The 2015 Global Political Marketing and Management Conference ended
yesterday, and it was very successful (see
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs/about/events/global-political-marketing-and-management-conference-2015).
The conference presentations were very interesting, and we had a good
mix of academic scholars and practitioners. The presentations by Bill
English, New Zealand's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister,
Celia Wade-Brown, the mayor of Wellington, and Russell Norman, the
former leader of the Green party in New Zealand were excellent. Also,
the global theme of the conference was successful, with presentations
from the USA, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
We also received favourable press coverage, with a 20-minute interview
on Radio New Zealand by one of our presenters from the USA, Ken
Cosgrove. (see
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201757392/ken-cosgrove-political-marketing).
Finally, the conference is associated with a special issue of the
Journal of NonProfit and Public Sector Marketing on Political
Marketing, and the following conference papers will appear in the
special issue in early 2016:
1) Lorann Downer: “It's the Equity, Stupid! Protecting the Value of the
Partisan Brand”
A new Brand Oriented Party Model is offered to consider the importance
of partisan brand equity, or voter-perceived value. The Model
conceptualises, identifies and evaluates political branding from a
practitioner’s perspective. Working with the Model and primary vote
data to measure equity, I draw on the recent fortunes of the Australian
Labor Party to illustrate the danger of disregarding partisan brand
equity. I show that partisan brand equity was built, then eroded, by
key actions of the party and its leaders over seven years. These
successes and failures offer two lessons for Labor. First, parties
which intend to undertake branding should fully embrace the concept of
brand equity. Second, they should ensure that the leader’s brand equity
is put into the service of the party brand. The Model and the
suggestions for Australian Labor may be valuable for other parties
seeking to understand and manage brand equity.
2) Edward Elder: “Market-Oriented Governing Leaders’ Communication:
Comparing John Key and Barack Obama”
Political marketing scholarship has argued that politicians seeking
office should become market-oriented and move their product closer to
their target supporters’ preferences (Newman, 1994; O’Cass, 1996). It
has been argued that a market-orientation needs to be embodied by
political leaders both strategically and in communication
(Lees-Marshment, 2009: 216). However, once in office governing leaders
are faced with new challenges that influence the decisions they make.
This, along with the need to show strong leadership, has resulted in
many leaders losing the qualities associated with a market-orientation
such as being 'in touch' (Lilleker & Lees-Marshment, 2005; Ormrod,
2006). This can negatively affect the public perception of not only the
leader, but the governing party as a whole. While such a drop in
support is not new in the study of political popularity (Heppell,
2008), new research in political marketing has observed how it has
occurred simultaneously with the decline in these leader's perceived
qualities associated with having a market-orientation (Lees-Marshment,
2009). This follows a general trend of political leaders in office in
western democracies over the past twenty years; gaining power under a
market-orientation, but losing their positive public image once in
office.
Daniel Laufer PhD, MBA - Associate Professor
Head of School
School of Marketing and International Business
Victoria Business School
Level 11, Rutherford House Rm 11.26
23 Lambton Quay
Victoria University of Wellington
P O Box 600, Wellington, 6140 New Zealand
Tel: +64 4 463 5152 Fax: +64 4 463 5231
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/smib/about/staff/dan-laufer
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