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Reconciling marketing with political science: Theories

of political marketing
a
Dominic Wring
a
Department of Social Services, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire,
LEU 3TU E-mail:
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 Journal of Marketing Management, 1997, 13, 651-663

Dominic Wring Reconciling Marketing with

Loughborough University Political Science: Theories of
Political Marketing
This paper has two broad aims: to trace the theoretical development
of political marketing and then demonstrate how these concepts can be
used in the analysis of election campaigns. Electioneering is not the
sole manifestation of marketing in politics but it is the most obvious,
a point underlined by recent work addressing the prominent role now
played by political marketing in a parliamentary democracy like
Britain. Whilst much of this material understandably concentrates on
the once neglected work of campaign practitioners, the more theoretical
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explorations of the intersection between marketing and politics have

tended to appear in management journals. This paper intends to
explore the relationship from a political science perspective.

Defining Political Marketing

In their seminal article, Kotier and Levy (1969) argued that elections should be one
of the new arenas of marketing interest: "Political contests remind us that candidates
are marketed as well as soap/'However, the earliest recorded use of the term
"political marketing" did not appear in a formal management study but in the
pioneering work of political scientist Stanley Kelley which charted the emergence of
the professional campaign industry in the United States. Commenting on the
activities of the first election consultancies, Kelley wrote:
'The team relies heavily but not entirely upon their own
intuitive feel for providing political marketing condi-
tions. They pride themselves on having "good average
minds" that help them to see things as the average man
sees them.' (Kelley 1956, p. 53)
In spite of the opposition from marketing purists, those in sympathy with the
"broadening" thesis began to attempt to clarify, refine and establish the sub-field of
political marketing. By the mid-1970s American scholars such as Avraham Shama
(1974; 1976) and the prolific Philip Kotier (1975) were to the fore in developing
theoretical foundations for the subject. Similarly, experts in Europe began to consider
the political dimension to marketing, positing the view that an exchange
relationship existed between democratic elites and their voters (O'Leary and Iredale
1976). By the mid-1980s a steady stream of research discussing the emergence of the
phenomenon helped confirm its importance (Mauser 1983; Newman and Sheth
1985). Writing in 1988 David Reid concluded that:

Correspondence to: Department of Social Services, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicester-

shire, LEU 3TU; e-mail: [email protected]

0267-257X/97/070651 +13 $12.00/0 ©1997 The Dryden Press

 652 Dominic Wring

'In western terms, although seldom recognised by

politicians, the problem of getting elected is essentially a
marketing one. Political parties must determine the
scope and the most effective way of communicating its
benefits to a target audience/ (Reid 1988)

Marketing and Political Marketing

Seymour Fine identifies the 1985 decision of the American Marketing Association
(AMA) to redefine its central concern as a milestone in the integration of social (and
political) issues into mainstream marketing thinking. New phraseology added the
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crucial word "ideas" to the list of legitimate product concerns:

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the
conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas,
goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational objectives (cited in Fine
1992, p.l).
Since its revision the American definition has continued to enjoy wide currency in
the literature in spite of various complex arguments over what the precise nature of
the subject is, is not and ought to be (Hunt 1976; Whyte 1988; Hooley et al. 1990). The
British equivalent of the AMA statement, as agreed by the Chartered Institute of
Marketing (CIM), places similar emphasis on the notion that organisational success
is an integral part of strategic concerns: firms do not seek to satisfy consumers out
of altruism but from a desire to realise their own profit-making goals. To the CIM,
marketing is "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and
satisfying customer requirements profitably" (cited in Whyte 1988). The British and
American definitions are useful in that they counteract the crude and oversimplistic
belief that marketing is simply about firms giving their customers what they want.
Such a cliché may convey clarity but it obscures more complex truth. And because
some in political science (not to mention other disciplines) may have misunderstood
marketing in this way, it helps explain why relatively few in the field have sought to
use it as a tool of electoral analysis.
Marketing then is a process in which the notion of "consumer focus" plays a major
strategic role but not to the exclusion of organisational needs. Compared with over-
simplistic customer-centred understandings of the subject, this theoretical inter-
pretation fits more easily with the world of "realpolitik". In analysing the electoral
market Adrian Sackman emphasises this point, arguing that:
Marketing is thus built upon a paradox; it starts with the
customer, is directed at the customer, but is fundamen-
tally concerned with the satisfaction of the producer's
own interests (Sackman 1992).
Such sentiments resemble J.K. Galbraith's stricture that marketing and advertising
are activities governed and to some extent created by producer groups (Galbraith
1969). In political science this view is reflected in theoretical considerations of
competition which attempt to marry the need of the organisation (that is the party)
 Reconciling Marketing with Political Science 653

