Political Marketing: An Emerging Theory — Study Notes
Abstract
Marketing serves as a crucial determinant for the expansion and success of any entity, whether a brand, product, or individual, and its principles are equally applicable and essential within the political sphere.
Political marketing involves the systematic application of marketing techniques and strategies to political parties, candidates, and governmental actors, aiming to effectively position them as superior and more viable choices compared to their competitors in the political landscape.
Over recent decades, the underlying and often implicit connections between traditional marketing methodologies and political processes have become increasingly pronounced and integral to modern political campaigns and governance.
The political marketplace has undergone significant transformations over the last 3–4 decades, most notably characterized by the exponential increase in the utilization of social media platforms and mass media outlets for the rapid and widespread dissemination of political information and messaging.
Concurrently, the financial outlays required for political campaigns, particularly in areas like advertising and outreach, have experienced a substantial and rapid escalation, reflecting the intensified competition and expanded reach of modern political marketing efforts.
Both commercial business marketers and political marketers employ a diverse array of media channels to inform, remind, and ultimately influence the attitudes and behaviors of their respective target audiences—potential clients in business, and potential voters in politics. They frequently leverage analogous tools, such as sophisticated market research, consumer segmentation, and rigorous statistical analysis, to achieve their objectives.
This paper aims to meticulously elucidate the progressively expanding and central role of marketing as a primary communication medium within the realm of politics and among political parties.
Despite the pervasive availability of 24-hour news cycles and continuous online coverage (24X7), a significant portion of the public often remains inadequately informed on complex political issues. This persistent information gap makes political marketing an increasingly momentum-gaining force, as it endeavors to bridge this gap by helping to understand and, subsequently, influence voter behavior.
Purpose: The overarching goal of this study is to thoroughly understand and comprehensively demonstrate the practical applicability and profound importance of marketing as a powerful strategic tool in the domain of political marketing, highlighting its utility as an indispensable "weapon" for achieving political objectives.
Keywords: Political Marketing, Marketing Communication, Political Advertising.
Introduction
Political parties and individual candidates meticulously promote themselves and their detailed platforms to eligible voters through masterfully crafted communications, with the ultimate goal of garnering widespread public support. This intricate and strategic process is collectively recognized as political marketing.
Clear parallels can be drawn between the methodologies of political marketing and the marketing of conventional goods and services, despite the fundamental difference in the entities being marketed (political ideologies/candidates versus commercial products/services).
The primary and most significant distinction lies in the unique societal function of political marketing: it serves to inform the public about critical issues, policy proposals, and leadership choices that directly impact their community, state, and the nation as a whole. This informational role carries a profound democratic responsibility.
Voting decisions are not solely predicated on a pure alignment of a candidate's platform with an individual's personal beliefs; instead, these decisions are frequently shaped and swayed by carefully targeted, data-driven, and highly optimized political marketing campaigns designed to resonate with specific voter segments.
John F. Kennedy's often-quoted statement, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all,” powerfully underscores marketing’s central and accelerating role in politics as a potent communication enhancer, emphasizing the need for effective information dissemination.
Modern politics is increasingly a marketing-driven activity, characterized by the relentless pace of 24-hour news cycles, the constant deluge of online information, and the imperative for rapid, agile messaging across diverse platforms.
Political marketing provides a myriad of diverse opportunities to establish meaningful connections with potential voters and to effectively shape public opinion. These opportunities are realized through various channels, including targeted cold calls, extensive email campaigns, ubiquitous direct-mail leaflets, engaging radio spots, pervasive social media outreach, and impactful television appearances.
Strategically developed campaign messaging is designed to be easily consumed, understood, and shared, thereby enabling a more organic and viral method to raise public awareness and mobilize various actions, such as encouraging citizens to join campaigns, lobby for specific bills, and ultimately, cast their votes.
The academic and practical field positions political marketing as an indispensable and critical tool, not only for informing but also for profoundly influencing voters' perceptions and ultimate decisions.
The Role of ICT in Political Marketing
Information and communications technologies (ICT) are not merely supplementary but are absolutely central to the practice of modern political marketing. Their pervasive influence demands a critical and nuanced understanding, thereby offering a valuable and extensive research stream for both theoretical advancement and practical application.
