Dissertation Report

On

IMPACT OF POLITICAL MARKETING

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of Degree of

Master of Business Administration

Scholar Supervisor

Amit Dr. Sidharth Bhardwaj

Roll no. -3010196 (Assoc.Prof.),

MBA (Marketing) USM Kurukshetra

University School Of Management

Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra

PREFACE

The research studies are of a great help in enhancing the knowledge of a person.

Practical knowledge is a suffix to theoretical knowledge. Classroom lectures

clarify the fundamental concepts of management. But classroom lectures must be

correlated with the practical research situation. It is in this sense that the research

project that the research project is made compulsory for the curriculum and has a

significant role to play in the field of business management. Through this type of

project one can understand the application of theory into practical. But it is only

difficulty, which makes the success dears. In this project I have put a lot of effort

to make it a success.

In this report “Impact of Political Marketing through Social media”. A study on

people behaviour towards political marketing and impact of political marketing

through social media on people and obligatory part of MBA curriculum. My

purpose for this report is to find out how the people are getting affected by political

marketing. So in this report my main focus was basically on people perception

towards political marketing through social media.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The time I have spent on this report has been very fruitful and I have heartily

enjoyed studies of the report. The successful completion of the report is indebted to

the support of all the departments involved directly or indirectly with the project.

During my tenure, I have been able to interact with many personnel of varied

designations and functions. My experience with each one of them has been

enriching. I sincerely hope that these acquaintances develop further in the future.

I would sincerely extend my gratitude to my dissertation report guide Dr. Sidharth

Bhardwaj, Associate prof. , USM Kurukshetra who has guided me through this

report, with invaluable insights despite their busy schedule to continuously pushes

me harder for better efforts.

I would like to thank my faculty mentor, Dr. Manisha Chauhan, for giving me

moral support and guidance throughout the report. I would also like to thank all the

faculty members for providing me with the necessary inputs during the course

which helped me during my dissertation.

(AMIT)

DECLARATION

This is to certify that I , AMIT the student of University School Of Management

Kurukshetra studying in M.B.A.(4th semester) Roll No. 3010196 has submitted a

dissertation report on the title “IMPACT OF POLITICAL MARKETING

THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA” for partial fulfilment of Degree of Master of

Business Administration (M.B.A.) to“University School Of Management,

Kurukshetra”.

I solemnly declared that the work done by me is original and no copy of this has

been submitted to any other Universities or Institute for award of any other

degree/diploma/fellowship.

(AMIT)

FACULTY CERTIFICATE

Forwarded here with a dissertation report on “IMPACT OF POLITICAL

MARKETING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA” submitted by Vikas student of

MBA 4th semester (2013-15). This project work is partial fulfilment of the

requirement for the degree of Master in Business Administration from USM,

Kurukshetra.

Dr. Sidharth Bhardwaj

(Asst. Prof.)

University School Of Management,

Kurukshetra

CONTENTSCONTENTS

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SNO PARTICULARS

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Declaration

Certificate

Acknowledgement

List of Tables

List of Graphs

Chapter-1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Industry Profile

1.2 Company Profile

1.3 Introduction to the Topic

1.4 Literature Review

Chapter-2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Statement of Problem

2.2 Need for the Study

2.3 Objectives of Study

2.4 Hypothesis

2.5 Source of Data

2.6 Scope of the Study

2.7 Questionnaire Design

2.8 Sampling

2.9 Statistical Tools

2.10 Limitations of the Study

Chapter-3 DATA ANALSYIS AND INTERPRETATION

Tables and Graphs

Chapter-4 FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

4.1 Findings

4.2 Suggestions

ANNEXURE

BIBLIOGRAPHY  

POLITICAL MARKETING

Before learning the facts about political marketing it is mandatory to learn what marketing is and

what its scope is.1.MarketingMarketing is about identifying and meeting human and social

needs. One of the shortest good definitions is “meeting needs profitably”. The American

Marketing Association offers the following formal definition:

Marketing is an organizational function and a set of process for creating, communicating, and

delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the

organization and its

INTRODUCTION

Politics is derived from the Greek word “polis” which literally means city-state. Corporate,

religious, academic and every other polity, especially those constrained by limited resources,

contain dominance hierarchy are therefore politics (Shuriye (2002) defines politics as “the game

played by the politicians. The game can be good or bad, ethical or immoral, depending upon the

attitude of the player.” Politics are defined as “the art and science of government” (MWO, 2006).

