Political

Marketing
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Political
Marketing
Theoretical and Strategic Foundations

Wojciech Cwalina
Andrzej Falkowski
Bruce I. Newman
 This book is dedicated to our families:

Wojciech Cwalina: Justyna Cwalina, Hanna Cwalina

Andrzej Falkowski: Ewa Falkowska, Justyna Falkowska, Zuzanna Falkowska

Bruce I. Newman: Judith Ann Newman, Todd Paul Newman, Erica Lynn Newman

First published 2011 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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Copyright © 2011 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

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Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to
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or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas
contained in the material herein.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and
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be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cwalina, Wojciech.
Political marketing : theoretical and strategic foundations / by Wojciech Cwalina, Andrzej
Falkowski, and Bruce I. Newman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7656-2291-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-7656-2916-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Campaign management. 2. Political campaigns. 3. Marketing—Political aspects.
I. Falkowski, Andrzej. II. Newman, Bruce I. III. Title.

JF2112.C3C93 2011
324.7’3—dc22 2010040044

ISBN 13: 9780765629166 (pbk)

ISBN 13: 9780765622914 (hbk)
 Contents

Introduction ix

1. Metatheory in Social Science and Political Marketing 3

Metatheory in Social Science 3
The Integrative Function 4
The Descriptive Function 4
The Delimiting Function 5
The Generative Function 6
Political Marketing as a Separate Discipline of Science and Practice 7
Mainstream and Political Marketing 7
Service Marketing and Political Marketing 10
Political Marketing: A Definition 13
Political Marketing Orientation 17
Candidate and Political Party as a Brand 24
Political Marketplace 27

2. An Advanced Theory of Political Marketing: What Is Missing? 30

A Model of Political Marketing 30
Process of Political Marketing According to Niffenegger 30
Marketing the Political Product According to Reid 36
Kotler and Kotler’s Model of a Candidate’s Marketing Map 38
Lees-Marshment’s Theory of Comprehensive Political
Marketing 41
Harris’s Modern Political Marketing 43
Newman’s Model of Political Marketing 45
Challenges for Political Marketing 49
Permanent Campaign 50
Media and Politics 56
v
vi

Political Public Relations and Lobbying 65

Political Consultants 71
An Advanced Theory of Political Marketing 72

3. The Campaign Message Development: Segmentation

and Positioning on the Voting Market 81
Voting Market’s Segmentation Strategy 81
Primary Segmentation 83
Secondary Segmentation 88
Undecided Voters as a Strategic Segment 95
Electoral Segmentation: A Summary 102
Positioning of the Party and Candidate 103
Candidates’ Positioning: The 2005 Polish Presidential Election 106
Triangulation Model in Candidate Positioning 114
Party Positioning Based on Slogans 120

4. Candidate Image 129

Candidate Image Structure 133
Ideal Political Leader 136
Integrity and Competence: Core Features of Candidate Image 145
The Importance of Advertising in Forming Politicians’ Images 153
The Role of Emotion in Politics 158

5. Dissemination of the Campaign Message:

Direct Campaign and Debates 161
Meetings With Voters and Candidates’ Appearances 161
Electoral Conventions 162
Rallies and Meetings 165
Electoral Debates 168
The Influence of Debates on Voter Behavior 171
Candidate Image and Stands on Issues 181
The Image and Issues and Democratic Processes 186
The Influence of Televised Debates on Voter Preferences 193
The Importance of Political Debates in Democratic Processes 196
Volunteers and Canvassing 198
Campaign Influence Through Social Networks 199

6. Dissemination of the Campaign Message: Mediated Campaign 202

Printed Campaign Materials 202
Television Political Advertising 206
 vii

The Influence of Political Advertising on the Voter’s Level

of Knowledge 207
The Influence of Political Ads on Processing of Candidate
Image Information 208
The Influence of Political Ads on Processing of Party Image
and Issue Information 214
The Influence of Political Ads on Attitude Certainty 219
Negative Television Advertising 224
Response to Negative Advertising 228
Third-Party Negative Advertising 229
Formal Features of Negative Advertising 230
Fear Appeal 233
Radio Political Advertising 236
Campaigning on the Internet 237
Candidates’ Websites 238
Blogs 242
Online Advertising 244

7. Postelection Marketing: Maintaining and Enhancing

Relationship With Voters 247
Institutional Popularity of Politicians 248
Determinants of Congressmen’s Popularity 249
Voters’ Trust in Politicians 252
Trust in Political Systems and Politicians 256
Timing of Political Events 259
Psychological Foundations of the Management
of the Times of Events 261
Theory and Practice Over Management of Political Events 265
Marketing-Oriented Parliament 273

8. Political Marketing and Democracy 275

The Advanced Model of Political Marketing: An Application 278
Political Marketing: Implications for Democracy 280
Paradox of Freedom in Democratic Countries 282
Ideological Extremity and Populism 285

References 289
Name Index 317
Subject Index 325
About the Authors 339
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 Introduction

Democracy is full of paradoxes. One of its premises is the freedom of citizens,

which creates favorable conditions to create more and more sophisticated
marketing strategies whose goal is to make the voter vote for a certain politi-
cal option. We face then a paradoxical situation because a side product of
these strategies is the limitation of the voters’ choices in their voting deci-
sions; in other words, the developing democracy creates mechanisms that
limit democracy.
One may wonder how it might be possible to handle such a situation. First
of all, one should discover how social and psychological mechanisms control-
ling citizens’ behavior operate. These mechanisms are the basis of the applied
marketing strategies. Thus the main concern of this book is the demonstration
that political marketing analysis is virtually impossible without substantial
knowledge of psychology. The theoretical and practical knowledge of political
marketing is analyzed with particular emphasis on psychological mechanisms
of voter behavior. It is obvious that the psychological research in the domain
of cognitive and emotional processes is commonly used to create politicians’
or parties’ images as well as to construct persuasion messages for political
campaigns. Such efforts lead to stronger and stronger control of people’s at-
titudes and preferences on the automatic level—that is, beyond their conscious
control. Thus, voters do not realize that their behavior is often shaped by those
who deliberately use sophisticated marketing techniques.
The present book provides a complete and profound view of political
marketing. Apart from instructing readers how to use the research tools of
political marketing, it teaches them to understand social and political reality
and encourages them to participate in shaping this reality. This is especially
important for well-established as well as emerging democracies, in which
the dynamic development of information technology, resulting in the devel-

ix
x INTRODUCTION

opment of the Internet and new technologies used for wireless multimedia
transmission and increasingly available to ordinary people, is creating a new
information society. The rapid development of the media and the possibility
of reaching each person with information encourage individuals to construct
in their minds a certain way of perceiving the surrounding reality.
One might wonder then who may be interested in such constructing. In the
first place, it is managers responsible for marketing strategies in business and
also political marketing consultants. The first group uses the achievements of
modern social science for influencing customer behavior, whereas the other
group uses them for influencing voter behavior. The increasingly sophisti-
cated promotional campaigns used by both groups influence the cognitive and
emotional spheres of the voters, creating a certain image of reality in their
minds. In this way voters become puppets in the hands of the manager who,
by controlling their behavior, is limiting their freedom.
The content of the book is put within the theoretical framework of social
psychology with particular emphasis on cognitive-emotional processes. Such
an approach is especially important in creating the flexibility of the political
campaign consultant not only in using the market research tools discussed
in detail in this book, but also in creating and controlling the surrounding
social reality.
The first chapter presents political marketing as a separate discipline and
analyzes current definitions of the field, which leads to proposing our own,
original definition of this domain of research in theory and practice. The
second chapter introduces an advanced theory of political marketing in the
context of existing models. The third chapter is devoted to the marketing
tools of segmentation of the voting market and positioning of parties and
politicians. Special attention is paid to three positioning methods, the first
one based on triangulation, the second on the associative affinity index, and
the third on contrast theory of similarity. The following four chapters discuss
in detail particular problems related to candidate image, direct campaigns,
debates, permanent campaigns, and maintaining relationship with voters. The
final, eighth, chapter is a special one. It undertakes the problem of democracy
and freedom of citizens which, in a sense, is limited as a result of advanced
marketing strategies used to convince voters to vote for a particular political
option. It seems that the only way to eliminate such paradoxes is through social
education. The increase of political awareness and the popularization of the
knowledge of economy and law should ensure that an increasing number of
those entitled to vote will start making rational political choices. Populariza-
tion of political marketing will, on the one hand, equalize the election chances
of all political subjects on the scene and, on the other hand, lead to citizens’
becoming less enslaved and manipulated.
 INTRODUCTION xi

The book is aimed not only at students and researchers working in market-
ing, business, and political sciences. It is also aimed at psychologists, sociolo-
gists, and those who are professional in the humanities. It can certainly be
helpful to consultants working on political campaigns as well as politicians
who would better understand their chances of success or failure.
The completion of this book would not have been possible without the
support and constructive editing of several people. We first want to thank
Harry Briggs, executive editor at M.E. Sharpe. Harry served as a guiding light
throughout the process, providing necessary feedback and excellent leadership.
It should be noted that Harry served as the editor on two previous books on
political marketing, dating back to 1994, a clear indication of his foresight
in the promise of the field. We also want to thank Andrzej Antoszek from
Catholic University of Lublin for his careful reading of the manuscript that
proved to be invaluable. Furthermore, we want to thank several colleagues for
their contribution to the field of political marketing. They organized confer-
ences and wrote important articles and books, all of which had an influence
on the subjects and problems we addressed in our book: they include Costa
Gouliamos from European University, Cyprus; Phil Harris from University
of Chester, England; Stephan Hennebergu from University of Manchester,
Manchester Business School, England; Nicholas O’Shaughnessy from Queen
Mary University of London; Paul Baines from Cranfield University, England;
Dominic Wring from Loughborough University, England; Dennis Johnson
from George Washington University, United States; and Wayne Steger from
DePaul University, United States. We want to thank Yuanyun Peng (Ella)
from DePaul University for her help with the proofreading of each draft of
the manuscript. We want to also thank the administrative and editorial staff
at M.E. Sharpe for their support of this project. Finally, we thank our families
for their continued love and their support of our professional lives.
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Political
Marketing
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 1
Metatheory in Social Science
and Political Marketing

Theory development in political marketing has borrowed from several different

social science disciplines. At the very heart of this pursuit is the understand-
ing of human behavior that encompasses the various activities involved in
political marketing. The sum total of those activities is put forward in the
following definition of political marketing: “the applications of marketing
principles and procedures in political campaigns by various individuals and
organizations. The procedures involved include the analysis, development,
execution and management of strategic campaigns by candidates, political
parties, governments, lobbyists and interest groups that seek to drive public
opinion, advance their own ideologies, win elections and pass legislation and
referenda in response to the needs and wants of selected people and groups
in society” (Newman 1999a, xiii).

Metatheory in Social Science

The various activities that encompass the human behaviors related to political
marketing will be analyzed in this book in an effort to understand how democ-
racies around the world use these methods to accomplish the many political
goals that allow a society to increase the quality of life for its citizens. The
theorists from the different social science disciplines that we have borrowed
from all approach theory development in a slightly different way, with each
approach unique to the study of activities that pertain to the human behavior
in question. However, it is possible to study the contribution of a theory in
social science by outlining the various functions that theory serves into four
different categories: integration, description, delimitation, and generation
(see Howard and Sheth 1969; Rychlak 1968). Each of these functions will be
described and used to evaluate how a theory in political marketing should be

3
4 CHAPTER 1

developed to better understand the technopolitical shift that has taken place
in democracies around the world over the past twenty years.

The Integrative Function

One of the most important parts of theory development in the social sciences
is the integration of constructs, propositions, and existing models that seek
to explain the phenomenon in question. Perhaps the most important function
to use to test a theory in political marketing is its ability to bring together the
various constructs that define a discipline made up of two different worlds:
politics and marketing. We find ourselves at a very exciting stage of theoretical
development in the field of political marketing where scholars from around
the world are contributing to the knowledge base of the field on a regular
basis (see Journal of Political Marketing, published by Taylor & Francis,
in its eighth year in 2009). It is not surprising that the research most widely
referenced in the field is from two disciplines: political science and market-
ing. However, it is fair to say that scholars have borrowed from many other
disciplines to explain the very wide range of human behaviors that make up
the field of political marketing, including, but not limited to, cognitive and
social psychology, sociology, advertising, cultural anthropology, economics,
management, and political management. Each of these different disciplines
seeks to explain and predict the behavior of the many actors involved in the
functioning of democracies.
We believe the theoretical structure put forward in this book pulls together
the relevant empirical and conceptual findings in several different disciplines
that have been tapped to contribute to the current thinking in the field. This
statement is made with an understanding that theoretical developments have
come from disciplines in democracies around the world. Furthermore, it ac-
knowledges the importance that must be placed on developing theory from
empirical works that allow us to bridge the global network of democracies
that rely on similar constructs to understand the thinking and actions of the
voter in society (Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2008).

The Descriptive Function

Like other theories in the social sciences, theory in political marketing should
be explained by the integration of constructs and propositions that allow one
to get an understanding of the human behavior in question. Key to describing
the central constructs of the theory in this discipline is the ability to integrate
the environmental forces that play a role in shaping the behaviors in question.
Because the phenomenon in question can have global idiosyncratic charac-
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 5

teristics, it is critically important in the description of theory in this field to

account for the broad commonalities that do exist in all democracies around
the world. This is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the work presented
in this book, which to date has not been accomplished by any other scholar
in the field.
We believe the theoretical contribution made in this book moves the field
forward because human political behaviors around the world do have many
features in common, but at the same time have some unique features. For
example, some democracies are driven by governments as opposed to political
parties. In other words, governments are so powerful that they are able to pick
and choose the political party that is in charge of day-to-day operations of the
society. At the same time, in some democracies individual politicians may be
put in power without the consent of the government, or a political party may
gain control through the sheer power of money and advertising that are used
to drive the choice of candidates. Furthermore, it has been well established
in the field that the set of activities and actors may vary or stay the same as a
democracy moves from precampaign, to campaign, to postcampaign status.
Finally, the actual use of marketing tools and strategies can also have a differ-
ential impact on the outcome of campaigns depending on the democracy being
studied. It is therefore imperative that a theory be developed that describes
and accounts for all the conditions that might impinge on the uniqueness of
a democracy. We believe our theory can be used to fully describe the human
behavior we are studying.

The Delimiting Function

In light of the fact that theory in the social sciences must be limited to a selec-
tion of constructs that describe the phenomenon from a specific vantage point,
and the fact that we are attempting to provide a theory that has a global reach,
the selection of constructs is very important (see Figure 2.6 in Chapter 2). Our
goal in this book is not to attempt to explain the unique features of political
marketing in each and every democracy around the world, but rather to present
an array of constructs and propositions that can give meaning to the common
human behaviors and activities that cut across the discipline. The question then
arises how we went about selecting those constructs that could give meaning
to anyone who might have an interest in this phenomenon around the world.
The best answer to this question lies in the fact that we relied on both empirical
and conceptual works in the development of our theoretical linkages.
By definition, the field of political marketing is an applied science that
relies on the application of constructs that are measured in paper-and-pencil
questionnaires. Yes, these measurements come from models and conceptual
6 CHAPTER 1

frameworks that fit into the phenomenon being studied. Therefore, it is quite

possible that the selection of constructs (from empirical studies) in our theory
may be limited to the execution of the research carried out and reported in
the literature. We are naturally constrained by the relationships that show
statistical significance in the reporting of results, and by the modeling that
is developed from these research studies. It must also be recognized that
there may be constructs that should be included in our theory, but because
they cannot be measured, we are limited to their exclusion. This is the nature
of an applied discipline and naturally delimits the choice of constructs that
describe and explain the phenomenon in question. As the methodological
sophistication of a discipline advances through multivariate statistical test-
ing, it becomes possible for theorists to use more rigorous tests to validate
the meaning of the constructs and their relationships. Ultimately, it is the
ability to predict the human behaviors in question that allows us to extract
meaningful explanations and ultimately a choice of constructs to use in our
theory. We are of the opinion that we have successfully selected out those
constructs that delimit the field.

The Generative Function

The ability to test a theory, and parts of it, is a measure of the generative
function. In the social sciences, testing hypotheses that are generated from
theory is one measure of the richness of the thinking. The development of
our theory in this book is based on preexisting models, some of which have
been tested across people, time, and places. However, we have gone a step
beyond the traditional thinking in the field by expanding the phenomenon
to be tested across global boundaries. For example, we have borrowed from
models that have been conceptualized in one country, but never tested. We
also have borrowed from some models that have been operationalized in
selected democracies, but not in others. Finally, we have also borrowed from
conceptual frameworks that have not been tested, but have been compared
between countries.
It is our goal to generate much thinking and research from scholars around
the world on the subject of political marketing. We expect that to happen
because the theory provides for an unlimited number of relationships that
could exist between constructs in the model (see Figure 2.6 in Chapter 2). For
example, it will be very interesting to see how the strategic use of social net-
working moves from the United States (as witnessed in the Obama campaign
of 2008) to other democracies around the world as the Internet becomes more
popular and more economical to use compared with traditional communication
tools, such as television advertising. We also expect to see some very interest-
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 7

ing research carried out longitudinally within democracies from precampaign

to campaign to postcampaign as constructs are more clearly delineated and
able to be measured by researchers. This function should serve to advance
the field of political marketing in a significant way, and we believe that the
theoretical propositions put forward will serve to do that well.

Political Marketing as a Separate Discipline of Science

and Practice

Politicians are in the business of selling hope to people. This hope is related
to convincing people that it is this particular politician or political party that
guarantees, as Jenny Lloyd (2005) puts it, successful management of national
security, social stability, and economic growth on behalf of the electorate.
From this perspective, the major challenge to political marketing is to connect
a politician’s words, actions, and vision into a realistic transformation of the
electorate’s dreams and aspirations (Newman 1994).
According to Stephen Dann, Phil Harris, and their collaborators (2007),
political marketing faces four main challenges. First, we need to turn political
marketing into political marketing science. Implementing this goal requires,
above all, developing background research and core datasets to utilize for
constructing advanced insights into the political marketing process. Second,
political marketing needs to be modernized. The research agenda for market-
ers and academics is to test the applicability of the principles in the context of
the local political system so as to identify independent and nation-dependent
political marketing strategies and campaigns. This step is necessary to develop
a general theory of political marketing. Third, we need to define the relations
between political marketing, lobbying, and government. Fourth, any theory of
political marketing should include changes taking place in modern democracies,
especially the shift from citizenship to spectatorship, and assess and point new
ways to increase citizen involvement.
Paraphrasing the words of Phil Harris and Patricia Rees (2000, 368), “po-
litical marketing needs to regenerate itself and not fear change or ambiguity
in its quest to seek the truth. It needs to avoid shibboleths, false and unarmed
prophets, learn from history and show passion and courage or be deemed beyond
redemption.”

