From Mass Propaganda to Political Marketing: The Transformation of Labour Party Election Campaigning

Abstract

In order to trace the historical transformation of electioneering in Britain it is useful to draw on an evolutionary model popular in marketing. Three different periods of campaigning can be identified, each comparable with what are known as the product, sales and market orientations in the development of a commercial strategy. With reference to electoral politics, the respective phases can be labelled as the propaganda, media and political marketing approaches to electioneering. Using this framework it is possible to understand the important if previously largely unrecognized part that basic marketing concepts have played throughout the campaigning life of the Labour Party in Britain. Contrary to popular perceptions, advertising and image consciousness have had a place in party strategists’ considerations ever since the granting of near universal suffrage in 1918 ushered in an era of mass electoral propaganda. The realization of popular television in the 1950s exacerbated the need for image management and soon after Labour, under Harold Wilson, openly embraced media campaigning and the advice of professional publicists. With the embrace of the final stage in political marketing development during the Kinnock leadership it is possible to offer an understanding of the depth and scale of change that has taken place in Labour Party organization since the 1983 defeat.