It’s a process by which collective decisions are made within groups. Although the term is

generally applied to behaviour within governments, politics is observed in all human group

interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. Harold Lasswell (1902 –

1978) a well known American political scientist has defined politics as “who gets what, when,

where, and how”.

Marketing on the other hand have somewhat an evolving definitions such that proposed by

Cooke, Rayburn and Abercrombie’s (1992) when they said that “marketing definitions is a lens

through which one can make assertions about the environment prevalent at the time definition

was written. This is very much true if we take a look at the definitions given by the American

Marketing Association (AMA) in which in 1935 the AMA defined marketing as “the

performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods, and services from producers to

consumers.” Then in 1985, they amended the definition of marketing as “the process of planning

and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to

create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives”.

Recently in 2004 the definition has been revised as follows “marketing is an organizational

function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers

and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its

stakeholders”. AMA’s recent definition had prompted Darrochet.al. (2004) to suggest a new

marketing viewpoint i.e. stakeholder viewpoint to the existing four viewpoints as had been

suggested by Cooke, Rayburn and Abercombies (1992) such as economic utility viewpoint;

consumer viewpoint; societal viewpoint; and managerial viewpoint. The UK based Chartered

Institute of Marketing (CIM) defined marketing as “the management process of anticipating,

identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably” (CIM, 2006). The British and

American definitions are useful in that they counteract the crude and over simplistic belief that

marketing is simply about firms giving their customers what they want. Marketing is actually a

process in which the notion of ‘consumer focus’ plays a major strategic role but not to the

exclusion of organizational needs.

The discussion in this paper is very much interested with the AMA’s amended definition of

marketing in 1985 whereby it has introduced the word ‘idea’ as an addendum to goods and

services as the focal objects in marketing exchange process. This is important as it envisaged the

acceptance of political marketing as a sub-discipline of mainstream marketing. The ‘idea’ is the

object of exchange between political actors as marketers and the electorate as consumers.

Gronroos (1990) defined political marketing as “seeking to establish, maintain and enhance long-

term voter relationships at a profit for society and political parties, so that the objectives of the

individual political actors and organizations involved are met. This is done by mutual exchange

and fulfillment of promises.” of ideas and opinions which relate to public or political issues or to

specific candidates. In general, political marketing is designed to influence people’s votes in

elections. It is different from conventional marketing in that concepts are being sold as opposed

to products or services. Political marketing, however, employs many of the same techniques used

in products marketing, such as paid advertising, direct mail and publicity” (c.f. Butler and

Collins, 1994).

POLITICAL MARKETING AS A SUB-DISCIPLINE OF MINSTREAM POLITICAL SCIENCE AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Marketing management is the science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and

growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value

(Kotler, 2003). On the other hand, political marketing is the marketing of ideas and opinions

which relate to public or political issues or to specific candidates (Clemente, 1992 c.f. Butler and

Collins, 1994). The party or candidates use of opinion research and environmental analysis to

produce and promote a competitive offering which will help realize organizational aims and

satisfy group of electors in exchange for their votes (Wring, 1997). In political marketing we

need to make adjustment of mainstream marketing system to a political marketing system in

which the industry consist of a collections of politicians whereby they communicated ideas to a

collection of voters with hope in return they will get voters’ vote and in achieving this they will

need information about voters needs and wants through the process of marketing intelligence.

Marketing consists of actions undertaken to elicit desired responses including behavioral

responses such as vote or support from a target audience. In effecting successful exchanges,

marketers analyze what each party expects from the transaction (Kotler, 2003). For example

politicians want trust and commitments (Henneberg, 2004); long-term electoral success (Ingram

& Lees-Marshment, 2002); brand loyalty and long-term support or repeat voters (O’Cass, 1996),

and maximized electoral support (Wring, 1997). Voters, however, want political information and

facts; prudent, credible, intellectual and honest leader (Newman, 2001); better government and

better policy (O’Cass, 1996). Figure 2 below depicted the exchange map for politicians and

voters.

Political marketing management has now reached the conceptual level i.e. parties/governments

partly follow a “voter-orientation” analogous to a customer-orientation in commercial marketing.

Political marketing is focusing on exchange relationships, a long term perspective, voter

orientation (but restricted by societal considerations), and mutual mainstream marketing concept

of “Relationship Marketing” aims to build long-term benefits for all parties involved (c.f.