to win support with its desire to maintain some degree of programmatic consistency
between elections.
Due to the peculiar nature of the environment in which they operate and despite
the existence of "voter sovereignty", parties rather than firms are perhaps more
adequately equipped to influence the deliberations of their market. Thus for
Schattschneider elections are based around the organising principle that:
Democracy is a competitive political system in which
competing leaders and organizations define the alter-
natives of public policy in such a way that the public can
participate in the decision-making process. (Schattsch-
neider 1960, p.141).
This "realist" concept of democracy underpins Andrew Gamble's isolation of the
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key variables in the electoral marketplace:

The actual workings of the mass democracy has divided
the political market into two camps. There are those that
compete for office and those that vote. Like the producers
and consumers in economic markets it is a mistake to
believe that these two functions are of equal importance.
One is active, creative and continuous; the other is
passive, receptive and intermittent. (Gamble 1974, p.6)
It should be noted that whilst the statements of Schattschneider and Gamble place
emphasis on a party's ability to shape voter preferences, neither commentator would
deny the fundamental role the electorate play in determining outcomes within a
competitive political market situation. Consequently, by emphasising the fact that it
is both an organisational as well as consumer focused exercise, it is possible to
understand the usefulness of marketing analysis to political scientists.

Political Marketing: a Definition

Making reference to the management literature outlined in the previous section, it is

possible to conceive of political marketing as:
the party or candidate's use of opinion research and
environmental analysis to produce and promote a
competitive offering which will help realise organisa-
tional aims and satisfy groups of electors in exchange for
their votes.
At the root of this definition is a framework developed by Philip Niffenegger (1989).
Designed with reference to the classic "4Ps" marketing model popularised by
McCarthy (1960), Niffenegger's formulation highlights the roles played by environ-
mental analysis, strategic tools like market research and ultimately the "mix" of
variables (product, promotion, place and price) in the design of political campaigns.
The desirability of applying this "mix" model to non-profit not to mention
commercial marketing has been challenged by some who consider the "Ps"
approach outdated and inherently flawed (Blois 1987). Similarly, recognising the
 654 Dominic Wring

implicit difficulties in analysing the "chimerical nature of elections", O'Shaughnessy

cautions against the application of overly rigid marketing frameworks to politics
(O'Shaughnessy 1990, p.4). Nevertheless, in spite of these objections, the Niffenegger
framework has been adopted by Butler and Collins (1993) and other derivations of
the mix model can be found in the work of Farrell (1986), Farrell and Wortmann
(1987) and Newman (1994).

The Political Marketing Process

The political marketing process as outlined in Figure 1 consists of four parts, namely
the party (or candidate) organisation, the environment which conditions its
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development, the strategic mix it deploys, and ultimately the market it must operate
in.

The Political Market

Adopting the maxim of Schumpeter (1943) that democracy is primarily concerned

with parties' "competitive struggle for (the) people's vote", Gamble contends that:

THE MARKETING MIX [ENVIRONMENT I

Product Party Image
Leader Image Environmental Analysis
Manifesto

Promotion Advertising
Broadcasts
PR
Direct Mail
Strategy p> Floating voters
Place Local Work
Canvassing
Leader Tour
Opponents
Price Economic
Psychological
National

Market Research
Party

ORGANISATION

Figure 1. The Political Marketing Process.