Mainstream and Political Marketing

The first conceptualizing efforts related to political marketing referred to or

represented the transferring of classical product marketing to the plane of
politics (e.g., Farrell and Wortmann 1987; Kotler 1975; Niffenegger 1988;
8 CHAPTER 1

Shama 1975), defined by Stephan C. Henneberg (2003) as “instrumental”

or “managerial” interpretation of political marketing activities. The starting
point for this approach was the assumption that it would be a gross mistake
to think that election campaigns have taken on marketing character only in
recent years. Campaigning for office has always had a marketing character,
and what has only increased in the course of time is the sophistication and
acceleration of the use of marketing methods in politics (Kotler 1975; Kotler
and Kotler 1999). From this perspective, political marketing was defined as
“the process by which political candidates and ideas are directed at the vot-
ers in order to satisfy their political needs and thus gain their support for the
candidate and ideas in question” (Shama 1975, 793). Applying mainstream
marketing to politics was justified by a number of similarities—similarities
of concepts (e.g., consumers, market segmentation, marketing mix, image,
brand loyalty, product concept and positioning) and similarities of tools (e.g.,
market research, communication, and advertising). On the other hand, attempts
were made to prove that the differences between marketing and politics were
only ostensible and that they disappeared under a more thorough analysis (see
Egan 1999; Kotler 1975).
One of the consequences of identifying political marketing as product mar-
keting was that candidates or political parties often were compared to particular
consumer products, such as toothpaste or a bar of soap, and the media played an
important part in popularizing that myth. As Philip Kotler and Sidney Levy (1969,
10) state, “political contests remind us that candidates are marketed as well as
soap.” However, as Alex Marland (2003) demonstrates, such comparisons are
outdated and hardly appropriate in modern political marketing. The notion that
parties and candidates can be promoted in the same manner as soap has become
the mechanism for decrying the side effects of political marketing. This outdated
axiom still continues to be used by political actors and observers alike. The “sell-
ing soap” analogy presumes that candidates are sold with a selling concept rather
than promoted within a marketing concept. According to Marland (2003, 106),
“only amateur, underfunded, and small-scale election campaign teams are still
involved in a selling concept.” Candidates are not “sold”; they are “marketed,”
as are realtors (i.e., real estate agents) and other service providers.
This idea is also strongly emphasized by Nicholas O’Shaughnessy (1987,
63): “politics deals with a person, not a product.” Rather, politicians should be
treated as vendors hired for a particular period of time—like doctors or lawyers.
In other words, political marketing is mainly concerned with people and
their relationships with each other, whereas mainstream marketing is often
concerned with people’s interaction with products. Therefore, attitude and
impression formation in reference to political candidates also has a number
of characteristics distinguishing it from consumer brands. The results of a
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 9

series of psychological experiments conducted by Sarah Hampson, Oliver

John, and Lewis Goldberg (1986) suggest that category membership is fuzzier
with persons than in the domain of natural objects. It means, for instance,
that the category “politician” is more blurred or less unequivocal than the
category “soft drink.” There are many more features politicians are character-
ized by and the associations with them are less predictable than those with
the category of products. Furthermore, the results of neuropsychological
research suggest that different brain regions are activated during forming
impressions of people and inanimate objects (Mitchell, Macrae, and Banaji
2005). Also, Geeta Menon and Gita Johar (1997) demonstrate that judgments
related to nonsocial product experiences trigger processes that are different
from those established for social stimuli. Product experiences are inherently
less ambiguous than personal experiences, thereby entailing more concrete
and less self-referent processing. Judgments of social stimuli (e.g., person,
party) are likely to depend on inferred, abstract information (e.g., traits);
whereas judgments of nonsocial stimuli (e.g., products) are likely to depend
on concrete attributes, which, in turn, leads to the manifestation of positiv-
ity effects (tendency to recall positive experiences from the past rather than
negative ones) in personal but not product experiences. Menon and Johar
(1997) suggest then that consumer researchers need to be cautious when ap-
plying knowledge of structure and processes dealing with person memory to
the domain of products. Furthermore, the results of John Lastovicka and E.H.
Bonfield’s research (1982) suggest that although consumers are likely to hold
attitudes about a politician’s stands on familiar social and political issues,
attitudes are less likely to be held about familiar branded products, since, in
general, consumer products are less involving than social issues.
The above differences suggest that identifying political candidates with
consumer brands may lead to errors if mainstream marketing knowledge is
directly applied to politics. It does not mean, though, that there are no similari-
ties between these two concepts, but that the differences stress the specificity
of human reactions to political objects as opposed to consumer goods. Accord-
ing to Bruce Newman (1994), in reality the candidate is rather like a service
provider, whereas parties can be compared with service-providing companies
(see also Bauer, Huber, and Herrmann 1996). From this perspective, candidates
offer a service to their voters, much in the same way that insurance agents
offer a service to their consumers. In this case, the insurance policy becomes
the product sold by the agent. Therefore, to convey the impression that the
marketing of candidates is similar to traditional fast-moving consumer goods
marketing is to oversimplify and minimize the uniqueness of the marketing
application to politics.
First of all, as Newman (1994) proves, consumption of soap does not
10 CHAPTER 1

require nearly as much time and effort in a consumer’s decision to buy one
brand over another as a voter spends when deciding to cast a ballot for a
candidate. As a result, a buyer of soap will be less involved in the acquisition
of information than is a voter. Second, by taking note that a candidate really
is a service provider, the distinction between campaigning and governing
becomes clearer. The actual delivery of a service that candidates offer to the
voter does not occur until they begin to govern. Finally, candidates operate in
a dynamic environment—fast, changing, and full of obstacles—which pres-
ent marketing challenges that require flexibility. Like corporations around
the world that alter their services to respond to more demanding consumers
in the commercial marketplace, candidates have to respond to the fast-paced
changes that take place in the political marketplace (Newman 1994). From
the perspective of service marketing, G. Lynn Shostack (1977, 79) presents
a similar idea: “services are often inextricably entwined with their human
representatives. In many fields, a person is perceived to be the service.”

Service Marketing and Political Marketing

These clearly defined differences between political and product marketing

suggest that political marketing may have much more in common with ser-
vice and nonprofit organizations marketing than with product marketing (see
Kotler and Andreasen 1991; Lloyd 2005; Scammell 1999). This approach is
defined by Henneberg (2003) as “functional” marketing analysis of political
management. Service marketing incorporates a whole host of strategic issues
that are not applicable in the marketing of products because services have
unique characteristics that products do not have. According to Stephen Vargo
and Robert Lusch (2004, 2), services may be defined as “the application of
specialized competences (knowledge and skills) through deeds, processes, and
performances for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself.” Services
are intangible (no physical product is exchanged and repeat purchases may
be based on reputation and recollection of previous services), heterogeneous
(the provision of services is variable—depending on the service provider, the
quality of the service can vary), perishable (they are instantaneous and cannot
be stored for any length of time), and inseparable (service requires the pres-
ence of the producer, and its production often takes place at the same time
as consumption—either partial or full), nonstandardized (there is difficulty
in consistency of service delivery), and they have no owner (customers have
access to but not ownership of service activity or facility) (see Berry 1980;
Kearsey and Varey 1998). These characteristics can be referred, to a large
extent, to the area of politics (Butler and Collins 1994; Lloyd 2005).
The service-centered view of marketing perceives marketing as a continu-
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 11

ous learning process. From this perspective, according to Vargo and Lusch
(2004), the application of specialized skills and knowledge is the fundamental
unit of exchange. Thus, people exchange to acquire the benefits of specialized
competences or services, and not for specific goods. The service-centered
view of marketing is customer-centric and market-driven. This means col-
laborating with and learning from customers and adapting to their individual,
dynamic needs. In consequence, “value” is defined by and co-created with
the consumer rather than embedded in particular products. In other words,
value is perceived and determined by consumers on the basis of “value in
use”—the result of the transformation of “matter” into a state from which
they could satisfy their desires. The enterprise can only offer a value proposi-
tion, and goods are simply a distribution mechanism from service provision
(Vargo and Lusch 2004).
These unique service features result in specific marketing problems that
need to be resolved by marketing strategists. According to Valerie Zeithaml, A.
Parasuraman, and Leonard Berry (1985), these strategies involve, especially,
using personal communication (word-of-mouth) tools more than nonpersonal
and engaging in postpurchase communications. Furthermore, it is necessary
to create a strong organizational or corporate image and not only a particular
brand or brand family image. Due to inseparability of service production and
consumption, it is necessary then to focus on selection and training of public
contact personnel and use multisite locations of providers.
This approach is developed with the concept of perceived service quality
(Boulding et al. 1993; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985), relationship
marketing (Grönroos 1994, 1998; Gummesson 2002), and customer relation-
ship management (Boulding et al. 2005; Payne and Frow 2005). Christian
Grönroos (1998) introduced the concept of “interactive marketing function”
to cover the marketing impact on the customer during the consumption of
usage process, where the consumer of a service typically interacts with sys-
tems, physical resources, and employees of the service provider. From this
perspective, the goal of a company (and political party or candidate too) is
to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other
partners (voters and other political power brokers), at a profit, so that the
objectives of the parties involved are met. This goal is achieved by a mutual
exchange. Thus, according to Grönroos (1996), three important strategic is-
sues of the relationship marketing approach are (1) to redefine business as a
service business; (2) to look at the organization from a process management
perspective and not from a functionalistic perspective; and (3) to establish
partnerships and a network in order to be able to handle the whole service
process. Three tactical elements correspond to these three strategies: (1)
seeking direct contacts with customers and other stakeholders; (2) build-
12 CHAPTER 1

ing a database covering information about customers; and (3) developing a

customer-oriented service system.
Grönroos (1997) believes that in every market situation latent relationships
always exist and that either the firm or the customer, or both, may choose to
activate that latent relationship, depending on their strategies, needs, wishes,
and expectations, or choose not to do it. Individual and organizational cus-
tomers can thus be seen as interested in either a relational (active or passive)
or transactional contact with firms. Consumers in an active relational mode
seek contact, whereas consumers in a passive mode are satisfied with un-
derstanding that the firm is available if needed. In addition, from the firm’s
perspective, the main thing is not whether a relational strategy is possible or
not, but whether a firm finds it profitable and suitable to develop a relational
strategy or a transactional strategy. These four modes of consumers (active
and passive relational and transactional) and two types of firm marketing
efforts (relational and transactional intent/strategy) can be combined into a
relationship configuration matrix. Consumer transactional intent independent
of the strategies adopted by a company leads to the exchange of product for
money, because this creates the value the customers are looking for. In fact,
anything else would be a waste of effort. Then, if the consumers are in rela-
tional mode (active or passive), they are looking for something in addition to
the product to satisfy their value needs. This value goes beyond the product.
But if a company adopts a relational strategy, the customer may engage in a
long-term relationship.
From this perspective, an integral element of the relationship marketing
(but also political marketing) approach is the “promise concept.” The key
functions related to it are giving promises, fulfilling promises, and enabling
promises. A firm that is preoccupied with giving promises may attract new
customers and initially build relationships. However, if promises are not kept,
the evolving relationship cannot be maintained and enhanced. Therefore, an
important element of building stable relations is trust, which is a willingness
to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (Grönroos 1994).
This belief in the partner’s trustworthiness results from his or her expertise,
reliability, and intentionality. In the commitment-trust theory of relationship
marketing, Robert Morgan and Shelby Hunt (1994) claim that trust is central
to all relational exchanges in relationship marketing with suppliers, internal
partners, buyers, and lateral partners (competitors, government, and nonprofit
organizations). It is also the foundation of developing relationship commit-
ment, where an exchange partner believes “that an ongoing relationship with
another is so important as to warrant maximum efforts at maintaining it”; that
is, the “committed party believes the relationship is worth working on to ensure
that it endures indefinitely” (23). This commitment has three basic aspects
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 13

referring to behavior, affect, and time (San Martín, Gutiérrez, and Camarero
2004). The behavioral dimension of commitment refers to the repeat buying
and loyalty of consumers and their investment in the relationship. The affec-
tive dimension indicates the extent to which each partner wishes to maintain
relations with the other, and the temporal dimension refers to the desire for
continuity in the relationship and stability through time.
In the political market, Bauer, Huber, and Herrmann (1996, 156) stress
that “when referring to a political party as an association of citizens, it is
important to remember that according to the parties’ view of themselves,
their services have no ‘consumers.’ Instead, the parties’ efforts are aimed at
inducing citizens to put their political ideologies into practice in every aspect
of their daily lives.” These authors emphasize that one of the major strategies
used by political parties to win support should be reducing voters’ risk and
uncertainty by gaining their trust and developing one’s reputation.
However, these clear similarities between service and political market-
ing do not mean that they are identical. As elements distinguishing political
marketing, Lloyd (2005) suggests the following: (1) political outcomes are
standardized at the point of “production,” whereas variations arise from the
way they are perceived, based upon electors’ experiences and expectations; (2)
political outcomes may refer to individuals or groups and they either function
independently or sum up; and (3) voters are stakeholders in the resources that
create political outcomes.
Besides, it seems that most contemporary voters demonstrate, to use Grön-
roos’s terminology (1997), passive relational mode, and in most cases they
are in transactional mode. It is represented by such phenomena as low elec-
tion turnout, growing cynicism of citizens toward politics and politicians, and
voters failing to identify with particular parties (see Cwalina, Falkowski, and
Newman 2008). In this way, citizens no longer seek to develop long and stable
relationships with parties. They are rather focused on a short-term perspective.
The consequence is candidates’ and parties’ adopting of a transactional strategy:
“Vote for us now; what is going to happen later is difficult to predict.”

Political Marketing: A Definition

Despite many similarities between political marketing and mainstream

(product, service, not-for-profit, and relationship) marketing, identifying
them cannot be justified. In order to understand the specificity of marketing
actions in politics, one should take a closer look at the differences between
mainstream and political marketing. A detailed analysis was conducted by
Andrew Lock and Phil Harris (1996), who point out seven major differences
between the two spheres.
14 CHAPTER 1

First, those eligible to vote always choose their candidate or political party
on the same day that the voting takes place. Consumers, on the other hand,
can purchase their products at different times, depending on their needs and
purchasing power. Very seldom do the majority of consumers simultaneously
want to purchase a certain product. Besides, although one can talk about
similarities between opinion polls and tracking measures, the latter often
refer to the purchasing decisions that have already been taken, unlike poll
questions referring to the future and unknown reality. Besides, declaration of
support for political parties is often accompanied by what Elisabeth Noelle-
Neumann (1974, 1977) calls a “spiral of silence.” It is related to the fact that
some voters are ashamed to reveal their actual political views or preferences.
They subject themselves to some form of self-censorship by trying to hide
their actual views, although still following them. In this way, their responses
included in a poll may be congruent with the responses of the majority (for
instance, support for a particular political party), but their behaviors will be
congruent with their beliefs (for instance, voting for a completely different
political party). The phenomenon of the “spiral of silence” may be one of the
explanations of “unexpected” election successes of particular political parties
that are heavily criticized in the media. In such cases people seem to follow
the rule that it is better to say nothing at all or not to tell the truth rather than
get exposed to social isolation and scorn (see Price and Allen 1990).
Second, while the consumer purchasing a product always knows its price—
the value expressed in financial terms—for voters there is no price attached to
their ability to make a voting decision. Making a voting decision may be the
result of analyzing and predicting the consequences of this decision, which
can be considered as possible losses and gains in the long-term perspective
between elections. In this respect, there is great similarity between postpur-
chase behavior and voting behavior. In both cases, one may regret taking a
particular decision; the product one purchased or the candidate one chose
might not meet the expectations of the customer or voter. Of course, one may
also feel satisfaction after making a decision. However, it seems that such a
state is much more often experienced by customers than voters. Besides, it
would be odd if, before going to the polls, voters were informed how much
they need to pay to be able to choose a party or a politician, while it is natural
that such a price be attached to consumer products.
Third, voters realize that the choice is collective and that they must ac-
cept the final voting result even if it goes against their voting preference.
Geoffrey Brennan and James Buchanan (1984) even claim that the relation
between how an individual voter votes and the final result of the election is
hardly relevant. What is really important is the distribution of support across
the whole society. In other words, this is a social rather than an individual
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 15

choice. This is very different from consumer choices, where the purchasing
decision is independent of the attitude toward a given product that other
consumers may have.
Fourth, winner takes all in political elections. This is the case in first-past-
the-post elections. The closest equivalent to commercial marketing in this
case would be gaining a monopoly on the market.
Fifth, the political party or candidate is a complex, intangible product that
the voter cannot unpack to see what is inside. Although in commercial mar-
keting there are also products and services that the consumer cannot unpack
and check while buying them, the proportion of such packages that cannot
be unpacked is much greater in the political market. Besides, consumers may
change their minds and exchange products or services almost immediately for
others, if they do not like the ones that they have purchased; such exchanges
may be quite expensive, though. If voters decide to change their minds, they
have to wait till the next election, at least a few years.
Sixth, introducing a new brand in the form of a political party is quite dif-
ficult and always remote in time. Furthermore, it always takes place only at
the national level. There are many short-lived parties (in Poland, for instance:
Center Agreement, Liberal-Democratic Congress, and Solidarity Election
Action). Furthermore, in politics there are no supranational parties, although
there are transnational groupings in the European Parliament, for instance.
In commercial marketing, on the other hand, there are many brands that
have acquired international status, including the supermarket chain Géant,
for instance, which is present in many European countries, or the Coca-Cola
company, which is represented all over the world.
Seventh, in mainstream marketing, brand leaders tend to stay in front. In
political marketing, many political parties begin to lose support in public
opinion polls after winning the election, because the new ruling party often
makes decisions that are not well received by various social groups (e.g.,
unfavorable budget decisions or tax increases).
In addition, Newman (1994) points out further differences between main-
stream and political marketing, stressing that in business the ultimate goal is
financial success, whereas in politics it is strengthening democracy through
voting processes. Using various marketing strategies in economic practice is
the result of conducting market research that promises satisfactory financial
profits. In politics, on the other hand, a candidate’s own philosophy often
influences the scope of marketing strategies. This means that although mar-
keting research may suggest that a politician’s chances will improve if she
concentrates on particular political or economic issues, she does not have to
follow these suggestions if her own conception of political reality is incon-
gruent with these issues. The distinguishing feature of political marketing is
16 CHAPTER 1

continuous and increasing use of negative advertising, attacking directly rival

political candidates (O’Shaughnessy 1987).
Then, Paul Baines, Ross Brennan, and John Egan (2003) emphasize that in
the political market, the key form of transaction is the election, which occurs
infrequently and does not constitute a legal contract between the “buyer” and
the “seller.” The most tangible product is the electoral manifesto, but voters
have yet to sue their elected representatives for failing to deliver on manifesto
promises. It is not clear what price the voters are paying, nor what product they
are buying. Furthermore, oligopoly and monopolistic competition predict a
high degree of sunk cost expenditure for corporate communications because
prices are particularly rigid and firms prefer to compete by almost any other
means (notably advertising and sales promotion). In the political market, the
very notion of price competition is problematic, so that nonprice competition
becomes particularly important.
The differences between mainstream and political marketing are big enough
to make one think about developing an independent concept for studying vot-
ing behaviors. And despite the fact that, as Lock and Harris (1996) conclude,
political marketing is at a “craft” stage, the assumption that there is direct trans-
ferability of mainstream marketing theory to political marketing is question-
able. They claim that political marketing has to develop its own frameworks
by adapting the core marketing literature and develop its own predictive and
prescriptive models (see also Dann et al. 2007; Henneberg 2008).
Newman (1994) believes that the key concept for political marketing is the
concept of “exchange.” When applying marketing to politics, the exchange
process centers on a candidate who offers political leadership in exchange for
a vote from the citizen. In other words, when voters cast their votes, a transac-
tion takes place. They are engaged in an exchange of time and support (their
vote) for the services that the party or candidate offers after election through
better government. Aron O’Cass (1996, 38) believes then that “marketing is
applicable to political processes as a transaction occurs and is specifically
concerned with how transactions are created, stimulated and valued.” In this
way, marketing offers political parties and candidates the ability to address
diverse voter concerns and needs through marketing analyses, planning,
implementation, and control of political and electoral campaigns. According
to Dominic Wring (1997, 653), political marketing is “the party or candidate’s
use of opinion research and environmental analysis to produce and promote a
competitive offering which will help realize organizational aims and satisfy
groups of electors in exchange for their votes.”
Baines, Brennan, and Egan (2003) propose a multipart definition of political
marketing. It is the means by which the political organization (1) communi-
cates its messages, targeted or untargeted, directly or indirectly, to its support-
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 17

ers and other electors; (2) develops credibility and trust with supporters, other
electors, and other external sources to enable the organization to raise finances
and to develop and maintain local and national management structures; (3)
interacts with and responds to supporters, influencers, legislators, competi-
tors, and the general public in the development and adaptation of policies
and strategies; (4) delivers to all stakeholders, by means of diverse media,
the level of information, advice, and leadership expected and/or required in
a social-democratic state; (5) provides training, information resources, and
campaign material for candidates, agents, marketers, and/or other local party
activists; and (6) attempts to influence and encourage voters, the media, and
other important influencers to support the organization’s candidates and/or
to refrain from supporting the competition.
The emphasis on the processes of election exchanges cannot obscure the
fact that political marketing is not limited only to the period of the election
campaign. In the era of the permanent campaign, in reality there is no clear
difference between the period directly before the election and the rest of the
political calendar (Harris 2001a; Newman 1999c). Governing between and in
the period of election campaign secures politicians’ legitimacy by stratagems
that enhance their credibility (Nimmo 1999). Taking this into consideration,
Lock and Harris (1996, 21) define political marketing as “a discipline, the
study of the processes of exchanges between political entities and their envi-
ronment and among themselves, with particular reference to the positioning of
those entities and their communications. Government and the legislature exist
both as exogenous regulators of these processes and as entities within them.”
Political marketing should thus have strong emphasis on long-term interac-
tive relationships rather than simple exchange. It should also focus on party
allegiance, electoral volatility, civic duty, government quality, responsible
legislating, or new public management (Bauer, Huber, and Herrmann 1996;
Butler and Collins 1999; Collins and Butler 2003; Lees-Marshment 2003).
Based on these differences and similarities between mainstream and
political marketing and the concepts proposed so far, we propose our own
definition of political marketing: “the processes of exchanges and establish-
ing, maintaining, and enhancing relationships among objects in the political
market (politicians, political parties, voters, interests groups, institutions),
whose goal is to identify and satisfy their needs and develop political leader-
ship” (Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2009, 70).

