Post on 18-May-2015
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)