Her latest recommendation is that of Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, and publishers in the US have printed a million paperback copies of the 1948 book to meet the demand created by Oprah. Within a week of being chosen as her Book Club selection, the novel jumped to the top of the Hot 100 list compiled by Amazon.com. In addition, her recent recommendation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden, which was originally published in 1952, awoke America to the opportunity to purchase the classic novel, and generated sales that made the publishers rub their hands in delight.
The question is, what gives Oprah this power?
Enterprise IG business development director, Hermann Behrens, says Oprah is a living example and personification of a brand that has been built holistically. "Every aspect of a brand affects its image and reputation, not just what it looks like on the outside. Consistency and being true to the brand promise is key to building a powerful brand, and Oprah has recognized that.
"The Oprah brand is built on integrity and compassion. She's real, she's one of us, she has experienced life and talks with us, not above us. She exudes personality, charisma and empathy. She connects with people through her understanding of key life issues, her ability to listen and her insight into the human psyche.
"Her personality, image and reputation is delivered not only through what she says, but how she says it – her tone, body language, the way she dresses, her facial expressions. She appeals to all our senses as viewers, consumers and people," says Behrens.
Enterprise IG purports that branding is about delivering a promise, and brand practitioners and marketers can learn a great deal from Oprah. "It makes sense to think of your brand as a human personality that needs to connect with the consumer. It needs to deliver consistently against the consumer promise and expectation in all media and environments, in a holistic manner," he says.
Holistic branding is a strategic approach that covers the entire experience we would have with a brand, from the brand or product itself to the environment it lives in and all its associations. It is a dynamic strategy for making branding's "whole" greater than the sum of its "parts".
Once a brand has been holistically defined it then becomes the role of the communication channels to reach out to the audience – yes, real people. Oprah certainly has a comprehensive approach and means of getting her message out to the market, including her TV programme, her travel, website, magazine etc.
Holistic branding embraces the economic, political and social context in which brands are conceived and received. "Brands express not only commercial or individual priorities, but also social values. A holistic branding strategy demands that we make the social values associated with a brand explicit. In this way we extend the brand's connection with individual hearts and minds to a presence within entire communities," says Behrens.