Political Marketing Orientation

Together with the development of political marketing and the changes in the
voter market, there also took place the evolution of the marketing approach to
18 CHAPTER 1

political campaigns. Newman (1994) discusses in four stages how American

presidential campaigns have gone from organizations run by party bosses (the
party concept) to organizations that have only one goal: to find the best possible
candidate to represent the party (the product concept). Next, the organization
shifts from an internally to an externally driven operation (i.e., focus on the
voter’s reaction to the candidate—the selling concept) to an organization run
by marketing experts. This type of organization identifies voters’ needs and
then develops political platforms to meet those needs (the marketing concept).
The evolution of the marketing concept is depicted in Figure 1.1.
In the party concept the organization has internal focus, which means that it
is operated on information generated from the people within the organization
and run by party bosses whose only allegiance is to the political party. Grass-
roots efforts to get the vote out are at the heart of the power of the political
party. The candidates have no choice but to rely on the party bosses within
the organization in order to become slated as a nominee. The party concept
in political elections was the leading element of voting strategies in former
communist countries of Eastern Europe. Any characteristics that were not
congruent with the party’s political profile destroyed the candidate’s electoral
chances. Any departures from the party’s line were treated as manifestations
of disloyalty and usually led to the immediate removal of the politician from
office. However, one may have the impression that the majority of Polish vot-
ing campaigns are still based on the party way of management. In the United
States, presidential elections up through the Eisenhower presidency featured
campaign organizations that also followed the party concept.
In time, however, attention shifted from the party to the candidate represent-
ing it. The major effort during political campaigns no longer focuses on the
party’s ideology. Although candidates are usually put up by a particular party,
it is their own characteristics that are important for wielding power, and these
are emphasized in the electoral strategy. They include, for instance, compe-
tence or an ability to run the country’s economic policy. This shift was caused
by the decline in the number of people who considered themselves partisans
and the increase in the number who considered themselves independents (see,
e.g., Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2008; Hayes and McAllister 1996;
Holbrook 1996; Wattenberg 1991).
Marketing has developed the notion of product concept that stresses the
importance of manufacturing a quality product. For example, Henry Ford went
into manufacturing the Model T Ford with only one idea in mind: to build a
quality automobile. Likewise, in politics, the product concept would apply
to campaign organizations that have only one goal: to find the best possible
candidate to represent the party. In contrast to the party concept in which al-
legiance is to the party, here it is directed to the candidate.
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 19

Figure 1.1 The Evolution of the Marketing Concept

MARKETING CONCEPT

SELLING CONCEPT

PRODUCT CONCEPT

PARTY CONCEPT
An internally driven organization
run by the party bosses and
centered on the political party

An internally driven organization run by Washington

insiders and centered on the candidate

An internally driven organization run by Washington

insiders and centered on the candidate

An externally driven organization

run by marketing experts and centered on the voter

Source: Newman (1994, 32).

Note: The focus of the political campaign or organization has evolved. Once centered
on the political party, the political campaign became candidate-centered and then voter-
centered.

The next stage in the evolution of the marketing concept involves a sell-
ing concept in which the focus of the campaign organization shifts from an
internally to an externally driven operation. Here the voter’s reaction to the
candidate’s media appearances becomes critical. However, as with the product
concept, the focus is still on the candidate. The best example of this concept
comes from Joe McGinniss (1969) on the Nixon presidency. McGinnis de-
scribes how great efforts were made to sell Richard Nixon to the electorate
by relying on media experts. Work went into making Nixon look as good as
possible on television by using persuasive appeals in commercials to convince
people to vote for him.
The marketing concept goes a step further by first identifying consumer
needs and then developing products and services to meet those needs. The
marketing concept is based on a very different philosophy than the party
concept, the main difference being that the marketing concept centers on the
voter as the primary focus of the campaign. The delivery of promises once
the candidate begins to govern is also pivotal to the philosophy behind the
marketing concept. In business, to avoid failure and ensure that consumers
20 CHAPTER 1

get what they want, companies must address their needs. This same orienta-
tion can be found in the political marketplace as well and is used to help the
candidate avoid failure and win the election. The marketing concept begins
with the voter, not with the candidate. As in the business world, the marketing
concept dictates what candidates do, and, as in business, candidates want to
create and retain their customers. Several differences between party-driven and
voter-driven campaigns have been described in detail by Newman (1994).
A similar approach to the evolution of marketing in politics was proposed
by Jennifer Lees-Marshment (2001a, 2001b, 2003) for British political par-
ties. She points out three stages, from product-oriented party, to sales-oriented
party, and to market-oriented party.
What is crucial for the specificity of political marketing is defining what
“political product” actually is. Patrick Butler and Neil Collins (1994, 1999)
believe that it can be described as a conglomerate consisting of three parts:
the multicomponent (person/party/ideology) nature of the offer; the signifi-
cant degree of loyalty involved; and the fact that it is mutable—that is, it can
be changed or transformed in the postelection setting. According to Lees-
Marshment (2003, 14–15), a party’s “product” is its behavior that “is ongoing
and offered at all times (not just elections), at all levels of party. The products
include the leadership, MP’s (and candidates), membership, staff, symbols,
constitution, activities such as party conferences and policies.”
According to Newman (1994), the real “political product” is the campaign
platform. It consists of a number of elements, including (1) the general elec-
tion program of the candidate based on the political and economic guidelines
of the party he belongs to or the organization set up for the time of the elec-
tions; (2) his positions on the most important problems appearing during the
campaign; (3) the image of the candidate; (4) his reference to his political
background and the groups of voters supporting him (e.g., labor unions, as-
sociations, NGOs) or the authorities. Such a platform is flexible and evolves
together with the development of the voting campaign and changes in the
voting situation.

Marketing Versus Market Orientation

Kotler and Kotler (1999) state that to be successful, candidates have to

understand their markets—that is, the voters and their basic needs and
aspirations—and the constituencies that the candidates represent or seek to
represent. Marketing orientation means that candidates recognize the nature
of the exchange process when they strive for votes. If a candidate is able to
make promises that match the voters’ needs and is able to fulfill these prom-
ises once in office, then the candidate will increase voter, as well as public,
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 21

satisfaction. It is obvious then that it is the voter who should be the center of
attention during political campaigns.
Philip Kotler and Alan Andreasen (1991) maintain that the difficulty in
transposing marketing into public and nonprofit organizations is a function of
its placement on the continuum from organization-centered (internal) orien-
tation to customer-centered (external) orientation. An organization-centered
orientation counters the organization’s ability to integrate marketing. From
this perspective, marketing is viewed as a marketing mind-set of customer-
centeredness and is seen in organizations that exhibit customer-centeredness
and heavy reliance on research, are biased toward segmentation, define compe-
tition broadly, and have strategies using all elements of the marketing mix.
We want to stress that “marketing orientation” is not the same as “market
orientation.” “Market orientation” refers to acceptance of the importance of
relationships with all stakeholders and aims at being responsive to internal and
external markets in which an organization operates. The emphasis here is on
building and maintaining stakeholder relationships by the entire organization.
Ajay Kohli and Bernard Jaworski (1990, 6) define market orientation as “the
organizationwide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and
future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence across departments,
and organizationwide responsiveness to it.” Furthermore, the responsiveness
component is composed of two sets of activities: response design (i.e., us-
ing market intelligence to develop plans) and response implementation (i.e.,
executing such plans) (Jaworski and Kohli 1993). While this definition of
market orientation is concerned with a specific group of organizational be-
haviors (behavioral approach), John Narver and Stanley Slater (1990, 21; see
also Slater and Narver 1994) define it as “the organizational culture that most
effectively and efficiently creates the necessary behaviors for the creation of
superior value for buyers and, thus, continuous superior performance for the
business.” It consists of three components: customer orientation (understand-
ing one’s target buyers in order to be able to create superior value for them
continuously), competitor orientation (understanding the short-term strengths
and weaknesses and long-term capabilities and strategies of both the key
current and the key potential competitors), and interfunctional coordination
(coordinated utilization of company resources in creating superior value for
target customers). Furthermore, market orientation has primarily a long-term
focus both on the relation to profits and on implementing each of the three
components. For businesses, the overriding objective in market orientation is
profitability. For nonprofit organizations, the analogous objective is survival,
which means earning sufficient revenues to cover long-run expenses and
satisfying all key constituencies in the long run.
With politics, according to Robert P. Ormrod (2006, 113; see also Ormrod
22 CHAPTER 1

2005; Ormrod and Henneberg 2009), political market orientation refers to “all
party members’ responsibility for taking part in both development of policies
and their implementation and communication.” O’Cass (2001) additionally
emphasizes that market orientation is the key mechanism for implementing
the marketing concept, while marketing orientation is the underlying mind-set
or culture of approaching the operations and processes of the organization
through marketing eyes. As such, a marketing orientation is a necessary pre-
requisite for both being market-oriented and adopting the marketing concept.
The essence of marketing is a marketing mind-set of customer-centeredness,
which is fundamentally a marketing orientation.

Market-Driven Versus Market-Driving Orientation

Another important distinction for marketing orientation in politics is juxtapos-

ing market-driven versus market-driving business strategies (see Day 1998;
Hills and Sarin 2003). The aim of a market-driven organization is to possess a
culture that focuses outward on the customer in an attempt to build and sustain
superior customer value. Then, market-driving organizations anticipate the
changing nature of the market in the future and develop strategies to adapt the
organization to ensure long-term success. Hence, a market-driven organiza-
tion is one that aims to satisfy consumers by responding to their needs, which
are derived through market research and market scanning. This suggests that
as a longer-term strategic option, the focus on being market-driven leads to
managerial complacency in that the focus remains on the existing customer
base without being aware of the changing nature of the consumer base in
the future. According to George Day (1994, 45), the objective of market-
driven organization is “to demonstrate a pervasive commitment to a set of
processes, beliefs, and values, reflecting the philosophy that all decisions start
with the customer and are guided by a deep and shared understanding of the
customer’s need and behavior and competitors’ capabilities and intentions,
for the purpose of realizing superior performance by satisfying customers
better than competitors.” The market-driven development process combines
an understanding of the market situation and technological possibilities with
deep insights into customer problems and requirements; it then seeks new
opportunities to deliver superior customer value. Market-driven firms are
not oriented only to the external customer. They give equal emphasis to the
employees who define and deliver the customer value, because employee
satisfaction is closely correlated with customer satisfaction. According to Day
(1998), market-driven firms achieve and sustain this orientation by making
appropriate moves along four interwoven dimensions: (1) values, beliefs, and
behaviors; (2) superior market sensing and customer-linking capabilities; (3)
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 23

strategic thinking processes that build a commitment to superior customer

value proposition; and (4) organization structures, systems, and incentives
that facilitate alignment of all aspects and activities with the market.
In the political marketplace, as Peter Reeves, Leslie de Chernatony and
Marlyn Carrigan (2006) suggest, there is currently a move toward a market-
driven standpoint in that the political parties attempt to design their brands on
the basis of the needs of the electorate through market research and polling
evidence. Political parties also need to be market-driving in predicting and
taking action on longer-term programs that are not immediately important,
but will have longer-term consequences. In other words, successful political
marketing requires a balanced approach. Driving the market or being driven
by it are antagonistic concepts on a continuum, but this is not the case of po-
litical marketing orientation. These two dimensions, as Stephan C. Henneberg
(2006a, 2006b) demonstrates, constitute the specific strategic posture of a
political party and its behavior in the political marketplace: the Relationship
Builder (high in market-driving and high in market-driven), the Convinced
Ideologist (high/low), the Tactical Populist (low/high), and the Political Light-
weight (low/low; in fact it does not participate in the competition).
The Convinced Ideologist (CI) scores high on the leading-scale while its
following capabilities are not fully developed. This posture is characterized by
a clear focal point for policy-making—implementing ideological postulates.
Preferences of voters or opinion shifts are secondary. The CI party concentrates
on persuading and convincing voters to follow its proposals, without, however,
paying too much attention to how they react to those proposals.
The Tactical Populist (TP) party is characterized by following more than
leading. Recognizing the political pulse of the electorate is its most important
strategic aim. Therefore, strategic marketing techniques (microsegmentation
and concentration on marginal seats and swing voters) are applied to ensure
that its political propositions are best fitted to voters’ current needs and
opinions. It requires employing many electoral professionals—consultants,
pollsters, and advisers—and handing over control of the whole campaign to
them (see Baines and Worcester 2000).
The Relationship Builder (RB) party scores relatively high on both dimen-
sions of marketing: leading and following. The political offer is developed
using political marketing concepts while a clear and trustworthy proposition
is created through incorporating brand heritage, such as ideological roots
or long-held overarching political beliefs. Furthermore, the RB party is
focused on long-term relationships with voters and other players from the
political scene.
According to Henneberg (2006a), before and during an election campaign,
political parties modify their postures by increasing emphasis on the following-
24 CHAPTER 1

dimension. But during terms in government, they increase emphasis on the

leading-dimension. However, depending on the situation, the ruling party
may introduce corrective measures or even change its strategic postures, a
shift that is confirmed by the analysis of perceptions of British prime minister
Tony Blair, conducted by Henneberg (2006b). Then, being out of office (e.g.,
in opposition) for a long time increases the likelihood of the adoption of a
TP (or RB) approach.

Candidate and Political Party as a Brand

A brand is a multidimensional construct involving the blending of functional and

emotional values to match consumers’ performance and psychosocial needs. A
brand can be defined as “a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination
of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors” (Kotler
and Keller 2006, 274). One of the goals of branding is to make a brand unique
on dimensions that are both relevant and welcomed by consumers. Success in
a market depends on effective brand differentiation, based on the identifica-
tion, internalization, and communication of unique brand values that are both
pertinent to and desired by consumers (de Chernatony 2001). Therefore, it is
important to understand the content and structure of brand knowledge because
they influence what comes to mind when a consumer thinks about a brand.
Consumer brand knowledge relates to the cognitive representation of the brand.
Consistent with an associative network memory model, brand knowledge is
conceptualized as consisting of a brand node in memory to which a variety of
associations are linked (Cwalina and Falkowski 2008b; Keller 1993, 2003).
In the political marketplace—as Leslie de Chernatony and Jon White (2002)
stress—a political party can consider itself as a brand, to be developed to of-
fer functional and emotional values to an electorate as part of its appeal (see
also Smith 2001). Based on the analogy between a political party and brand,
one may use the same marketing tools to develop their integrated images.
The brand equity pyramid is a standard tool for understanding a brand’s
associations and customers’ (voters’) response. Kevin Lane Keller’s brand
pyramid (2001) establishes four steps in building a strong brand, with each
step conditional on successfully achieving the previous step. The pyramid is
presented by Figure 1.2.
The foundation step is establishing identity. It involves creating brand sa-
lience. Developing deep, broad brand awareness should ensure identification
of the brand with customers and an association with a specific product class
or customer need. Salience influences mainly the formation and strength of
brand associations that make up the brand image and give the brand mean-
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 25

Figure 1.2 Brand Equity Pyramid

Brand Essence

Slogan Slogan

Relationships Intense, active

What about you relationships
and me? Brand
resonance

Responses
What about Positive,
you? Consumer Consumer accessible
judgments feelings responses

Meaning
What are you? Strong, favorable,
Brand performance Brand imagery and unique brand
associations

Identity
Who are you?
Brand salience
Deep, broad brand
awareness

Source: Adapted and modified from Keller (2001).

ing. Brand awareness is related to the strength of the brand node or trace
in memory, as reflected by consumers’ ability to identify the brand under
different conditions (Keller 1993). It plays an important role in consumer
decision-making because it increases the likelihood that the brand will be a
member of the consideration set for purchase. Furthermore, brand awareness
also affects consumer choice by influencing the formation and strength of
brand associations in the brand image. Therefore, a necessary condition for
the creation of a brand image is that a brand node should be established in
memory, and the nature of that brand node affects how easily different kinds
of information can become attached to the brand in memory.
With political parties, establishing their identities is mainly about position-
ing a party as left- or right-wing (see Chapter 3). In other words, a party or
its members must perform self-identification. This goal can be achieved in
many, not mutually exclusive, ways. First, it can be achieved through the party
manifesto and its detailed political program. When a party supports social
and economic solutions increasing the role of the state over the individual
initiative, it locates a party on the left side of the political stage. Stressing
the importance of individual initiative, reducing taxes, or emphasizing some
26 CHAPTER 1

national values may indicate that a party is positioned on the right side of
the poetical political stage. Another element connected with developing the
identity of a party is choosing its name. In many cases, particularly in Europe,
the names of political parties send clear messages to the voters about the
beliefs a party represents. Examples include the Democratic Left Alliance,
the Polish Peasants’ Party, and the League of Polish Families in Poland, the
Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party in Germany,
and the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.
Another component of building the brand is establishing the meaning
of the brand—creating a strong, favorable, and unique brand association.
Another goal here is establishing a brand image—that is, what the brand is
characterized by and should stand for in the minds of customers. Brand image
means perceptions of the brand as reflected by the brand associations held
in consumer memory. Brand associations are the other informational nodes
linked to the brand node in memory; they contain the meaning of the brand
for consumers (Keller 1993). These associations differ according to how fa-
vorably they are evaluated. The success of a marketing program is reflected
in the creation of favorable brand associations. That is, consumers believe
the brand has attributes and benefits that satisfy their needs and wants such
that a positive overall brand attitude is formed.
According to Keller (2001), the third step should seek to develop positive,
accessible responses to brand identity and meaning. Brand responses refer to
how customers respond to the brand, its marketing activity, slogans, and other
sources of information—in other words, what customers think (judgments) or
feel (feelings) about the brand. The activities within that level of the pyramid
are focused on developing positive attitudes toward the brand.
The pinnacle of the pyramid should build strong customer relationships
to develop loyalty. The final step of Keller’s model focuses on the ultimate
relationship and level of identification that customer has with the brand. Brand
resonance is characterized in terms of the intensity or depth of the psychologi-
cal bond that customers have with the brand as well as the level of activity
engendered by this loyalty—for example, repeat purchase rates or, during
political elections, voting for the same party or candidate in subsequent elec-
tions. One of the consequences of building strong relations is also developing
a sense of community among customers of a given brand or voters.
The strongest brands exhibit both “duality” (emotional and functional
associations) and “richness” (a variety of brand associations or “equity” at
every level, from salience to resonance). The more brand elements a brand
has, generally the stronger the brand will be. Understanding a brand’s equity
elements and those of its competitors is the first step in developing effective
brand-building.
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 27

The vision of the brand is completed by expressing all its components

through a brief statement defining brand essence (Cwalina and Falkowski, in
press; de Chernatony 2001). Most often it becomes the foundation of a slogan
whose major goal is to help one particular brand stand out in the consumer’s
mind at the point of purchase.

Political Marketplace

The political arena is very diverse. It consists of groups with various interests,
likings, preferences, and lifestyles. Efficient and successful political campaigns
need to accommodate this diversity by creating strategies for various market
segments. There are issue-oriented voters, but also there are voters influenced
by the candidate’s personal charm. The politicians often face a difficult task
then; they have to build a voting coalition based on and reflecting a certain
compromise among various social groups. This requires a lot of skills on the
part of the candidate in creating a cognitive map of different opinions, emo-
tions, or interests. Then the candidate has to assign them to particular groups
and refer to such a map while constructing information messages in order
to establish the foundations of the agreement between various voter groups
and the candidate.
Andrew Lock and Phil Harris (1996) point out that political marketing is
concerned with communicating with party members, media, and prospective
sources of funding as well as the electorate. Similarly, Philip Kotler and Neil
Kotler (1999) distinguish five voting market segments playing key roles in
organizing political campaigns and establishing a political market:

1. active voters who are in the habit of casting ballots in elections;

2. interest groups, social activists, and organized voter groups who
collect funds for election campaigns (e.g., labor unions, business
organizations, human rights groups, civil rights groups, ecological
movements);
3. the media that make candidates visible by “foregrounding” them dur-
ing the campaign or keeping them in the shadows of the campaign;
4. party organizations that nominate candidates, express opinions about
them, and provide the resource base for the campaign; and
5. sponsors, who are private persons making donations for the candidate
and the campaign.

These factors are graphically presented in Figure 1.3.

