Brands in Political Organizations

Sigge Winther NielsenUniversity of Copenhagen

Dubrovnik, May, 2012

About Sigge

• Cand.scient.pol and Ph.d. fellow from University of Copenhagen

• Government official at the Ministry of Finance

• Researcher in voters and parties based on marketing and psychology

• Visiting Fulbright Scholar at University of Columbia, New York 2010-2011

• Author of several books and articles on politics

• Has just published the book Politisk Marketing

Agenda

1. Political brands and voter behavior – an overlooked explanation?

2. The elusive concept – what is a political brand?3. The power of associations4. The study of Political Brand Value5. Take away points6. Questions

1. An overlooked explanatory variable

”…the most common academic stance is simply to ignore brands as too crass and too popular to deserve serious inquiry… It is as if Marx chose to ignore the rise of factories in industrializing England because they were too ubiquitous…”

- Douglas B. Holt

Why are brands important to politicians and voters?

The brand becomes more important in politics because e.g. in Denmark and elsewhere 3 out of 10 voters change their party preferences between elections – and many are left in doubt during an election campaign.

Voters complain about not being able to tell the parties apart due to decreasing differences. They seek a reference point that allows a differentiation between the parties.

The political brand provides such a point of reference that enables identification and differentiation between the parties. A mental shortcut around the massive information costs.

2. What is a political brand?

The brand concept has been assigned a wealth of often contradictory meanings – like a sponge soaking up all different kinds of meaning.

The result is a volatile and ambiguous term that covers basic contradictory assumptions (e.g. stable versus unstable) on how people behave. The concept explanatory power thus becomes diluted and can be used everywhere.

One solution: Minimal definition and sub-classifications

2. A new political brand definition

• “A political brand is political representations that are bound together in a structure, which can be identified and differentiated from other political representations”

“Political representations”, in the definition, can be understood as artifacts, symbols, names, sentiments, policies and other characteristics, which are associated with a political entity.

Five political brand perspectives.

The Political Brand

Economic political brand perspective

The rational voterMarketer Voter

Economy

Relational political brand perspective

The existential voter Marketer VoterPhenomenology

Political brand community perspective

The tribal voterVoter Voter Anthropology

Political brand personality perspective

The personal voterMarketer Voter

Personality psychology

Voter-centric political brand perspectiveThe cognitive voter

Marketer VoterCognitive psychology

3. The power of associations

The voter’s perception of political brands

• It's all about associations, perceptions and intangible moods. It is the aura and the DNA of the political party that are identified by the brand.

• Voters are looking at what the brand can deliver of aspirations (functional and emotional benefits) and what it means for one's identity and lifestyle.

• The many different associations connected to the parties are embedded as a knowledge structure, which is activated when the party is mentioned.

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4. The study of political brand value

A survey was conducted in April 2012 (and 2010) with a representative sample of the Danish population.

The 1312 (and 2253 in 2010) respondents were among other things asked about their brand associations, voting behavior, economic conditions and their assessment of the parties' handling of various issues.

Each of a total of 27,000 associations from both studies were analyzed and manually categorized in relation to theoretical expectations drawn from research on voting behavior, political parties and political marketing.

Measurement of Political Brand Value

The strong brand evokes strong, unique and favorable associations for the recipient.

Strong: The number of associations the voter connects to a political party. The more associations the voter has, the more the single political party takes up the mind of the voter. For better or worse.

Unique: Uniqueness is measured as the parties' ability to take a strong position in some areas. When voters recall certain types of associations, the brand stands as more distinct for the voter.

Favorable: The voters' assessment of their own associations based on whether they are positive, negative or neutral. One party with many positive associations is considered to have a more valuable brand than a party with many negative associations.

Political Brand Value

The scores on each of the three mentioned variables indicates the party’s Political Brand Value (PBV).

PBV: The value added to a political representation by associating it with a given brand name. For example how much more a person prefers a policy proposal solely because of the fact that a given party stands as the sender on it.

Voters who have strong, favorable and unique associations connected to a party are thus more likely to vote for them.

Danish parties’ brand value – 2010 and 2012

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Sociald

emok

ratern

e

Venst

re

Konse

rvativ

e

Dansk

Folke

parti SF

Radik

ale

Libera

l Allia

nce

Enheds

listen

0.000

10.000

20.000

30.000

40.000

50.000

60.000

70.000

Forår 2010Forår 2012

Top 4 associations for selected Danish parties

 Socialdemokraterne: ”Labour party" ”Breach of promise" "Helle Thorning”

Venstre: "Lars Løkke" "Liberalism” ”Trustworthy”

Liberal Alliance: ”Untrustworthy" "Anders Samuelsen” "Naser Khader”

De Konservative: ”Old-fashioned” ”Conservative" "Lene Espersen”    

                                                                                           

Brand Effect

Cleavage Voting Party Identification Voting

Issue Voting Brand Voting

5. Take away points

A coupling of political brands and voter behavior can complement our current knowledge about the relationship between parties and voters.The political brand can be measured through association analyzes. Thereby we can capture the voters’ perception of the parties elusive aura or DNA.Political brands have an effect on voter behavior. High degree of PBV manifests itself in a higher propensity to vote on a given party.This result stands out even after controlling for the "old" traditional explanatory variables within the field of voting behavior. However, with a smaller effect.

.6. Questions and debate