Political Brand Equity Model: The Integration of Political Brands in Voter Choice

Abstract

The voters' choices about political parties have many similarities in how they make their choices about commercial brands. Therefore, political parties are now constantly applying the concept and strategies of brand management to make the political product attractive, appealable, trustable, differentiable, source of long-term relationship and decision-making driver. Furthermore, the political parties have to play an active role in the community's political socialization processes which are relying heavily on the branding strategies. Because, the community's social gregariousness have profound effect on the electorates' propensity to participate in the politics that constitutes the party equity. This study has deeply explored and broadened the concept of party equity analogous to commercial brand equity typology by developing a politics specific brand equity model. This model demonstrates the integration of political brands in voter choice. Empirically, this model has been validated by collecting 550 valid-responses from the constituency of District Gujrat, Pakistan. A careful analysis of these responses through SEM methodology has revealed that political parties vary according to the outcomes of their role in the political socialization process of the communities, loyalty and voters Downloaded by [New York University] at 22:46 29 May 2015 2 attitude. Those parties, that have favorable role in socialization process, have strong party knowledge and thus have high party equity as compare to competing political parties, which have weak position of party knowledge. Similarly, this study provides the roadmap and guidelines for the political parties to manage their party equity. Similarly, the model would be able to facilitate political parties in comparing different constituencies on the basis of their diversified social dynamics and political knowledge and in the development of constituency based manifesto, may also be termed as "Localized Manifesto" to further enhance their vote bank.

Electoral Performance by Post-Rebel Parties

“…If parties accrue advantages from prior experience and continuity, then it stands to reason that parties formed as a breakaway from a bigger party might find it harder to compete. Comparative literature on party branding suggests support for this hypothesis (Ahmed et al 2017;Lupu 2014). Allison (2016) finds that such parties performed poorly in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.…”

Forecasting election results by studying brand importance in online news

“…Past research suggested the existence of a relevant link between components of brand equity, such as brand image and awareness, and the success of political candidates and parties (Cwalina & Falkowski, 2015;Guzmán & Sierra, 2009; S. W. Nielsen & Larsen, 2014;Smith, 2001). Indeed, human branding is a relevant research topic in politics (Speed, Butler, & Collins, 2015) and voters' choice has been compared to consumers' choice about commercial brands (Ahmed, Lodhi, & Ahmad, 2017). However, the measurement of the positioning and brand image of political actors can be costly and time consuming, when reliant on the use of questionnaires.…”

Exploring Political Brand Identity and Political Brand Image in Non-Party Contexts From a Multi-Stakeholder Perspective

“…The findings from stage one of the study will generate insight on how current non-party political brands create, develop and communicate their brand identity from the perspective of elected representatives. For example, the findings will highlight how non-party political brands create-develop communication strategies and tactics, the significance of individual political personality as a tool to provide differentiation and whether personal values are used to characterise the brands (Ahmed et al 2015;Nielsen 2016;O'Cass and Voola 2011;Smith 2008). The findings from stage two of the study will reveal how current non-party political brand image is understood from the perspective of Guernsey voters.…”