Historically, established media forms such as newspapers, cinema films, radio broadcasts, and television served as the strategic technologies of their respective eras, each revolutionizing political communication. More recently, the advent of the World Wide Web and its multifaceted tools—including sophisticated websites, immediate emails, interactive blogs, and expansive social networks—has profoundly driven exceptional and rapid change in the landscape of political communications.
The importance of political communication has significantly escalated due to a confluence of factors: intensified electoral competition, the increasing frequency and complexity of geopolitical conflicts (e.g., in the Middle East), and recurring global economic crises. These challenges compel governments to meticulously justify their actions, articulate their policies, and effectively reassure an anxious citizenry.
This paper details an account of an exploratory study into political communication, employing a constructivist grounded theory approach. This methodology involved identifying existing theoretical models that require modernization and subsequently integrating them into a broader, more comprehensive model that accurately reflects the nuanced political communications experiences of the study's respondents.
The implications of this research extend broadly to sophisticated political marketing communications strategies and, by extension, to general marketing communications practices across various sectors.
LITERATURE REVIEW (highlights)
Early roots: The formal study of political marketing can be traced back to pioneering definitions by Kelley (1956). Further foundational work includes Rothschild (1978), who meticulously examined the effectiveness of political advertising and the importance of voter segmentation. Subsequent scholarly work progressively extended these initial concepts to encompass social policy formulation and broader political policymaking processes.
Growth of the field: The discipline has experienced substantial growth, marked by the establishment of dedicated academic journals, the hosting of specialized conferences, and the development of robust practitioner networks. These infrastructures collectively support a literature of considerable scale and significant intellectual value, solidifying political marketing's identity as a distinct and increasingly recognizable sub-discipline within both marketing and political science.
Challenges: Despite its growth, the field continues to confront significant context-related and methodological challenges, as highlighted by researchers such as Butler & Collins (1999), Henneberg (2002), Henneberg & O'Shaughnessy (2007), and Lock & Harris (1996). These challenges often stem from the dynamic and ethically sensitive nature of political environments.
Direct Impact: In specific contexts, political advertising and sophisticated marketing campaigns have been demonstrated to directly influence voting behavior (Quelch & Jocz, 2007). This influence supports the assertion that "good marketing makes for better democracy," suggesting that effective communication can enhance informed civic participation.
Consumer Behavior Insights: Marketers’ in-depth understanding of consumer behavior provides invaluable insights and transferable frameworks for analyzing and predicting voter behavior. Prominent public figures, such as Barack Obama, have become widely recognized not only for their political acumen but also for their exceptional prowess in applying political marketing principles. This democratization of commercial marketing concepts into the political arena is increasingly evident.
Rise of Political Marketing Figures: The emergence and prominence of specialized political marketing strategists, such as Karl Rove and James Carville in the USA, unequivocally signal the critical importance and widespread recognition of political marketing expertise as a cornerstone of successful campaigns.
Societal Welfare Contribution: The strategic extension and adaptation of established marketing models into political contexts significantly augment their potential contribution to broader societal welfare by improving governance and public engagement.
Distinctive Characteristics of Politics: Politics presents unique characteristics, notably the inherently periodic nature of its market activity, primarily manifested through elections. These electoral cycles uniquely reveal patterns of voter forgiveness for unfulfilled promises or, conversely, swift punishment for perceived transgressions (real or imagined), as noted by Butler & Collins (1999).
Permanent Campaign: A broader perspective views political marketing as far more extensive than seasonal election campaigns. The concept of the "permanent campaign" posits a hard political reality wherein effective governance, particularly in maintaining public approval, necessitates ongoing and continuous political campaigning activities (Blumenthal, 1980; Klein, 2005).
Unsettled Boundaries: The precise boundaries and conceptual scope of political marketing remain fluid and unsettled. Consequently, marketing theory must continually evolve and adapt to adequately account for dynamic changes occurring in both marketing practices and contemporary political science.
Foundational Ideas: The foundational ideas of political marketing can be traced back to ancient thinkers like Aristotle, with his profound insights into politics and rhetoric. The modern expansion of marketing beyond traditional commercial boundaries was significantly theorized by Kotler & Levy (1969) and Kotler & Zaltman (1971), further elaborated by Henneberg & O'Shaughnessy (2007).
Evolution of Political Marketing
Political marketing has undergone a profound and dynamic evolution over several decades and is poised for substantial future growth potential, a trajectory consistently supported and analyzed by contemporary researchers and academics actively engaged in the field.
