Political Marketing Communication Strategy of Prabowo-Sandiaga in the 2019 Presidential Elections

Abstract

Political marketing holds an important role in democratic context which is actualized by marketing strategies as the best method to gain a triumph. In addition, the candidates must convince the voters to take sides and vote for them. This can be achieved if the candidates obtain a great support from the voters. This situation is relevant to Prabowo-Sandiaga as one of the candidates in the 2019 presidential elections. In politics, neuroscience approach can be applied as one of the strategies for political marketing. A research on neuroscience is important to carry out in order to inform the ongoing situation to society and enable them to respond and also take sides for controversial statements delivered by the candidates in their campaigns. This research aimed to study the political marketing strategy conducted by Prabowo-Sandiaga on social media in order to obtain a support in the 2019 presidential elections. This research applied a symbolic interaction theory and political marketing communication which are categorized as a method and marketing applications in politics. The paradigm used in this study was constructivists with case study method and deep interview as the data collection techniques. The interviewees were individuals who involved in the campaign team of Prabowo-Sandi, social media account administrators of Prabowo-Sandi, several political communication experts, and neuroscientists. The results revealed that Prabowo-Sandi applied a Lees-Marshment method as the political marketing communication strategy with economic populist program as the political product offered to constituents.