Party Brand Research Articles

On the relationship between online brand community and brand preference in political market

Seeing the rising growth of online brand communities, an increasing number of political parties are investing time, money, and resources into designing and managing online brand communities to gain voters’ attention. Although online brand communities have been recognized as a powerful relationship-building medium, there is a limited study of online political brand community impact in shaping voter behavior. This study has examined relationships among electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about a political brand, online political brand community participation, online political brand community commitment, political brand love, and political brand trust in voters’ political brand preferences. The result shows that eWOM about a political brand significantly influence online political brand community participation. Participation strength in online brand communities increases community commitment. The enhanced awareness and knowledge motivate members toward a higher level of preference for the political brand. Political brand love and brand trust mediates the relationship between the brand community and brand preference. The findings may help political marketers understand the role of online political brand communities in shaping voters’ party brand preference and resultant voting behavior. It may further help political marketers to strategize their brand community pages for a better outcome.

Strange Bedfellows: Cooperative Policy Making in a Divided Government

It is widely believed that the lack of bipartisanship between the executive and legislative branches in the United States is deleterious to policy making. However, a divided government is perhaps more productive than a unified government because it can facilitate electoral gains for the minority party. Policy created by a divided government can be seen as the collaborative outcome of the majority and minority parties, but that of a unified government is perceived as the exclusive work of the majority party. Further, successful policy making on the part of the unified government could have the effect of compromising the minority party’s brand. Thus, the minority party has more incentive to negotiate with the majority party and participate in policy making in a divided government. To the extent that party brand name assumes greater importance in elections in a polarized political system, a divided government could be more conducive to policy making than a unified government.

Political brand endorsers, political brand preference, and political brand equity: A mediated moderated model

ABSTRACT Though extant literature has investigated the role of brand endorsers in political marketing and communication research, few studies have investigated the causal relationships between brand endorsers, political party brand personality, and voter behaviour. The present study addresses this gap by investigating the relationship between brand endorsers, brand personality, brand preference, and brand equity in the political marketing context, by adhering to the meaning transfer model. The results reveal that political brand endorsers have a significant effect on political party brand personality. In addition, political party brand personality has a significant influence on the political brand preference and political brand equity. The brand personality of a political party has a partial mediating role on the relationship between brand endorsers, brand preference, and brand equity. The results of the study further describe the partial moderating role of political party type on the relationship between political party brand personality, political brand preference, and political brand equity. The paper has significant marketing and communication implications for political parties. The study is undeniably significant as it is centred on India, an emerging Asian economy whose political parties, leaders, and their strategies invite direct comparison with those of developed economies.

Party brand hate in political market: antecedents and consequences

ABSTRACT Brand hate is defined as a severe dislike for a product or service by the consumer. Although brand hate has been recognized as a critical element, in the political market, there is a lack of understanding of the impact of brand hate on voters. This study is an attempt to examine the antecedents and consequences of brand hate in the political market. The study reveals that unmet expectations, symbolic incongruity, and ideological incompatibility of electorates have a significant positive impact on brand hate intensity. The result shows that political product involvement significantly mediates the relationship between unmet expectations, symbolic incongruity, and ideological incompatibility and brand hate intensity. The study further reveals that as an outcome of political brand hate, electorates put emphasis on either brand avoidance and/or brand extremism. The outcome of this study may help political parties gain knowledge about the impact of political brand hate.

The Impact of Political Brand Relationship Quality and Brand Engagement on Voters’ Citizenship Behaviour: Evidence from Indonesia

Research Aims: Recently, the usage of branding has become more popular in non-traditional social markets such as politics due to decreasing political participation. This study investigates how political brand relationship quality (satisfaction and trust) influences political brand engagement (PBE) and voters' citizenship behaviour (VCB). Design/Methodology/Approach: The current study collected data from voters who are located in Jakarta and participated in the Indonesian presidential election of 2014. A total of 520 voters participated. Data were collected via quota sampling and drop-off survey and were analysed using structural equation modelling. Research Findings: The empirical findings suggest that satisfaction has the strongest impact on political party brand engagement, while trust has the strongest impact on voters' citizenship behaviour. Further results imply that political brand engagement contributes to voters' citizenship behaviour, as well as significantly mediates the relationship between political brand relationship quality (satisfaction and trust) and voters' citizenship behaviour. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This study is based on social exchange theory and source credibility theory. The findings of this study have theoretical implications in that the results lend support to the appropriate role of brand relationship quality and brand engagement in creating voters' citizenship behaviour. Managerial Implication in the Southeast Asian Context: The findings of this study add new insights to the political branding literature as well as strategic guidelines for the political parties that are planning to build a relationship with voters. As a way to improve voters' perceptions in Southeast Asia, political parties should adapt conventional marketing theory to a political marketing setting, and implement marketing programmes that keenly engaged with voter's behaviour. Research Limitation and Implications: This study bears several limitations. First, the current study was conducted in the capital city of Indonesia, thus limiting the scope of the research. Second, this study was restricted to a political party. It would be interesting if future studies examine political candidates as a brand.

