Political Brands and Consumer Citizens: The Rebranding of Tony Blair

Abstract

It has become commonplace to speak of political parties and brands. This article looks at the rise of the brand and explains how branding has become the cutting edge of commercial marketing. It examines how the brand concept and research techniques are used in politics and focuses in particular on the rebranding of Tony Blair in the run up to the 2005 U.K. general election. More broadly, it argues that branding is the new form of political marketing. If market research, spin, and advertising were the key signifiers of marketed parties and candidates in the 1980s and 1990s, “branding” is the hallmark now. It will argue that the brand concept has analytical value. It is not simply a convenient and fashionable term for image. Furthermore, it is a demonstration that we are moving from a mass media model to a consumer model of political communication.

Why Did I Prefer to Vote for My Political Party?

“…Research has identified political parties and or politicians as brands (Kavanagh, 1995;Kotler and Kotler, 1999;Harris and Lock, 2001;Smith, 2001;White and deChernatony, 2002;Schneider, 2004;Needham, 2005Needham, , 2006Reeves et al, 2006;Scammell, 2007). Impetus for research based on political brand was driven by the changing nature of post-war Western Democracies.…”

Party brands and voting

“…The increase in valence issues (Thomassen, 2005), voter volatility (Dalton, 2000(Dalton, , 2012 and practices of political marketing strategy among parties (Hopkin and Paolucci, 1999;Kavanagh, 1995;Nielsen, 2012;Scammell, 2007) have all paved the way for analyzing politics through the lens of brands (Smith and French, 2009;Smith and Speed, 2011). Moreover, some scholars argue that traditional grand variables in voting behavior are slowly decreasing in explanatory power as cleavages have weakened following the resolution of many social conflicts (e.g.…”

“…Harrop, 1990;Kavanagh, 1995;Scammell, 2007;Schneider, 2004) have argued that ideas from marketing such as the brand concept can be applied when recognizing the particularities of politics. In practice, the focus should be on service marketing rather than product marketing.…”

“…Traditionally, the field of voting behavior has gained powerful insights from concepts such as cleavage structure (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967), party identification (Campbell et al, 1960) and issue ownership (Budge and Farlie, 1983;Petrocik, 1996). On the other hand, the field of political brands has illustrated, for example, how a brand is used by voters to differentiate between political parties (Scammell, 2007;Smith and French, 2009), project a certain identity (Smith, 2009), or establish brand loyalty (Needham, 2005;Phipps et al, 2010). Against this background, this article aims to bring together the two fields of voting behavior and political brands to examine whether a party brand influences a voter's propensity to vote for that particular party.…”

L’Utilisation du marketing politique par les groupes d’intérêt: Proposition d’un modèle théorique

“…À l'aube des années 2010, le sujet paraît plus pertinent que jamais, à l'heure où plusieurs chercheurs parlent de la marchandisation de la sphère politique et de la transformation des citoyens en citoyens consommateurs (Scammell, 2007(Scammell, , 2003; Lees-Marshment, 2004;Newman, 1999). C'est dans ce contexte qu'il paraît pertinent d'examiner plus attentivement la mise en marché des intérêts par les groupes.…”