Applying the Political Marketing Model to the Far-Right Political Party Kotlebovci – People's Party Our Slovakia

Abstract

Researching the political marketing of far-right parties is one of the tools for understanding their behaviour on the political spectrum. The thematic line of the article, focused on the political marketing of far-right political party from the Slovak party system, Kotlebovci – Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko (ĽSNS)/People’s Party Our Slovakia, analysed marketing strategies and marketing tools in the political campaigns of ĽSNS after parliamentary elections 2016 until today. The main objective of the article was to apply Lees-Marshment’s model of political marketing to the People’s party Our Slovakia, and find out the party's ability to change, or adapt their political product, and thus their position on the political spectrum. A modified version of the product-oriented party and the market-oriented party in one model was used to apply the political marketing model. The author analysed the available data and to evaluate them. It used statistical, sociological, and marketing data and findings from research carried out by their own content analysis of political programs and documents. An analysis focused on segmentation, targeting and positioning was used for. By applying of the model of political marketing to the political party, the paper explains the correlation between the setting of a political campaign and the profiling of the political party, in the meaning of monitoring the ability of the political party to change its political product and the ability to change its position on the political spectrum. Additionally, the paper offers too an alternative view of the study of far-right political parties’ behaviour in general.