Abandon ship? Party brands and politicians' responses to a political scandal

Political scandals often trigger responses from voters and the implicated politicians. In this article, we extend the analysis to politicians who are only indirectly affected by a scandal through their affiliation with the involved party. Overcoming endogeneity concerns by analyzing the local implications of the largest national scandal in recent Italian history (“Clean Hands”), our main results show that local politicians withdraw support from incumbents in parties hit by Clean Hands – inducing early government dissolutions in such municipalities. Consistent with these municipality-level findings, we then illustrate that local politicians from the implicated parties exhibit lower re-running rates and higher rates of party switching in the short term. In the medium term, we find that corruption and voter turnout are lower in competitive municipalities ‘treated’ with a mayor from the implicated parties during Clean Hands. Moreover, medium-term upward career mobility of local politicians from the implicated parties benefited from party switching.

Exploring the creation and development of political co-brand identity

Purpose The creation and development of candidate-politician brands, otherwise known as political co-brands, remains an under-researched area of study. This is supported by calls for more understanding on political co-brands and how they are positioned and managed by their creators. Framed by the concepts of internal brand identity and co-branding, this paper aims to investigate how political co-brand identity is constructed and managed over time, exploring alignment between the political co-brand and political corporate party brand. Design/methodology/approach An interpretivist revelatory multi-case study approach, using in-depth interviews, was conducted with three political co-brands (candidates-politicians) from the UK Conservative Party. The three cases represented constituencies across the UK from the North, Midlands and South of the country. The in-depth elite interviews were conducted July 2015 to September 2015. Methodological triangulation was also adopted to assess the coherency of emerging themes with online and offline materials and documents. A two-stage thematic analytical approach was used to interpret the findings. Findings This multiple case study demonstrates how successful political co-brands create and develop identities tailored to their constituency, often distinct from the corporate political brand and developed several years before electoral success at the ballot box. In addition, this study reveals that political co-brands are dichotomous in terms of strategically managing a degree of alignment with the corporate political brand yet maintaining a degree of independence. Research limitations/implications This study builds on limited existing concepts such as co-branding and political brand identity as a means of critical application. Existing research on co-branding remains a “relatively limited” and complex area of study and generally focuses on fictitious brands. Political brand identity remains an under-researched area. This in turn supports the development and advancement of political branding as an area of study. This paper highlights the opportunities of using the strategic approach of co-branding to help conceptualise “candidates-politicians” as political brands’ which up until now, “candidate-politician brands” have been difficult to define unlike the extensive research on corporate political brands. Practical implications This study has implications for practice too. Organisations and different typologies of political brands will be able to use this political co-brand identity framework as a diagnostic mechanism to investigate their co-brands current identity, assess alignment and make strategic changes or reposition the envisaged identity if desired. Similarly, organisations can use this framework, key dimensions and factors as a blueprint to design and build new political brands at a corporate and/or local level. Originality/value This study has implications for brands beyond the world of politics. Brands can adopt the political co-brand identity framework developed in this study as a pragmatic tool to investigate internally created co-brand identity and explore alignment with the corporate party brand identity. In addition, this research adds to the limited research on non-fictitious co-brands and co-branding literature at large and addresses the calls for more research on brand identity in new settings.

Scripted Messengers: How Party Discipline and Branding Turn Election Candidates and Legislators into Brand Ambassadors

Political parties with strict party discipline are well-placed to demand that their election candidates and legislators promote the party brand. The franchise-franchisee relationship causes representatives to relinquish individual expression in exchange for centralized party messaging. This article looks at how a strategic desire for party unity combines with internal brand management to turn lower-ranking politicians in a parliamentary system into party brand ambassadors. Our Canadian case study draws on in-depth interviews with party leaders, Members of Parliament, political staff, candidates for office and prospective candidates. The implications for representative democracy in a Westminster system are considered, including the representational constraints for racial and sexual minorities.

