Marketing Research Report

ON
Political Branding

Submitted to:
Prof. J.K.Nayak
Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

Submitted By:
Group 13
Sumit Kumar (20810058)
Siddharth (20810062)
Shrikant Shukla (20810085)
Sharan (20810057)
Shubham Pal (20810061)
Mohan Lal Jangid (20918009)
 Introduction

India is the largest representative democracy thus behaviour of voters becomes a

important during planning election campaigns and understanding that is also any
particular elections. Generally, voter behaviour has been studied under market
management as well as consumer behaviour. It is considered consumer behaviour
because voters are a special type of consumers that elect a person or a government to
implement their vision of a country's future in terms of policymaking and
implementation it is also important to note that not all consumers get what they invest
in thus making it a unique premise whereas it is considered marketing management
because to political parties voters are nothing more than customers so all political
parties try to serve their customers alluring marketing campaigns and things like
electoral speech so that's parties positioning in the electoral market.
Choosing a political party is one of the most important decisions hard democratic citizen
has to take because voters themselves cannot implement the policies that they like on
their own but have to rely on their democratically elected leader or party to introduce
the changes the changes that they would want to see the country. On the other side this
we see that political parties also take still interest in gathering information and gaining
knowledge about what their voters want, this knowledge helps them in formulating
their marketing strategy. Moreover, we have seen that political behaviour has become
fluctuate ING and unstable for political parties does analysing voters’ choice and
behaviour is becoming inevitable for understanding the voters.
In this paper we have examine the impact of various sources affecting voter preference
of a political party or a political leader. the research is partly based on extensive literate
survey through which we have narrowed down the key sources of association with
respect to voter choice. The key is sources of association are 1. Brand loyalty 2. Political
Ideology 3. Digital marketing 4. Impact of campaign 5. Type of Employment 6. Gender.
The combination of these five effects may directly influence voters’ overall preference
for a political party. We try to find out the type of causal relationship that exists among
these sources. In this study we have taken India as the focus of our study, but we have
divided it among 4 parts North, South, East and West. We have also done a small literary
study on the evolution of political branding throughout the years to better understand
the result of the survey we created to see how the four mentioned key association
factors hold in the real world.
 Literature review
Political brand meaning
 Political brand is described as an associative community of interconnected
political information and attitudes and both political parties and politicians are
considered as brands.
 Political leader, the political party and its policies are considered as instrumental
to transfer political brand identification to citizens and in turn forms brand image
in the minds of the citizens.
 Among those, the strongest determinant to shape voter opinion is that of the
political party as it gives voter cohesion, recognition and predictability.
 As brand can signal reassurance of quality and promise and helps to improve
party preference and loyalty by communicating its political ideology, policies and
leadership.
 Robust leader with unique persona and charisma that can be used as unique
proposition for the brand.
 With strong policies, Political party highlights their policy as point of differences.
 Voters seldom get chance to develop unfiltered opinion directly based on their
one-to-one interaction with political leaders and relies upon a lot on different
sources of information to understand the brand meaning.
Political brand trust
 Trust has performed a significant function in making sure confidence and coping
with relationship through lowering the perception of uncertainty and risk in
purchasing behaviour.
 Brand trust is the assured expectancies of brand’s reliability and intentions (of
the party) in a risk situation for the consumer.
 A dyadic relationship between the customer and a brand is crucial for the
constructing of trust and commitment. Political brands talk expectancies and
propositions connected to them to create have an effect on at the thought
process of voters.
 Relevant sources for improvement of political brand trust are proposed as: the
brand value of party, policies, leader, candidate, troubles and constituency-
focussed service delivery and result orientated benefits like safety and security,
financial development, financial boom and improvement of quality of life.
Political brand preference
  An election is the necessary linkage between the preferences of the citizens and
the actions of the government.
 Political brand marketers comply with an approach fostered by 3 phases:
identifying segments in the population, targeting segments of voters, positioning
the party and implementing the strategy.
 The political party or candidate is an intangible product bundle and maximum
voters ought to choose on the overall packaged idea or message as held in
memory.
Influences of political campaigns on political brand meaning, trust and preference
 Political campaigning is a way for parties to communicate with the voters as
campaign help them to collect useful information about the party.
 Political marketing campaign refers as any controlled message communicated
through any channel designed to promote the political interests of individuals,
parties, groups, governments or different organizations
 In political market, campaigns intend to increase recognition and knowledge
about political parties, candidates and policies to influence voters’ preference. It
additionally assist in concentrating their resources where they may be most
effective.
 Distinct sorts of political marketing campaign elicit various feelings about the
applicants and sum of those feelings effect the likelihood and nature of political
discussion.
Influences of leadership on brand meaning, trust and preference
 Leader’s image is more easily identifiable and communicated and creates a
specific type of representation for voting which contributes to the emotional
factor.
 Perceptions of leadership quality rely upon character traits of leaders as
character traits of leaders form notion of voters about the person and the party.
 A leader transfers his/her trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness to the
party brand.
 Persuasiveness varies relying on the political expertise of voters and advocated
product like political leader and party itself.
 For political leaders, it is found that male political leaders are perceived as
greater competent, tough and informed and own higher leadership capabilities.
In contrast, lady leaders are anticipated to be extra compassionate, sensitive,
gentle, understanding and people oriented.
  Apart from leader gender and personality traits reputation and integrity are
important factors contributing to trust and the reputation and trust.
Party tenure
 Party size, party ideology, and incumbency of the political actors were important
static predictors.
 Brand switching is a common exercise in commercial branding world, the
identical is true in political branding context. However, not like commercial
brands, political consumers have a waiting time to exercise their preference and
additionally they have restrained alternatives for switching, which result
sufficient scope to strategize to retain brand loyalty of their supporters.
 Independent or floating voters takes an important position to form voting result
as they are more open to brand switching.
Influences political brand meaning and trust on brand preference.
 Political party has its Ideology as the cornerstone which gives set of attitudes and
influence the voter’s preferences in election.
 Trust is main factor in a relationship between voters and political party.
 Leader and campaign should be aligned with party’s ideology to give consistent
meaning, otherwise trust can be reduced.
 Research Methodology

