Structured Abstract: Comprehending Political Branding and Brand Image of the BJP in India

Abstract

The communication between a political party and a voter these days is expected to be interactive (Cogburn et al. 2011) and focused on the everyday story of the voter (Weiser 1991). Unlike previous messaging, where political party maintained a royal distance as a demonstration of power, the modern approach connects the political party directly with the voter. Such new marketing approaches strengthen the connection between the candidate and the voter (Cogburn and Espinoza-Vasquez 2011). However, there is limited insight about how political brands are interpreted and understood. This is supported by explicit calls for further research in this area beyond a Western context, especially in nontraditional settings (Kumar 2009; Needham and Smith 2015). This is particularly the case with an emerging country such as India, which has more than a billion citizens, the second largest population in the world (Castells 2011). They have two categories of parties, national (6) and state level (30) (Election Commission of India), and the brand image of these parties becomes important for the voters. Most importantly, among the various parties, the leading and the currently ruling party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), have widely used political branding approaches and developed their brand image among the young voters of India. Thus, this chapter explores the political brand image of the BJP from the perspective of young voters in India.