Among these five elements, the media are the most important for the
success of a political campaign. The media influence the ultimate image of
28 CHAPTER 1

Figure 1.3 Factors Influencing the Political Voting Market

Political Party Organization /

Volunteers

Voters

News and
Candidate / Party Entertainment Media

Donators

Lobbies / NGOs /
Social and Religious Organizations

Source: Adapted from Kotler and Kotler (1999).

the candidate in the direct process of communication with the voters. The
media’s influence on voting preferences can be either open or hidden (e.g.,
Kaid and Holtz-Bacha 2006; Newman 1994). The media’s open influence
may be demonstrated by their supporting a given political option and spon-
soring and publicizing various events connected with the political campaign.
The media’s hidden influence is represented by the extent to which a given
candidate appears in the media. Becoming known to the voters is an impor-
tant factor that has an influence on voting preferences. The media may also
manipulate the message, exaggerating or marginalizing a candidate’s position
on various social and political issues. They may also shape the candidate’s
personality and emotional image, highlighting positive or negative features
in information programs.
Political marketing campaigns are integrated into the environment and,
therefore, related to the distribution of forces in a particular environment
(Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2008; Newman 1994; Scammell 1999).
It can then be stated that the environment in which marketing and political
campaigns take place consists of three fundamental component groups: (1)
technological elements (direct mail, television, the Internet, and other means
of voting communication, such as spots); (2) structural elements connected
mainly with the election law, but also with the procedure of nominating candi-
 METATHEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL MARKETING 29

dates, financial regulations for the campaign, and conducting political debates;
and (3) the forces influencing the development of the campaign (candidate,
consultants, media, political parties, interest groups setting up political and
election committees, polling specialists, and voters).
Each of these elements represents an area where dynamic changes have
taken place in the past few decades. These changes facilitate the development
of marketing research and are becoming more and more important for the
election process. Technological changes, for instance, have revolutionized a
candidate’s contacts with voters (for example, through email, cable televi-
sions, and cell phones). Structural changes in the development of political
campaigns make candidates pay more attention to marketing strategies and
rely more on the opinions of the experts developing them.
In order to understand political marketing, one should also understand spe-
cific political marketing concepts. Above all, marketing as a process involves
creating exchange, where the two sides involved are the candidate or party and
the voters or/and other market segments. The majority of political marketing
strategies are analyzed with reference to the classic 4Ps (production, price,
place, and promotion) marketing model (e.g., Harris 2001a; Kotler and Kotler
1999; Niffenegger 1988; Wring 1997). More extended approaches go beyond
the marketing mix, trying to relate it to service and relationship marketing,
nonprofit organization marketing, as well as knowledge of political science,
communication analyses, and psychology (Baines, Harris, and Lewis 2002;
Henneberg 2003; Lees-Marshment 2001a, 2001b, 2003; Newman 1994,
1999c; Wymer and Lees-Marshment 2005).
 2
An Advanced Theory of Political Marketing

What Is Missing?

It is hardly possible to understand modern political marketing without follow-

ing its evolution. Analyzing the concept of political marketing from different
perspectives will furnish a uniform picture, which will be the basis of the new,
advanced theory of political marketing proposed here.

A Model of Political Marketing

Earlier theories of political marketing originated, to a large degree, from theo-

ries of marketing developed for the consumer goods market (Kotler 1975; Reid
1988; Shama 1975; Wring 1997). However, in the course of time, important
differences have emerged between the practice and efficiency of marketing
theories used for political and economic purposes. Political marketing, to a
larger and larger extent, drew from disciplines such as sociology, political
science, and psychology (Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2008; Lees-
Marshment 2003; Scammell 1999). That led to defining political marketing
as a separate branch of science, with its own subject matter and methodology
of research (Lock and Harris 1996; Newman 1994).

Process of Political Marketing According to Niffenegger

Phillip B. Niffenegger (1988) proposed a concept of political marketing

showing the use of the classic marketing mix tools for political campaigns. He
stresses that political marketing includes efforts aimed at integration within
the marketing mix, known as the four Ps—traditionally product, promotion,
price, and place—to control the voters’ behaviors efficiently. Advertising is
not set apart here as an independent research discipline; rather it is closely
connected to the process of marketing research, in which the segmentation
of the voting market plays an important role. The framework integrating ele-

30
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 31

Figure 2.1 The Political Marketing Process

VOTER SEGMENTS
MARKETING MIX

* ampaign platform
CANDIDATE/PARTY

Product * ast records

* mage

T
* dvertising
Promotion * ebates
* ampaign events

* conomic costs
Price * sychological costs
* ational image effects

* eetings
Place
* olunteer program

MARKETING RESEARCH

Source: Adapted from Niffenegger (1988).

ments of political marketing emphasizes the importance of market research,

as shown in Figure 2.1.
It is evident that the political marketing concept is based on Kotler’s ap-
proach to marketing research for nonprofit organizations. According to this
approach, a political party participating in parliamentary elections or a can-
didate running for president must identify the needs, interests, and values of
voters and present himself in such a way so as to best fit these requirements.
Even if the candidate is able to identify the country’s key social, economic,
or political problems, without systematic research he is not able to determine
how various voter groups perceive these problems. It can be assumed that the
problems hold different weight for particular groups. Therefore, the candidate
should try to fit his voting strategy to different voter segments—that is, to
find the best position for himself in each of them.
Such a procedure requires marketing research, which is illustrated by the
arrow in Figure 2.1, connecting the four Ps marketing program with voter
segments. This link is mediated by marketing research whose results, given
to the candidate, show him what marketing mix he should use to be most
successful. In political marketing, being successful mainly means expanding
one’s electorate.
Niffenegger described his concept using the example of the election com-
mittee in U.S. presidential campaigns. In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower’s staff
32 CHAPTER 2

first conducted marketing research in the form of prevoting polls whose goal
was to position the candidate. The purpose of the research was to define Eisen-
hower’s position relative to the position of his main rival, Adlai Stevenson.
The research procedure was quite simple. First, the voters were presented with
thirty-second political spots. Then, an interview was conducted to determine
which problem presentation made the greatest impression on the voters. The
interviewers could then predict the voters’ behavior by controlling the prob-
lems presented in the spot.
Prevoting marketing polls very quickly began to be commonly used to
position candidates in various voter segments. Richard Nixon’s consultants
used them in the presidential campaign of 1968. They first tried to determine
the voters’ ideas of the ideal U.S. president, and then the next step was to
position, in such a context, the images of Nixon and his main opponents,
Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. Defining the differences between
the image of an ideal president and his own, Nixon was able to determine
which characteristics should be improved and presented in TV spots in such
a way as to approach as closely as possible the voters’ expectations. Nixon’s
main goal was to reach undecided, floating (or swing) voters. The assump-
tion was that those voters were most open to the persuasion message of the
campaign; therefore, the whole effort was focused on convincing them, even
at the expense of brand-loyal voters, to whom less attention was paid (see
Chapter 3).
Ronald Reagan used a slightly different approach in poll marketing re-
search in 1984. Using prevoting polls, his political consultants tried to define
the characteristics of the image of an ideal candidate, major social and economic
problems of the country, and ways presidential candidates might solve them.
Entering the data into their Political Information System (PINS), which was set
up for the purpose of the campaign, the consultants could track the dynamics of
the changes of voters’ attitudes toward particular candidates.
In his model, Niffenegger distinguishes four fundamental marketing stimuli
by using the same names that the classical commercial marketing mix uses:
product, promotion, price, and place. According to Niffenegger, the product
offered by the candidate is a complex blend of the many benefits voters believe
will result if the candidate is elected. The major voting promises are spelled out
in the candidate’s party platform. Then they are publicized through political
advertising, press releases, and the candidate’s public appearances. Whether
the offer is recognized as reliable and acceptable to their expectations mainly
depends on voters’ knowledge about the candidate and his achievements,
his personal profile formed by his staff, and the evaluation of the state’s
economic condition connected with the previous ruling team. For instance,
in his presidential campaign in 1984, Ronald Reagan very cleverly used the
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 33

arguments of his Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale, for increasing taxes.

Reagan showed what the consequences of such a policy might be by referring
to the economic crisis during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. This tactic led to a
decrease in the support for Mondale.
Whereas creating the product in political marketing is the purpose of
the candidate and his staff, the “packaging” part is almost solely the task
of political consultants. An example showing how various packaging is
created for various situations is the changing of strategy by Reagan’s con-
sultants during his presidential campaign in 1980. They were quick to spot
that in his speeches, the Republican candidate was perceived as a political
warmonger and as dangerous and uncaring. Instead of using the phrase the
“defensive position,” the candidate began to talk about the “peace posi-
tion.” The “armaments race” was replaced by the phrase “a need to restore
a margin of safety.” After such changes, the image of Reagan came closer
to the image of an ideal president. He was perceived as a politician who
would strengthen peace.
The price of the product offered by the candidate refers to the total costs
that voters would bear if the candidate were elected. It includes economic
costs, such as tax increases or budget cuts. Other costs listed by Niffeneg-
ger include national image effects: whether the voters will perceive the new
leader as a strong one, someone who will increase people’s national pride,
or someone who will be a disgrace to his compatriots on the international
stage. There are also psychological costs: will voters feel comfortable with
the candidate’s religious and ethnic background? The general marketing
strategy for the price consists in minimizing the candidate’s own costs and
maximizing the opposition’s. In his presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy
recognized a potential cost in being the first Catholic president, a prospect
that made some non-Catholics feel uneasy. But he was able to successfully
minimize this cost with TV spots in which he was shown meeting Protestant
audiences. During the presidential campaign in Poland in 1995, Aleksander
Kwaśniewski similarly stressed that he would be the president of all Poles—
irrespective of their religion and views.
The concept of the candidate’s price is thus similar to the price of a product
in mainstream marketing. Selecting a candidate on the political market or
buying a product or service on the economic market, one must incur some
costs. The major difference is the fact that on the political market, these costs
are to a large extent intangible or psychological, whereas in the economic
market they are tangible and represented by the money or products for which
the money is exchanged.
Place (distribution) is the marketing stimulus that refers to the candidate’s
ability to get his message across to voters in a personal way. The marketing
34 CHAPTER 2

strategy for the distribution of the campaign’s message combines the personal
appearance program with the work of volunteers who are used as a personal-
ized extension of the candidate into local markets. This includes the work
of activists (“door to door”) who by canvassing, distributing the candidate’s
badges, registering voters, and soliciting funds familiarize the voters with the
candidate’s program and his image during direct contact with the electorate.
The places and forms of a candidate’s meeting with voters can vary—from
rallies in city centers to club meetings and meetings at workplaces. Since the
goal of the politician on the campaign trail is to meet as many voters as pos-
sible, he tries to be in as many places as possible in the shortest possible time.
Gary Hart, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984,
used a plane to move quickly from one town to another. His press conferences
were staged in every airport he flew into, and listening to the evening news
gave voters the feeling that Hart was in many towns at the same time. More
recently, satellite technology makes it easy for candidates to stage interviews
with journalists who are in a remote place.
Promotion consists, to a large extent, of advertising efforts and publicity,
through free media coverage of the candidate, his program, and the campaign.
Niffenegger distinguishes four fundamental promotion strategies:

1. concentration strategy—concentrating a disproportionate amount

of money and promotion efforts on particular voter segments (for
instance on regions or provinces);
2. timing strategy—spending the heaviest promotion money and the
highest promotion activity where it does the candidate the most good,
thus forcing the opposition to increase their activity and thus deplete
their resources;
3. strategy of misdirection—avoiding a frontal assault against a stronger
opponent and trying to catch the opponent off balance to make her
commit a mistake (this may be a particularly successful strategy for
underdogs); and
4. strategy of negative campaign—staging a direct or indirect compara-
tive assault against the position of the opponent and/or her personal
characteristics.

Recognizing the reasons for his poor showings in political debates in 1980,
during the next election Ronald Reagan decided to change the strategy he
had been using and focus in his political spots on evoking positive emotions
in his voters. His spots featured sunrises, colorful parades, landscapes, and
friendly faces. They contrasted with Walter Mondale’s spots, which gave rise
to negative emotions by presenting the visions of atomic holocaust, starva-
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 35

tion, and poverty. A detailed analysis of advertising strategies used in political

campaigns will be presented in Chapter 6.
Specific marketing programs based on the four Ps are prepared separately
for different voting market segments. A particularly important role in this
division is played by the segment of undecided voters, irrespective of the
demographic and psychographic criteria of segmentation. It is these voters
at whom the marketing mix should be directed. Richard Nixon’s staff, for
instance, used marketing research to look for ways of reaching undecided
voters. This segment is considered most susceptible to marketing influence;
hence it is this segment at which the greatest efforts of a political campaign
should be directed. Less attention can be given to decided and loyal voters
whose preferences are hard to change. Nixon’s approach to the strategy of
voting market segmentation was congruent with the position of Jay Blumler
and Denis McQuail (1968), who stated that the image of political reality could
be formed only among undecided voters, whereas voters with a clearly defined
political stance are very resistant to marketing efforts.
In the presidential campaign in 1980, when Jimmy Carter and Ronald Rea-
gan competed against each other, the segment of undecided voters (amount-
ing to nearly 20 percent of the electorate) decided the results of the election.
Maintaining a strong position among current supporters is also important.
During the 1984 presidential campaign, the PINS showed that Reagan needed
to improve his image among blue-collar workers, Catholics, and Latinos. The
support of these groups for the current leaders was decreasing, which turned
this segment into undecided voters. These undecided voters were an easy
segment for the challenger to take over. A detailed marketing strategy in a
voting campaign based on the segment of undecided voters will be presented
in Chapter 3.
The implications of the political marketing model proposed by Niffenegger
suggest that a candidate’s staff should create and update advanced marketing
information systems, including collecting and analyzing data from political
market research, segmentation, and channels of distributing the promotion
message to target groups. In addition, it is important to introduce regional
variants to the general strategy of the campaign and use microsegmentation,
as well as take into account the specificity of local voting markets. Candidates
should also consider focusing the marketing effort on some “showroom” target
areas. A spectacular success in a given area may have a positive influence on
the campaign in other areas. Niffenegger suggests that negative advertising
be used only as a last resort because it might produce a backlash. Political
campaign workers should also use the specific qualities and limitations of
television to gain competitive advantage (e.g., organize rallies or meetings
that can make headlines).
36 CHAPTER 2

Despite the fact that it attempts to show the efficiency of using marketing
strategies for political campaigns, Niffenegger’s concept of political market-
ing is in fact a copy of the concepts used in commercial marketing. It seems,
then, that it does not distinguish to a sufficient extent between consumer and
political choices.

Marketing the Political Product According to Reid

David Reid’s concept (1988) is also an attempt to apply some concepts from
mainstream marketing to political marketing. It focuses on this element of
the voting process that refers to voting understood as a buying process. Reid
stresses that by looking at the problem from a consumer perspective, a broader
marketing approach could make a useful contribution toward a better theo-
retical knowledge of the “voting decision process.” The core of the buying
process involves the following stages:

1. Problem recognition. This stage refers to motivation, which triggers

the recognition that there is a problem to be considered. In its essence,
the process boils down to asking the voter the following question:
“Whom will I vote for?” Recognition of the problem is determined
by the voter’s needs, which, to a different extent, refer to the can-
didate’s voting problems. For instance, if the voter has problems
finding employment, he will be sensitive to a program in which the
politician stresses lower unemployment as one of her major goals.
2. Search. At this level, the voter seeks various sources of information
(TV, radio, newspapers, magazines), which highlight the recognition
of a problem. Naturally, each source may have a different influence
on the voter’s opinions.
3. Alternative evaluation. The voter must weigh the accumulated
information against a set of evaluative criteria. These criteria are
linked with the voter’s motivation, which refers to the first stage
of the decision-making process: problem recognition. If the voters’
evaluative criteria match their motivation very well, then it is very
difficult to cause any change in their voting behavior. For instance,
a businessman will be interested in lower taxes because the current
level inhibits the development of his company. The candidate will
then be evaluated through the tax policy she is proposing.
This stage of the decision-making process is also related to the
segmentation of the voting market. Candidates and political parties
have to identify various evaluative criteria among the voters and use
marketing strategies that will reach segments of voters with similar
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 37

Figure 2.2 Buyer Decision Processes

Problem Information Evaluation of Purchase Post-purchase

recognition search alternatives decision behavior

Steps between evaluation of alternatives and a purchase decision

Attitudes of
others

Evaluation of Purchase Post-purchase

alternatives decision behavior

Unexpected
situational factors

preferences. This stage is connected with the candidate’s creating a

political platform that will promote issues important for these voters
and might attract voters from other politicians’ electorates.
4. Choice. Choice is a particularly important element of the decision-
making process. Seemingly, it should be logically connected to alter-
native evaluation. However, the voter may change it in the very last
moment due to last-minute influences such as an article read, a news
broadcast viewed, or a debate with a friend. Such unexpected situ-
ational factors are particularly related to last-minute voters, belonging
to the segment of undecided, floating voters (see Chapter 3).
5. Outcomes. This element corresponds exactly to postpurchase behavior
in consumer behavior. A politician needs to maximize the satisfaction
of voters, including those who did not vote for her. Ongoing public
relations activities and political patronage of influential groups can
achieve this goal.

The multistage approach to the voter’s decision-making process proposed

by Reid is the direct transfer of the classical consumer decision-making process
introduced by Kotler and Armstrong (1990). It is presented by Figure 2.2.
Reid’s approach to political marketing corresponds very well to the
marketing concept, which is the last stage of the evolution process in which
presidential candidates have gone from campaign organizations run by party
bosses to organizations run by marketing experts (see Figure 1.1. in Chapter
1). Its analysis is a pretty accurate reflection of the concepts developed in
mainstream marketing and used for political behavior. However, this approach
excludes a number of specific characteristics both of the political market and
of different strategies of running political campaigns.
38 CHAPTER 2

Kotler and Kotler’s Model of a Candidate’s Marketing Map

Philip Kotler and Neil Kotler (1999) present a six-stage process of marketing
activities related to political campaigns. The analysis of these activities creates
a candidate marketing map, presented in Figure 2.3. A professionally planned
political campaign consists of (1) environmental research, (2) internal and
external assessment, (3) strategic marketing, (4) setting the goals and strategy
of the campaign, (5) planning communication, distribution, and organization,
and (6) defining key markets for the campaign.

Environmental Research

Environmental research, the first step in preparing a candidate marketing

map, consists of a thorough analysis of the social environment in which
the political campaign is to be conducted. This research focuses on the
opportunities the campaign may explore and threats it may encounter. The
environment also includes the current economic condition of the candidate’s
constituency as well as the economic situation in the whole country, the
electorate’s feelings, and those social, economic, and political issues that
provoke most emotions and disputes among the electorate. The environment
also includes what political analysts and consultants call the electorate’s
psychological profile. It includes such elements as the voters’ activity and
involvement (what percentage of the voters participates in the elections),
their ideological orientation (e.g., left, center, or right), and their attitude
toward the incumbent and the challenger. This stage also includes checking
the degree to which a particular party organization dominates in a particular
voting district.
Social environment is also defined by such demographic variables of the
electorate as age, income, and education, as well as psychographic variables
including lifestyles, values, and attitudes toward many current issues that result
from them. These variables become the basis of demographic and psycho-
graphic segmentation, which is one of many marketing strategies employed
for the purpose of political campaigns. At this stage of developing a marketing
map, the candidate should invest most resources in research.

Internal and External Assessment

In any marketing effort, including political marketing, the seller needs to

assess her own strengths (internal assessment) as well as the strengths of her
rival candidates (external assessment). Internal assessment is about assessing
the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the strengths and weak-
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 39

Figure 2.3 Candidate Marketing Map

Environmental Research

Internal and External Assessment Analysis

Strategic Marketing

Goal Setting and Campaign Strategy

Communication, Distribution, and Organization Plan

Key Markets and Outcomes

Source: Adapted from Kotler and Kotler (1999).

nesses of her campaign. Such an assessment is strictly related to the context

in which the candidate functions in relation to her competition. She may be
the incumbent, trying to get reelected, or may be the challenger, running for
the first or another time. Like internal assessment, external assessment looks
at the competition’s strengths and weaknesses. Both internal and external
assessment can help to position the candidate.

Strategic Marketing

The primary goal of marketing is to describe the society not as homogeneous

but as consisting of a number of voter segments. At this stage of a candidate
40 CHAPTER 2

marketing map, the organizers of the campaign focus on analyzing the elector-
ate in various districts. Some characteristics of the voters remain stable for a
long time; however, other characteristics change from campaign to campaign.
For instance, an attractive and active candidate planning new reforms may
develop a new segment of voters and reconfigure the value they ascribe to
the issues she aims to promote in her voting program.
Organizers of political campaigns first define all the segments of the
voters in a particular district, highlighting those who are intending to vote
and those who are not. Then the organizers try to divide the potential vot-
ers into particular segments for which they prepare a particular marketing
strategy. For instance, the incumbent may seek to work with older, afflu-
ent, and conservative voters who supported her in the previous elections.
A new candidate who is thinking about conducting fundamental reforms
may develop a coalition with young and liberal voters who are open to
changes, which requires strong identification with the issues included in
his voting program as well as developing a new personality and identity on
the political scene.
The third stage of developing a candidate marketing map is a segmentation
of the voting market (see Chapter 3) and defining the candidate’s strengths
and weaknesses in each segment.

Goal Setting and Campaign Strategy

This stage of preparing a candidate marketing map is based on earlier re-

search results influencing the way in which the candidate’s image is going to
be constructed and the way socioeconomic issues are going to be presented.
This, in turn, influences the ways of transmitting voting information in order
to efficiently promote the politician. At the same time, a monitoring program
is prepared, allowing the introduction of any corrective measures if the
campaign does not go according to plan and the candidate encounters some
negative influences.

