Reimagining the Indian Political Set-Up:A Political Branding Outlook

Abstract

Politics is one area which the layman might not associate with the field of branding but with time this aspect of modern-day democracy has become synonymous with branding. Jevons (2005) is of the view that branding is flexible enough to include the realms of politics. The consumer-citizen concept is a step in this very direction. Today’s voter behaves more on the lines of a consumer who needs to convinced to buy into (read vote) the brand promises (read election manifesto and promises made during campaigning) put up by various political brands. Just like there are two aspects of a brand, successful and failed, political branding is no exception to the same. Modern times have seen the rise of many a political brands some of whom have had an ardent following while others have been shunned by the electorate for their disconnect with the voter. The western democracies such as US and UK are replete with political brands which have proven their mettle (or faded into oblivion) during various elections. However, the same has came to fore only in the past few years in India thanks to the information revolution. No other election witnessed more significantly the concept of political branding as did the last two general elections of 2014 and 2019. The concept of political branding and political participation have shown quite strong relationship between them in those countries where it is applicable. Through this paper, the author has attempted to establish a relationship between political branding and political participation along with what characterizes the successful making of a political brand in a conceptual way.