 Reconciling Marketing with Political Science 655

The main components of the modern political market are

three; the existence of a mass electorate; competition
between two or more parties for the votes of this
electorate; and a set of rules governing this competition.
(Gamble 1974, p.6)
Within the political market the key relationship is based around a concept central to
marketing theory, namely that of exchange between buyer and seller. Thus citizens
give their votes to politicians who, when elected, purport to govern in the public
interest (Scott 1970; Lane 1993). In a modern democracy, the right to vote, commonly
associated with the age of majority, allows for a mass electorate which can typically
number well into the millions.
Commercial markets tend to resemble the competitive structure found in an
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electoral system run on the grounds of proportionality as opposed to "first past the
post". This is not to argue that market criteria cannot be applied to a political
situation such as that in Britain where purely majoritarian rules of voting operate.
Indeed the need for the parries to maintain vote share as well as court new groups
of "swing" voters is as relevant to participants in this system as it is to those
operating under conditions of proportional representation.

Analysing the Environment

On reflection it may appear that business organisations have a considerable

advantage over politicians in respect of the amount of resources they are able to
invest in analysing their environment. However, such a perception of the marketing
process perhaps discounts the immense amount of pertinent information which
candidates and party professionals can draw upon in planning their campaigns.
Broadsheet newspapers, specialist magazines and academic briefs offer a plethora of
reports, analysis and opinion research material on which political strategists can
ba§e their decisions and better understand the economic, media and other factors
shaping electors' concerns.
In contrast to the environment, which constitutes the "givens", Hunt (1976)
identifies what he calls "controllable factors", namely the collection of strategic
decisions which an organisation can implement as part of its marketing programme.
Together these variables are commonly known as the "mix", a configuration that
consists of the 4Ps: product; promotion; place and price.

Product

The product is central to a marketing mix. In electoral terms the product, a "mix" of
variables in its own right, combines three key aspects: "party image", "leader
image" and "policy commitments". This configuration has been popularised by
several analysts including Bob Worcester, head of the MORI polling organisation
(Farrell and Wortmann 1987; Worcester 1987,1991; Shaw 1994). Using survey data,
Worcester points out the extent to which each element of the product influences
opinion amongst different groups of voters. Thus, where one segment might be
susceptible to primarily issue-based appeals, others will display a pre-occupation
 656 Dominic Wring

with the dimensions of leader or party image. Consequently, Worcester represents

the preoccupations of different electors in a series of triangular diagrams, the length
of whose sides can be equated with the emphasis voters give to each of the product
concerns (Worcester 1987).
The notion that politicians are increasingly using appeals based on the promotion
of image at the expense of issues has become a common feature of journalists'
election coverage. However, such a view can no longer be regarded as a cliché and
commands significant academic support (Biocca 1991; Franklin 1994). As Terence
Qualter has concluded: "The marketing of politics means, of course, the reduction of
politics to marketable images" (Qualter 1985, p.138).
Whilst the notion of party image is built around factors such as the organisation's
record in office, recent history and unity of purpose (Harrop and Shaw 1990), the
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substance underpinning the concept is more likely contained within the policy
platform on which an election manifesto is based. In the last 20 years psephological
research has begun to place greater emphasis on the rational choice notion of the
elector as a consumer evaluating the issues and voting for the party most in tune
with individual policy preferences (Himmelweit et al. 1985; Harrop 1986). However,
the overall picture is not simply one of a shift from party image to issue-based
explanations of voter choice because the situation has been complicated by another
factor, that of leader image, which forms the third constituent in the political product
mix.
Once a largely ignored factor in electoral research, the growing and potential
future importance of leader image has been recognised in several studies into the
increasing presidentialisation of British politics (Foley 1993; Mughan 1993; Crewe
and King 1994). Media coverage of current affairs has helped extenuate this trend; as
Philip Kotier comments: "Voters rarely know or meet the candidates; they only have
mediated images of them. They vote on the basis of their images" (Kotier 1982).