Communication, Distribution, and Organization Plan

At this stage particular marketing tools are developed. Kotler and Kotler sug-
gest that the strategies of the standard marketing mix be followed here, which,
in relation to competing in the political market, they define as the campaign
mix. Here, the candidate’s actions are quite similar to mainstream marketing.
She defines her best organizational resource mix, including a detailed task
division for members of her staff (collecting funds, contacts with interest
groups, engaging volunteers) to create a so-called retail campaign.
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 41

A Candidate’s Key Markets—Voters, Donors, and Media

The final stage of preparing a candidate marketing map is developing ways

of reaching the fundamental market segments (see Figure 1.3.) and ways of
building a media image. In the simplest form, the importance of the media
in the voting campaign is defined by the amount of candidate coverage in
mass media (including TV, newspapers, and magazines), the support the
candidate gains, and the amount of money spent on advertising. At this level
the candidate uses the results of earlier conducted market research and usu-
ally knows how a message should be constructed, where it should be placed,
and how often it should be repeated to mobilize voters. She also knows what
number of voters needs to be mobilized in different voting districts in order
to be successful.
It should be stressed that the candidate marketing map proposed by Kot-
ler and Kotler is compatible with the process of planning and organizing
political campaigns described by Gary Mauser (1983). According to him,
this process includes three stages: (1) the preparation process during which
the candidate assesses his and his competition’s strengths, (2) the process
of developing a strategy of influencing voters, and (3) the process of imple-
menting the strategy.

Lees-Marshment’s Theory of Comprehensive Political Marketing

The comprehensive political marketing (CPM) described by Jennifer Lees-

Marshment (2001a, 2001b, 2003; see also Wymer and Lees-Marshment 2005)
is also consistent with the development of the concept of product in economic
marketing. She believes that a candidate’s or party’s comprehensive politi-
cal marketing should be based on five fundamental principles. First, CPM is
more than political communication. It applies to whole political organizations’
behaviors and activities—not only to political campaigns, but also to the way
in which product is designed. Second, CPM uses marketing concepts and not
only techniques. Third, it also includes elements of political sciences to bet-
ter utilize and adapt such knowledge for the purpose of marketing. Fourth, it
adapts marketing theory to the nature of politics. Finally, it applies marketing
to all political organizational behavior, including interest groups, politics, the
public sector, media, parliament, and local governments, as well as parties
and candidates.
According to Lees-Marshment, the product—following the marketing
process discussed above—is the complex behavior of the party, represented
all the time (not only during the elections) by all the levels of its actions.
The product includes the leaders, members of parliament (and the candi-
42 CHAPTER 2

dates), representatives in the government, party members, party officers,

symbols, statues, and such activities as party conferences and conducting
a particular policy.
What is particularly valuable about Lees-Marshment’s concept is her
presentation of the integrated and comprehensive theoretical framework of
how political parties behave when they use political marketing following the
example of the behaviors of the British Labour Party. Her general concept
boils down to analyzing the particular stages of marketing evolution, from
a product-oriented party to a sales-oriented party to a market-oriented party.
This evolution was analyzed by Lees-Marshment using the examples of the
British Conservative Party (2004; Lees-Marshment and Quayle 2001) and, in
more detail, the British Labour Party, which went through all three orienta-
tions from 1983 to 1997 (Lees-Marshment 2001b).
A product-oriented party tries to convince the society to support its politi-
cal program. Such a party assumes that voters will embrace its idea and—in
consequence—will support it during the elections. Such an attitude of the party
toward elections precludes any possibility of changing the idea or product,
even if no support is won during the elections or the number of the party’s
members decreases. Unfortunately, what seems right in the eyes of the party
bosses is not necessarily what the voters consider right too. In 1983, for ex-
ample, the Labour Party lost the election because the party was not concerned
with designing its product to respond to voters. Such an attitude leads to false
appreciation of political reality by party members, who believe that the reason
for their failure is that their policies were presented inappropriately or that the
voters have not understood the party. A quote from Oscar Wilde can very well
paraphrase such a product orientation: “The play had been a great success; it
was the audience which was at fault” (Lees-Marshment 2001b).
A sales-oriented party focuses on “selling” its arguments to the voters. It
maintains its leading product design but is able to recognize that the desired
supporters may not want it. It utilizes marketing intelligence to understand the
reactions of the voters to the party’s behavior and uses advertising and com-
munication techniques to convince the voters. Such a party does not change
its behavior to convince voters to accept its program but tries to make them
accept what it offers. One example of such behavior was the Labour Party
in 1987, which attempted to win the election utilizing the sales orientation.
It focused its efforts on designing the most professional and effective com-
munication and campaign. However, the party focused not on changing the
design of the product to suit voters’ demands but on achieving a more effective
presentation. In this respect, the sales-oriented party does not differ from the
product-oriented party. In both cases, the product remains unchanged. One
should not be surprised then that the concept of sales did not meet the expecta-
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 43

tions of the Labour Party when it failed in the election again. The number of
Labour seats in Parliament after the 1987 election even decreased compared
to the previous election.
A marketing-oriented party designs its behaviors to meet the voters’
needs and provides them with satisfaction. It uses marketing intelligence to
identify the voters’ needs and then designs a product that will satisfy them.
Such activities are supported and implemented by an internal organization
and distributed by governing. The major implication of such an orientation
is that a party does not attempt to change what people think, but to deliver
what they need and want.
Tony Blair completely followed the marketing concept while leading the
Labour Party during the 1997 election. His party was highly successful, wining
419 seats in Parliament, where the majority is 179 seats. The number of party
members increased from 280,000 to 400,000 from 1993 to 1997.
The concept of adapting party programs to the voters’ needs rather than
persuading the voters to follow an already developed program (following the
concept of product and sales) as part of the marketing effort is at variance
with the traditional concept of politics. However, the greater sensitivity of the
parties to the expectations of the voters is very good for democracy. Politicians
feel more responsible for providing the product—that is, meeting their election
promises. The marketing concept also prevents parties from developing such
internal qualities as arrogance, self-satisfaction, or dogmatism, which often
come out in the cases of the parties following the concept of the product.
Focusing on the voter in political campaigns has led to an important shift
of attention, from nominated candidates or party bosses to the media, con-
sultants, marketing and poll specialists, and members of political and voting
committees. Their importance for the campaign is still growing; therefore, a
carefully planned set of activities combining such procedures in the marketing
effort is becoming more and more important.

Harris’s Modern Political Marketing

According to Phil Harris (2001a), the changes taking place in modern de-
mocracies, in the development of new technologies, and in citizens’ political
involvement significantly influence the theoretical and practical aspects of
political marketing efforts. Above all, modernization causes changes from
direct involvement in election campaigns to spectatorship. Campaigns are
conducted primarily through mass media and citizens participating in them
as a media audience. In this way, politicians more and more often become
actors in a political spectacle rather than focus on solving real problems that
their country faces. They compete for the voters’ attention not only against
44 CHAPTER 2

their political opponents but also against talk shows or other media events.
For instance, during the Polish presidential campaign in 2005, the debate
between two major candidates—Lech Kaczyński and Donald Tusk—was
rescheduled for another day because otherwise it would have competed for
the viewer against the popular TV show Dancing with the Stars. And it is
doubtful whether it would have attracted a large audience.
This modernization process leads to changes in voting strategies that candi-
dates and political parties have been following. According to Harris (2001a),
the key elements of modern political campaigning include the following:

1. The personalization of politics, where the voters’ choice depends

increasingly on their relationship with the individual candidate, which
replaces ideological bonds with a political party.
2. The politicians’ image, whose importance is still growing. According
to Harris, even if the candidates present their position on the issues,
they do so, to a large extent, to reinforce the existing image because
the image rather than substance is central in political marketing.
3. The role of public relations, particularly in candidate image creation.
Political public relations are the inevitable consequence of the process
in which mass media have become the center of opinion formation
and decision-making. On the one hand, the goal of these activities is
not only to initiate changes in voters’ opinions but also to influence
the media. On the other hand, the goal of public relations is to react
to events with potential negative consequences for the candidate,
limiting the potential damage. Public relations may then be a vital
component in the political marketing mix, concerned with image and
persuasion.
4. The scientificization of politics, which makes politicians use techni-
cal and scientific expertise in conducting their campaign but also in
taking political decisions.

Furthermore, modern political campaigns are more and more characterized

by direct linkage between political marketing and interest lobbying (Harris
and Lock 1996, 2002).
Harris’s concept of political marketing (2001a) is thus consistent in its
fundamental assumptions with Niffenegger, Kotler and Kotler, and Lees-
Marshment’s assumptions. In his model, he includes the function of place-
ment strategy, which is based on such traditional activities as canvassing
and leafleting and “getting the vote out” on the polling day. Besides, his
model stresses that the key element of success is not the development of
persuasion activities, but the possibility of identifying and contacting po-
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 45

tential supporters. As for price, Harris believes that in the case of voters it is
shifted to the psychological domain and not expressed through money (the
so-called feel-good factor). Following Dominic Wring (1997) in his concept
of product, he assumes that it consists of three fundamental elements: the
party image, the image of the leader, and policy commitments (manifesto).
As opposed to the previous models, he attaches much more importance to
the area of political promotion activities, which play the crucial role in the
political marketing mix.
According to Harris, political promotion consists of a number of com-
ponents, the most important of which are advertising (particularly, negative
advertising), direct mail, public relations, and news management, as well as
debates and pseudo-events planned to gain publicity and attention. Harris
stresses that debates, like other pseudo-events, are meant to look spontaneous
but in fact are carefully staged in order to attract the attention of the media
and gain publicity for the political players.
In summary, in his concept of modern political marketing, Harris stresses the
need to adapt both marketing theory and practice to the changing requirements
of the modern world and politics. He also points out that political marketing
cannot only be a copy of the solutions developed within mainstream market-
ing because the area it applies to has different constraints and often requires
more complex and advanced strategies. Harris and Rees (2000) believe that
marketing must strike a balance between beautiful academic reasoning and
the realpolitik of what the constituents of marketing need. Marketing should
be wary of throwing out the marketing mix or marketing concept in favor
of outright replacement by new shibboleths such as relationship marketing.
In other words, “marketing needs to regenerate itself and not fear change or
ambiguity in its quest to seek the truth” (Harris and Rees 2000, 368).

Newman’s Model of Political Marketing

Bruce I. Newman’s concept of political marketing (1994, 1999c) is the most

thorough model of those discussed so far describing the marketing approach
in political behavior. It provides procedures for a number of concepts related
to marketing activities on the voting market. It has also been the source of in-
spiration for a number of empirical researches expanding the theory (Cwalina,
Falkowski, and Newman 2008).
In his model, Newman (1994) introduces a clear distinction between the
processes of a marketing campaign and those of a political campaign. The
marketing campaign helps the candidate go through the four stages of the
political campaign, including everything from the preprimary stage of a
politician’s finding his own place in politics to his already formed political
46 CHAPTER 2

image at the general election stage. It is natural then that both campaigns are
closely connected. The process of a marketing campaign is the foundation of
the model because it includes all the marketing tools needed to conduct the
candidate through all the levels of the political campaign. Figure 2.4 presents
a schematic representation of Newman’s model.
Despite the fact that foundations such as market (voter) segmentation, candi-
date positioning, and strategy formulation and implementation are also the foun-
dation of consumer market mainstream marketing, their definition and meaning
are distinctly different and fitted to the specificity of the voting market.
At the heart of the political marketing campaign is the candidate’s realiza-
tion that he is not in a position to appeal to all voters of every persuasion. This
means that he must break down the electorate into distinct voting segments
and then create a campaign platform that appeals to the candidate’s following.
It is obvious that the unemployed or those who may lose their jobs will be
more sensitive to messages in which the candidate stresses those elements of
his program that refer to fighting against unemployment and to such economic
changes that will create more jobs. Entrepreneurs with high income, on the
other hand, will be more sensitive to the messages presenting the candidate’s
position on the taxation system. It is not only demographic characteristics,
including the citizens’ economic status, for instance, that are important for the
division of the political market, but also their needs, attitudes, interests, and
preferences, all of which are part of psychographic segmentation and play an
important role in the division of the market into segments.
An important criterion of voter segmentation in political marketing is also
the time voters take to make their decisions. Some voters know for a long time
whom they are going to vote for, and any persuasion efforts will inevitably
fail in their case. But there are also floating voters, who make up their minds
during the campaign or just before the act of voting. Because their behavior
is more impulsive then reasoned, it is relatively easy to convince them by
particular arguments, but it is much more difficult to reach them because
usually they are not interested in politics (see Chapter 3).
After identifying voting segments, the candidate needs to define his posi-
tion with each of them in the multistage process of positioning. It consists of
assessing the candidate’s and his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. The
key elements here are (1) creating an image of the candidate emphasizing
his particular personality features and (2) developing and presenting a clear
position on the country’s economic and social issues. Such an image and
program should follow the strategy of the election fight.
For instance, a candidate competing against the incumbent has an advantage
because he can try to attract the voters’ attention to a new, completely inno-
vative approach to economic and social problems in his voting program. No
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 47

Figure 2.4 Newman’s Model of Political Marketing

Candidate Environmental
Focus The Marketing Campaign Forces

Market (Voter) Strategy Formulation and A. Technology

Candidate Positioning
Segmentation Implementation 1. The computer
2. Television
A. Assess voter needs A. Assess candidate’s A. The Four Ps
3. Direct mail
strengths and needs 1. Product (campaign
A. Party B. Profile voters
platform)
concept B. Assess competition B. Structural shifts
C. Identify voter 2. Push marketing (grassroot
segments C. Target segments efforts) 1. Primary and
3. Pull marketing (mass convention rules
D. Establish image
media) 2. Financial regulations
B. Product 4. Polling (research) 3. Debates
concept B. Organization development
and control C. Power broker shifts
in influence
1. Candidate
C. Selling 2. Consultant
concept 3. Pollster
4. Media
5. Political party
6. Political action
D. Marketing committees, interest
concept groups
7. Voters
The Political Campaign

Preprimary Primary Convention General election

stage stage stage stage

Source: Newman (1994, 12).

matter whether the candidate will be able to implement those changes—voters

are always sensitive to changes fitting their beliefs. Regarding this point, the
candidate can highlight the weaknesses of the incumbent who does not fulfill
her promises and attribute to her the failures in the area of the economy or
social policy. The new approach to particular subjects should be accompanied
by such characteristics of the candidate as being innovative, firm, conscien-
tious, or open to experiences.
In order to position the candidate in voters’ minds, the campaign should
apply the political marketing mix used for the implementation of a marketing
strategy. The typical strategic plan consists of the “four Ps,” a strategy com-
monly followed in the commercial marketplace. For a company marketing a
product, the four Ps include: product, promotion, price, and place. However,
according to Newman, they need to be considerably modified if they are
to be applied to the political market, both at the level of defining particular
components and implementing them.
Product is defined in terms of candidate leadership and campaign platform,
particularly issues and policies that the candidate advocates. Such factors as
the people in his organization, the party, and the voters influence the product
in addition to the candidate himself. When the campaign’s platform is be-
ing formed, two key information flow channels are created through which a
candidate can promote himself and his platform.
48 CHAPTER 2

The first channel, called push marketing, is related to the concept of place
or distribution channel. It refers to the grassroots effort necessary to build up a
volunteer network to handle the day-to-day activities in running the campaign.
Push marketing centers on communicating the candidate’s message from his
organization to the voter.
The second channel is pull marketing, which focuses on the use of the mass
media to get the candidate’s message out to the voters. Instead of the person-
to-person channel used with a push marketing approach, this channel makes
use of mass media outlets such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines,
direct mail, computer, and any other forms of promotion that are available.
Polling, the last P, is conducted throughout the political process to provide
the candidate with the information necessary to develop the marketing cam-
paign. It represents the data analysis and research that are used to develop and
test new ideas and determine how successful the ideas will be.
The marketing campaign is conducted simultaneously with the political
campaign and serves to help the candidate get through each of the four stages—
preprimary, primary, convention, and general election—successfully. Both
the marketing and the political campaigns are influenced by the candidate’s
strategic orientation (see Chapter 1) and by forces in the environment. It is
obvious then that both campaigns are tightly connected and interdependent,
and one cannot analyze a political campaign without reference to particular
elements of the marketing campaign. Those elements of political marketing
are presented in Figure 2.4 at the right and left panels, accordingly.
Marketing and political campaigns are integrated into the environment and,
therefore, they are related to the distribution of forces in a particular environ-
ment. The shift in power in politics—from dominance of party organization
to dominance of political consultants—has resulted from two basic forces:
technology and structural shifts in the political process. The three influential
areas of innovation in technology include the computer, television, and direct
mail. Each of these areas directly affects the way presidential candidates
run their campaigns, forcing candidates to utilize the expertise of marketing
specialists who guide them through the complex processes of marketing and
political campaigning.
The structural shifts influence primary and convention rules, financial
regulations, and debates. Complex primary and convention rules have altered
the way candidates run for president. Limitations on individual contributions
have forced candidates to rely not only on fund-raising experts but on direct-
mail experts as well.
Advances in direct-mail technology have given candidates the ability to
carefully target selected voter blocs with appropriate messages. The coffers
of national party headquarters no longer solely finance their campaigns,
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 49

as they are also dependent on individual contributors. These shifts have

further pressured candidates to rely on the expertise of direct-mail wizards
to navigate through each stage of the political campaign. The technological
and structural changes have resulted in dramatic shifts in influence among
the power brokers.
It can then be stated that the environment in which marketing and political
campaigns take place consists of three fundamental component groups:
1. technological elements, including the mail, television, the Inter-
net, and other means of voting communication (e.g., spots, direct
mail);
2. structural elements involving election law, the procedure of nomi-
nating candidates, financial regulations for the campaign, and the
conduct of political debates; and
3. the forces influencing the development of the campaign, including
the candidate, consultants, media, political parties, interest groups,
political and election committees, polling specialists, and voters.
Each of these elements represents an area where dynamic changes have
taken place in the past few decades; these changes facilitate the development
of marketing research and are becoming more and more important for the
election process. Technological changes, for instance, have revolutionized a
candidate’s contacts with voters (for example, through email, cable televisions,
and cell phones). Structural changes in the development of political campaigns
make candidates pay more attention to marketing strategies and rely more on
the opinions of the experts developing them. One should also note the grow-
ing importance of polling specialists. The results of their analyses given to
the general electorate not only reflect the electorate’s general mood, but also
influence the forming of public opinion. It can thus be stated that polls are a
controlled attempt to influence voter behavior.
The common element of the theories of political marketing presented here
is their focus on the voter as a starting point for any actions undertaken by
political consultants in the competitive voting market. An in-depth analysis of
the similarities and differences between these theories may contribute to the
development of a new and advanced theory of political marketing. This new
concept will then be the foundation of the problems and research on modern
political marketing presented here.

Challenges for Political Marketing

Political marketing campaigns are integrated into the environment and,

therefore, related to the distribution of forces in a particular environment
50 CHAPTER 2

(Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2008; Newman 1994; Scammell 1999).

In this way, changes in societies, legal regulations, or the development of new
technologies force modifications of particular marketing strategies and make
marketing needs regenerate as well (Harris and Rees 2000; Vargo and Lusch
2004). Each of these elements represents an area where dynamic changes have
taken place in the past few decades. These changes facilitate the development
of marketing research and are becoming more and more important for the
election and governing processes. Therefore, as Stephen Dann, Phil Harris,
and their collaborators (2007) and Stephen Henneberg (2008) postulate, political
marketing needs to be modernized both as far as marketing practice and theoreti-
cal and empirical research are concerned. This modernization should include
changes taking place in modern democracies, such as the shift from citizenship
to spectatorship, and assess and show new ways of increasing citizen support.
Besides, the relations between political marketing and such areas of knowledge
as practice, public relations, and political lobbying also need to be clearly defined
(Baines, Harris, and Lewis 2002; Harris 2001a).
The emphasis on the processes of election exchanges cannot obscure the
fact that political marketing is not limited only to the period of the election
campaign. In the era of the permanent campaign, in reality there is no clear
difference between the period directly before the election and the rest of the
political calendar (Harris 2001a). The emphasis on the processes of election
exchanges cannot obscure the fact that political marketing is not limited only
to the period of the election campaign. In the era of the permanent campaign
there is no difference between the period of governing and election campaign-
ing. David Dulio and Terri Towner (2009, 93) state that modern campaigning
extends to governing: “each day is election day.”

