POLITICS 345 Political Marketing POLITICS 345 Political Marketing |
Political Branding
Political branding is about how a political organisation or individual is perceived overall by the public. It is broader than the product; whereas a product has distinct functional parts such as a politician and policy, a brand is intangible and psychological. A political brand is the overarching feeling, impression, association or image the public has towards a politician, political organisation, or nation. Political branding helps the party or candidate to help change or maintain reputation and support, create a feeling of identity with the party or its candidates and create a trusting relationship between political elites and consumers. It helps political consumers understand more quickly what a party or candidate is about; and distinguish a candidate or party from the competition.
Academic Literature
General and overview
Bal, A. S., L. Pitt, et al. (2009). "Caricatures, cartoons, spoofs and satires: political brands as butts." Journal of Public Affairs 9(4): 229-237.
Cosgrove, Ken (2007), Branded Conservatives: How the Brand Brought the Right from the Fringes to the Centre of American Politics. Peter Lang
Cosgrove, Kenneth M. (2012), ‘Political Branding in the Modern Age - Effective Strategies, Tools & Techniques,' Chapter 9 in the Routledge Handbook of Political Marketing edited by Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Routledge.
Cosgrove, Kenneth (2017) ‘So much winning If I get elected that you might get bored with winning: Sports as a brand aspect in the 2016 Presidential Election’ The American Elections Symposium 2017: Broken: Barriers, Parties, and Conventional Wisdom in 2016, New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm’s College, Manchester
Downer, Lorann (2015) Political Branding Strategies: Campaigning and Governing in Australian Politics (Palgrave)
Lees-Marshment, Jennifer (2014) Political Marketing: Principles and Applications 2nd edition. Routledge Chapter 4 Political Branding
Lilleker, D. and N. Jackson (2010). Interactivity and Branding, public political communication as a marketing tool. Political Studies Association (PSA) Conference: Sixty Years of Political Studies: Achievements and Futures. Edinburgh University, Scotland see http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/15074/
Lilleker, D. G. (2015) ‘Interactivity and Branding: Public Political Communication as a Marketing Tool’, Journal of Political Marketing, 14(1-2), pp. 111–128.
Marland, Alex (2016) Brand Command: Canadian Politics and Democracy in the Age of Message Control, UBC Press.
Mensah, Kobby. 2009. Segmentation and brand development: an Afican perspective. In Political Marketing: Principles and Applications, by J. Lees-Marshment. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Needham, Catherine (2005). ‘Brand leaders: Clinton, Blair and the limitations of the permanent campaign’.Political Studies, 53(2): 343–61.
Phipps, M., J. Brace-Govan, et al. (2010). "The Duality of Political Brand Equity." European Journal of Marketing 44(3/4): 496-514.
Reeves, Peter, Leslie de Chernatony and Marylyn Carrigan (2006). Building a political brand: Ideology or voter-driven strategy. Brand management, vol. 13(6): 418-428.
Scammell, Margaret. (2015). "Politics and Image: The Conceptual Value of Branding." Journal of Political Marketing no. 14 (1/2):7-18.
Smith, Gareth, and Alan French (2009). "The Political Brand: A Consumer Perspective." Marketing Theory 9, no. 2 : 209-26.
Audio-visual
A Vodcast which put emphasis on the views portrayed by Aron O'Cass, Gareth Smith and Alan French along the view of Jip Samhoud, Prime-minister of the Dutch Youth Cabinet and entrepreneur through &samhoud media - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAm_clcC8dQ&feature=related
UK - 2010 election
UK election 2010 discussion of branding tactics; see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8k0cfb06Pg&feature=related or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnfLjCMVNa8 orhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alndnB4TJxs. The second half is more about branding - c. 4.28 minutes in the programme it changes to Jonathan Gabay of brandforensics.co.uk and the Joe Tywman Director of political research of YouGov
Websites
In Justin Trudeau’s Ottawa, the brand plays on: Delacourt – The Toronto Star (March 2016)– Article discussing the Trudeau government’s obsession with controlling its image/brand, and relates this to Alex Marland’s claim that this will make it difficult to decentralize power as Trudeau promised.
NZ 2014 Election
How marketing is affecting this election – NZ Herald (September 2014) – Discusses the influence of political marketing on the 2014 NZ general election, highlighting the importance of political strategy, political market research, political branding, and reputation for delivery to electoral success – relates this to findings in TVNZ’s Vote Compass survey.
Election 2014: Our brand is tarnished: Act – NZ Herald (September 2014) – Article highlighting comments from ex-Act leader Jamie Whyte that the party’s brand is “tarnished” following an exceptionally poor result in the 2014 NZ election.
Generic
Daily, Carol (2017) ‘Why Branding Is Critical During a Political Campaign’ September 28 https://info.joplinradio.com/blog/why-branding-is-critical-during-a-political-campaign
Ries, Laura (2015) ‘Political branding – 2016 preview’ April 15 https://www.ries.com/2015/04/15/political-branding-2016-preview/
Williams, Dellvin Roshon (2017) ‘How Trump’s Political Brand Captured the White House’ https://intpolicydigest.org/2017/01/22/how-trump-s-political-brand-captured-the-white-house/