Political marketing

Empirical phenomenonSocial changeElectoral change Increasing importance of campaignsProfessionalization of campaigns

Research paradigmMarket models of politicsExpansion of marketing to non-commercial applicationsMarketing model of party behaviour

Political marketing – bureaucratic form of sophistryParallels between professions of sophists and marketersStructure of markets and need for marketingConsumerism Ideological nature of marketing

Social and electoral change

Social changeDecreasing identifiability and relevance of social classIncreasing social mobilityIncreased educationDecreasing relevance of ideologyEmergence of new issues/cleavages (Inglehart)

Electoral changeDealignmentIncreasing electoral volatilityDecreasing explanatory power of variables like age, gender, classDecreasing importance of “projection”/issue alignmentIssue voting; pocketbook voting; retrospective voting

Increasing importance of campaigns

Campaigns are no longer predominantly about mobilizing support

With decreasing base support, voters need to be attracted through campaigning

Campaign context impacts on economic, issue, leadership evaluations

More floating voters to compete over Increasing importance of mass media (new findings

challenging the “minimal effects model” providing campaigners with reasons to trust in effectiveness of electioneering)

Professionalization of campaigns

Exponential increases in campaign spending Use of consultants, pollsters, commercial advertisers Increasing influence of campaign consultants on policy content

of manifestos Policy convergence → need for distinguishing from

competitors Market research (focus groups, private polling, direct-

marketing, database-marketing) Changing media focus, from coverage of issues, coverage of

leadership, image and the race, to coverage of strategy, party-media interaction, and the role of spin

Market models of politicsSchumpeter, Joseph

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1947)“Elitist” model of democracyFunction of voting: to restrain elites, not to manifest “common will”

Downs, AnthonyAn Economic Theory of Democracy (1957)

Rational choice model of votingAssuming material self-interest as primary motivation of elites and

votersMedian voter theorem: party platforms will converge, to accommodate

voter preferences

Wellhofer: “Contradictions in Market Models of Politics: the Case of Party Strategies and Voter Linkages'”, European Journal of Political Research 1990

Vote production vs. Vote maximization

Expansion of the marketing concept

Concept first introduced by Stanley Keller (Professional Public Relations and Political Power, 1956): understood

marketing to mean persuasion and used it interchangeably with ‘propaganda’

Expanding application of marketing disciplines beyond business world

Philip Kotler (1981) Marketing for Non-profit OrganizationsEmphasis on strategy, marketing-mix, understanding of politics as a

market where voters and candidates/parties, like sellers and buyers, exchange ‘something of value’

Broadening of marketing definition by American Marketing Association

“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 organisational objectives” (1985)

Marketing and political science

Use of marketing expertise by campaigning parties/candidates

The observable practice of marketing in political competition prompted the entry of the concept of marketing into political science

Early political marketing literature Descriptive and anecdotical

Marketing as a scientific approach to campaigningMauser (Political Marketing, 1983) defines political marketing

as the ‘science of influencing mass behaviour in competitive situations’

Marketing model of party behaviour

Three-stage development of modern business practice applied to evolution of organizational behaviour of political parties

“Parties may simply stand for what they believe in, or focus on persuading voters to agree with them, or change their behaviour to follow voters’ opinions” (Jennifer Lees-Marshment, 2001: p. 701)

Product-oriented partySales-oriented partyMarket-oriented party

Product-oriented party IdeologicalRepresenting/leading social movementUnresponsive to social changeElectoral success not an objective in itselfElectoral goal: vote production/supporter mobilization

Sales-oriented party Ideological Intra-organizational choice of policies, leadershipUsing market research, advertising, communication techniques to sell

itself, its policiesElectoral goal: persuasion

Market-oriented partyUsing market intelligence to identify voter demandsAssessing deliverability of demanded policiesAssessing intra-party acceptability of policy changesDesigning product (party manifesto, leadership selection, etc)

accordinglyElectoral goal: adapting to the market

Assumptions of marketing model

Downsian, rational votersExogeneity and measurability of preferences, needs,

demandsTransferability of product/market/marketing metaphor

to the political sphere

Prescriptive/normative claims

Customer (citizen) orientationSuperiority of market-orientation over product- and

sales-orientationPrediction that market-oriented parties will prevail over sales- or

product-oriented partiesRecommendation for parties to embrace market-orientation

Evolutionary modelIncreasing responsiveness of political partiesImproving democracy

Political marketers in ancient Greece – the Sophists

Rhetoric teachers in ancient Greece (Protagoras, Thrasymachus, etc.)