How Mayors Hurt Their Presidential Ticket: Party Brands and Incumbency Spillovers in Brazil

Much of the literature in distributive politics suggests that parties are advantaged nationally when they control office at the local level. But is this invariably true? Whatever advantage control ...

Book review: Party Brands in Crisis. Partisanship, Brand Dilution and the Breakdown of Political Parties in Latin America

Book review: Party Brands in Crisis. Partisanship, Brand Dilution and the Breakdown of Political Parties in Latin America

Selling a presidential candidate: linguistic landscapes in time of presidential elections in Zambia

ABSTRACT We use a moment in history, the lead up to presidential elections, to capture the semiotic transformation of linguistic landscapes of a multilingual African country, Zambia. We use observations and notions of assembling artefacts and semiotic assemblages to show that the semiotic product resulting from the rallies and campaign material from three selected political parties is not just made up of displays of party colours, slogans, song, dance, unique symbols, gestures and multilingual discourses; the assemblage of images of human ethno-types in campaign materials and at rallies as body semiotics, are critical to party brand identification and the selling of presidential candidates. Considering that Zambia has more than 72 ethnic groups scattered in 10 provinces, we analyse the strategies the parties adopt to avoid the liability of being seen as regional and ethnically based. We conclude that selling of a presidential candidate involves deployment of contradictory logics of de-ethnicisation, de-emphasising the presidential candidate’s ethnic background, and ethnicisation, a careful framing of political parties and rallies and campaign material as sites of multilingual, multi-ethnic and trans-region spatial practices.

Liberal government's discourse on the 2017-2018 Canada-US cross-border arrivals

The article examines Canadian government's discourse on the 2017-2018 asylum-seeker border crossings from the US. The analysis reveals presence of mixed messages some of which are in keeping with Canada's image of an open and welcoming country committed to its international obligations, while others reinforce concerns about the arrivals and implicitly suggest that they are taking advantage of the system. These mixed messages are in tension with the Liberal Party's brand of inclusive and open Canada, which obtained popular support at the last federal election and has helped the new Liberal government to differentiate itself internationally.

To Scrutinise and Protect: Question Time as a Window into Institutional and Electoral Incentives at Holyrood and Westminster

Question Time is subject to problems of collective action and coordination. Individual parliamentarians seeking to build a personal vote are not incentivised to participate, despite the fact that the collective party brand affecting re-election is at risk during these highly publicised weekly spectacles. We analyse questions asked at First Minister’s Question Time during the first four sessions of the Scottish Parliament to examine the factors predicting whether and how parliamentarians chose to participate in oversight of the government. Despite the varied incentives provided by the Scottish Parliament’s electoral system, the total number of questions asked and the tone of those questions is largely a function of whether the Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP) is serving in the governing party or not.

Elite polarization and voting turnout in Latin America, 1993–2010

ABSTRACTDespite substantial advances in political participation across Latin America, relevant data from the region reveals an important cross-national and temporal variation in voter turnout. Unlike existing region-specific explanations of voter turnout, but in line with research on advanced democracies, we show here that actual electoral mobilization in Latin America is linked to the ideological and programmatic shifts experienced by political elites since the 1990s. Specifically, we first suggest that by setting clear programmatic stances and differentiation polarization allows voters to better understand the costs and benefits of turning out to vote. When more public policy is at stake, elections become more consequential, and thus voters are more likely to turnout. Second, polarization facilitates the formation of party brands that structure the policy preferences of voters, easing their mobilization to the polls. Our results, using elite survey data and electoral turnout for eighteen Latin American countries during the 1993–2010 period, provide strong statistical support for the elite polarization-turnout hypothesis and remain robust to different specifications of the model. Substantially, an increase in one standard deviation in elite polarization increases turnout – measured as a percentage of registered voters – by about 7 percentage points. This effect increases to 9 percentage points when turnout is measured as a percentage of the voting age population.

Exploring and consolidating the brand personality elements of the political leader

Purpose This study aims to examine brand personality and its application to political branding. This study focuses on the brand personality of a political leader from the BJP Party brand (Bharatiya Janta Party). The development of a strong political brand personality is crucial for success at the polls. Little research has been dedicated to this phenomenon particularly beyond Western political and post-election contexts. Design/methodology/approach The scope and development of the study required a qualitative approach. The theoretical frameworks of the study acted as the deductive base of the study. The insights of the respondents were the inductive base of the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with external stakeholders [voters]. In addition, semi-structured interviews were also adopted to capture the branding activities used by internal stakeholders [BJP]. Findings The brand personality dimensions such as sincerity; agreeableness, competence, energy, openness, conscientiousness and emotional stability were clearly associated with a political leader. Negative qualities such as dictatorial attitudes and arrogance affected the political leader’s brand personality. Religious partisanship was another strong negative trait affecting the brand personality of the political leader. Originality/value The study has an actionable framework for political brand personality in the post-election context. It offers negative qualities to be avoided in the development of the political brand personality of the leader. It offers insights about the political brand personality of the leader in terms of young digitally savvy voters.