Henneberg, 1996). This is analogous to the mutually satisfying relations with key parties –

customers, suppliers, distributors – in order to earn and retain their long-term preference and

business. (Kotler, 2003 pp. 9).

POLITICAL MARKETING DEVELOPMENT

Wring (1997) stated that the earliest recorded use of the term ‘political marketing’ was by

Stanley Kelley a political scientist in his pioneering study on the increasing influence of

professional campaigners in the US politics in 1950s, Kelley wrote:

“The team relies heavily but not entirely upon their own intuitive feel for providing

political marketing conditions. They pride themselves on having “good average

minds” that help them to see things as the average man sees them” (Kelley 1956,

p.53) as cited from Wring (1997).

Initially, ‘political marketing’ was used more or less interchangeably with ‘propaganda’. The

purpose of the activity was the same, mass persuasion. The new ‘marketing’ label reflected a

quest for a more neutral term as propaganda being discredited, and partly the historical

observation that professionals from the commercial marketing industry, especially advertising,

were increasingly involved in political persuasion (Scammel, 1999). The 1960 US presidential

election between Nixon and Kennedy marked the evolution of political marketing, in which

Kennedy advised by public relations specialists, apparently won the candidates’ debate on

television and lost it on radio. The 1960 debate chronicled by journalist Theodore White in his

book ‘The Making of the President’ entered campaigning mythology as proof of the impact of

television and the power of image over substance (Scammel, 1999). Nixon’s 1968 triumph with

the aid of professional advertisers marked the beginning of the real influence of marketing in

presidential politics (Newman, 1994 c.f. Scammel, 1999).

By the end of 1970s and early 1980s there has been increased reliance on commercial advertisers

by the political parties in their campaigns. In UK, Conservative Party hired Saatchi & Saatchi in

1978 conducted research for the communications and campaign strategy, using focus group and

in-depth interviews (Lees-Marshment, 2001). In 1985 The American Marketing Association

(AMA) redefined marketing to include ‘ideas’ to the list of products suitable for marketing

(Scammel, 1999). This reflected the acceptance of political marketing as a sub-discipline of

mainstream marketing and political science by the AMA.

Parties may simply stand for what they believe in, or focus on persuading voters to agree with

them, or change their behaviour to follow voters’ opinion (Lees-Marshment, 2001). What is

meant by Lees-Marshment is that three orientation focused by political parties i.e. product-

oriented, sales-oriented and market-oriented. This is similar to the three-stage development of

modern business practice as: production-sales-marketing. It is generally accepted that business

practice has moved from a production to sales dominated approach and then to a customer-

oriented or marketing focus (c.f. Scammel, 1999). During the first stage of capitalism, business

had a production orientation. Business was concern with production, manufacturing, and

efficiency issues. By mid 1950s a second stage emerged, the sales orientation stage. Business’s

prime concern was to sell what it produced. By the early 1970s a third stage, the marketing

orientation stage emerged as business came to realize that consumer needs and wants drove the

whole process. Marketing research became important. Business realized it was futile putting a lot

of production and sales effort into products that people did not want. Some commentators claim

that we are now on the verge of fourth stage, one of a personal marketing orientation. They

believe that technology is available today to market to people on an individual basis the

economic marketplace. Political campaigns have evolved from a party concept to a marketing

concept. Under the party concept, voter mobilization was the most important factor for

successful campaigns. Modern campaigns use the marketing concepts and tactics popularized by

commercial marketers. The marketing concept focuses on voters’ wants and needs. The

politician then finds (or creates) a part of the campaign platform that conforms with the needs of

voters. The parallels between political marketing and commercial marketing are demonstrated on

Table 1.

Marketing Table 1. Similarities between Commercial Marketing and Political

Evolution Political Marketing Commercial Marketing

Party Concept An internally driven organization

runs by party bosses and centred on

the political party.

Pre-industrial

marketing

Products are selected

by distributors and

delivered to

consumers

generically. When

something sells out,

more is ordered.

Product Concept An internally driven organization run

by Washington insiders and centred

on the candidate. Stresses finding the

best possible candidate.

Product Concept Sells the quality of

the product through

the brand. Example:

Model T Ford

manufactured for

quality.

Selling Concept An externally driven organization run

by Madison Avenue experts and

centred on the candidate. Attempts to

create favourable impression of the

candidate by the voter.

