Branding Warren Buffett
The marketing machine that is Warren Buffett is one of least understood or recognized skills of the Oracle of Omaha; which is why Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) is usually among the most admired companies in America year after year, although they usuall go up and down the polls.
The Harris Interactive survey gathered input from close to 30,000 people to get the results.
What I wanted to point out though was one of the comments from an executive from Harris, Robert Fronk.
Fronk stated concerning Berkshire being in the No. 1 spot and Buffett's influence, that "It's his humility and sense of accountability. You don't read about his excesses. Instead you read the opposite. He still has the same office. He's going to make his kids comfortable, but they're not going to be billionaires."
This is one of the more ignorant statements I've ever heard. This is the same Warren Buffett who had a vested interest in the government taking taxpayer money and awarding it to Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), which Buffett holds a huge stake in. Talk about conflicts of interest. How about his investment in Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)?
I admire Buffett's investment genius and management philosophy, but make no mistake that Warren Buffett is a statist, and he wants big government involved in the markets, and doesn't mind at all, from his past talk and actions, to have them step in when it benefits companies he has a stake in.
You don't read about his "excesses" because of his carefully cultivated persona, which the media eats up and reports, with little criticism over his appetite for big government being involved in business. This isn't just a political statement, Buffett's investment strategy is to find companies with a huge moat, or defensive position to invest in. What that ultimately means are companies that are monopolies, but may not be considered such, or at least are left to slide.
Buffett looks feverishly for businesses with a monopoly in their markets, and the interference of the state in the markets always skews the market and results in companies emerging as monopolies, or at least in a very much stronger position than they were before government interference.
Buffett may act and talk like the guy next door, but he's as shrew as they come, and investing isn't the only discipline he has mastered, branding himself as he has is right up there with it.
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