Positioning in political marketing: How semiotic analysis adds value to traditional survey approaches

Baines, Paul; Crawford, Ian; O’Shaughnessy, Nicholas; Worcester, Robert M.; Mortimore, Roger

doi:10.1080/0267257x.2013.810166

Cited by 20 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Indeed, French and Smith (, 460) argue that, “the concept of political parties as brands is now commonplace and part of a general dispersion of branding from its original, consumer marketing origins.” However, despite the advancements, further insights are required particularly how “new” political brands are established, orientated, and sustained overtime (Baines et al . ; Harris and Lock ; O'Cass and Voola ; Rutter, Hanretty, and Lettice ). This would add to the wider debate that more research on political brands will ultimately assist political entities to understand their political offering and environment (Baines and Harris ; Dann et al .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, French and Smith (2010, 460) argue that, "the concept of political parties as brands is now commonplace and part of a general dispersion of branding from its original, consumer marketing origins." However, despite the advancements, further insights are required particularly how "new" political brands are established, orientated, and sustained overtime (Baines et al 2014;Harris and Chernatony, and Carrigan 2006;Smith 2009). However, a key obstacle facing the advancement of political branding research is debate within the field and contrasting conceptualizations of core constructs (Nielsen 2015;Scammell 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Exploratory Case Study Focusing on the Creation, Orientation, and Development of a New Political Brand: The Case of the Jury Team

Pich

Armannsdottir

2018

Politics & Policy

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There are explicit calls for deeper understanding of the creation, orientation, and development of “new” political brands from an “internal relational” perspective. Responding to this gap in the body of knowledge, this study explores the establishment, orientation, and position of the Jury Team; a U.K. political brand founded in March 2008. This article opted for an exploratory case study approach. Interviews were conducted with the Party founder‐leader. Semistructured interviews were conducted from September 2012 to October 2013. Transcripts were analyzed via qualitative thematic analysis. This research presents the challenges that face new political brands, particularly the barriers from the media and existing political system and difficulties with managing candidates and a national‐local campaign. Further, this study provides a “political brand development matrix” for brands within and beyond politics; a mechanism to deconstruct their offering and make adaptations if required. Related Articles Related Media BBC News. . “Rantzen Backs Jury Team Project.” May 20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8059333.stm BBC News. . “European Election 2009: UK Results.” June 8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_999999.stm

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

An Exploratory Case Study Focusing on the Creation, Orientation, and Development of a New Political Brand: The Case of the Jury Team

Pich

Armannsdottir

2018

Politics & Policy

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“…Political brands continually attempt to create, manage or [re]position a desired identity and develop this imagery in the mind of the consumer/citizen (Baines et al, 2014).…”

Section: Political Brandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using an interpretive approach, this paper seeks to contribute to the political marketing literature by firstly, outlining the current status of political branding research, and secondly to respond to Baines et al's (2014) call for research devoted to exploring how political actors build brand meaning and how this is understood by their target group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problematizing the presentation and reception of political brands

Pich

Armansdottir

Dean

et al. 2019

EJM

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Purpose There are explicit calls for research devoted to how political actors present their brand to the electorate and how this is interpreted. Responding to this, the purpose of this paper is to build an understanding of how political brand messages and values are received and aligned with voter expectations, which in turn shapes the consistency of a political brand. Design/methodology/approach Using an interpretivist perspective, this two-stage approach first focuses on semi-structured interviews with internal stakeholders of the UK Conservative Party and second uses focus group discussions with external stakeholders (voters) of age 18-24 years. Data was collected between 1 December 2014 and 6 May 2015. Findings The findings suggest that the UK Conservative brand had recovered from the “nasty party” reputation. Further, the Conservative brand was perceived as credible, trustworthy and responsible, with positive associations of “economic competence”. However, while the nasty party imagery has declined, the UK Conservative brand continues to face challenges particularly in terms of longstanding negative associations perceived by both internal and external markets. Research limitations/implications It must be acknowledged that all research methods have their own limitations, and acknowledging these will strengthen the ability to draw conclusions. In this study, for example, due to time constraints during the election campaign period, 7 participants supported stage one of the study and 25 participants supported stage two of the study. However, participants from stage one of the study represented all three elements of the UK Conservative Party (Parliamentary, Professional and Voluntary). In addition, the elite interviews were longer in duration and this provided a greater opportunity to capture detailed stories of their life experiences and how this affected their brand relationship. Similarly, participants for stage two focussed on young voters of age 18-24 years, a segment actively targeted by the UK Conservative Party. Practical implications The brand alignment framework can help practitioners illuminate components of the political brand and how it is interpreted by the electorate. The increasing polarisation in politics has made this a vital area for study, as we see need to understand if, how or why citizens are persuaded by a more polarised brand message. There are also social media issues for the political brand which can distort the carefully constructed brand. There are opportunities to evaluate and operationalize this framework in other political contexts. Originality/value The brand alignment model extends current branding theory first by building on an understanding of the complexities of creating brand meaning, second, by operationalizing differences between the brand and how it is interpreted by the electorate, finally, by identifying if internal divisions within the political party pose a threat to the consistency of the brand.

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“…Over the 13 years in which Labour were in power, however, these associations began to break down in the mind of the electorate (Heppell 2008), and Tony Blair's political reputation transference impacted negatively upon the Labour party's brand personality (Davies and Mian 2010). This left Gordon Brown to fall back on his personal attributes of (economic) competence and ruggedness (Baines et al 2014). The findings of this study show that the Labour party is currently positioned between the brand personality dimensions Competence and Ruggedness, indicating Gordon Brown's personification was transferred to the party brand, and they are still communicating this personality strongly through their website.…”

Section: The Partiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Brands: Can Parties Be Distinguished by Their Online Brand Personality?

Rutter

Hanretty

Lettice

2015

Journal of Political Marketing

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This paper investigates whether or not five English political parties are differentiating themselves based on the brand personality they are communicating through their websites. The relative brand positions of five English political parties are analysed using Aaker's brand personality scale. The text from each party website is analysed using content analysis and a dictionary-based tool. The results are plotted in relation to one another on a correspondence analysis map. We find that the two main dimensions on which parties' brand personalities differ relate to the trade-offs between communicating Competence and communicating Sincerity, and between communicating Sophistication and communicating Ruggedness. We find that parties' brand personalities are distinctive, with the exception of the Green party, and that the position of one party, the United Kingdom Independence Party, is particularly distinctive. Our research uses Aaker's existing framework for thinking about brand personalities, rather than creating a new framework for politics.By using an existing framework, we are able to use tools developed in other disciplines, and show their usefulness for the study of political marketing.

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Positioning in political marketing: How semiotic analysis adds value to traditional survey approaches

Cited by 20 publications

References 27 publications

An Exploratory Case Study Focusing on the Creation, Orientation, and Development of a New Political Brand: The Case of the Jury Team

An Exploratory Case Study Focusing on the Creation, Orientation, and Development of a New Political Brand: The Case of the Jury Team

Problematizing the presentation and reception of political brands

Political Brands: Can Parties Be Distinguished by Their Online Brand Personality?

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