Political Relationship Marketing: An Examination of Internal Relationship Management in Ghanaian Political Parties

Sayibu Ibrahim Nnindini,Kobby Mensah

doi:10.22610/imbr.v13i3(i).3228

Sayibu Ibrahim Nnindini, Kobby Mensah

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22610/imbr.v13i3(i).3228

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Abstract

In recent times political parties appear to be focusing narrowly on winning elections to the detriment of effective management of their intra-party relationships. The neglect of managing relationships is having a negative effect on parties, hence this study. The study looked at the practice of political relationship marketing in the two leading parties in Ghana, focusing on micro-interactions at the constituency level. Twenty-four party executives were drawn from eight constituencies for interview. Thematic analysis was carried out to identify relationship marketing practices in the parties. The findings demonstrate the presence of some political relationship marketing antecedents. A fully-fledged political relationship marketing practice is however absent.

Highlights

This study is situated in Political Relationship Marketing (PRM), instigated by the internal wrangling that has been rocking the political parties in Ghana in recent years despite claims of political marketing practices (Hinson & Tweneboah-Koduah, 2010; Mensah, 2017)
This study sought to explore the practice of political relationship marketing in political parties at the local level
It emerged that some form of political relationship marketing is being practiced

Summary

Introduction

This study is situated in Political Relationship Marketing (PRM), instigated by the internal wrangling that has been rocking the political parties in Ghana in recent years despite claims of political marketing practices (Hinson & Tweneboah-Koduah, 2010; Mensah, 2017). The wrangling in the parties is a result of obsessive fixation on winning elections to the detriment of the management of internal relationships (Lees-Marshment, 2004), which is least explored both in practice and in the theory of political management in Ghana It is an established knowledge globally that politics is designed and promoted on marketing insight (Brown & Coates, 1996; Henneberg, 2004; Lees-Marshment, 2001; Mensah, 2017; Scammell, 1995; 1999), resulting in political marketing as academic and practice discipline. It is noted that Obama’s campaign did deploy marketing in its ‘managerial’ sense where a good product, for example, was designed and distributed using voter insight and built effective relationships for fundraising (Nickerson & Rogers, 2014) We see this development as a change in the role of political marketing, that is from “the science of influencing mass behavior in competitive situations” This shift is necessary because the political marketing literature over the years has been heavily focused on the communication function of marketing (see (Baines & Egan, 2001; Les-Marshment, 2009; Lilleker & Jackson, 2013; Scammell, 1995; Wring, 1997); others tend to focus on the strategy dimension, (examples include, Bowler & Farrell, 1992; Lees-Marshment, 2001; 2004; Newman, 1994; 1999; O’Shaughnessy, 1990; O’Shaughnessy & Henneberg, 2002)

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