Political party market orientation in a global perspective

Shadow Politics: Commercial Digital Influencers, “Data,” and Disinformation in India

“…. with selected target groups and stakeholders as well as competitors” (Strömbäck, 2010, p. 18) through a variety of communication technologies but most prominently online channels; and a “shift of power upward and outward to leaders and external media and public relations consultants” with strategies of competitive marketing and consumer appeal (Gibson & Römmele, 2001, pp. 31–32).…”

“…Lees-Marschment (2010) has proposed a theoretical model to delineate three ideal types: “market-oriented party”—that identifies voter needs and expectations and incorporates them through different stages of designing the party’s “product”; “sales-oriented party”—that “aims to sell what they decide is the best for the people”; and “product-oriented party”—that does not show “awareness and utilization of communication techniques and market intelligence” (p. 9). Disputing with normative positions that assess political marketing as essentially a negative development for democracies, scholars who have contributed to this model and others who take a more optimistic view of the development have suggested that market orientation (as opposed to a purely sales or product orientation) can help parties to “identify the wants and needs of selected targeted groups in the electorate and to design a product to meet the expressed as well as latent wants and needs of these groups” (Bannon, 2005; Henneberg & O’Shaughnessy, 2007; Strömbäck, 2010, p. 19). They see the potential for market orientation and its adoption of communication technologies in political marketing to contribute directly to the requirements of deliberative democracy.…”