Measuring political brand equity: a consumer oriented approach

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of how voters view the political brand by analysing the mental maps that voters create when asked to think about a political party. The analysis is both in terms of the nature of the maps and also in terms of the equity associated with a map. Design/methodology/approach -A consumer-oriented approach is developed for mapping the political brand. The brand maps are analysed to discern brand characteristics. Furthermore, methods are developed to assess the power of political brands and concomitantly, political brand equity. Findings -The method provides interesting insights into the nature and equity of brand associations for the two main political protagonists, i.e. Conservative and Labour. Key branded characteristics are highlighted for each party, both in terms of general structure, and also those associations that form a central role in voters' maps. For the partisan sample chosen, both parties are shown to have strong brand equity, with the Conservatives slightly stronger than Labour. Practical implications -The method is straightforward to apply and provides important information to political marketers about the nature and power of the associations held in memory by voters. Taking a wider stance, the approach can be applied to any branding situation. Originality/value -This paper provides a means by which a brand mapping process, new to politics, can be combined with methods facilitating the analysis of brand maps to produce a means by which brand equity can be measured.

Party brands and voting

“…Keller, 1993). Although the importance of brands was originally established in marketing research, its logic has diffused to many areas of society (Marsh and Fawcett, 2011); in particular, during the last two decades, the study of brands in politics has evolved in regards to parties (Harrop, 1990;Schneider, 2004;French and Smith, 2010), party leaders Needham, 2005) and party campaigns (Kavanagh, 1995).…”

“…We will thus examine only one part of the brand concept, the voter centric political brand perspective (Nielsen, in press;Smith, 2009;French and Smith, 2010). There are two reasons for singling out this perspective.…”

“…Accordingly, the study of political brands has in recent years expanded in many directions within the field of political marketing. Numerous contributions drawing on a variety of epistemological foundations have been proposed, ranging from origins in anthropology (Dermody and Scullion, 2001;Phipps et al, 2010), psychology (French and Smith, 2010) or economics . Furthermore, the political brand concept is applied to a host of research objects, examining for example citizens, voters, leaders, members, communities, communications, campaigns, policies, social groups, parties, NGOs, public sector organizations, nations and other entities, actors or processes (e.g.…”

“…This network is composed of (i) a central note denoting the name of the brand and (ii) a number of specific features that have become associated with this concept through learning (Keller, 1993;French and Smith, 2010). The activation of a party brand in memory triggers a number of linked associations through a process called spreading activation (Collins and Loftus, 1975).…”

“…Nor is it the result of a systematic search, centering on a specific type of information. Rather, associations are gathered from the atmospheres that voters' sense is surrounding various parties (French and Smith, 2010;Nielsen, in press;Schneider, 2004;Smith and French, 2011). This information search makes the brand voter especially open to changes in public sentiments: political trends and sudden shifts in momentum.…”