Permanent Campaign

Nicholas O’Shaughnessy (2001) argues that through the concept of the perma-
nent campaign, political marketing has become the organizing principle around
which parties and government policies are constructed. Political marketing is
no longer a short-term tactical device used exclusively to win voters’ support;
it has become a long-term permanent process that aims to ensure continued
governance (Smith and Hirst 2001). According to Dan Nimmo (1999), the
permanent campaign is a process of continuing transformation. It never stops.
From this perspective, the perpetual campaign remakes government into an
instrument designed to sustain an elected official’s public popularity.
Nimmo (1999) argues that the line between political campaigning and
governance was crossed during Margaret Thatcher’s and Ronald Reagan’s
1980 political campaigns. It was exactly then that the era of total campaigning
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 51

started. Political marketing began to occupy the total environment of politics,

reaching and encircling the whole of every citizen and providing a complete
system for explaining the world. The media, especially television and, more
recently, the Internet, play a dominant role in political marketing.
Together with the political changes, a number of changes in the ways the
media operate took place (see Kaid 1999a, 1999b). The legal regulations of
the media market opened it up to commercial broadcasters; new technologies
were introduced and the quality of the broadcast was improved (see Kaid
and Holtz-Bacha 2006). According to Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates
(1992), the development of television production, marketing methods, and
public opinion polls led to the establishment of today’s high-tech political
communication.
These developments led Jay Blumler and Dennis Kavanagh (1999) to an-
nounce the third age of political communication. According to them, modern
and efficient political communication must follow and react to a number of
changes taking place all the time in the media and social environment. The
change is mainly about modernization and is connected with increased social
differentiation and specialization, interests, and identities and proliferating
diverse lifestyles and moral stances, which undermine traditional structures
of social inclusion and aggregation (e.g., church, trade unions). According
to Margaret Scammell (1999), the major consequences of modernization for
political marketing are twofold: (1) the development of increasingly nonideo-
logical or populist “catch-all parties” (or the Tactical Populist; see Henneberg
2006a, 2006b), and (2) the transformation of media from essentially a channel
of communication to an increasingly autonomous power center and a major
actor in the campaigning process (see, e.g., Entman 2007; Gamson et al.
1992; Graber 2004). Thus candidates must look for media and communica-
tion channels (e.g., twenty-four-hour information channels, the Internet) in
order to reach all segments of society with their message.
According to Blumler and Kavanagh (1999), modernization involves several
challenges in political communication. The first is growing individualization.
Citizens’ personal views, beliefs, and aspirations are becoming increasingly
important. Various traditional institutions (the family, for instance) and value
systems are losing their importance. A second social trend that modern politi-
cal communication takes into account is secularization. It contributes to the
decreasing importance of ideological divisions and, as a consequence, to the
marginalization of political parties. It also impairs the authority of political
power. As a result of secularization the distance between the elites and the
masses decreases and the masses become increasingly important. It fosters
the development of political and media populism.
Third, the importance of the issues connected with the economy is also
52 CHAPTER 2

on the rise. The economization of life manifests itself by the growing im-
portance of economic factors in political agendas’ functioning and fulfilling
their mission. The political sphere is constantly being made to conform to the
institutions having financial capital.
Fourth, social life has been undergoing aestheticization. As a result of
this, political communication has more and more to do with popular cul-
ture and the entertainment industry. This can be illustrated by the fact that
television news stations are adopting tabloid news magazine production
techniques for newscasts. They reflect sensational news practice, or “in-
fotainment,” where production style overpowers substantive information
(see Grabe et al. 2000).
Fifth, more emphasis is put on rationalization, which forces politicians to
adopt a marketing orientation based on facts and citizens’ opinions and not
on the politicians’ own intuitions. The main focus here is on following public
opinion and presenting the views of ordinary citizens rather than politicians.
The last social change Blumler and Kavanagh point to is mediatization. The
mass media have moved into the center of all social processes and begun to
construct the public sphere and the world of politics (Gamson et al. 1992;
Shapiro and Lang 1991). The processes of mediatization are presented meta-
phorically by William Gamson and his collaborators (1992, 374): “We walk
around with media-generated images of the world, using them to construct
meaning about political and social issues. The lens through which we receive
these images is not neutral but evinces the power and point of view of the
political and economic elites who operate and focus it. And the special genius
of this system is to make the whole process seem so normal and natural that
the very art of social construction is invisible.”
Political marketing and political communication reacted to those changes
gradually. Recognizing current trends, politicians tried to take advantage of
them to win and then maintain power. According to Blumler and Kavanagh
(1999), these efforts may be divided into three subsequent stages of the politi-
cal communication era: the “golden age” of parties, the television age, and
the third age of political communication. The “golden age” of political parties
included the first two decades after World War II. Political communication
was based on stable and permanent party identification. That is why it was
focused on communicating positions on particular issues and opinions about
them. The differences between a party’s own views and the views of the op-
position were presented and discussed. Political debate was substantial and
based on ideological foundations.
An important shift in ways of conducting political communication took
place in the 1960s, when television became the main medium. It was then that
political parties lost control over the content that their supporters received.
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 53

Viewers had access to information about various political parties, with a lot of
details about their strengths and weaknesses. That led to the development of
a bigger and bigger segment of ideologically neutral citizens. The television
age also led to the development of audiences whose support politicians were
trying to win. This communication channel reached groups that before were
not of much interest for those competing for power. Their growing importance
made their votes more and more desirable.
The “third age” of political communication is related to the emergence
of more and more mass media. The multiplicity of channels providing in-
formation led—according to Blumler and Kavanagh (1999)—to politicians’
beginning to treat the new system of the media as a hydra with many heads
always hungry for food. Such a situation leads politicians who want to gain
support to hire professional assistants to maintain contacts with the media.
Their main task is to provide the media with information about the politicians
and their actions (or prevent such information from spreading) and to criticize
political opponents. Such contacts with the media have consequences for the
organization of government or party structures. The role of the party leader
or premier grows and her task is to centralize and coordinate communication
with citizens. This communication is no longer limited to television; other
ways of presenting politicians are used more and more often: the Internet,
billboards, press articles under a politician’s name, or events that attract the
attention of journalists and society. Intensive contacts with the society make
politicians flatter citizens. Therefore, populist slogans become more and
more widespread.
A similar view is also expressed by Philip Howard. In his opinion, infor-
mation technologies have played a role in campaign organization since the
1970s, but it is only over the last decade that adopting new technologies also
became an occasion for organizational restructuring within political parties
and campaigns. As a result, a completely new and different way of planning
and conducting the campaign emerged, which Howard (2006, 2) defines as
the hypermedia campaign, “an agile political organization defined by its
capacity for innovatively adopting digital technologies for express political
purposes and its capacity for innovatively adapting its organizational structure
to conform to new communicative practices.” It is not simply that political
campaigns employ digital information technologies in their communications
strategies. Integrating such technologies becomes an occasion for organi-
zational adaptation, effecting organizational goals and relationships among
professional staff, political leadership, volunteers, financial contributors,
citizens, and other political campaigns. According to Howard, this rising
prominence of hypermedia campaigns is related to three factors. First, a
service class of professional political technocrats with special expertise in
54 CHAPTER 2

information technology (IT) arose. Unlike other campaign managers, the

consultants specializing in IT focus mainly on building new communication
technologies for citizens and candidates. Second, the political consulting
industry replaced mass-media tools with targeted media tools, ranging from
fax and computer-generated direct mail to email and website content, which
allowed the industry to tailor messages to specific audiences. Third, the
engineers of political hypermedia made technical decisions about political
hypermedia that constrained subsequent decisions about the production and
consumption of political content. Howard argues that the hypermedia cam-
paign has succeeded the mass media campaign, such that the 1988 campaign
was the beginning of an important transition in the organization of political
information in the United States.
There is a traditional view that the media constitute the “fourth estate,”
(the other three are legislative-parliament, judical, and executive-government)
suggesting their importance as an element in the political fight and a way of
influencing society. John B. Thompson (1994), trying to define the mutual
relations between social development and mass communication, suggests
that the media play an important role in the mechanisms of power. The close
relation between the world of politics and the media is made even closer by
the specific characteristics of mass communication. In this context, the power
of the media using symbolic forms while transferring information in order to
influence events becomes a temptation for those who want to use it to achieve
particular ideological, economic, or political benefits (see Scammell 1999).
No matter how the mass media are organized, how they function, and what
information they provide citizens with, they are a part of the political system.
Therefore, all the strategies of political actors, both before and between the
elections, include using the mass media for their own purposes, distributing
particular messages and influencing the society. Finding mutual relations
between the mass media and political institutions and society became a start-
ing point for Ralph Negrine (1994) to propose his own model of political
communication, presented in Figure 2.5.
According to Negrine, the key elements of the political communication
process include media content, the influence of political institutions and
other political and social actors on the context of the messages, the specific
audience and interaction processes between sources of information, and the
media diffusing information.
The content of media messages is the result of the work of media practi-
tioners (owners of media corporations, editors, journalists, reporters, etc.) and
political actors or events covered by the media. Despite clear quality standards
of information distributed by mass media, the real quality of the media and
thus their influence on society do not necessarily meet these standards. The
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 55

Figure 2.5 Model of Political Communication

Media Political Political Audience/

Institutions Institutions Candidates Voters

Media Power
Practices Relations

Cognitions Cognitions
and Affect and Affect

Behavioral Behavioral
Media Content
Response Response

Attitudes Attitudes

Source: Based on Negrine (1994, 13).

reasons for this discrepancy are connected with the uncertainty about what
an appropriate or reliable information supply (offer) might be. That is, what
information should be found in every news service and what information
should not be distributed? Besides, there are still controversies about what
constitutes “objectivity of information presentation” (McQuail 1994), and
mass communication researchers often make distinctions between “real world”
and “news world” (Wu 2000).
Negrine (1994) stresses that groups that influence the content of political
communication have different levels of power in this area. In their interac-
tions with the media, political actors, including parties, certain politicians,
the government, and so on, try to achieve their own goals, and sometimes
they manage to do so by dominating the content of the message. On the other
hand, society at large does not have such influence. Society does not play
an active role in creating messages, and the feedback from the messages is
also very limited. In fact, the influence of the recipients of media messages
can only be indirect. This happens when certain ideas of the audience are
included by the specialists designing the message to make it fit the audience.
The specialists often make use of various social studies on reading or view-
ing figures, dominant problems (e.g., pedophilia), or society’s opinions about
56 CHAPTER 2

certain issues (e.g., the presence of Polish and American troops in Iraq). In this
way, the creators of media messages are also indirectly the agents of citizens’
influence on the content of political communication.
The third important component of the model proposed by Negrine is rec-
ognizing that there is no one uniform public political communication, but that
it is rather a collection of different segments of viewers. Each of them has its
own preferences related to newspapers or television channels from which it
gains knowledge of the surrounding world.
The fourth characteristic of political communication is that the process
of creating news requires some level of interaction or strategic negotiations
between the sources of information and the media that diffuse it. For instance,
such relations can be based on the promise that the informer will remain anony-
mous. On the other hand, media representatives may have the exclusive right
to report some events. Such relations are then based on feedback. What finally
reaches the audience is the result of such agreements or negotiations.

Media and Politics

Gamson and his collaborators (1992) state that a wide variety of media mes-
sages act as teachers of values, ideologies, and beliefs, providing images
for interpreting the world whether or not the designers are conscious of this
intent. It seems, however, that in relation to politics, developers of media
messages are fully aware of what content and in what form they are trying
to communicate to society.

Media Bias

Robert M. Entman (2007, 166) believes that content bias is “consistent pat-
terns in the framing of mediated communication that promote the influence
of one side in conflicts over the use of government power.” These patterns of
slant regularly prime audiences, consciously or unconsciously, to support the
interests of particular holders or seekers of political power. Dave D’Alessio
and Mike Allen (2000) distinguish three types of media bias: gatekeeping
bias, coverage bias, and statement bias.
Gatekeeping bias. The gatekeeping bias means that editors select from a
body of potential stories those that will be presented to the public and, by exten-
sion, also deselect those stories of which the mass audience will hear nothing.
Thus, the gatekeeper is any person or formally organized group that is directly
involved in relaying or transforming information from one individual to an-
other through a mass medium (Bittner 1980; White 1950). The gatekeeper’s
activities consist in limiting information by selective editing, increasing the
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 57

amount of information by expansive editing, or reorganizing the information

through reinterpretation. Such activities should be implemented not only by
the editor but also by the moderator—not only for television programs, but
also for blog or chat on the Internet. Another modern form of gatekeeping is
using Internet search engines as gatekeepers of public communication (Schulz,
Held, and Laudien 2005). Despite the fact that the number of channels the
citizen can get information from increases, this may lead to the collapse of
media gatekeeping; its forms change, too (Williams and Delli Carpini 2000).
Gatekeeping evolves and takes on more and more subtle forms. An example
may be applying gatekeeping for online newspapers. Daniela Dimitrova and
her collaborators (2003) conducted a study of the online coverage of Ameri-
can terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s execution on the websites of the top fifteen
American print newspapers. Using content analysis, the study compared the
fifteen newspapers’ websites by measuring the number, destination, and char-
acteristics of hyperlinks that accompanied these stories. The results suggest
that online newspapers use hyperlinks as a gatekeeping device because they
are unlikely to offer external hyperlinks.
One of the consequences of gatekeeping is media bias toward supporting
or not supporting particular political parties. For example, Tim Groseclose
and Jeffrey Milyo (2005) found a systematic tendency for U.S. media outlets
(press and TV) to slant the news to the left; the most liberal are CBS Evening
News and the New York Times, and the most conservative are the Washington
Post and Fox News’ Special Report. However, the media outlets are fairly
centrist relative to members of Congress, and according to Daniel Ho and
Kevin Quinn (2008), about half the newspapers they analyzed take relatively
moderate positions on issues coming before the American Supreme Court.
From this perspective, an important supplement and extension of media bias
analyses are the results of research conducted by James Druckman and Michael
Parkin (2005). Combining comprehensive content analyses of two competing
newspapers (Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press) with an Election Day
exit poll, they found that editorial slant influenced voters’ decisions in the
2000 Minnesota Senate campaign (see also Mondak 1995a).
Coverage and statement biases. According to D’Alessio and Allen (2000),
the coverage bias refers mainly to physical features of media message. Ten
media biases were codified by measuring the physical amount of coverage
each side of some issue receives. This is typically measured in column inches
for newspapers and magazines (with or without photographs and headlines),
whereas analyses of television include the number of appearances and time
devoted to each side of the issue. But the statement bias suggests that mem-
bers of the media can interject their own opinions into the text of coverage
of an issue. This type of bias can take many forms and is usually expressed
58 CHAPTER 2

by whether media coverage is favorable or unfavorable to a particular politi-

cian or party.
Jeffrey Peake (2007) conducted a comparative study of coverage of the
George W. Bush presidency on the front pages of 100 American newspapers
during a five-month period in 2006. He found clear media slant. Newspapers
that endorsed Bush’s reelection in 2004 tended to write more, and more fa-
vorably about the president, and newspapers in states where Democrats are
strong politically tended to write less, and less favorably (see also Groeling
and Kernell 1998).
The OSCE/ODIHR Election Assessment Mission Final Report (2008)
referring to preterm parliamentary elections in Poland in 2007 also showed
a lack of qualitative balance by the public television broadcaster during the
broadcasts monitored. While all three public TVP channels devoted the largest
news coverage to the Civic Platform party (30 percent on TVP1 and TVP2,
and 32 percent on TVP Info), the party’s portrayal was characterized by mostly
neutral and negative information, especially on TVP1 and the informative TVP
Info. The Law and Justice party, by comparison, was presented on all public
channels in a qualitatively balanced way (with 24 percent on TVP1 and TVP2,
and 19 percent on TVP Info). Of the private broadcasters, Polsat, during the
timeframe monitored by the OSCE/ODIHR mission, overall showed a degree
of lack of balance in coverage of the main parties, with some 35 percent of
balanced (generally equally positive, neutral, and negative) political news
coverage for the CP, while it gave some 30 percent to L&J, with a neutral
and negative tone prevailing in party-related information.
The Instytut Monitorowania Mediów [Institute of Media Monitoring] moni-
tored the Polish presidential campaign in 2000 (see Cwalina and Falkowski
2006). From August 1 to October 6, 2000, all the television programs of four
stations—two public (TVP1 and TVP2) and two private (Polsat and TVN)—
were analyzed. The researchers focused on the number of appearances of all
thirteen presidential candidates on television programs and on how long their
presentations were. The same analyses were performed for the presentations
of their aides and spokespersons. In addition, the number and duration of the
programs dedicated to the candidates and to the main subjects of the campaign
were registered too.
The unquestionable media leader given the frequency of his appearances
was the incumbent, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski. During the analyzed
period, he appeared on television more than 300 times. Marian Krzaklewski
was far behind him (about 160 appearances), as was Lech Wałęsa (over 120)
and—the second person in the voting struggle—Andrzej Olechowski (over
110). The duration time of the candidates’ presentations was distributed slightly
differently. Although the leader here was still President Kwaśniewski, he owed
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 59

his position mainly to the public media. TVP1 and TVP2 gave almost as much
time to Jarosław Kalinowski and Lech Wałęsa as they did to Kwaśniewski. This
breakdown shows clearly that the presentations of the presidential candidates
in the presidential campaign of 2000 were biased. Television stations—both
private and public—had their favorites and sentenced the other politicians to
“nonexistence.” However, in the case of Kwaśniewski, one should remember
that his presentations were the result of an overlap between his functions as the
president in office and as presidential candidate. The proportions of appear-
ing in one or the other role changed as the election campaign progressed. In
August, 60 percent of his appearances were connected with his office, whereas
in September and October, it was 51 percent. One of the issues he raised most
often was . . . the Olympic Games in Sydney! Most of these statements were
presented by public television channels that broadcast the games. So the view-
ers had a chance to watch and listen to Aleksander Kwaśniewski’s statements
on the Olympic Games and see him with Polish athletes—particularly those
who were successful.

Media Effects

There are three main forms of media communication’s influence on citizens:

agenda-setting, priming, and framing.
Agenda-setting. The idea of agenda-setting influence by the mass media
is a relational concept specifying a positive, causal relationship between the
key themes of mass communication and what members of the audience come
to regard as important. According to Maxwell McCombs (1981, 126; see
also McCombs and Shaw 1972), “the salience of an issue or other topic in
the mass media influences its salience among the audience.” Newspaper and
television stories often make explicit statements about the importance of an
issue (e.g., global economic crisis, terrorist threat) in order to justify attention
to it. However, as Joanne Miller and Jon Krosnick (2000) emphasize, even
when such issue statements are not made, most readers and viewers recognize
that devoting attention to an issue means that editors and reporters believe
the issue is a significant one for the country. Consequently, people may infer
from the media that an issue is nationally important.
The mechanism of agenda-setting resembles, to some extent, the process
of fashion. Its natural consequence is that politicians and parties try to exert
pressure on media to highlight those issues that present them in a good light and
are positive for them. Manfred Holler and Peter Skott (2005) suggest that the
incumbent or governing party can manage agenda-setting better since it holds
power and has access to resources (e.g., confidential information, experts).
The authors stress that decisions regarding this field have to be made before
60 CHAPTER 2

the start of the election campaign. The opposition also makes precampaign
decisions, but, almost by definition, the incumbent dominates the political
arena before the election campaign.
Keeping a particular issue on top of the agenda, or agenda control, requires
further effort on behalf of the politicians. It also depends on political and policy
context and previous media attention and public concern. Jeffrey Peake and
Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha (2008) tried to answer the question: Are televised
presidential speeches effective in increasing news coverage of presidential
priorities? They analyzed television news stories shown on the nightly news
programs of the three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) in the con-
text of American presidents’ speeches over four issue areas (economy, energy
policy, drugs, and Central America) from 1969 to 2000. They found that 35
percent of the president’s national addresses increased media attention in the
short term, while only 10 percent of the speeches increased media attention
beyond the month of the speech.
Politicians are not the only subjects trying to mark their presence in the
media. Their competition includes all kinds of interest groups. The results
of content analysis of American network television news from 1969 to 1982
suggest that although most attention is given to the president and his partisans
and opponents in Congress (51.9 percent), other interest groups were also
present in the news (14.4 percent). The most important ones were corporations
and business groups (36.5 percent) and citizen action groups (32 percent),
creating, as the authors of the research—Lucig Danielian and Benjamin Page
(1994)—put it, “the heavenly chorus” on TV news.
Furthermore, as the results of a study conducted by Phil Harris, Ioannis
Kolovos, and Andrew Lock (2001) confirm, during the campaign for the Eu-
ropean Parliament in Greece in 1999, it was not enough if a party managed
to initiate coverage of a specific issue and “made it” to their voters’ minds.
It was necessary to subsequently manage to adopt the overall media agenda
to party-specific priorities or manifestos. The relationship between media
and politicians is then a bilateral relationship; politicians try to include their
message in the media, but in order to be successful they need to adapt to the
content distributed by the media.
Public issues, however, are not the only objects of communication. The
objects defining the media and public agendas also can be the political can-
didates competing in elections. When the mass media present an object, they
also tell something about the attributes of the object. According to McCombs
and his collaborators (1997), when the agendas of objects (issues, candidates)
are the first level of agenda-setting (object salience), the agenda attributes
are the second level (attribute salience). This distinction is supported by the
results of their study conducted in Pamplona during Spain’s general election
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 61