Promotion

Promotions form the most obvious part of a political marketing campaign.

Misinformed commentators sometimes inflate the importance of advertising, the
most recognisable communications tool, to the extent that it is held to represent the
entire marketing process (see, for instance, Tyler 1987). Such a mistake fails to
appreciate the complexities of a complete strategy, not to mention other parts of the
promotional mix. Given the centrality of advertising within the modern marketing
industry it is perhaps not surprising that its public profile is considerably higher
than that of its "stablemates" in the fields of direct mail and public relations.
Nevertheless, with the advent of modernised forms of the latter in the shape of "junk
mail" and "spin doctors", these parts of the promotional mix are beginning to gain
increasing public prominence and particularly in the electoral arena.
The promotional mix can be divided into two principal parts commonly referred
to as "paid" and "free" media. The term paid media covers all forms of advertising,
be it in poster, print or broadcast form. It should be noted that, though the primetime
television and radio advertising slots for Party Election Broadcasts (PEBs) in Britain
are free, those parties which qualify for them are technically in receipt of a state
subsidy in kind (Scammell and Semetko 1995). Hence PEBs can be placed in the
 Reconciling Marketing with Political Science 657

same category as other forms of political advertising. Paid media also covers the
burgeoning sector of telephone and direct mail marketing, an increasingly common
feature of contemporary election campaigning. Party colours, designs, slogan copy
and symbols provide an additional dimension to the overall communications mix.
Free media refers to the publicity which parties receive but do not buy. In contrast
to purchased advertising campaigns, organisations have less control over their
product's exposure in the mass media. Consequently, political strategists, not to
mention the voting public, tend to view this kind of coverage as being of greater
importance. Electoral organisations are becoming increasingly reliant on the
techniques of news management. In recent years the American term "spin doctor"
has entered the political lexicon in recognition of the increasing role that press,
publicity and broadcasting officers can and do play in the British electoral and
parliamentary process Cones 1995). This aspect of campaigning provides perhaps
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one of the most striking contrasts between commercial and electoral marketing
strategies: unlike their political counterparts, communications staff working for even
the most senior corporate executives are unlikely to be deluged on a daily basis by
some of the most experienced journalists eager for information and answers to
highly sensitive questions.
Free media strategies are not solely concerned with defensive news management
activities. More common to commerce and increasingly a part of the political
process, public relations is a tool designed to attract favourable media attention for
the organisation concerned. It is now almost obligatory for senior British politicians
to participate in "photo-opportunities", news conferences and other scenarios
designed to enhance the status of themselves and their message (Cockerell 1988;
Franklin 1994). This is particularly true of the period in the run-up to an election.

Placement

At the heart of a placement or distribution strategy is a network of regional

suppliers. In politics the equivalent form of organisation is the party at grassroots
level. Parties in Britain organise their membership and machinery on a regional and
local basis. The executives of these bureaucracies help co-ordinate and supply
volunteer labour and strategic inputs during election campaigns. In addition this
network also liases with the national apparatus in order to devise and co-ordinate
regional events and tours by the party leadership. It should be noted that, precisely
because it is a political marketing "mix", some of the activities that may constitute
part of one variable can be found in another. In this way the methods of the
distribution policy closely mirror those of a promotional strategy in that both are
reliant on tools such as direct mail despite having different aims (Farrell 1986).
Local electioneering commonly takes the form of traditional activities such as
canvassing, leafleting and what American strategists call "getting the vote out" on
polling day (Kavanagh 1970; Denver and Hands 1992). Contrary to some
perceptions, most modern campaign canvassing is now more preoccupied with
identifying and contacting potential and confirmed party supporters than it is with
persuading them. This may derive from the fact that local activities have had to
change due to a decline in the availability of volunteers coupled with the increasing
 658 Dominic Wring

