Introduction: Political Branding

Political brand image: an investigation into the operationalisation of the external orientation of David Cameron’s Conservative brand

“…Research in political brand image 'is of critical importance and as such merits further analysis' (Smith 2001, 992) and continues to be the case (French and Smith 2010;Needham and Smith 2015;Phipps et al 2010;Smith and French 2011). The limited research political brand image research has tended to adopt a measurable, quantitative approach (French and Smith 2010;Mortimore et al 2014).…”

Creating and Developing Local Political Brand Identity: A Constituency Focus

“…This paper will offer fresh detailed insight into individual-sub political brands and provide the opportunity to assess consistency with the corporate political brand. In addition, this paper will reveal more day-to-day and non-traditional understanding of how individual-sub political brands are positioned, which is currently missing and requested in this field of research (Needham and Smith 2015;O'Cass 2001;Ormrod et al 2007). …”

“…Political branding has developed into a distinct area of research that looks at the critical application of traditional branding theories, concepts and frameworks to the political environment (Harris and Lock 2010;Needham and Smith 2015). Existing research in this area has primarily focused on the corporate political brand opposed to individual-local political brands (Busby and Cronshaw 2015).…”

“…Political brand identity is seen as the internal view or reality of the organisation and focuses on how the entity projects itself to the external audience. Further, leading authors within the field call for more dayto-day and non-traditional focus within political marketing and investigate how political brands are positioned are needed (Needham and Smith 2015;O'Cass 2001;Ormrod, Henneberg, Forward, Miller, and Tymms 2007). More specifically, Pich and Dean (2015) call for more insight and understanding into the individual-sub political brands in order to ascertain and strategically utilise their potential of building long term relationships with voters.…”

Political Branding, Public Sphere/Space and the Corruption of Communications

“…Therefore, valuable political brand is very crucial for political parties and political leaders candidates to gain and sustain votes [6]. Needham and Smith [7] highlight the importance of political brand by quoting the statement of Scammell [8] that "the beauty of the brand as a concept is that it is broad and inclusive; it brings together the rational and apparently irrational, the hard and soft elements of voter choice".…”