in 1996. They found a high degree of correspondence between the attribute

agenda of seven different mass media (newspapers and TV channels) and the
voters’ attribute agendas for each of the three candidates: Felipe Gonzalez
(the incumbent prime minister at the time of the election and candidate of
the Spanish Socialist Workers Party), Jose Maria Aznar (the candidate of the
Popular Party, who won the election), and Julio Anguita (the candidate of the
United Left). The median correlation between these two agendas was 0.72.
In this way, the media can not only “create fashion” for particular issues,
but also set trends about what features of a candidate are most desirable for
the position of the president—for instance, moral or competent, dominant or
affiliative (see Chapter 4).
Media priming. The effect of agenda-setting is making particular issues,
objects, or their attributes more salient for the audience. The consequence
of it may be and often is the phenomenon called priming. Priming refers to
changes in the standards people use to make political evaluations. According
to Shanto Iyengar and Donald D. Kinder (1987, 63), “by calling attention to
some matters while ignoring others, television news influences the standards
by which governments, presidents, policies, and candidates for public of-
fice are judged.” Priming presumes that when evaluating complex political
phenomena, people do not take into account all that they know. Instead, they
consider what comes to mind, those bits and pieces of political memory that
are accessible. The media messages might help to set the terms by which
political judgments are reached and political choices are made.
For example, Iyengar and Kinder (1987) found that the news media’s
sudden preoccupation with the Iranian hostage issue in the closing days of
the 1980 presidential campaign caused voters to think about the candidates’
ability to control terrorism when choosing between Jimmy Carter and Ronald
Reagan. This phenomenon proved disadvantageous to President Carter.
Political parties also “specialize” in offering “the best solutions” to par-
ticular social and economic problems. This means that, according to voters,
a certain political group is more efficient in solving certain issues than other
groups. Such a phenomenon was described by John R. Petrocik (1996) with
reference to American parties in his theory of issue ownership. According to
this theory, a party’s “owning” of a certain problem is connected with a rela-
tively stable social background and is also connected with political conflicts.
The results of Petrocik’s analysis suggest that American voters consider issues
connected with general social welfare, including the homeless, public schools,
the elderly, national minorities, unemployment, health care, and the environ-
ment, as owned by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party is associated
with better achievements in the areas of crime, defense of moral values, run-
ning foreign policy, defense, inflation, taxes, and government spending. The
62 CHAPTER 2

theory of issue ownership has certain consequences for running a successful

campaign. According to Petrocik, the campaign will bring the desired result
if the candidate or political party manages to limit voting decisions to those
issues that the country faces (decisions’ criteria) that the candidate is better
able to solve than his opponent. In other words, to the degree that candidates
or parties enjoy a favorable reputation on some issue, their support is likely to
be boosted by news coverage on this issue. In an experimental study, Stephen
Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar (1994) found that news coverage of crime
was an asset to the Republicans. In addition, Republican advertising on crime
was more effective in shaping viewers’ perceptions of the sponsor as tough on
crime, while Democratic advertising on unemployment was more effective
in influencing perceptions of the sponsor as a supporter of jobs programs and
in influencing voting preference.
Priming, like agenda-setting, may concern both particular issues and at-
tributes of candidates’ image. Important data concerning the problem was
provided by the research conducted by James Druckman (2004) during the
2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota. The content analysis of
local newspapers allowed him to define the major subjects of this campaign.
It was focused on social security and health-care issues and the integrity of
candidates. Druckman also used data from the Election Day exit poll for his
analysis. The results of these analyses show that the noncampaign voters did
not rely on social security and integrity; rather they based their votes on taxes
and leadership effectiveness—an issue and an image that were not particularly
emphasized in the campaign. In contrast, campaign voters focused mainly on
the central issue and image in the campaign. Thus, campaign priming effects
manifested themselves only among voters who attended to and discussed the
campaign. Miller and Krosnick (2000) also reached similar conclusions. In
two experiments they found that for priming to occur, citizens must have the
requisite knowledge to interpret, store, and later retrieve and make inferences
from news stories they see, hear, or read. In addition, knowledge facilitates
priming only among people who trust the media. In this context, sole acces-
sibility information in memory (e.g., as a result of agenda-setting) did not
determine the weight people placed on an issue when evaluating a particular
object (e.g., the president).
Media framing. According to Entman (2007, 164), framing is the “process
of culling a few elements of perceived reality and assembling a narrative
that highlights connections among them to promote a particular interpreta-
tion.” However, media framing, as defined by William Gamson and Andre
Modigliani (1996, 143), is “a central organizing idea or story line that pro-
vides meaning to an unfolding strip of events, weaving a connection among
them. The frame suggests what the controversy is about and the essence of
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 63

the issue.” James Druckman and Kjersten Nelson (2003) state specifically
that framing effects occur when in the course of describing an issue or event,
a media emphasis on a subset of potentially relevant considerations causes
individuals to focus on these considerations when constructing their opinions.
Therefore, at a general level, the concept of framing refers to subtle altera-
tions in the statement or presentation of judgments or choice problems, and,
as Iyengar (1991) emphasizes, framing effects refer to changes in decision
outcomes resulting from these alterations.
This phenomenon was first researched and described by the cognitive
psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. They demonstrated in a
series of experiments that choices between risky prospects could be power-
fully altered merely by changing the terms in which equivalent choices are
described. In one experiment, subjects were asked to define their preferences
for various solutions of the problem presented in two ways (Kahneman and
Tversky 1984, 343):

Imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian
disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to
combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the exact scientific
estimates of the consequences of the programs are as follows:
If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved.
If Program B is adopted, there is a one-third probability that 600 people
will be saved and a two-thirds probability that no people will be saved.
Which of the two programs would you favor?

The formulation of the problem implicitly adopts as a reference point a

state of affairs in which the disease is allowed to take its toll of 600 lives. The
outcomes of the programs include the reference state and two possible gains,
measured by the number of lives saved. A clear majority of respondents (72
percent) prefer saving 200 lives for sure over a gamble that offers a one-third
chance of saving 600 lives (28 percent).
An alternative presentation of the same two options looked as follows:

If Program C is adopted, 400 people will die.

If Program D is adopted, there is a one-third probability that nobody will
die and a two-thirds probability that 600 people will die.

Options C and D are undistinguishable in real terms from options A and

B. The second version, however, assumes a reference state in which no one
dies of the disease. The best outcome is the maintenance of this state, and
the alternatives are losses measured by the number of people that will die
of the disease. People who evaluated the options in these terms preferred a
64 CHAPTER 2

risky choice (option D; 78 percent) over the sure loss of 400 lives (option
C; 22 percent).
Frames are never neutral. They may provide different ways of presenting
situations, attributes, choices, actions, issues, responsibility, and news (Hal-
lahan 1999). According to Iyengar (1991), all television news stories can be
classified as either episodic or thematic. The episodic news frame takes the
form of a case study or event-oriented report. It presents a particular issue by
concrete cases. The thematic frame places public issues in some more general
or abstract context. It refers to more analytical, contextual, or historical cover-
age. In a series of experiments, researchers found that, for example, episodic
media framing of poverty increased attributions of individualistic responsibil-
ity, while thematic framing increased attributions of societal responsibility.
Attributions of responsibility for unemployment, however, were unaffected by
the type of frame. Citizens understood unemployment primarily in economic
terms under conditions of both episodic and thematic framing.
Holli Semetko and Patti Valkenburg (2000) distinguish five media frames
that occur most often in media reports about politics:

s CONmICTFRAME—emphasizes conflict among individuals, groups, or in-

stitutions;
s HUMANINTERESTFRAME—brings a human face or an emotional angle to
the presentation of an event, issue, or problem;
s ECONOMICCONSEQUENCESFRAME—reports an event or issue in terms of
the consequences it will have economically on an individual, a group,
an institution, a country, or a region;
s MORALITYFRAME—puts an event or issue in the context of religious tenets
or moral prescriptions;
s RESPONSIBILITYFRAME—presents an issue in such a way to attribute re-
sponsibility for its cause or solution either to the government or to an
individual, a group, or to uncontrolled external conditions or powers.

Semetko and Valkenburg used these five frames in their content analysis of
the Dutch national media news (newspapers and TV news programs) from
May 1 to June 20, 1997, the period leading up to the meeting of the heads
of government of the European Union countries, held in Amsterdam during
June 16–17, 1997. The European leaders met to finalize agreement on mon-
etary union. Semetko and Valkenburg found that television news coverage
in Holland was predominantly episodic, focusing on specific events in the
past twenty-four hours. Only 8 percent of the news coverage was thematic,
taking information from different points in time and providing a context or
interpretation for an event. Most often the media used a responsibility frame
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 65

and then the following frames: conflict frame, economic consequences frame,
human interest frame, and morality frame. The subjects attributed responsi-
bility for most of the discussed problems to the government. Also the rela-
tions concerning the monetary union were most often presented through this
perspective and were supplemented only to a small extent by references to
conflict or economic consequences.
Despite some similarities, Miller and Krosnick (2000) state that framing and
priming are substantively different effects—the former deals with how changes
in the content of stories on a single issue affect attitudes toward relevant public
policy, the latter with how changes in the number of stories about an issue affect
the ingredients of presidential performance evaluations. However, both ways
of influencing citizen beliefs by the media do influence considerably people’s
preferences toward particular ways of solving problems and attribution of
responsibility for and, thus, support for particular political parties.

Political Public Relations and Lobbying

Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller (2006) believe that public relations (PR)
is one of six major modes of communication within the marketing communi-
cations mix. Public relations is company-sponsored activities and programs
designed to create daily or special brand-related interactions. It involves a
variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or
its individual products. Public relations includes communications directed
internally to employees of the company and externally to consumers, other
firms, the government, and the media. According to these authors, the appeal
of public relations is based on three distinctive qualities: (1) high credibility
(the news stories and features are more authentic and credible to readers than
ads); (2) ability to catch buyers off guard (PR can reach prospects who prefer
to avoid salespeople and advertisements); and (3) dramatization (PR has the
potential for dramatizing a company or product). The major tools in market-
ing PR include, according to Kotler and Keller, publications (e.g., reports,
press and web articles, company newsletters), events (e.g., news conferences,
seminars, outings), sponsorships (sports and cultural events), news (media
releases), speeches, public service activities (e.g., contributing money and
time to good causes), and identity media (e.g., logos, stationery, business
cards, buildings, uniforms).

Political Public Relations

In accordance with changes in modern societies, public relations has ex-

panded into a communication strategy that is increasingly permeating all
66 CHAPTER 2

areas of society. According to Ulrich Saxer (1993), PR gradually separated

itself from the business advertising system, becoming interinstitutional
and reaching beyond the economic sector. In consequence, professional
communicators come with expertise in a variety of fields (e.g., media,
business, polling), including also politics. In this context they usually
perform the function of political press officers but are commonly defined
as “spin doctors.” Their main task is to control the news agenda. Joy John-
son, a former director of the British Labour Party, and cited by Ivor Gaber
in the April 1999 edition of Red Pepper magazine (274), defines spin as
“characterized as either (a) malign and dealing in deceit or (b) benign by
throwing morsels to the lobby. It was born with the end of ideas. Politicians
hold belief that what happens in the political world does not matter—only
perceptions matter.”
John Brissenden and Kevin Moloney (2005) believe that political PR should
be viewed as much as defensive activity by parties against critical journalism
as an offensive of self-serving publicity. Parties are focused on preventing
media and thus voters from getting particular information unfavorable to the
parties while attracting voters with positive policy and image. The media
respond to political PR by reporting not simply political strategy and issues
but on the attempts by politicians to manage their presentation, although
according to Brian McNair (2004) the techniques of PR are value-neutral.
However, they may be and are used to manipulate public opinion, and in this
case it is not the problem of techniques but intentions and goals for which they
are employed. Besides, some PR techniques seem “neutral” whereas others
are based on sheer communication strategies to exert social influence. Given
those procedures, Gaber (1999, 264, 265) proposes to characterize spin as
being “above the line” or “below the line.” Above-the-line activities might
be defined “as those more or less overt initiatives that in very simple terms
would have caused an ‘old-fashioned’ press officer no great difficulty.” Then,
below-the-line activities are those “usually more covert and as much about
strategy and tactics as about the imparting of information.”
The first group of techniques includes, according to Gaber,

s GOVERNMENTORPARTYANNOUNCEMENTSˆISSUEPRESSRELEASESPRESSCONFER-
ences, making announcements via interviews or speeches;
s REACTINGTOGOVERNMENTORPARTYANNOUNCEMENTShREvANDhPREBUTTALv ˆ
usually assuming the same forms as the above category;
s PUBLICIZINGSPEECHESINTERVIEWSANDARTICLES
s REACTINGTOINTERVIEWSORSPEECHESAND
s REACTINGTOBREAKINGNEWSEVENTSANDhSTAYINGONMESSAGEv 
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 67

The below-the-line techniques include

s SPINNINGˆMANAGINGTHEWAYEGTHESEQUENCE FORMANDCONTENTOF

disseminated messages;
s SETTINGTHENEWSAGENDAˆDISSEMINATIONANDCONTROLOFINFORMATIONTHAT
appears in media;
s DIVIDING THE NEWS AGENDAˆSUSTAINING THE CAMPAIGN OF DRIVING THE
news in a particular direction over a period of time; a string of related
stories;
s lREBREAKINGˆDELIBERATIVELYCONSTRUCTINGDIVERSIONSTOTAKEJOURNALISTS
off the scent of an embarrassing story;
s STOKING THE lREˆlNDING AND PUBLICIZING THE MATERIAL TO KEEP AN OP-
ponent’s awkward story running;
s BUILDINGUPAPERSONALITYˆCREATINGAPOLITICIANSOWNPOSITIVEIMAGE
(see Chapter 4);
s UNDERMININGAPERSONALITYˆCREATINGANEGATIVEIMAGEOFTHEOPPONENT
s PREEMPTINGˆANTICIPATINGNEGATIVEMEDIAREPORTSABOUTTOAPPEAREG
admitting in advance to some mistake);
s KITE mYINGˆmOATINGAPROPOSALINORDERTOTESTREACTION
s RAISINGORLOWERINGEXPECTATIONSˆPREPARINGFORAWORSEORBETTER COURSE
of action than was predicted (e.g., that the politician’s year budget will
be particularly problematic);
s MILKINGASTORYˆEXTRACTINGASMUCHPOSITIVEMEDIACOVERAGEOUTOFA
given situation as possible;
s THROWINGOUTTHEBODIESˆDISSEMINATINGBADNEWSWITHOUTATTRACTINGTOO
much attention (e.g., in the context of other events that are very interest-
ing to the public);
s LAUNDERINGˆlNDINGAPIECEOFGOODNEWSTHATCANBERELEASEDATTHE
same time as bad news (see Chapter 6);
s CREATINGTHEhWHITECOMMONWEALTHvˆAFAVOREDGROUPOFCORRESPONDENTS
who receive special treatment and access, above and beyond that avail-
able to other correspondents;
s BULLYINGANDINTIMIDATIONˆACCUSINGCERTAINMEDIAOFPARTIALITYINORDER
to discredit them.

From another perspective, these techniques may also be described as focused

on the following: creating media relations, framing favorite narratives, photo
opportunities, event management, and sloganeering (Brissenden and Moloney
2005). Their main goal is, above all, to build a positive image of a party or
politician or repair the image after some negative events (see Chapter 4).
68 CHAPTER 2

It should also be emphasized that PR actions are not always an efficient tool
for winning the support of voters. Their efficiency depends not only on the pro-
fessionalism of spin doctors but also on particular situations in which they are
undertaken, on the activities of political opponents, and also on the media, the
key channel of message dissemination. An important element of success is the
object on which PR focuses, something that former British prime minister John
Major (Bale and Sanders 2001) learned, as did U.S. president George W. Bush,
conducting a series of domestic travels to promote his reforms (Barrett and Peake
2007; Eshbaugh-Soha and Peake 2006) and the British government in its com-
munication on the so-called BSE crisis (Harris and O’Shaughnessy 1997).1
Spin is the current dominant form of political presentation, but changes in
journalism, particularly an alluring treatment of fact and opinion, were an incuba-
tory environment for it (Moloney 2001). Although it is most often connected with
manufacturing politicians’ false images and cheating society, spin could also be
said to have some benefits related to it. Kevin Moloney (2000) believes that the
benefits created by PR in politics are those that come from information flowing
between parties, government, and the public. PR and other political marketing
techniques make politics more attractive to contemporary electorates.
PR, although considered one of the elements of the marketing communica-
tion mix (see Kotler and Keller 2006), is in fact something more than a pure
promotion tool. It has become an important supplement to political marketing
campaigns resulting from their permanent character. It also occupies a particu-
larly important place in postelection communication strategies (see Chapter
6). Despite the threats related to using PR techniques to manipulate people, it
may significantly support the communication of those in power with citizens
by presenting clearly the goals, policy, and reforms realized by politicians. It
may also contribute to higher transparency and accountability of those in power
(see Gaber 2004). Moloney (2001, 125) believes that “spin style represents
an opportunity for politicians to re-assess the relative importance they give to
the substance of policy and to their private and public behavior” and to “and
rebalance their time and energies in favor of policy substance.”
Another dimension of PR in politics is, as Moloney (2000) puts it, “PR as
lobbying.” PR as lobbying is a technique with the potential to add strength to
weak, outsider groups seeking policy advantage. It may equip these groups
with a set of low-cost techniques, thanks to which they will be able to publi-
cize their interests. But it also raises acute concerns about access by powerful
interests to elected governments.
Political Lobbying
Conor McGrath (2007) believes that political lobbying can be considered
a form of political communication and—as Phil Harris and Andrew Lock
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 69

(1996) add—a part of the broader field of public relations. It is related to the
“stimulation and transmission of a communication, by someone other than
a citizen acting on his/her own behalf, directed to a governmental decision-
maker with the hope of influencing his/her decision” (McGrath 2007, 273).
And the most powerful form of lobbying is the supply of information on your
lobbyist case, and the issues surrounding it, on a regular basis to those within
the decision process.
The results of interviews and research conducted by Harris and Lock (1996,
326) allowed them to formulate five main reasons for the growth and increased
importance of commercial campaigning in the United Kingdom:

1. the increased internationalization and competition in business markets

and the consequent pressure to have influence over the legislature and
to maintain competitive positioning in the business environment;
2. the growing importation of a more structured corporate lobbying
system from the United States and Washington, DC, designed in
particular to influence legislation affecting business markets;
3. the increased activities of lobbyists on behalf of clients as a result of
increased corporate acquisitions, mergers, and joint-venture activity;
4. the radical nature of British government in the 1980s and 1990s, which
effectively broke down earlier consensus politics and required that
those affected by proposals should seek to ensure that their views are
communicated as competently as possible or lose influence; and
5. the growth of transnational government (e.g., the European Union),
which has generated substantial legislation affecting businesses (e.g.,
environmental legislation).

According to Leighton Andrews (1996), lobbying means two things. First,

lobbying is working the system—that is, representations based on careful
research, usually followed by negotiation with several elements of central or
local government. Second, it means pressure on government—that is, mobi-
lization of public and media opinion around a particular problem.
Phil Harris (2001b) believes that there are two competing views on the
legitimacy of lobbying. The first view is that lobbyists abuse the democratic
system for their selfish interests and that their activity requires the imposition
of greater controls over lobbying activities. It is often related to campaign
contributions for candidates, who, in return for such donations, will support
particular bills beneficial to the interests of either individual or corporate
donors. The second perspective assumes that lobbying is an intrinsic part of
the democratic process because it can create a counterbalance to potentially
ill-informed, unthought-out policy decisions.
70 CHAPTER 2

The first of these views is supported by the results of a meta-analysis of

research and campaign contributions’ impact on roll call voting conducted
by Douglas Roscoe and Shannon Jenkins (2005). They found that it is not
true that the apparent connection between money and roll call voting is just
a reflection of friendly giving. Money had a statistically significant impact
on how legislators voted: one in three roll call votes exhibited the impact of
campaign contributions. The authors state that legislators are inundated with
legislative proposals, many of which have little connection to their own policy
interests or the interests of their constituency. Lawmakers themselves may
have little information about these bills and they may rely on cues from their
political and social environment. In these conditions, according to Roscoe
and Jenkins, it is not surprising that they would be willing to trade their votes
for a resource critical to their goal of reelection (see also Harris and Lock
2005; Wray 1999).
Political lobbying by companies and other pressure groups at the Brit-
ish parties’ conferences may also evoke similar doubts. Summing up their
research in this field, Harris and Lock (2002) state that there is only a limited
portion of overt lobbing at party conferences and that much lobbying at these
events is difficult to monitor. The one area of limited information is of private
meetings between politicians and representatives of business organizations
or pressure groups.
The other view on political lobbying is supported by widely described cases
of efficient activities not directly related to supporting particular politicians
financially. Examples are the Davenport Naval Dockyard campaign in the
United Kingdom (Andrews 1996; Harris 2001b; Harris, McGrath, and Harris
2009), the campaign by the Shopping Hours Reform Council to change Sunday
trading laws in the United Kingdom (Harris, Gardner, and Vetter 1999), and
the Fawcett Society’s “Listen to My Vote” campaign to discover and articu-
late women’s political opinions across Britain and to use this information to
influence the political process (Lindsay 1999).
The growth of corporate lobbying and campaigning is a response to the
complexities of modern business society caused by more pervasive govern-
ment and increased need for competitiveness in a global market (Harris
2001b). It seems then that the government’s higher influence on the economy
and passing new laws forces in a way the development of political lobbying.
Phil Harris, Conor McGrath, and Irene Harris (2009) propose a taxonomy of
situations in which government is involved and postulate the relative impor-
tance of lobbying in influencing outcomes. These situations are linked and
conditioned by the roles that modern governments are supposed to perform:
as a purchaser or allocator (e.g., purchasing procedures and infrastructure and
offering large public work contracts); as legislator and framer of regulations;
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 71

as initiator of action; as partner and mediator with international organizations

(e.g., the European Union or NAFTA); as decision-maker; and as employer.