Examining the relationships between political advertisements, party brand personality, voter satisfaction and party loyalty

PurposeAlthough the concept of political party brand personality has received substantial recognition in the political marketing literature, however, no study as yet has contributed in identifying a causal relationship between the party brand personality and voter behaviour. Therefore, this paper aims to address this gap in the academic literature by determining the relationship between the multifaceted advertising-brand personality-satisfaction-loyalty constructs in political context.Design/methodology/approachThe sample for the study consisting of 930 responses was drawn from the major cities of Punjab state in India through multistage stratified random sampling. AMOS-based structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model.FindingsResults revealed that voters’ attitude towards political advertisements had a significant effect on their satisfaction and loyalty when brand personality had a mediating role in this effect. Additionally, the influence of party brand personality on satisfaction and loyalty of voters was different for the selected four political parties.Practical implicationsThe study carries strong implications for the political parties and the political marketers to develop pertinent marketing and communication strategies that are consistent with their personality traits, with an endeavour to enhance the satisfaction and loyalty of voters.Originality/valueThe most imperative discovery of this study is to determine the mediating role of party brand personality on relationship between political advertisements, voter satisfaction and party loyalty. Such a study of an emerging economy contributes significantly to the marketing theory and practice owing to the diversity and fragmentation across India with respect to religion, caste, creed and race of voters.

Escaping collective responsibility in fluid party systems: Evidence from South Korea

How does the public evaluate politicians' reactions to crises that damage their party's image? Using an experimental survey design and the 2016 South Korean political scandal, we explore which strategies allow politicians to avoid electoral accountability for corruption in their party. The scandal prompted some politicians from the president's party to participate in protests calling for her impeachment, make statements criticizing her leadership, or join a new splinter party. We find that all of these strategies both increase electoral support and decrease perceptions of corruption. However, leaving the party is the least successful at increasing electability and politicians are more likely to gain votes if instead they take a clear position against corrupt politicians. Our findings have implications for accountability in weakly institutionalized party systems, where politicians, faced with a party brand crisis, have incentives to switch parties to escape electoral consequences, as opposed to reforming the party from within.

Party system erosion: Evidence from Peru

Weakly institutionalized party systems are a defining feature of third-wave democracies. Yet, in some countries like Peru, party weakness is not a static equilibrium but rather part of a dynamic process of “party system erosion” in which weak parties become weaker over time as independents come to dominate subnational posts. As I argue, party system erosion is driven by a particular configuration of institutional factors—weak party brands, ease of ballot access, and limited partisan control over resource distribution. These institutional features increase the likelihood that experienced candidates will run as independents. When these candidates are elected, they obtain more intergovernmental discretionary transfers, which are used to improve performance and maintain clientelistic networks. This resource advantage of independent officials further weakens party brands and reduces experienced candidates’ incentives to run with parties in future elections. I test this theory using a data set of 80,000 subnational officials and a regression discontinuity design.

Party Brands and the Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1952–1976

Political scientists have traditionally dismissed the Democratic and Republican National Committees as “service providers”—organizations that provide assistance to candidates in the form of campaign funding and expertise but otherwise lack political power. I argue this perspective has missed a crucial role national committees play in American politics, namely that national party organizations publicize their party's policy positions and, in doing so, attempt to create national party brands. These brands are important to party leaders—especially when the party is in the national minority—since they are fundamental to mobilizing voters in elections. In case studies covering the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) in the period 1952–1976, I show that minority party committees prioritize their branding role and invest considerably in their publicity divisions, inaugurate new publicity programs, and create new communication tools to reach out to voting groups. Additionally, I show that in cases where the party is out of the White House, the national committees have considerable leeway in deciding what party image to publicize. Rather than being mere powerless service providers, I show that party committees have played crucial roles in debates concerning questions of ideology and issue positioning in both parties.

The Effect of Political Contributions on Political Representation of Members of the National Assembly under Party Brands in South Korea

The Effect of Political Contributions on Political Representation of Members of the National Assembly under Party Brands in South Korea