Voting Decision-Making at the Bottom of the Pyramid- A Phenomenological Approach

Impact of political marketing strategies on the BOP voters in India

“…The above is consistent with literature stating that the parties, that select religion as their primary segmentation variable, are more active in the BOP-prone areas (Sengupta et al, 2020). They are sensible towards sensitive religious issues and have special focus cells for addressing them.…”

“…(BVF5,female,34) The above findings corroborate the political marketing literature that states that the politicians use traditional and modern media to bombard the BOP voters with more and more information (Nisbet, 2008). Thus, earlier, where the literature has pointed out the gap in communication in democracies (Sengupta et al, 2020), we found bombarding communication even at the BOP. Also, the repeated exposure to political information helps the BOP voters internalize the political benefits and outcomes and facilitates the integration of political leaders in the BOP community.…”

“…Conversely, a lack of internalization leads to future non-compliance. Besides, politicians adopt vote-bank segmentation strategies to obtain the conformation of the poor voters as the latter have a strong need for identification (Sengupta et al, 2020). Interestingly, we have identified that the identification strategy may not lead to voters' compliance with PVWS if the voters lack individual decision-making skills or are oppressed by other family members (e.g.…”

“…Accordingly, the Indian political parties allow the candidates to represent their political party during an election in some poverty-ridden regions based on their caste, religion and ethnicity. The popularity and power of politicians belonging to identical caste and creed can also influence BOP overriding their criminal records and corruption (Sengupta et al. , 2020).…”

“…The base of the pyramid (BOP) consists of voters earning less than $8 per day (Srivastava et al ., 2020). Surviving in poor infrastructure and rural areas, low-literate BOP voters struggle against governance and political and economic constraints, hindering their political decision-making abilities (Sengupta et al ., 2020).…”