Selling Concept Companies like

Procter and Gamble

create markets for

new products. They

begin to experiment

with image-based

advertising.

Marketing Concept An externally driven organization run

by marketing experts and centred on

the voter. Polling determines the

message sent to the voter.

Marketing

Concept

Companies first

identify consumer

needs and then

develop products to

meet those needs.

The erosion of voter loyalty and the decline of political organization strength has led to the

professionalization of political parties, and consequently to the strategies and explicit practices of

political marketing. Technological drivers, especially in the media arena, are often quoted as

being the main reason for the accelerated development of political marketing, however, myriad

of other reasons such as: weakening of political ‘cleavage-systems’ and consequently lower

levels of party identification and higher electoral volatility as well as more competitive pressure

in the political market through non-electoral competition, less differentiation between political

offers, and general professionalization of political management activities had contributed to the

development of political marketing activities (c.f. Henneberg, 2004).

POLITICAL MARKETING CHARACTERISTICS

There has been little discussion of the service components of the service ‘product’ although the

concepts of variability, intangibility, heterogeneity and perishability commonly associated with

services marketing have been applied in politics (c.f. Baines et al. (2003). By using Gronroos’

(1984) concepts of technical and functional qualities, Baines et al. (2003) has dissected the

anatomy of the political service ‘product’ in the United Kingdom as illustrated in Figure 3.

According to Baines et al. (2003), core political service features comprising constituency

representation by a member of parliament at the local level and a voice in government at national

level (functional features). Actual political service features is seen to incorporate the policies,

values and statements espoused by the party, the politicians themselves, the party manifestos and

the party’s ability to deliver on its promises (functional and technical features). The augmented

political service features can be seen as: party membership where members receive policy

newsletters and social function information (both functional and technical features); regulatory

information (technical feature) on forthcoming policy (e.g. purchased by companies to aid in

lobbying efforts); and party conferences and associated literature (technical and functional

features).

. Features of the Political Service (associated benefit to voter/organization)

.

Baines et al., (2003) further explained that parties are important in a representative democracy in

providing the nation with guidance and information on current and potential political and

economic infrastructure. This benefits the public by Improving social cohesion, democratic

participation and citizen belongingness. Keeping the public informed on political issues should

reinforce political participation. However the public is subject to ‘artificial censorship’, which

place limitations on social contact and the time available for paying attention to public affairs.

Butler and Collins (1994) had proposed a conceptual framework for political marketing

characteristics based on Blois (1974) model. The proposition is that general concepts and

theories in marketing require adaptation to suit different specific situations. Political marketing is

presented in terms of structural characteristics and process characteristics as portrayed in Table

CORE

♣ Parliamentary representation (belongingness & social identity).

♣ Voice in government (social participation & identity).

ACTUAL

♣ Party policies, values & statements (issue informing).

♣ The politicians (points of reference for voter).

♣ Manifesto commitments and party’s ability to deliver on promises (trust

and participation)

AUGMENTED

♣ Commercial sponsorship and lobbying activity (company and

organizational representation).

♣ Party conferences (belongingness / policy & values awareness /

participation).

♣ Party membership & social events (belongingness, participation & social

identity).

II. This breakdown provides a perspective which facilitates analysis in all constitutional and

institutional setting

The Structural and Process Characteristics of Political Marketing

Structural Characteristics The Product

Person / party / ideology

Loyalty

Mutability

The Organization

Amateurism

Negative perception of marketing

Dependence on volunteers

The Market

Ideologically charged

Social affirmation

The counter-consumer

Process Characteristics Style versus substance

Advertising and communications standards

News and media attention

Political polls

Tactical voting

Butler and Collins (1994) stated that the structural characteristics of political marketing consist

of the political product, the political organization and the political market. The political product

are divided into three parts: the multi-component (person/party/ideology) as nature of the offer;

the significant degree of loyalty involved; and the fact that it is mutable, i.e. it can be changed or

transformed in the post-election setting. The multi-component (person/party/ideology) offer is

that component cannot be offered separately. These three components i.e. candidate, party

organization and its manifesto must complement each other in offering values to the voters.

Strong loyalty factor allows parties or candidates a certain degrees of flexibility in shifting

policy. Mutability is about the alterable purchase (even in the post-purchase setting) whenever

candidate / party that they voted enter into coalitions with other party after the election. Butler &

Collins (1994) suggested strategies relating to product characteristics in that market

segmentation and positioning must take cognizance of the congruence between the candidate, the

party and the message. Strategists should attempt to ‘brand’ policies and ideas, and build barriers

to entry in order to ‘own’ an important issue.