Robinson (Robinson, 200? ) conducted an insightful study exploring the intricate relationship between market orientation and electoral objectives within the context of New Zealand elections. This research specifically utilized content analysis to rigorously assess the effectiveness of political advertising and to determine whether stated electoral objectives were successfully fulfilled through these marketing efforts.
Over the past two decades, political marketing has transcended its origins as a niche concern primarily for commercial marketers, expanding dramatically to become a major and highly recognized area of international marketing research, attracting widespread academic and professional interest.
The field has progressively gained significant acknowledgement from political scientists, who now largely recognize that political marketing offers substantive value that extends far beyond mere propaganda, contributing genuinely to democratic processes and public engagement.
Modern political marketing strategies are significantly shaped by a complex interplay of cross-cultural influences, diverse electoral systems operating globally, and the ongoing fragmentation of traditional mass media landscapes into more specialized and digital channels.
While its most visible and immediate influence is often observed in the short-term communications of electoral campaigns, political marketing is increasingly integral to informing and guiding the long-term strategic planning and positioning of political parties, extending far beyond election cycles.
Critical insights into voter behavior, which are extensively drawn from advanced consumer behavior theory, are absolutely essential for ensuring the effectiveness and strategic impact of political marketing initiatives.
The field has demonstrably progressed toward establishing a more comprehensive and robust theoretical framework, systematically integrating and recognizing valuable perspectives from both marketing science and political science disciplines.
Theoretically, the intellectual origins of political marketing can be meticulously traced to the broadening of the marketing concept, famously articulated by Kotler & Levy (1969; 1971), and further developed through the ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue between marketing and political science, significantly advanced by scholars like Henneberg (2004) and Butler & Harris (2009).
Foundational theories on politics include Harold Laswell’s enduring definition (politics: “who gets what, when, and how”), which emphasizes the allocation of resources and power. Furthermore, the field recognizes the profound macro-to-micro interplay, where large-scale structural changes (such as globalization and the information revolution) directly drive and influence micro-level behaviors of political parties and media organizations.
Political structures and their associated processes are characterized by a state of constant flux and transformation, which in turn necessitates the continuous development of new theoretical models and adaptive analytical approaches to effectively understand and address these changes.
Notable trends observed include a general decline in traditional party identification among voters, a significant erosion of party membership bases, and a marked professionalization of party politics, which increasingly incorporates explicit marketing practices and expert strategists (Mair, 1997; Mair & van Biezen, 2001).
Globalization, the increasing marketization of social and political spheres, and the pervasive information revolution are key drivers contributing to the decentralization of power and significant shifts in political dynamics (Nye, 2002).
The intricate relationship between political marketing and lobbying activities, alongside the broader political economy that underpins campaign financing and operations, continues to represent a fertile and crucial area for ongoing research (Harris et al., 1999).
The emergence and growth of E-Government and E-Democracy movements are introducing entirely new forces, agendas, and participatory mechanisms within political markets, fundamentally altering how citizens interact with governance (Collins & Butler, 2002; Kamarck & Nye Jr, 2002; Tapscott & Williams, 2006; West, 2005; Wilhelm, 2000).
These profound structural macro changes inevitably drive adaptive micro-level behaviors among political parties, individual candidates, and media entities, compelling them to evolve their strategies and communication methods (Schafferer, 2006).
Famous Examples of Political Marketing
Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign is widely recognized as a watershed moment, as he was the first candidate to effectively and comprehensively harness the internet for political mobilization on a major scale. This campaign fundamentally marked the advent of what became known as the “politician 2.0” era, showcasing the power of integrated digital strategy.
Case i: Trump campaign content strategy (100,000 pieces of content)
Brad Parscale, serving as the digital strategist for the Trump campaign, initiated his efforts with a comparatively limited budget compared to traditional campaigns. He acutely recognized the potential of social media and focused intensely on targeted Facebook advertisements as a primary channel for reaching voters.
The campaign meticulously built a robust database of followers, systematically collecting essential contact information such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers. This invaluable data was then utilized to create highly customized audience segments, allowing for the precise alignment of specific advertisements with distinct user profiles based on their demographic and psychographic characteristics.