desire of central headquarters to assert a common "brand" awareness in all party

electoral communications.
The post-war decline in grassroots membership perhaps reflects an assumption
that localised forms of campaigning are largely ineffectual. Such a view has been
widely fostered in the United States where the use of political consultants has had
an unfavourable effect on the strength of precinct organisation (Ware 1985;
O'Shaughnessy 1990). However, recent research in Britain has begun to challenge the
notion that local campaign work is ineffectual by demonstrating the potential
electoral benefits of maintaining a healthy organisation at this level (Seyd and
Whiteley 1992). Furthermore, the implementation of new and more affordable forms
of campaign technology may even increase the value of electoral initiatives at
constituency level (Farrell and Wortmann 1987). Existing evidence suggests that
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computers, telephone canvass banks and direct mail initiatives became the norm in
British by-elections before later establishing themselves as standard general election
practice in most key marginal seats (Swaddle 1988).

Price

Pricing, the fourth part of a conventional marketing mix, enables a commercial firm
to develop a strategy which will help maintain competitiveness and profitability in
the marketplace. Some electoral commentators have discounted the pricing element
in the belief that it adds little to the analysis of campaign planning and
implementation (Farrell 1986; Farrell and Wortmann 1987). Wangen takes the
variable to mean the way an organisation raises campaign finance and attracts
members (Wangen 1983). By contrast, the theoretical basis of this paper is built on a
conception of the political marketing process defined by Philip Niffenegger (1990)
and which includes all the central tenets of conventional theory (see Figure 1).
Niffenegger justifies the relevance of the pricing mix by outlining its constituent
parts. These elements, relating to environmental phenomena as interpreted by the
electorate, comprise voter feelings of national, economic and psychological hope or
insecurity. This notion of the political "price" reflects Reid's observation that a vote
is a "psychological purchase" (Reid 1988). The parallels between electoral and
consumer behaviour have been more comprehensively analysed by Lane (1993).
There are always problems inherent in designing campaigns according to market
research findings. These pitfalls are augmented when candidates seek to capitalise
on the reported anxieties or aspirations of a given electoral group. One public sign
of the importance attached« to this kind of strategy is the growth in "negative
campaigning". This type of electioneering, most commonly associated with
American politics, involves attempts by party or candidates' organisations to
frighten voters with robust and often startling denunciations of opponents. The
frequency with which many leading national candidates in the United States have
used this type of campaign has offended even David Ogilvy, a staunch defender and
senior member of the marketing industry: "There is one category of advertising
which is totally uncontrolled and flagrantly dishonest: the television commercials
for candidates in Presidential elections" (Ogilvy 1983, p.209).
 Reconciling Marketing with Political Science 659

Negative "appeals" usually focus on only one aspect of the pricing mix at a time.
Depending on the audience being targeted, common economic themes include an
opponents' intention to either raise tax and spending or else make sweeping budget
cuts. In times of international insecurity or domestic uncertainty politicians,
particularly incumbents, often stress their rivals' apparent lack of diplomacy or
administrative competence. Such appeals are often couched in images which stress
the need to counter what is posed as a threat to the "national interest" from
"undesirable elements" be they at home or abroad. Perhaps the least tangential
element of the pricing mix relates to the psychological cost implicit in voting. A
popular feature in negative campaigns, such strategies tap into often deep seated
and unspoken prejudices about a given politician's lack of ability, judgement and
trustworthiness. As O'Keefe notes: "...in no other campaign situation are target
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audiences required to take into account not only ideas, issues, and policies, but also
such human traits as honesty, professional expertise, and managerial style" (O'Keefe
1989). Famous victims of this type of attack advertising have included American
presidential and vice-presidential hopefuls such as Barry Goldwater, Spiro Agnew,
Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton (Jamieson 1992). "Pricing" policy need not
necessarily form a wholly negative part of the political marketing mix. It is possible
to conceive of a campaign strategy which promotes the idea of a domestic "feelgood
factor" or boasts a perceived increase in the country's international standing in a
order to make political capital and win votes. Similarly incumbent politicians often
allude to psychological notions of "a nation at ease with itself" in their attempt to
secure re-election. Despite the fact that pricing is the least tangible aspect of a
marketing strategy, it is nevertheless a useful concept which complements the other
variables. Precisely because it is a "mix", pricing can be seen to interlock and overlap
with the other strategic tools, particularly those concerned with communications
and product management. Marketing can be analysed in its constituent parts but
should ultimately be seen in its totality.