The study was carried out in four phases. In the first phase, to get a better
understanding of the effects political branding and how it has evolved through the years
we went through previously published research material, news articles and statistics
published on statista.com. The second phase of the research developing measures
through which we could evaluate the effect of political branding in voter’s choice and
simultaneously created a questionnaire around the forementioned measures. In the
final phase we collected and analyzed data of the questionnaire we had formed earlier.
2.1 Development of measurement instrument
A questionnaire consisting of 12 questions was prepared most of these questions were
yes or no type and a few questions also use the five-point scale. The questionnaire
covered various aspects of medical branding on voter decision. the questionnaire
covered topics like effect of political campaign on the inclination of one’s political stans,
using digital advertisement means in political campaigns etc. Furthermore, additional
questions were asked about the voters lifestyle, gender and domicile to understand
exactly how these factors come into play in political branding.
2.2 Data collection and analysis
Data was collected from students and working professionals alike. Further we also had
divided working professionals into three categories i.e., government employees,
entrepreneurs and NGO employees. We collected over 150 responses. We used normal
graphs in excel to analysis this data and then we used statical methods to draw a
meaningful conclusion.
 Some Masterstrokes to Improve Political Branding
Arvind Kejriwal (2015)
Kiran Bedi was announced as CM candidate from BJP side and Arvind Kejriwal
was leading from AAP side. Both had administration background, while Kiran
Bedi was known for first female IPS officer and as strict rule abiding personality,
Kejriwal was known for his campaigns against corruption.
Then Kejriwal tweeted tagging Bedi to debate on open forum. Bedi did refuse the
challenge that shows the Bedi as a weak leader and Kejriwal as a strong leader
who has nothing to fear or to hide. This help AAP to secure an absolute majority,
winning 67 seats out of 70.
Indra Gandhi (1977)
It was just after the Emergency, Indra Gandhi had lost the election. The ruling
Janata government had ordered a probe on her and national sentiment was
clearly not in her favour. Place was Belchi, Bihar, where a caste massacre had
taken place, she walk among the people. This act was display when the state
and central government conspicuously failed to provide any help or support to
the victims that conveyed the massage that her heart bleeds for the poorest of
the poor and the most marginalised of the marginalised.
And that sparked her march back to power, The Congress won the 1980
elections with thumping 353 seat victory out of 542 seats.
YS Rajashekar Reddy (2009)
The division of the Telangana-Andhra Pradesh state was a hotly debated issue
between YSR and KCR during the 2009 Andhra Pradesh elections. The then CM
YSR, was staunchly against it but make sure not to make any mention of it during
his campaign rallies in the Telangana region. YSR waited until after the
Telangana region had gone to polls and then unleashed his trump card.
At a campaign rally in Nandyal, YSR claimed that if a separate state was created
under the Grand Alliance regime, the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema would
be forced to obtain visas to enter Hyderabad. Looks like the power play worked.
The Congress fought off anti-incumbency to win the 156-seat majority out of 294
seats, YSR retained his CM seat.
 Participants Data

Gender Distribution

31%

Female
Male
69%

According to the data collected the gender wise data distribution shows that 69% of
male participated in the survey while 31% female participated in the survey.

Age Distribution

135

20

18-25 26-35 2
36-46
The survey shows that almost 86% of the participants are mostly youngsters between
the age group of 18-25 and 13% are between the age group of 26-35. Rest 1% are in the
age group of 36-46.

Demographic

69 70

10
8

East North South West

Considering the demographic behind the survey almost 69 people are from north India
and 70 people are from South India and only 8 and 10 people are from east India and
West India respectively.

