What makes good branding in politics? More or less policy detail?

They've lost the policy in politics as I like to say

But how do you win elections? A lot of it is branding and name recognition. Trump had both, that's why he won twice

Are more or less policy details better for branding? 

None of us like it but branding with platitudes is half the battle. The average person is pretty stupid and half of people are even stupider. That's just right off rip. There's a time and place for substance but I'm not convinced being heavy on that is what wins elections. Devilish details can alienate more people than it helps attract. Gotta be ambiguous enough to let people project their own ideals onto you

MAGA appeals to the retrograde ideals of an ageing population and paranoid isolationists.

So in this respect Trump branded well.

MAGA won the Gen z vote

Did Trump win on policy?

Policy vision is what winners run on. Policy details are what the losers use as ammunition.

What was the policy vision for Democrats?

Well first it was "hope and change"

Then it was "expanded rights for lgbtq and undocumented"

People rejected all those visions once they found out the true cost of spending billions of dollars on government red tape and the true cost of destroying title 9 for women and the true cost of a declining American wage.

And what's the vision for Democrats today? Same as yesterday.

Democrats appeal to the old and often childless populations. Malthusians.

Isn't it more ethical to have substance and just lose than branding and platitudes to win?

You didn't ask what's more ethical though. The only politician I can think of who has these chance to win the presidency who leaned more on substance was Ross Perot but he intentionally lost at the end for some reason. Candidates who do make substantive arguments do poorly. You can watch replays of Ron Paul in the Republican debates and see he is talking at a higher level than everyone else but voters just don't click with him. 

I would say Hillary basically got as far as she did due to name recognition and she didn't talk down to voters as much as most politicians which may have hurt her. 

I think to be ethical you want simple true statements that can be expanded to complex thoughts to make everyone happy. 

You probably don't think much of trump but you can clearly see the simple message there but it also can appeal to smarter people because there is a rabbit hole a deeper well that is being drawn from. 

For the plebs you hear build the wall and let Mexico pay for it. To those actually digging into the policy it'sincreased border securrity and trade policies that recoup the expenses of the project .