Criticized by Plato for providing their services/rhetorical skills for whatever purpose and position

Eristic: arguments aimed at victory rather than at truthAnti-logic: the assignment to any argument of a counterargument that

negates it (basis of Hegelian dialectic)

Never accepted as philosophersFor their suspicion towards metaphysicsFor their pragmatism

Sophism, truth and morality

Relativist definition of truth, moralityThere is no absolute truthTruth, or the right course of action, is what one can

convince the audience of being true or rightPurpose of debating is not (what would be the Platonic

understanding) to jointly discover truth, but to succeedMorality is a cultural, hence conditional, value

Similar accusations

Style over substance“Sophistic is to legislation what beautification is to gymnastics and

appearance to reality” (Plato)“Man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras)

Technicians of enticementMercenaries

“The purpose of government is to be efficient and to succeed. This is the criterion by which it should be judged” (Thrasymachus)

Profane“The uncultured whose desire is not for wisdom but for scoring off an

opponent” (Plato)

Techniques, goals and justifications

Similar techniques and goalsEmpiricismRhetoricPragmatism

Similar justificationsRelativism

Popularity replaces legitimacyEfficiency replaces valuesManagement replaces politics

Nothing is unjust but a justice that does not succeed (Thrasymachus)

Morality and law are not absolute, collective values, but principles defined by those in power

Reconciling reputation with theory

ReputationPolitical marketing considered to be manipulative (spin doctors),

dishonest, close to propaganda, placing style over substance

EffectPolitical marketing practice appears to turn people off (decreasing

turnout in US since 1970s, collapse of turnout under New Labour since 1997)

Public demand for politicians of conviction (but consider the paradox of Margaret Thatcher – the pioneer of political marketing in UK, nonetheless understood as principled and ideological)

TheoryPositivistic, presenting political marketing as potentially regenerative

force for democracies (by basing policy on public preferences)

Theoretical shortcoming of political marketing model

Neglecting departure from classic economic theoryMarkets are not perfect and do not self-regulateProduction and pricing are not naturally regulated by supply/demand

functionPolitical markets are oligopolistic (concentrated, with few competitors) Products become secondary to the image/reputation of the firmFrom trader to salesman, intervening in marketsMarketing is active intervention in marketsOligopolistic markets tend to produce socially uneconomical outcomes

Strategic behaviourPricingProductionLabour relationsAccounting

Consumerism

Market intelligenceNot just what, where and in what quantities consumers wantBut also why they want it

From homo economicus to buyer motivations, consumer psychology

Not just discovering demandBut stimulating it

Potentialities of demandDormand/latent needs

Consumers are “irrational at least as often as rational, motivated in large degree by emotions, habits and prejudices; differing widely in personality structure, in aspirations, ideals and buying behaviours.” (Martineau, It’s Time to Research the Consumer, 1955)

The ideological nature of marketing

Reinforcing free market ideal becomes in itself a marketing exercise, irrespective of factual oligopoly in most commercial and all political markets

Downsian theory of democracy Ideological in its use of the false analogy of competitive political markets,

with invisible hand mechanism that produces socially desirable outcomes notwithstanding asocial nature of actors

The essential features of political marketingOpinion (replacing values as more malleable building blocks of

collective choice)Appearance (not whether you are a good leader, or your policy a

good one, but whether you can make it appear thus, counts)Pragmatism (downgrading elected government to a management

function)