Patrick Butler

Strategic Analysis in Political Markets

Applies an established strategic framework of competitive market positioning to political parties, suggesting that political scientists who are currently analysing political marketing without reference to the marketing discipline, could benefit thereby. If the marketing paradigm is to influence another discipline, it must first be tendered in broad, generic terms, and address matters at the strategic level. Presents examples from many electoral contexts (or markets). The analysis requires that political parties in a democratic system be regarded as analogous to commercial organizations in industrial markets. In doing so, it eschews traditional political ascriptions such as left‐ and right‐wing. The labels used to describe the parties are leader, challenger, follower and nicher. This framework offers a competitive positioning map of the market that will inform marketing and campaign decisions, and guide strategic direction. Shows how fundamental issues such as competitive analysis, party/candidate positioning, and relevant strategies are brought to the political marketing context.

Relationship intermediaries: business advisers in the small firm‐bank relationship

The role of the independent professional accountant as intermediary in the small business‐bank relationship is investigated by means of field interviews with bankers, entrepreneurs and business advisers. Research on expectations management in the area of small business‐bank interface underpins the emphasis on the intermediary here. A peculiar issue is identified and investigated: the accountant is found to serve its small business client by persuading it simply to meet the bank’s expectations; there is little evidence of the bank being persuaded to adapt its policies or procedures to account for the small firm’s circumstances. The role and contribution of the accountant are addressed at institutional, organisational and managerial levels, and at various stages in the relationship

Considerations on the Evolution of Political Marketing Theory

The significance of politics and election for societies demands the integrated engagement of researchers in politics and marketing. The natural diversity of political contexts, structures and processes complicates the process of theory development in political marketing, but continuous change in political marketplaces provides a rich ground for study. Recent considerations on the evolving dominant logic of marketing — a perspective that emphasizes intangible resources, the co-creation of value and sustainable relationships — resonate with the interests of political marketing scholars. The extension of marketing models to social and political contexts increases their contribution to societal welfare; directions for future work in the field are proposed.

Payment on delivery ‐ Recognising constituency service as political marketing

The notion that political marketing occurs only during formal campaign periods is discarded in the political marketing literature. Political campaigns, rather than being periodic, are “permanent”. Accordingly, the attention of political marketers must increasingly turn to the analysis of how and when politicians serve their communities or constituencies. Indeed, the kinds of services commonly associated with political influence and constituency activity indicate a convergence of politics and public sector service provision. In this essay, the nature and effects of constituency‐focused service delivery are examined as an integral part of political marketing.

Human Branding in Political Marketing: Applying Contemporary Branding Thought to Political Parties and Their Leaders

Political marketing advances by engaging with new and advanced concepts from both of its parent disciplines. One of the most recent fields of brand research—the study of the human brand—is taken into the political marketing arena in this essay. Human branding is an emergent topic in mainstream marketing. The value as a brand of a person who is well-known and subject to explicit marketing communications efforts is being investigated in many fields. The concept has clear prima facie value in political marketing, where the role of a political leader as part of the political marketing offer has been recognized extensively. Politics is also a unique context given the relationship between leaders and parties, each of which has some unique brand associations. The process of exploring the application of human branding in politics also provides a context in which some of the interactions among party and leader, human brand, and organizational brand can be explored and further developed. Among the conclusions are that political party leaders require brand authenticity as an advocate of the party policy platform and brand authority to command the organization and deliver on the policies being advocated. Implications for party and campaign management are outlined.

Theory-Building in Political Marketing: Parallels in Public Management

Abstract Political Marketing shares significant common ground with Public Sector Marketing, but this is not reflected in the current literature. These subdisciplines are developing in mutual isolation, thereby limiting their relevance and theoretical potential. The political marketing research literature highlights election campaigns and communications processes, even though marketing for most politicians involves being associated with actual public service delivery. The public sector marketing literature is both fragmented and heavily influenced by New Public Management which explicitly seeks to disconnect administration from politics, even though public sector managers are essential to political processes and not constrained only to the implementation of policy. The separation of these developing fields is influenced in part by the distinctive US experience of politics and administration; but that experience is untypical of other contexts and thus inclined to skew understanding and theory development. The welfare effects of marketing activity in the politics and public administration contexts are profound; an approach supportive of subdiscipline integration and development is critical.

Positioning political parties: A market analysis

Political parties enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the media. Like commercial organizations, parties must know where they stand in their “market.” Marketing is not an activity that political parties may indulge in at their discretion; it is a constant and necessary political function that they attend to implicitly or explicitly, successfully or otherwise. The concern of this article is to move the analysis of political marketing to the strategic level. Rather than analyzing parties in terms of ideology, historical origin, or policy platforms, we consider them in terms of relative market standing or competitive position.

Market orientation and enterprise policy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the merit of enterprise policies that seek to enhance market orientation as a driver of firm performance.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of empirical research utilising the MKTOR survey instrument, administered to senior marketing managers in high‐value‐added sectors in Ireland; and both subjective and lagged objective measures of firm performance.Findings – Findings support international context‐specific research. Market orientation is not found to be directly associated with firm performance in high‐value‐added firms in the Irish economy.Research limitations/implications – Research directions should include the evolving understanding of market orientation, and the exploration of what alternative orientations lead to improved performance in different contexts.Practical implications – For public policy, a re‐examination of the conceptualisation of, and support for, market orientation is warranted.Originality/value – The paper pres...

The Europeanisation of the British political marketplace

Abstract The coalition government that resulted from the 2010 general election represents a new scenario in the British political marketplace with implications for political marketing theory and practice. The modelling of political marketing in the UK has evolved in relatively stable market conditions in which majority governments are elected; the market restructure arising from the 2010 election outcome offers an opportunity for a revised understanding of the field. Political science has established an important and dynamic body of knowledge that explains the founding and operation of coalitions. A comparative appraisal of coalition government and commercial cooperative arrangements indicates some commonalities. Western European elections are characterised by multiple actors, regional preferences, smaller parties, cooperative distribution of power, and assumed negotiability of the offer. As the British political marketplace evolves to exhibit similar characteristics, insights from these markets are used to contribute to the more multifaceted, cooperative models of political marketing management required for the UK.

Campaign Strategies and Political Marketing

We have created 600,000 jobs in the last ten years. This country is finally in a position to say to its own people, ‘We can have a good living in our own country’ ... That’s progress. Brian Cowen’s assertion constitutes both a defence of government and an attack on the economic manifestos of the opposition parties; it captures the election in a single soundbite. Voting in the 2007 general election was influenced by the campaigns of the political parties and there seems to have been a significant change in public opinion during the final week. Nevertheless, the bulk of voters remained loyal to the parties and, where possible, to the candidates they had chosen in 2002 (see chapter 7 for full exploration of voting behaviour). In this chapter we will look at the campaign, how it went for the various parties, how it was perceived from within the campaign headquarters of the parties and how central strategy played out at the local level (see also the Chronology at the front of the book for an overview of the campaign).