The political organizations tend to maintain the tradition of amateurism; that a negative view of

marketing permeates them; and that, because they are hugely dependent on volunteers, control

over operations is exceptionally difficult. Butler and Collins (1994) suggested that negative

perception of political marketing can be overcome only by showing that marketing orientation is

not necessarily unethical or unworkable. As for volunteers, normally they are loyal to candidate

or senior figure, it is sensible to target these people influence to aid diffusion of marketing

orientation.

The political markets are made up of people with resources and the willingness to commit them

in an exchange, the electorate constitutes a political market. Of significance to marketing are the

following characteristics of the electorate: the process is ideologically charged; the vote is a

forceful social affirmation; and there exists in the electorate a ‘counter-consumer’ (interested in

preventing a particular candidate from winning). Butler and Collins (1994) suggested that values,

attitudes and perceptions of electorate must be understood in such ideologically charged situation

to ensure compatibility between the offer and the ‘core values’ of supporters.

The process characteristics of political marketing amount to the ‘rules of the game’, and are

concerned with procedures and systems which govern marketing activities. The main issues here

are the drift from substance to style in electioneering; the different advertising and

communications standards which apply; the political polling phenomenon in recent years; the

news media attention paid to the process; and the operations of tactical voting (voters vote for a

candidate other than their favorite to defeat their least-favored candidate), analogous to ‘negative

purchase’.

POLITICAL MARKETING SEGMENTATION AND DIFFERENTIATION

Segmentation, explicitly advocated in the marketing literature in the mid-1950s has been used

increasingly as a means of dividing heterogeneous markets into homogeneous groups. Smith

(1956) first advocated market segmentation as an alternative marketing strategy to product

differentiation in competitive markets, arguing that product differentiation is the preferred

strategy when demand converges for product offerings, whereas, market segmentation is the

preferred strategy when demand diverges. The political market-place has previously been

characterized as highly regulated, and oligopolistic. There are relatively small numbers of parties

competing to deliver government services once elected in a process analogous to an exclusive

franchise bidding process (c.f. Baines et al., 2003).

Firat and Shultz (1997) have stated that there is a need to determine how consumers feel, because

this affects who they are (demographics), what they do (lifestyle), what they think (opinions and

beliefs) and what they value (attitudes and values). Values have been identified as an important

source of choice behaviour particularly in political markets whereas consumer choice may often

follow from rejection of disliked alternatives, leaving those not rejected as the preferred option.

In political markets, this type of behaviour has been labelled ‘tactical voting’ (c.f. Baines et al.,

2003).

Generally service organizations have tended to use demographic and geographic data to segment

markets (Palmer, 1994 c.f. Baines et al, 2003). These bases are discussed further under the

heading of geodemography, behavioural, and psychographic. Geodemography: this based was

used to particularly good effect by the Liberal Democrats in Southwest England during the 1997

British General Election and by Bill Clinton as the basis of his strategy in the 1992 Presidential

Election (Shelley and Archer 1994). Behavioural: A common behavioural segmentation base

used by political parties is loyalty, determined using canvassing methods to locate key voters.

Traditional supporters are contacted in ‘knocking up’ exercise in the UK, or ‘get-out-the-vote

drive’ in the US. The most frequently identified type of voter in elections is the ‘floating voter’.

The floating voter can be regarded as ‘individuals with no brand loyalty’ (Hayes and McAllister

1996). In US they are called split ticket voters (voting Republican for Senate and Democrat for

the House of Representatives). These voters would be an ideal category to target since they

demonstrate less party loyalty albeit they are difficult to target since they have no specific

demographic profile (Kitchens & Powell,1994 c.f. Baines et al., 2003). Hayes and Mc Allister

(1996) segment of such base denominated as ‘the late deciders’. They argue that this group

accounted for 16 percent of the electorate in 1992, and is predominantly female aged between 25

and 34 years of age.

Psychographic: Ahmed and Jackson (1979) (c.f. Baines et al., 2003) suggested the use of

psychographic to produce different market segments for the Canadian Provincial Elections by

measuring respondents’ attitudes towards welfare. Baines et al., (1999) have suggested that

political parties could position themselves on the basis of specific policies since there are

significant differences in how different partisan groups identify within a particular party’s

policies.