Political Consultants

Today, politics has become a big, profitable business to consultants who help
manufacture politicians’ images. Shaun Bowler, Todd Donovan, and Ken
Fernandez (1996) even talk about the emergence and dynamic development
of the “political marketing industry.” In California, the first permanent orga-
nization devoted to political campaigning, Whitaker and Baxter’s Campaigns
Inc., was founded in 1930. Sixty years later, the 1990 California Green Book
listed 161 general campaign consultants, 14 polling firms, 3 petition manage-
ment companies, 22 professional fundraising firms, and 15 legal firms offering
legal and accounting device to campaigns (Bowler, Donovan, and Fernandez
1996). Nicholas O’Shaughnessy (1990, 7) describes political consultants as
“the product managers of the political world.”
Some say the by-product of these consultants is cynicism in the electorate
and growing armies of people involved in opposition research (see Kavanagh
1996). The consultants have become important because they are in a position
to help a politician craft a winning television image that resonates well with
citizens. As we move from the television era to the Internet era, the expertise
necessary to be a successful consultant will have to change. As Philip Howard
(2006) states, while pollsters supply campaigns with important information
about the electorate and fund-raising professionals generate revenue, infor-
mation technology experts have also had significant influence on campaign
organization. Information technology experts build their political values into
the tools and technologies of modern campaigns, with direct implications for
the organization and process of campaigning.
At the level of overall strategic thinking, the candidate is involved, but when
it comes to creating a campaign platform, conducting polls, and setting up a
promotional strategy, very few candidates get involved. The services offered
by consultants include several different activities, such as direct mail, fund-
raising, television and radio spots, issue analysis, and print advertising (see
Plasser 2009). The ability to lead in the high-tech age we live in hinges on
the careful selection of the right consultants to run the candidate’s campaign,
both before and after entering the political office.
Results from a nationwide survey of political consultants reveal the increas-
ingly important role they are

1. 40 percent said candidates are neither very involved nor influential

when it comes to setting issue priorities.
72 CHAPTER 2

2. 60 percent said their candidates were neither very involved nor

influential in the day-to-day tactical operation of the electoral cam-
paign.
3. Consultants emphasize campaign activities such as fund-raising,
advertising strategies, and analysis of voter preferences.
4. Consultants believe a winning campaign does not hinge on the com-
petence of the candidate, political organization, or the recruitment
and use of volunteer workers.
5. The majority of consultants do not provide services such as precinct
walking, phone banking, or “get-out-the-vote” efforts (all of which
are hallmarks of grassroots politicking).
6. Major services that consultants offer are direct mail, fund-raising,
television and radio spots, issue analysis, and print advertising.
7. The “permanent campaign” means that consultants do not stop con-
sulting after Election Day, but continue to provide advice on policy-
making activities in anticipation of the next reelection campaign
and follow their clients into office as formal advisers or political
appointees.

This increasing power of consultants is a very serious issue concerning

the general health of democracies around the world. In the past in the United
States, when the political party bosses were the ones in control, there was a
screening process that was put in place to choose these people. Local officials,
who were voted into office themselves, were the ones who had positions of
power in a campaign.
Today, consultants are hired and fired by campaigns in the same way
that a corporation might hire a consultant, based on word-of-mouth recom-
mendation and relative success in the past. The consultants have not been
exposed to the public, nor have they been screened by voters in the same
way that party officials have been. So as we become a more market-driven
democracy, and the power shifts from public officials to hired guns, there is
an inherent danger to society that the basis on which candidates are elected
will be determined by the ability, both monetarily and otherwise, to hire the
right consultant. This is a serious issue that will only be perpetuated by the
rising costs of running for public office and the need to hire consultants to
manufacture images for politicians.

An Advanced Theory of Political Marketing

The processes described above show clearly the shift in the focus and range
of political marketing. It has expanded to become a permanent strategic ele-
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 73

ment of governance. These changes facilitate the development of marketing

research and are becoming more and more important for the election and
governing processes. They also require the development of more appropriate
models of political marketing that include these processes.
Phil Harris (Dann et al. 2007; Harris and Rees 2000; Lock and Harris 1996)
calls for regenerating political marketing and turning political marketing into
political marketing science. Many scholars point to multiple possibilities and
paths through which this transition may occur (Baines, Brennan, and Egan
2003; Baines, Harris, and Lewis 2002; Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman
2009; Davies and Newman 2006; Harris 2001a, 2001b; Harris and Rees 2000;
Henneberg 2008; Henneberg and O’Shaughnessy 2007; Lock and Harris 1996;
Newman 1994, 1999c; O’Shaughnessy and Henneberg 2009; Wring 1997,
1999). They are also the foundation for the advanced theory of political mar-
keting formulated in this book, presented in Figure 2.6.
The starting point for developing the advanced model of political marketing
is the model elaborated by Bruce Newman (1994). It includes the concepts
introduced in Chapter 1 and related to service and relationship marketing, as
well as a discussion of market and marketing orientation and market-driven
versus market-driving marketing orientation.
The advanced model of political marketing presented in this book brings
together into a single framework the two campaigns: the permanent market-
ing campaign and the political marketing process. These two components
are realized within a particular country’s political system, and the system
depends, above all, on political tradition as well as the efficiency of the
developed democratic procedures. In this way “democracy orientation”
determines how the functions of the authorities are implemented and, also,
who is the dominant object in the structure of government. On the other hand,
democracy orientation also defines whom the voters focus on during elec-
tions. From this perspective, we distinguish four fundamental types of such
orientation: candidate-oriented democracy, party leader–oriented democracy,
party-oriented democracy, and government-oriented democracy.
A good example of a candidate-oriented democracy is the United States,
where the choice in an election is very much a function of the sophisticated
use of marketing tools to move a person into contention. It is characterized
by the electorate’s attention shifts from political parties to specific candidates
running for various offices, particularly for president. The shift is accompanied
by the growing importance of a candidate’s individual characteristics, of which
his image is made up. American parties have little direct control over either
candidate selection or the running of campaigns. Key decisions about cam-
paign strategy are made at the level of the individual candidate. Although the
national party committees play a supportive role, candidate image, character,
74 CHAPTER 2

Figure 2.6 The Advanced Model of Political Marketing

DEMOCRACY ORIENTATION

Candidate Party leader Party Government

PERMANENT POLITICAL CAMPAIGN

Precampaign Campaign Postcampaign

period period period

POLITICAL MARKETING PROCESS

Message development
Message
Candidate/party Relationship building
Voter segments dissemination
positioning and targeting
determination
(branding)
A. Primary A. Assessing A. Personal (direct) A. Platform delivery
segmentation candidate/party campaign (grass- (policy
image and issues roots efforts, implementation,
B. Secondary
strengths and election events and public sector
segmentation
weaknesses meetings) services)
(assess voter
needs) B. Assessing B. Mediated (indirect) B. Mutual trust
competition campaign (printed building
C. Profile voters
and electronic
C. Candidate position C. Permanent
D. Voter segments materials)
in target segments communication
identification
C. Public Relations
D. Campaign platform D. Lobbying
E. Target segments
establishing D. Campaign
identification
(image, issues, development and
promises) control (polling)
E. Social networking

and policy pledges are the prime “products” on offer in elections rather than
party behaviors and platforms (see Wattenberg 1991).
Party leader–oriented democracy seems to be characteristic of the United
Kingdom and Mexico, where although there is still a focus on the individual
in the campaign, the choice in an election is more a function of the “approval”
of a superbody of influentials who decide who will run for office. To a great
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 75

degree, the political party is in a very powerful position, but there is still active
use of marketing techniques once the party chooses who the nominee will
be. British parties are ideologically cohesive and disciplined, with central-
ized and hierarchical national organizations, and their leaders are focused
on directing the behavior of the whole party in the search for office (Ingram
and Lees-Marshment 2002). While analyzing the data from parliamentary
elections in Britain between 1979 and 1987 collected in the archives of the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and from TV polls conducted
by the BBC together with Gallup, Ron Johnston, Charles Pattie, and Graham
Allsopp (1988) stated that, all other things being equal, the most popular lead-
ers will be those with the most popular policies. However, some leaders are
much more popular than the policies they stand for, whereas others are less
popular. Thus, a voter may prefer the Labour Party’s policies but, because of
the quality of the party’s leader, does not believe that the promises in those
policies will be delivered; as a consequence, another party may get that
person’s vote, because it has a leader who is believed better equipped to fill
the role of prime minister. To some voters, the leadership may be even more
important than the direction in which it leads. For example, Johnston and his
collaborators found that about three-quarters of those who thought Margaret
Thatcher would make the best prime minister voted for her at each of the three
analyzed elections. Another piece of evidence confirming these results is the
data from the 1987 British Campaign Study (BCS) conducted by Marianne C.
Stewart and Harold D. Clarke (1992). They found that favorable perceptions
of Thatcher as competent and responsive enhanced, while similar perceptions
of other leaders reduced, the likelihood of the Conservative voting. Similar
interrelations were also found for leaders of the other parties. The dominant
position of the leader in relation to her party is also confirmed by the results of
the polls conducted by MORI in the context of the 1987–2001 British general
elections analyzed by Robert M. Worcester and Roger Mortimore (2005). They
showed that leader image was a greater determinant of voting behavior than
party image: the respective figures were 35 percent and 21 percent in 1987;
33 percent and 20 percent in 1992; 34 percent and 23 percent in 1997; and 32
percent and 24 percent in 2001. In this context it seems justifiable to assume
that a political party and voters’ identification with it are an important factor
influencing voting decisions. However, its image is to a large degree based
on how its leader is perceived. It is the leader that voters focus on and it is
the leader whose promotion is the main goal of the campaign.
Party-oriented democracy is characteristic of such countries as Poland,
Finland, Czech Republic, and Romania, where the political party presents
itself to the voters as the real choice being made. The Polish political system
is based on a party system. Therefore, in the parliamentary, presidential, and
76 CHAPTER 2

local elections, candidates supported by significant political parties have a

better chance of success. The politics of Poland takes place in the framework
of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the prime
minister is the head of government and of a multiparty system. The president,
as the head of state, is chosen during elections based on the majority rule
and has the power to veto legislation passed by parliament, but otherwise
has a mostly representative role. During general parliamentary elections the
citizens of Poland elect their representatives, who belong to various political
parties. These parties then take seats in the Sejm and Senate (lower and higher
chambers of parliament) depending on the number of votes they receive dur-
ing an election. For a particular candidate to be elected, his party (or election
committee) must get at least 5 percent of the votes across the whole country,
and if he represents a coalition of various parties it has to be 8 percent of the
votes cast in the whole country. So a situation may occur (and does occur)
that a candidate who won most votes in his constituency will not become
an MP because his party was below the 5 percent or 8 percent threshold in
the whole country. Such legal regulations lead to campaigns being mainly
concentrated on political parties. Obviously their leaders are an important
element of winning such support; however, even their personal success does
not guarantee the party’s success. Besides, the person that the winning party
designates as its candidate for prime minister does not have to be the party’s
leader but only a person nominated by the party.
Government-oriented democracy seems to be characteristic of countries
like Russia and China, where governing is dominated by one party. Such a
system is defined on the website of the China Internet Information Center
(www.china.org.cn) as “democratic centralism.” The Communist Party of
China (CPC) has established formal organizations (through elections within
the Party) and informal organizations within the Chinese government and
various levels and walks of life in the country. According to the principle of
democratic centralism, the individual CPC member is subordinate to a party
organization, the minority is subordinate to the majority, the lower level
organization is subordinate to the higher level, and each organization and all
members of the entire CPC are subordinate to the Party’s National Congress
and the Central Committee. Furthermore, leading bodies at various levels of
the party, except for their agencies and for leading party groups in nonparty
organizations, are all elected, and the party prohibits personality cults in any
form. Such elections are two-tier elections: direct and indirect. Direct elections
are applicable to the election of deputies to the people’s congresses of the
counties, districts, townships, and towns. They adopt the competitive election
method, which means that a candidate wins the election when she receives
more than half of the votes cast. Indirect elections, then, are applicable to
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 77

the election of deputies to people’s congresses above the county level, depu-
ties among the armed forces at the same level, and deputies to the National
People’s Congress (NPC) elected from special administrative regions. Can-
didates may be nominated by political parties or mass organizations jointly
or independently or by more than ten deputies. Expenses for the election of
the NPC and local people’s congresses at various levels are to be provided
from the national treasury. In the case of government-oriented democracy, the
major tasks of the political campaign focus on the communication between the
government and citizens rather than on the direct election struggle between
candidates or political parties.
The permanent campaign is a process of continuing transformation that
never stops. Therefore, distinguishing the particular stages of the campaign
(precampaign period, campaign period, and postcampaign period) is in a
sense artificial because those particular stages often merge into one another
and there is no clear division line between them.
The permanent marketing campaign is the heart of the model because it
may be successfully conducted only within the political marketing process. It
contains three key elements: politician or party message development, mes-
sage dissemination, and relationship building. Message development refers
to distinguishing particular groups of voters for whom an individualized and
appropriate campaign platform will be designed. Voter segments determination
is a process in which all voters are broken down into segments, or group-
ings, that the candidate then targets with her message. Political marketing
can distinguish two levels of voter segmentation: primary and secondary
(Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman 2009). The primary segmentation focuses
on dividing voters based on the two main criteria: (1) voter party identification
(particular party partisanship vs. independency), and (2) voter strength (from
heavy partisans to weak partisans to floating voters). From the perspective
of the whole marketing campaign, the goal of the campaign should be to
reinforce the decisions of the supporters and win the support of those who
are uncertain and whose preferences are not crystallized, as well as those
who still hesitate or have poor identification for a candidate or party that is
close ideologically. It is these groups of voters that require more study—the
secondary segmentation.
These elements may be used jointly for positioning politicians or puts it:
The goal of message development is elaboration and establishing the campaign
platform. It evolves over the course of the permanent political campaign (the
time of the election and during governing). The campaign platform is defined
in terms of candidate leadership, image, and issues and policies she advocates.
It is influenced by several factors, including the candidate herself, the people
in her organization, the party, and, especially, the voters.
78 CHAPTER 2

The established politician or party message is then distributed on the voter

market. The personal (direct) campaign primarily refers to the grassroots effort
necessary to build up a volunteer network to handle the day-to-day activities
in running the campaign. The grassroots effort that is established becomes
one information channel that transmits the candidate’s message from her
organization to the voter, and feedback from the voters to the candidate. The
goal here is then not only the distribution of the candidate’s message, but also
an attempt to establish and/or enhance relationships with voters and other
political power brokers. Direct marketing consists of the candidate’s meetings
with voters and power brokers, such as lobbyists and interest groups.
The mediated (indirect) campaign becomes a second information chan-
nel for the candidate. Instead of the person-to-person channel used with a
direct marketing approach, this channel makes use of electronic and printed
media outlets such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail,
the Internet (e.g., email, websites, blogs), campaign literature (e.g., flyers,
brochures, fact sheets), billboards, and any other forms of promotion that are
available. Political marketing also adopts new ways of communicating with
the voter, mainly related to the development of new technologies such as
social networking or mobile marketing. After the so-called digital revolution,
which mainly involved the development and spread of the Internet, initiating
convergence between traditionally separated technologies, we are currently
experiencing some kind of “mobile revolution” in which all information and
communication technologies (ICT) and media usage seem to be going mobile.
Mobile marketing is the use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery
and direct-response vehicle within a cross-media marketing communications
program. The wave of mobile telephony is largely behind us, but has cre-
ated an environment in which almost everybody suddenly owns a personal
mobile device and is always “on” and reachable. In today’s fragmented
political market, it is evident that traditional mass market (and mass media)
approaches need to make way for a more differentiated and personalized ap-
proach of (micro) segment targeting. In order to achieve this, and given the
fact that almost everyone has a personal mobile device, the advertising and
marketing sector is rigorously experimenting with a diversity of new mobile
marketing paths (De Marez et al. 2007). The ubiquity of the mobile phone
extends the traditional media model of time and space. Mobile advertisers can
deliver timely short message service (SMS) ads to consumers based on their
demographic characteristics and geographic information. Worldwide, wireless
advertisers have already integrated SMS into the media mix. SMS has started
its ascent toward reaching critical mass as a direct marketing medium (Scharl,
Dickinger, and Murphy 2005). In political campaigning, through the use of
SMS, politicians try to influence voters directly. They can inform citizens
 AN ADVANCED THEORY OF POLITICAL MARKETING 79

about campaign events, invite them to participate in the campaign, and ask
for their vote. The results of research conducted by Ifigeneia Mylona (2008)
between December 2004 and January 2005 among Greek MPs suggest that
40 percent of them use SMS for communicating with their voters. However,
younger politicians use this communication tool more than older ones. Mobile
technology seems a potent political tool because it appeals to voters’ emotions,
is individualized, and reaches voters immediately.
The use of social networking by the Barack Obama campaign as both a
personal and mediated information outlet in 2008 was integral to his victory.
A comparison of the websites of the two presidential candidates showed that
Obama understood the power of this form of message dissemination. For
example, Obama had links on his website to Facebook, Myspace, YouTube,
Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Eventful, LinkedIn, BlackPlanet, Faithbase, Eons, and
Glee. John McCain by contrast had none until the very late stages of his cam-
paign when it was too late to leverage the impact of this technology.
Obama won in 2008 in part because he made better use of the Internet and
other marketing-related technologies to support his marketing efforts. Through
the use of Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and other social networking sites, the
Obama strategists successfully targeted young voters who wanted change in the
U.S. political system. These technological outlets were first used by Howard
Dean in 2004, even though he was unsuccessful in his bid to win the Democratic
presidential nomination. The use of social networking by the Dean campaign
organization was beneficial in getting volunteer support and some fund-raising,
primarily as a personal, targeted approach to interested voters and citizens.
The Obama campaign’s use of these same technologies was boosted to
a level never before attained in a presidential campaign, with hundreds of
millions of dollars raised over the Internet and thousands of hours of support
received. The funds were raised through both personal requests to individual
donors who had signed up at events during the course of the campaign and
through Internet channels targeted at selected segments of voters who fol-
lowed the campaign over the Internet. Millions of supporters gave less than
$300 each, on average, enough to build a multimillion-dollar campaign that
would support the advertising that eventually worked to defeat the McCain
campaign. At the same time, messages sent through mediated Internet outlets
were used to allow supporters to keep track of the campaign at all times. Any
interested party could tap into a website like Flickr or Twitter and both follow
and be alerted to the daily activities of the campaign. Social networking at
both the personal and mediated levels will continue to play an integral role
in campaigns in democracies around the world in the future.
These activities should be supported by public relations efforts that are coor-
dinated with them. The main goal of public relations activities is to strengthen
80 CHAPTER 2

the image of the candidate and his message by creating positive media rela-
tions, framing favorite narratives, event management, and sloganeering.
The foundation of message dissemination is organizational tasks con-
nected with assembling staff for the campaign team, defining their tasks, and
monitoring their activities where soliciting funds for the campaign plays an
important role. Then, polling represents the data analysis and research that are
used to develop and test new ideas and determine how successful the ideas
will be. Polls are conducted in various forms (benchmark polls, follow-up
polls, tracking polls) throughout the whole voting campaign and implemented
by various political entities among the campaigns. One should also note the
growing importance of polling specialists. The results of their analyses given
to the general electorate not only reflect the electorate’s general mood, but
also influence the forming of public opinion.
The third element of the political marketing process and the goal of the politi-
cal party or candidate is to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with
voters and other political power brokers (media, party organizations, sponsors,
lobbyists, interest groups, etc.), so that the objectives of the parties involved
are met. And this is achieved by a mutual exchange—both during the election
campaign and after it, when the candidate is either ruling or in opposition. The
integral element of the relationship building is the “promise concept.” The key
functions related to it are to give promises, to fulfill promises, and to enable
promises. Therefore, an important element of building stable relations is trust,
which is a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confi-
dence (Grönroos 1994). Trust is also the foundation of developing relationship
commitment, when an exchange partner believes that an ongoing relationship
with another is so important as to warrant maximum efforts at maintaining it.
That is, the committed party believes the relationship is worth working on to
ensure that it endures indefinitely. In order to achieve that, one also needs to
establish co