SPECIAL FEATURE Should a political 'brand' communicate the same, clear message as brands in business? Just as a marketing organisation needs a clear picture of its target, Indian political parties need to recognise the changing realities in the political market place.
In the wildest of Dream, the founding father of Marketing would not have imagined such an innovative, creative, out of the box application of Marketing concept!! Yes, the readers of this blog are thinking right it is a unique marriage between Marketing and Politics.
Ever since politics has become synonymous with the power, marketing has been used widely by politician for own advantage. In fact, now a days political pundit is hiring multitude of professionals to work for their cause in fact marketing has been used increasingly in politics.
The election to largest democracy has become one of the most expensive, and comprehensive marketing exercise. The 2009 general election was one of the most expensive ever Election fought in India election history. Both Congress and BJP spend hugely and major chunk of this sum was invariably on the marketing.
Marketing in general is very similar to the marketing in politics in particular. Voters choosing a product are akin to consumer selecting a brand. Candidate express themselves as a product, widely publicize their policy, stand on various issues, manifesto, decide way and means to advertise themselves, decide on the promotional mix and conduct market research. Thus, there exists a plethora of opportunity to apply marketing concept in this new interesting domain i.e. politics.
In Fact if we look at the larger picture, marketing as a whole determine the fate of the country for the next 4-5 year. Political party as well as candidate need to micro and macro market themselves in orger to gain edge over the rivals. The technique which political party now a days adopt are
• Political advertising;
• Cyber-democracy;
• Propaganda in politics;
• Campaigns from around the world;
• Women in politics;
• Direct marketing;
• E-government;
• Marketing research and polling;
• Strategic corporate lobbying.
Frequently used concept of marketing in politics.
Social network: with the rapid proliferation of social networking sites, politician have started taking advantage of it. The vote of an individual does not make any difference but the vote of a group does make a difference hence came the concept of application of politics in social media. In fact in the coeval world every political party be it- BJP, Congress, SP, BSP all have a presence in social media. In fact most of the leaders of political parties have their Facebook, twitter account to spread their ideas, opinion, views on various national and international issues.
Brand Image: as with the product Brand plays a vital role because it is the brand which is in the mind of the customer, while purchasing any product of that brand. Same is with politics, most people vote not only on the basis of the candidate but also from which party he belongs to. This has happened many times in India election history e.g in 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th lok sabha election. Also vice versa is also true in many instances. Thus building brand image and party image both are important.
Money: it is one of the important factors in winning particular in India where most voters reside in rural areas who are simpleton and can be easily molded by the money, wine etc. In Fact it is the power of money before and after the election, which determine the future of candidate success in the political arena. In fact Money is politics and politics is money as no activity can be brought to its logical conclusion without money.
Political advertising: political party through advertising express their opinion on the recent socioeconomic situation of the country. In fact political advertising is one of the best way to reach to the largest number of voters. Political advertising can be through radio, newspaper, TV, Internet. They are designed by advertising agencies for political party. If we remember in 2009 The famous political advertising war was between Jai Ho and Bhai HO, In 2004 it was India Shining. Earlier it used to be only traditional media but now its war at all front.
Practically speaking, application of marketing in politics involves googol of concepts and theories, which have been traditionally used for goods, commodities, services in profit and non-profit organization. In the coeval world it is imperative to give marketing orientation to politics not only for immediate success but for success in future also. In fact if we look around the world, many leaders like President Barrack Obama, PM David Cameroon, Chancellor Angelia Merkel have extensively used marketing to build their brand image.
In India C.M Narendra Modi, L. K. Advani, CM Akhilesh Yadav, CM Nitish Kumar, MP Sachin Pilot, MP Varun Gandhi, MP Rahul Gandhi etc. have extensively used marketing to build their image, send across their message to the public at large. In fact in contemporary world marketing has become necessary and sufficient condition to stand at the vantage position in the election. In fact mostly the candidate who portrays him better himself through the use of marketing concepts like Social marketing, advertising, brand image, spreading ideas etc. wins the election.
Politics As A Branch Of Marketing
It is a fact that any society is divided into groups and classes, and it is by recognising and cultivating them that the smaller political parties built up bases for themselves, usually at the expense of the mainstream parties that attempt to appeal to broad aggregates rather than to segments.
The best example of such a mainstream party is the Congress, and its recent electoral history is proof that, just as in marketing the concept of 'niche' is driving away strategies based on broad-spectrum markets, in politics the age of the 'niche' electoral segment has finally arrived. In other words, political parties will now need to abandon catch-all strategies in favour of more focused messages.
The danger that these marketers face, however, comes not from mainstream parties, but from smaller parties whose sectional messages are even sharper and more narrowly focussed than their own.
Does this mean that Indian democracy is fated to witness a kaleidoscope of small parties combining and splitting away from each other? It need not, provided that, in place of attempting to impose a kind of universality over a political party, the political leaders favouring a return to the mainstream see a party not as a homogeneous entity, but as a group of disparate elements that combine in the manner of a many stranded rope.
Each broad-based political party would have a core set of beliefs, allegiance to which would be a necessary condition of remaining within it. Thus, for example, belief in secularism would be essential to any member of the Congress or the Janata Dal, while a belief in a uniform civil code would be necessary for any member of the BJP. However, outside such 'core' areas, there is scope for freedom of ideological and organisational choice.
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