Exploring and consolidating the brand personality elements of the political leader

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine brand personality and its application to political branding. This study focuses on the brand personality of a political leader from the BJP Party brand (Bharatiya Janta Party). The development of a strong political brand personality is crucial for success at the polls. Little research has been dedicated to this phenomenon particularly beyond Western political and post-election contexts. Design/methodology/approach The scope and development of the study required a qualitative approach. The theoretical frameworks of the study acted as the deductive base of the study. The insights of the respondents were the inductive base of the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with external stakeholders [voters]. In addition, semi-structured interviews were also adopted to capture the branding activities used by internal stakeholders [BJP]. Findings The brand personality dimensions such as sincerity; agreeableness, competence, energy, openness, conscientiousness and emotional stability were clearly associated with a political leader. Negative qualities such as dictatorial attitudes and arrogance affected the political leader’s brand personality. Religious partisanship was another strong negative trait affecting the brand personality of the political leader. Originality/value The study has an actionable framework for political brand personality in the post-election context. It offers negative qualities to be avoided in the development of the political brand personality of the leader. It offers insights about the political brand personality of the leader in terms of young digitally savvy voters.

Exploring the creation and development of political co-brand identity

“…Therefore, political co-brand identities are a cluster of individual values, personal ideological beliefs and past personal experiences aligned with corporate 'broad church' historical ideologies and pragmatic values, which in turn co-create the desired brand identity as illustrated in figure 4 (Aqeel et al 2017;Gyrd-Jones and Kornum 2013;Helmig et al 2008;Kornum and Muhlbacher 2013;Nguyen et al 2018;Thomson 2006). In addition, this study reveals (figure 3) that political co-brands are multifaceted, related yet distinct and often competing entities that are developed over time and by multiple internal and external stakeholders (Billard 2018;Jain et al 2018;Milewicz and Milewicz 2014;Nielsen 2016;Pich and Dean 2015;Scammell 2015;Speed et al 2015). For example, political cobrands face several challenges when creating and developing identities particularly with the support of small-localised teams with often-limited support from the corporate political brand.…”

“…However, this poses a dilemma. How can we conceptualise candidatepolitician political brands that are complex and represent a multitude of entities (Guzman and Q u a l i t a t i v e M a r k e t R e s e a r c h Sierra 2009;Jain et al 2018;Nielsen 2015;Peng and Hackley 2009;Serazio 2017;Scammell 2015;Smith 2009;Speed et al 2015). One popular strategic approach that can be used to conceptualise and understand candidates-politicians as political brands is the concept of cobranding (Ahn and Sung 2012;Besharat and Langan 2014;Grebosz-Krawczyk and Pointet 2017;Volckner and Sattler 2006).…”

“…This study demonstrates how political co-brand identity is constructed and managed over time and explores the coherency between the political co-brand and political corporate brand. In ; table 1] as a pragmatic tool to understand the envisaged reality of political brands (Billard 2018;Guzman and Sierra 2009;Jain et al 2018;Nielsen 2015;Peng and Hackley 2009;Scammell 2015;Smith 2009;Speed et al 2015). For example, the political co-brand identities were initially created from individual values, personal ideological beliefs and past personal experiences manifested by the 'figurehead' of each political co-brand.…”

See Me, Like Me! Exploring Viewers’ Visual Attention to and Trait Perceptions of Party Leaders on Instagram

“…In measuring the subjects’ perceptions of the traits of the party leaders, two dimensions of leader traits, which are frequently distinguished in the literature (see Bittner 2011: 30–52), were considered: traits that are related to the political persona of political leaders (e.g., competence, leadership) and traits that are associated with their personal character (e.g., compassion, trustworthiness). Among the personal characteristics, traits that are linked to the private persona of leaders were included (Jain et al 2018; Langer 2006, 2010). The posttest questionnaire featured a thirteen-item semantic differential scale.…”

The Influence of Political Marketing Communication Jokowi on Facebook Towards the Image and Reputation among Millennial Generation in General Election 2019

“…The political leader's image is a dimension that connects the voters and the politician. The brand personality of the political leader can be used to better understand the nature of impression management [19]. Self-identification with a candidate can be said to be a human feeling that a politician is a voters' political identity.…”