Philippe De Vries

Political Impression Management: How Metaphors, Sound Bites, Appearance Effectiveness, and Personality Traits Can Win Elections

ABSTRACT This article introduces the concepts of political impression management and perception politics. It furthermore discusses results from empirical case studies by the authors using experiments and applying recent research models. Three main points of interest will be addressed: sound bites, the effects of appearance in politics, and personality profiles in the media. According to the view of political impression management, politicians and political parties control the impression they make on the audience (De Landtsheer, 2004). But first and foremost, this article tries to bridge the domain of political impression management with the domain of political marketing. The article concludes with some critical thoughts on the influences between political impression management and democracy.

Branding the image of a fox : the psychological profile of EU president Herman Van Rompuy

This article presents the branding case of EU president Herman Van Rompuy. The branding of the political image is at the heart of being “in control.” Political candidates, even those with a damaged reputation, are therefore challenged to produce an image that projects nothing but the positive side of their characters or the traits that fit the position they desire. Which are the personality traits required, in the given context, from a chief executive of the European Union? And which are the traits projected by Van Rompuy? This article introduces the psychological profiling technique by Immelman (2004) as a political marketing technique. Thanks to this personality assessment that refers to the public image, it becomes possible to brand the profile of the current EU president and to compare the personal profile with the desired one.This article presents the branding case of EU president Herman Van Rompuy. The branding of the political image is at the heart of being “in control.” Political candidates, even those with a damaged reputation, are therefore challenged to produce an image that projects nothing but the positive side of their characters or the traits that fit the position they desire. Which are the personality traits required, in the given context, from a chief executive of the European Union? And which are the traits projected by Van Rompuy? This article introduces the psychological profiling technique by Immelman (2004) as a political marketing technique. Thanks to this personality assessment that refers to the public image, it becomes possible to brand the profile of the current EU president and to compare the personal profile with the desired one.