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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 ____ AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business. For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp To post message: [log in to unmask] For assistance: [log in to unmask] AIB-L is a moderated list.