Profession of Participants:

Student 126

Government employee 5

entrepreneur 3

Corporate employee 23

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

We can see we have more male participants than female with most of them belonging
to the age group of 18-25 years old and are students. Also, majority of data is collected
from North and south region of our country. Few participants are corporate employee
while the number of government employees is very less and only three are
entrepreneurs.
 How many times have you voted before

65

43

28

14
7
1 2 3 3+ Never

Do you reside in the city/state you are supposed to vote in

Yes

No

I travel to vote

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

A large number of participants has not voted till now and many have only voted once
with people who have voted more than once account for very small number.
 Research Data
Political Inclination

Political inclination

90

26
23

13
5
1 2 3 4 5

Majority of participants are of rightist political inclination. This shows that majority of
people support social or economic conservatism. In other words, they usually support
tradition and the way things are.

Has a political camping ever changed you political

inclinations?

32% No
Yes

68%
Majority believes that they are not swayed by political campaign. This suggests that
majority focus on the agenda or political leaders and advertising of political rallies do
not affect their decisions.

Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or

break an election?

19%
No
Yes

81%

More than 80% of participants believes in power of advertisement for election. If

poltical parties are advertising their campaigns then it should properly convey the
message and motto of the party.

Have ever received a political ads online?

46% No
54% Yes
Almost similar number have received political ads online as compared to those who
don’t. This shows that political ads are circulated not much but often and political
parties are changing their way of advertising and adopting newer technological
methods.

Do you think its a good idea for political parties make an

use of digital marketing?

28%
No
Yes

72%

Majority believes digital market is the way to go for advertisement for political parties.
As mostly youngsters are voting nowadays they prefer online method of advertisement
and campaigning. Using digital marketing is a positive approach for political parties and
leaders to impact elections.

What matters most to you while voting?

5%
27%
Leader of the party
Personal agendaa
Political agenda
The political party
9%
59%
A large number of people believe political agenda is most important while voting next
followed by Party Leader. They focus more on work defined by the political party than
their fake vows.

Correlation
Has a political camping ever changed you political inclinations?

Has a political camping ever changed you political Has a political camping ever changed you political
inclinations(Male)? inclinations(Female)?

70 36

38

11

No Yes No Yes

Majority of Male and female both believe that they are not influenced by political
campaign.
 Has a political camping ever changed you political Has a political camping ever changed you political
inclinations(Voted)? inclinations(Never Voted)?

62 43

29 21

No Yes No Yes

Same is true for people who have voted vs people who haven’t.
Majority of people believe that they are
Has a political camping ever changed you political not influenced by political campaign
inclinations(left-wing political viewst)?
regardless of their political views.
76
Has a political camping ever changed you political
inclinations(centralist)?

39
58

31
No Yes

Has a political camping ever changed you political

inclinations(Right-wing political viewst)? No Yes

18

No Yes
 Has a political camping ever changed you political Has a political camping ever changed you political
inclinations(North)? inclinations(South)?

41 54

27

15

No Yes No Yes

Majority of people believe that they are not influenced by political campaign but in
north the difference is lower as comapred to south.

Has a political camping ever changed you political Has a political camping ever changed you political
inclinations(Working)? inclinations(Students)?

84
22

41

No Yes No Yes

Majority of people believe that they are not influenced by political campaign wheather
they are student or working.
 Has a political camping ever changed you political Has a political camping ever changed you political
inclinations(Below 25)? inclinations(Above 25)?

91 16

43

No Yes No Yes

Majority of people believe that they are not influenced by political campaign as we have
seen form all the above data.

Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or break an election?

Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or
break an election(Male)? break an election(Female)?

40
86

22
7

No Yes No Yes
Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or
break an election(Voted)? break an election(Never Voted)?

55
70

21
9

No Yes No Yes

Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or

break an election(Right-wing political viewst )?

21

No Yes
Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or
break an election(Centralist )?
76

13

No Yes

Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or

break an election(Left-wing political viewst )?

29

No Yes
Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or
break an election(North)? break an election(South)?

55 54

15
13

No Yes No Yes

Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or
break an election(Employees)? break an election(Students)?

22 104

21

No Yes No Yes
 Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or Do you think a bad advertisement campaign can make or
break an election(Below 25)? break an election(Above 25)?

110 16

5
24

No Yes No Yes

Majority believes in power of advertisement and think that good advertisement

campaign is essential for winning the election and the results are similar across all
categories shown above.
 Conclusion
In this small research effort to study political parties as a brand and impact of brand on the general
public. We find some factors that are common to have as a brand in politics which are strong political
agenda, leadership or face of leadership, sense of association in terms of ideology, trust, and party
position in terms of tenure and size. We further looked to assess the political campaigns influence on
the general public. Our analysis shows that most people associated themselves with the political agenda
of party followed by leader of the party. the role of digital marketing is also important and supported by
our results too that people think a digital marketing campaign can make or break an election. Adding to
this people accept the fact that political campaigns do change the political inclination of people.

We conducted this study with limited number of participants so it can not be generalized but findings
support that new political brands should have a balance mix of traditional political factors and new
political tools as digital marketing and online advertisements.
References