Political branding: a research agenda for political marketing

Abstract

This chapter adheres to four objectives. First, the chapter presents the different typologies of political brands and reflect on their strategic orientations [see STP catalogue]. Second, the chapter considers strategic political segmentation and different typologies of political brands. Third, the chapter presents and discusses the related yet distinct concepts of political brand identity, political brand image and political brand reputation. The chapter concludes with a short case study. More specifically, the United Kingdom's Conservative Party [2010-2020] serves to contextualise the applicability of the concepts of brand identity and image-reputation. Understanding the consistency between communicated identity and interpreted image-reputation will highlight potential discrepancies that need to be addressed or opportunities to maintain, expand or utilise. This in turn will lead to the development of repositioning strategies or conservation of current positioning strategies, which form part of managing and sustaining political brands. This chapter demonstrates the transfer potential of branding to politics however acknowledges that concepts may need to be tailored to address unique settings and contexts.