Strategic Considerations: Market Research, Segmentation and Positioning

Market research plays an important role in modern electoral politics. Since its first
recorded use by an American candidate in the 1930s, private polling has
mushroomed both in terms of its expense and importance (Hodder-Williams 1970;
Teer and Spence 1973; Kavanagh 1992). The rise of opinion research offers party
leaderships potential enlightenment but also a challenge. Political elites who were
once able to rely on channels of mass communication to influence a captive public
are now faced with commissioning often unedifying polling findings in order to help
sharpen strategy and sustain their electoral good fortune (Wring 1996). In the past
opinion research has commonly taken the form of quantitatively based surveys of
key demographic groups. More recently politicians have begun to employ
consultants who specialise in the "psychographic" forms of private polling designed
to explore voters' more deep seated values and attitudes (Kleinman 1987; Worcester
1991). Increasingly campaign research studies are beginning to combine traditional
quantitative research with focus groups and other types of qualitative methods.
 660 Dominic Wring

Feedback in the form of opinion research is an important component in the design

of an effective marketing mix. It also forms an integral part of the wider strategic
process, helping to segment and target the market. Market segmentation takes place
when an organisation uses research to divide available customers into categories
according to their likely need or ability to purchase the firm's offering. Having
identified key consumer segments, a marketing programme can then be targeted at
defending or expanding current market share. Given their similar strategic aims,
political strategists have also drawn on segmentation and targeting tools. Marketing
analysis has pointed to the possible benefits to be derived from dividing voters
according to demographic, psychographic or geographic criteria (Yorke and Meehan
1986; Smith and Saunders 1990). From the perspective of political science this trend
has been exacerbated by psephological studies stressing the importance of parties'
need to target the masses of uncommitted or "floating" voters in their bids to secure
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electoral victory (Miller et al. 1990).

In implementing marketing strategy, organisations use research to help them best
position their offering in the market. The concept of positioning has a central place
in political marketing analysis. Downs' classic study of party competition was based
on a market model in which rival organisations maximised electoral support by
moving themselves towards the electoral centreground (Downs 1957). This model
has since become a popular analytical starting point for many strategists. More
recently, other theorists have developed alternative concepts of positioning which
emphasise the value of continuity in the electoral offering and the importance of
leading as well as following opinion. In their work, Smith and Saunders (1990) point
to the potential political problems caused by "the flight to the centre" whereby
parties fail to differentiate the brand values of their "product" through use of its
Unique Selling Point (USP) or other positioning tools (Fletcher 1984).
In a marketing analysis of an American senatorial race, Schoenwald (1987)
demonstrates the centrality of positioning theory to candidate image management.
Similarly, in his groundbreaking work on political marketing, Gary Mauser places
the concept at the core of his research (Mauser 1983). Developing a multi-
dimensional scale, Mauser demonstrates how a candidate can use cluster analysis
and other statistical methods to isolate those issues and attributes which unite
partisans with potential voters in a common resolve. The logical consequence of this
argument is that the adoption of marketing strategies does not necessarily mean the
dilution of party ideology (see also O'Cass 1996), a view most amply demonstrated
by the electoral success of the Thatcher and Reagan administrations.

Conclusions

This paper has been concerned with demonstrating the usefulness of marketing
analysis in the study of political campaigning. Having shown how the writings of
democratic theorists might be reconciled with those of management scholars, a
framework based on the basic "4Ps" marketing model was used in order to identify
and explore the various elements that constitute an election campaign. Such an
approach is arguably useful in analysing the increasingly marketing driven politics
evident in many of the major western democracies.
 Reconciling Marketing with Political Science 661

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