have seen that a persuasive brand can “move the needle.” The key, as the Obama campaign has discovered, is to tap into that part of the human mind that craves inspiration.

Take the numbers, use them to determine how they relate to that inspirational element of a person’s needs and then build a strong, persuasive brand around it.Numbers work, so do strong, persuasive brands. Yes. They. Do.

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