Vladimir Putin's Self Promotion Guide
Master Cultural Archetypes
Assuming the traits of a cultural archetype sells itself as far as you’re willing to exaggerate them, the average person through culture history and media is often conditioned to respect a set of superficial characteristics that can be worn by anyone who can identify them. This understanding is at the core of Putin’s self promotion strategy. While we laugh about his shirtless horse rides, karate fights with bears and bottle feeding dates with tigers, Putin is doing something worthy of study.
Putin has pinpointed what his audience defines as ‘manly’ based on their own cultural context and is wearing the role like a finely suited piece of armor. Without need to say much, all of the ‘positive’ connotations with the archetype are automatically attached to his name, and because he embodies what other men are aiming to be, the self-promotion self-promotes itself.
There are many archetypes in every culture and all with varying degrees of cultural currency. Randomly turning into a macho man after reading this article won’t make much sense to your friends and family. But while tech billionaires refuse to wear suits, entertainment moguls refuse to wear ties, and politicians, for some reason, always like to drink frothy beers with their sleeves up, it’s safe to assume there’s a befitting archetype in every culture for everyone. Learn the archetypes in your culture and assume the traits of the one best suited to your personality and go for it. And if acting like an exaggeration of a stereotype to take advantage of ignorant people is unsettling, you should blame yourself for reading an article advising you to act like Vladimir Putin.
Random Actions of Competence
Putin’s seemingly random acts of self-aggrandizing have one thing in common; competence. When Putin is randomly an archaeologist for a day, he finds ancient vases. When Putin goes to the zoo, the routinely flesh eating beasts listen to him. When he enters a plane he flies it, and flies it well. He wins every karate match, and is the best hand shaker, baby carrier, and mountain climber evah!
Every now and then Russian media displays an act of competence from Putin. Given Russia’s recent history with mismanagement, it’s easy to see why this strategy was chosen. Still, there’s a more selfish aim behind the theatrics. Displays of competence, even if they’re unrelated to the job at hand, bring conversation. People will either applaud or roll their eyes but either way Putin uses spectacle of it all to promote his brand effectively.
Be Consistent
Putin’s worst enemies (Hilary) can even admit to the fact that Putin is remarkably consistent. While many in the marketing world preach the message of consistency in promotion, few have examined the root of a successful consistency. Putin’s ability to be consistent is successful because he understands the value of communicating a simple message in everything he does.
The message is this; I’m powerful, I’ll handle it. Everything from the way he walks, dresses, sits, speaks, and maneuvers through internal and global politics is remarkably consistent because they’re geared to communicate that simple and clear message. To make this Putin lesson a part of your self-promotion strategy know and understand the message you’re trying to send. Be sure that it’s a authentic and simple one that can be easily communicated. Then let the message diffuse into every facet of your public persona, and interactions.