In their segmentation study during British General Elections 2001, Baines et al., (2003) used the

concept of technical service features. Respondents were asked to rate on a four-point scale (i.e.

very important, fairly important, not very important and not at all important) the importance of 1)

the parties’ national policies, 2) the parties’ policies on issues that affect their local area, 3) the

values that each party stands for, 4) the quality of their local candidates, and 5) the parties’

leaders when choosing which party to vote for. This study has provided some indication that

technical service features influence voting intention. The study also provides evidence that a

product differentiation approach is likely to be more effective than a market segmentation

strategy since the technical service features (the product) influence voting intention more than

voter characteristics, geodemographics, socio-economics and newspaper readership.

Distinct market segment were not found in their study. Albeit market segmentation methods have

in the past included geography, demography, behavioral and psychographic techniques, a

particular emphasis on sound national policies, values and candidates is considered to be more

important in securing more electorate’s votes. The benefits of voting relate to increased

belongingness, social cohesion and democratic participation. A product differentiation approach

to strategy based on technical service features with the objective of fulfilling these voting

benefits is a more fruitful contribution by marketers than the segmentation of the electorate.

Each US election cycle in recent years has beenaccompanied by numerous voices bemoaning

the use of negative political ads. Journalists andpolitical pundits deplore the tone of political

advertisements, while political consultants andmedia advisors respond that it works (Kamber,

1997).

Studies of negative Political Marketing

Empirical research on the effects of negative political advertising began more than 25 years ago,

and this literature has burgeoned since themid-1980s (Lin, 1996). Scholars in this areacome from

the fields of political science, communication, psychology, and marketing, reflecting its cross-

disciplinary appeal. Methodologies employed have varied as well,and include content and

rhetorical analysis, experiments, and surveys. Subjects in the empirical studies have ranged from

college students to respondents recruited from the general public, to representative samples of

the population. Dependent variables have included recall of the ad, liking of the sponsor and the

target of the ad, intention to vote, and cynicism toward the political system. IN response to what

was viewed as an excessively negative presidential campaign in1988, journalists began to more

systematically evaluate campaign commercials through adwatches,coverage that was devoted to

critiquing political advertising according to the accuracy of its claims (Johnson-Carted and

Copeland, 1997; West, 1997). A substantial body of research on this subject has also accrued.

The purpose of this selective annotated bibliography is to illustrate the types of research that

have been undertaken in the past ten years, with primary focus on journal articles because the

peer review process is strongest in that context. Thus, excluded from this article are,for instance,

convention papers, government documents, doctoral dissertations, chapters in edited books, and

articles in the popular press. Even limited in such a manner, the research is too voluminous to be

reviewed in its entirety.

Instead, it has been categorized into broad themes, and then listed chronologically. Within each

category, attempts were made to annotate seminal articles, and then to include, wherever

possible, descriptions of work by researchers from different disciplines.

Several researchers have published multiple works over the past decade (e.g. Ansolabehereand

Iyengar; Kahn; Kaid), and while their research is well represented in this review, in several

instances an article by another author, rather than an article on a similar topic by one of these

more prolific researchers, is included.

In addition, five prominent books on negative political advertising published during the past

decade are included in the bibliography. These books review and provide more detailed

discussions of many of the themes presented in the articles.

Although the bibliographic works focus primarily on the USA, some of the articles also discuss

negative political advertising in other countries. Moreover, use of the Internet as a medium for

political advertising, in addition tothe more traditional sources of miscommunication, is

included. The bibliography begins with a discussion of articles that develop typologies of

political advertisements, categorizing them in terms of valence, content, type of appeal, and so

on. The next section focuses on articles that explore the effects of negative political ads on the

general public. Experimental and survey-based studies are discussed, including several studies

that manipulate candidate gender.

Special attention is given to articles about the effects of negative political advertising on turnout

the so-called demobilizationhypothesis. Then the review turns to studies of media coverage of

political advertising, i.e. The effects of ad-watches. Articles that consider the candidate's

perspective are discussed next: theoretically when should, and during actual election campaigns

when do, candidates ``go negative''?

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. Study is to know the interest of people in politics of different age group.

2. Study is to know the interest of people of different professions in politics.

3. Study is to know the impact of political marketing and advertising through social media on

people.

