Nicholas O'Shaughnessy

The phenomenon of political marketing

Introduction: the electronic soapbox big lies, little lies - the story of propaganda only in America television the peevish penmen - direct mail and US elections the monopoly of Midas Congress and political action committees high priesthood, low priestcraft - the role of political consultants Washingtons space cadets - the centrality of polling, computer and other technologies in US politics today merchandising the monarch - Reagan and the presidential elections a licence to export - the spread of political marketing methods to Britain the selling of the President, 1988 an ethical conundrum.

Political Relationship Marketing: some macro/micro thoughts

Relationship Marketing, and more broadly the placement of networks at the heart of marketing theory and practice, has sometimes been seen by practitioners and theorists alike as a universal panacea. Yet, given the contemporary phenomenon of rapid decline in direct participation in politics, with tumbling party membership rosters, the relevance of relationship marketing and its capacity to re-energise democratic politics has intuitive plausibility. We therefore seek to theorise about relationship marketing in a political context, arguing that the development of a theoretical construct and rigorous conceptual frameworks would invigorate current research on political marketing. We distinguish in particular two approaches - a micro view dealing with specific entity and exchange-oriented aspects, while a macro-perspective will look at the interplay with the wider political structures and the overall political system. Beyond this, the authors are also acutely conscious of the applied perspective and explore various methods by which the concept could be operationalised and grounded in practice. In this article we therefore seek to remedy the literatures remarkable neglect of relationship marketing in politics. There is a crisis in democracy when people perceive politics as something which happens to them rather than something over which they exert ownership, and such a crisis was created in part by the substitution of political marketing tools for face to face contact. These authors thus suggest how political marketing potentially can help solve a dilemma it has helped create.

The service‐dominant perspective: a backward step?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the “service dominant” perspective advocated by Vargo and Lusch and applauded by so many marketing academics in the USA is neither logically sound nor a perspective to displace others in marketing.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a conceptual analysis of the Vargo and Lusch paper that takes account of the implications of the service perspective being adopted as the perspective to replace all others.Findings – The paper finds that the definition of services, seeking as it does to embrace all types of marketing, is too broad to have much operational meaning, while the focusing on activities rather than functions misdirects marketing altogether. Vargo and Lusch revive the claim that marketing should be viewed as a technology, the aim being to discover the techniques and rules (principles) applying to marketing. However, indifference to theoretical considerations encourages crudeness and the cultivation of ad hoc solutions. The Vargo and Lus...

Theory and concept development in political marketing: Issues and an agenda

Abstract In this article we argue that the state of theory and concept development in political marketing needs to be related to several epistemological as well as topical themes and issues. Seven meta-theoretical issues are discussed with regard to current theoretical position of political marketing research and some initial recommendations are made on how these issues can be developed further. The second part of the article focuses on topical aspects of theory and concept development in political marketing and highlights nine themes for further research. These themes of political marketing are singled out because of their characteristics which show them to be significantly distinct from commercial marketing practice, and therefore need more careful modelling in concepts and theories of political marketing.

Political marketing management and theories of democracy

Political marketing management is often criticized for devaluing democratic processes. However, no literature exists which outlines different concepts of democracies and systematically juxtaposes them with political marketing management in its varied conceptual and practical facets. In this article, we outline three different perspectives, i.e. a selling-oriented, an instrumentally-oriented, and a relational political marketing management, and analyse their compatibility with two different concepts of democracy, specifically competitive elitism and deliberative democracy. We discuss implications of political marketing vis-à-vis the theory of democracy as well as necessary further research. We find that while certain political marketing management perspectives are associated with different theories of democracy, the current normal paradigm of marketing theory shows the least overlap with democratic theories.

Service‐dominant logic: a rejoinder to Lusch and Vargo's reply

Purpose – This paper is a rejoinder to Lusch and Vargos defense of their service‐dominant logic paper against criticism.Design/methodology/approach – The paper responds to Lusch and Vargos defense and criticism of the initial article primarily through examining the logic of their case.Findings – The paper finds that both the charges and the arguments against the criticism have no merit.Research limitations/implications – The paper offers guidance as to the approach needed to advance the study of service marketing. This rejects the notion that viewing all businesses as service entities is a progressive approach but recommends a disjunctive definition of service, which would throw up service‐categories that needed to be studied in their own right if progress is to be made.Originality/value – The paper suggests that Lusch and Vargos S‐D‐dominant logic is unlikely to be practically fruitful while remaining theoretically limited.

The dark side of political marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss exploratory research into the perceptions of British Muslims towards Islamist ideological messaging to contribute to the general debate on “radicalisation”.Design/methodology/approach – Four focus groups were undertaken with a mixture of Bangladeshi and Pakistani British Muslims who were shown a selection of Islamist propaganda media clips, garnered from the internet.Findings – The paper proposess that Islamist communications focus on eliciting change in emotional states, specifically inducing the paratelic‐excitement mode, by focusing around a meta‐narrative of Muslims as a unitary grouping self‐defined as victim to Western aggression. It concludes that British Muslim respondents were unsympathetic to the Islamist ideological messaging contained in the sample of propaganda clips.Originality/value – The paper provides an insight into how British Muslims might respond to Islamist communications, indicating that, while most are not susceptible to inducement ...

Political Marketing: Theory and Concepts

Introduction Theorical Issues in Political Marketing Defining Political Marketing Theories and Concepts in Political Marketing The Triadic Interaction Model of Political Exchange Critical Perspectives on Political Marketing Political Marketing and Theories of Democracy The Ethics of Political Marketing Conceptual Issues in Political Marketing Political Relationship Marketing Strategic Political Postures Political Market Orientation Political Marketing Strategy and Party Organizational Structure Symbolism in Political Marketing Conclusion: Research Agendas for Political Marketing and Political Marketing Management

Political marketing orientation: confusions, complications, and criticisms

In this article, we seek to distinguish between two concepts often conflated in the literature: political market orientation and political marketing orientation. In the discussion, we focus specifically on voters rather than other actors in the political sphere such as competing parties, party members, the media, and lobby groups due to the centrality of the electorate in the political marketing literature and in political practice. We identify five key issues that influence the ability of parties and candidates to successfully leverage a well-developed political marketing orientation. These are (1) that it is difficult to control symbolization, (2) that it is difficult to control personality, (3) that there are value and symbol abnormalities, (4) that the public mind is unknowable, and (5) the corrupting power of negative campaigning. Finally, we distinguish two areas of further research, “downstream” research focused on political marketing orientation and “upstream” research focused on political market orientation, with specific recommendations for further research.

Positioning in political marketing: How Semiotic Analysis Can Support Traditional Survey Approaches

Abstract The 2010 British election particularly focused on the party leaders’ images – a departure in fifty years of British elections. The principal contribution of the article is to illustrate how a combined approach to assessing leadership positioning using both the traditional survey and semiotic analysis can provide insights into what image attribute dimensions end up in the minds of members of the public (actual positioning) and on what image attribute dimensions party marketers are trying to position themselves (intended positioning). Using data from the 2010 British general elections, our findings indicate that the combined methodological approach would be particularly useful for brands that need repositioning, those whose image attribute positions change dramatically over time, and those who wish to target previously unresponsive target audience segments.