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Master in Political Marketing
Academic Year: 2016/2017
Final project by:
GUEDOU Marius Souyogoto
THE POLITICAL BRAND, IT'S BRAND CAPITAL
AND THE VOTER
Rome, June, 12, 2017
The political brand, its brand capital and the
voter
Abstract: The main purpose of this research is to propose
a conceptualization of political brand and political brand equity based on a
perceptual approach (Keller, 1993). Eventually, the development of a measure
method of political brand equity must allow to better understand the
relationship between the political brand and the voter.
Keywords: Brand, political brand, brand equity, political
brand equity, congruence
INTRODUCTION
For decades, many authors have advocated extending the marketing
of commercial enterprises to all types of non-commercial organizations and
adapting marketing theories and concepts, particularly to the field of politics
(eg Kotler and Levy, 1969, Kotler 1975 Shame, 1975, Newman, 1983, Smith and
Saunders, 1990, Wring, 1997, Reeves, de Chernatony and Carrigan, 2006). Kotler
(1975: 761) considers that «The very essence of a candidate's interface
with the voters is a marketing one and always has been ". An argument regularly
invoked to justify this position is that one of the often cited objectives of
marketing is not to sell anything to anyone but to satisfy the needs of
individuals (eg Kotler and Levy, 1969; Reeves, de Chernatony and Carrigan,
2006): " Political marketing is, in general, a force for good within society,
given that political marketing is concerned with the satisfaction of the
electorate "(Reeves, de Chernatony and Carrigan, 2006, p. 419).
Other authors, on the contrary, are opposed to this intrusion and
this marketing vision of politics. Many criticisms are made: a form of
propaganda, even manipulation, the danger that the political parties attach
more to form than to substance, that they follow public opinion more than they
guide it, the idea that politics is not a product, that political parties and
politicians cannot be assimilated to "soaps" put up for sale...
Our purpose in this research is not to judge the use of marketing
in the political sphere. On the contrary, we have chosen to adopt a scientific
approach, by transposing and adapting several concepts - including brand and
brand-name concepts - from the marketing literature to the policy domain. The
originality of our research lies in the perspective adopted: we want to better
understand and analyze the relationship between the voter and the political
brand. The ultimate goal of our research is to test our conceptualization of a
three-dimensional model of the relationship to the political brand based on the
measurement of its brand equity. To test the research model that we have
developed, a method of measuring the brand's brand equity will be developed in
order to better understand the relationship between the political brand and the
voter. But beforehand, it is necessary to define precisely what we designate as
political brand and political brand capital.
CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
The research presented here is placed on a conceptual level. Its
main objective is to propose a conceptualization of the political brand and its
brand capital according to a perceptual approach (Keller, 1993). To do this, we
rely on the literature in marketing and political marketing.
The conceptual contributions and theoretical contributions of
this study are at several levels:
- in relation to the research carried out to date, it is
necessary to justify and demonstrate that the
concept of a brand applies to the political field (and in our
opinion to the candidate as to the
political party), in other words That the political brand is
conceptually valid,
- show the interest of this conceptualization,
- identify the specific features of the political brand, which
make it specific,
- better understand the concept of a political brand as it exists
in the elector's memory: what does
he perceive as a brand?
- through a literature review of the main authors who have
assimilated the politician and / or the
party to a brand, propose a definition of what a political brand
is in a perceptual approach,
- justify the choice of the concept of brand capital (and not
that of other close concepts),
- propose a definition of the political brand capital based on a
perceptual approach.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK / LITERATURE REVIEW
The theoretical framework of our research is structured around
two concepts: the political brand and the branding capital of the political
brand.
Applied to the political domain, the marketing literature on the
concepts of "brand" and "Brand capital" helps us to define the concept of
political brand and that of political brand capital. The operationalization of
the concept of political brand through political brand capital must enable us
to determine the value of the political brand for the voter.
This study is composed of three parts, each aimed at answering a
specific research question. First, why is it appropriate to apply the brand
concept to the policy area? In witch way ? To answer this question, it is
necessary to show that the concept of a brand can be applied to the political
field, the interest of this conceptualization while identifying the
specificities of the political brand.
Second, what does the concept of a political brand mean to the
voter? What does it perceive as a brand? To what extent does the candidate as a
person merge with the political brand? To answer these questions, it is
necessary to study the political brand as it really is perceived by the voter.
Finally, a third part seeks to answer the following question: what is the value
of the political brand?
1. The political brand: justification, contributions and
specificities of the concept
It is necessary to consider:
- the relevance of the brand concept applied to the policy area:
in other words, how can the candidate and the party be considered as brands?
- the interest of transferring the concept of brand to the
political domain: what does this assimilation bring? What interest can it
represent for candidates and parties?
- the specificities of the political brand, which make the
management of this particular brand.
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