Leveraging Facebook's sophisticated audience segmentation tools, the campaign was able to meticulously tailor messages by various criteria, including geographical location, age demographics, gender, expressed interests, and behavioral patterns. This micro-targeting ensured that each message was as relevant and impactful as possible to its intended recipient.
Subsequently, the strategy expanded into a massive-scale testing and optimization process. This involved the creation of approximately 100,000 different landing pages, each specifically designed to target and resonate with various segmented audiences. This extensive iterative process resulted in the development of a vast and highly diversified content library, cumulatively exceeding 100,000 distinct pieces of content tailored for maximum engagement.
Case ii: Trump’s Twitter strategy
During the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump exemplified a highly structured and organized approach to utilizing Twitter as a primary political communication tool, showcasing its direct influence on global discourse and domestic messaging.
He maintained two distinct official accounts: @realDonaldTrump, which accumulated approximately 48.6 million followers, and @POTUS, used for official presidential communications, with around 22.4 million followers. Each account was strategically managed to cover distinct topics and employ different messaging styles, reflecting their specific functions.
The subjects for his tweets were carefully chosen, often focusing on timely events such as natural disasters, commemorating significant national days, addressing ongoing controversies, or providing updates on medical attendance. This meticulous selection ensured that his Twitter feed remained a central hub for his political narrative and engagement.
Case iii: Obama SMS marketing and integrated digital strategy
Obama’s campaign emphasized the development of high-performance websites that were not only aesthetically pleasing but primarily designed for efficient conversions, guiding users toward specific actions like donations or volunteer sign-ups. They rigorously employed A/B testing for both content and Calls-to-Action (CTAs) to continuously optimize engagement and effectiveness.
A crucial aspect of their strategy was the integration of proposals directly into “thank-you” pages following user actions, leveraging moments when users were most receptive and engaged to introduce further opportunities for involvement or contribution.
Email marketing was a cornerstone for building and sustaining user loyalty, segmenting lists to deliver personalized content and solicit ongoing support. Furthermore, social networks and dedicated blogs were seamlessly integrated into every step of the digital strategy, fostering a cohesive and synergistic online presence.
The campaign's communication efforts were highly segmented, allowing for precise targeting of messages. SMS marketing, in particular, was strategically utilized to publicize a diverse range of content, ensuring immediate and direct reach to supporters and potential voters.
The creation of the YouObama site, directly inspired by the highly successful YouTube platform, facilitated the widespread sharing of videos detailing political actions and campaign messages. This initiative significantly leveraged the viral power of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, enabling content to spread organically and rapidly.
These multifaceted strategies implemented by the Obama campaign are widely cited as some of the earliest and most profoundly successful examples of how advanced political marketing can be effectively executed and integrated within the digital era, setting a precedent for future campaigns.
Conclusion
Political marketing has historically played a multifaceted role in informing effective policy development, optimizing public service delivery, and significantly enhancing citizen and voter engagement. Over time, it has considerably grown in prominence, finding broader applications across various political activities and becoming a fertile ground for substantial academic and empirical research.
Foundational contributions to the field of political marketing research include the seminal work of Newman & Sheth (1985), which provided critical insights into primary voter behavior, and O'Shaughnessy (1990), whose exploration of the Phenomenon of Political Marketing significantly spurred interest and stimulated extensive further research within the discipline.
Other highly influential works that have shaped the modern understanding of political marketing include Newman’s (1999) comprehensive Handbook of Political Marketing; Harris & Lock’s (2002) detailed study on political lobbying practices in the UK; Henneberg’s (2004) insightful overview of the field and its inherent challenges; and Butler & Harris’s (2009) comprehensive reviews of political marketing theory, which collectively helped to formally define and structure the current discipline.
The existing literature strongly supports a direct and significant link between different electoral systems, the intensity and sophistication of party campaigning efforts, and overall voter turnout rates. Specifically, it suggests that better proportional representation (PR) systems, when combined with active and effective political marketing, possess the potential to enable higher voter turnout by making the political process more accessible and engaging.
Political marketing is firmly established within the political landscape and is unequivocally here to stay. It holds significant, untapped potential to bridge existing communication gaps between political parties, their leaders, and the broader electorate, fostering greater understanding and participation.
To advance the field, political marketing should proactively integrate a holistic array of insights from both marketing science and political science disciplines. This integration is crucial for the development of a cohesive and robust theory of political marketing management, which Henneberg (2004) defines as