The political marketing planning process: improving image and message in strategic target areas

Abstract

A marketing planning framework to aid political parties in improving their image and co‐ordinating election campaigns has been developed to reflect the changing nature of electoral campaigning in the developed world towards the need for more long‐term planning; together with the development and implementation of marketing models in a wider sphere of social situations. The planning model has been developed using both a hypothetico‐deductive and an inductive approach, incorporating recent developments in US and UK political campaign management and depth interviews with political strategists in the UK. Suggests that national political parties need to co‐ordinate their election campaigns more effectively in order to strengthen their image among key citizen and voter groups by determining which target areas are most in need of resources. Further research is needed to determine how to position the party and to select and place advertising in the relevant media. Concludes that local election campaigns are becoming more co‐ordinated by national parties but that such co‐ordination neglects to provide local area research and telemarketing campaigns, and post‐election analysis exercises to monitor strengths and weaknesses in party strategy and campaign plan implementation.

To Spin or not to Spin, that is the Question: The Emergence of Modern Political Marketing

“…The US also provides a good example of the early usage of typical marketing tools such as direct mail, political advertising and publicity stunts in and at the same time the party or candidates fully controls the message (Kaid and Holtz-Bacha 1995). Contrary to popular belief that political ads are solely concerned with image (Baines, Harris and Lewis, 2002), it has been found that most of political advertising is concentrated on issues or contains issue based information.. Although there are contradictory theories on the effects of political advertising, most researchers agree that it acts mostly to reinforce the existing image (e.g.…”

Siyaset Pazarında Bölümlendirme Üzerine Keşifsel Bir Araştırma

“…Lock ve Harris'in (1996, akt. Baines;Harris;Lewis, 2002: 6) de ifade ettiği gibi siyaset pazarlaması bir disiplin olarak pazarlama…”

Why Did I Prefer to Vote for My Political Party?

“…Five prominent models of political marketing have been advanced by Butler and Collins (1994), , Maarek (1995), Wring (1997) and Baines et al (2002). Butler and Collins (1994) have elucidated the structural and process characteristics of political marketing.…”

“…Finally, Baines, Harris and Lewis (2002) have presented a model which relates to the coordination of local campaigning activity by the national party to project a systematic and unified message by political parties. In the first stage, the political strategists gather data on individual voting districts regarding voter registration; collect census data and conduct constituency market research into voters' attitudes, opinions, hopes and desires to determine which individual voting districts are most liable to changing their fidelity from one candidate or party to another.…”