4. Study is to know the attitude and perception of people towards politicians and political parties.

5. Study is to know the opinion towards negative advertising and impact of negative advertising

on people.

6. Study is to know the psychology of Indian voters.

SCOPE OF THE STUDIES

This study is conducted in “kurukshetra” The scope of study is limited to kurukshetra. This project is very significant for banking sector as well as customers. It is a study about the “Impact of Political Marketing through Social Media” . This study done only on Kurukshetra people to check the impact of Political Marketing. We can further expand in other states also in India.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Political marketing is a cross disciplinary field that engages literature and practices in marketing,

responsiveness to the political market place, such as by holding a market orientation, by being in

touch with citizenry, and by reflecting public preferences. Political marketing is a attitude to

politics that inform and prevails throughout an entire organization. Research intelligence is

gathered through opinion polling, focus groups, interview, and even role playing is used to

inform political communication. Strategy, the political “product” the overall political brand and

tactical decisions such as positioning and opposition research. In theory political marketers

design product and services that respond to the needs and requirements, which requires some

altruism given that the great public good must be prioritized over a Politian’s, party’s or

advocacy group preferences. In practice, this idealism is at odds with the philosophy of political

consultants ,who advice their clients about using marketing for their own self advantage.

Political consultants provide various kinds of strategic advices and services. Johnson suggest that

the top tier of consultants are comprised of strategists and pollsters such as James Carville and

karl rove; and at the second tier are specialists such as media buyers and speech writers and at

the third tier are vendors of campaign software and literature. He remarks that the export of

American political consulting has been least successful to parliamentary systems given the

infrequency of elections and strength of political parties whose staff has expertise. Consequently

in Canada it believes that there is in sufficient business “to support a consultant who does

nothing else” and so there are only specialist in advertising, public relation and management and

media development and production, fund raising and opinion research who periodically get

involved in politics. These all are work for lobbying media and opinion research firms and may

have previously been employed by political party. They nevertheless fit the definition of a

political consultant because they are paid to provide advice and service to candidates and

political campaign the one whose salary is paid exclusively by a political party or interest groups

are difficult as “professional” consultant. Perhaps not surprisingly, in international research of

political consulting and political marketing such as by passer, there has been little expression of

interest in the Canadian case, media consultants have been supplemented by a variety of

boutiques consultants as a part of outsourcing trend that is sustained by competition, decaling

voluntarism ,interparty collaboration and stable party financing.

FINDINGS

Market intelligence is more than polling on party popularity. At the behest of Canadian political

consultants, the monitoring of the leaders image and party and party brand is supplanting

attention that is paid to horserace polling numbers. Opinion survey involves more than just

dichotomous questions, especially on controversial issues, which entail probing and a seach for

qualitative insight derived from focus groups. Opinion research emphasis on extrapolating voters

and emotions and motives such as aspiration. It also involves collecting knowledge about which

criticism of opponents will resonate with electors. Where fisible, political consultants encourage

party personnel to observe focus grops, which can help them understand “How unimportant

some of the things that they thought were extremely important to average Canadians “.The

source of research is less narrow than opion polls and focus groups. It include time worn

methods such as public consultation which are dominated by interested groups , Feedback from

backbench members of parliament and even informal eavesdropping on public coversession

Canadian political consultant are also soliciting knowledge about best practices from party

professional across Canada , US, UK and Australia they are using technology to engage in

operation research such as scrutinizing an incumbent voting records and are monitoring blogs

and Wikipedia in the words of one former party strategies

POLITICAL MARKETING AND THE MARKETING CONCEPT

INTRODUCTION

The application of marketing techniques by political parties in their electoral campaigns has been

discussed by Butler and Collins (1994); Glick (1967); Kotler (1975); Kotler and Kotle, (1981);

Mauser (1983); McGinniss (1969); Nimmo (1970); Newman and Sheth (1985); Smith and

Saunders (1990). Examining political processes and electoral behavior from a marketing

perspective may offer new insights into the behavior and performance of political parties.

O’Shaughnessy (1990) proposes that research and debate should focus on the marketing

orientation of political parties. Significantly research on the actual marketing orientation of

political parties is not substantial at this stage and as such this research focuses on this issue by

addressing the marketing orientation of a major political party. This paper examines issues

related to the marketing concept within a political party in Australia. The issues examined are the

expressed understanding of the marketing concept, attitudes towards it, and influence and

applicability of it within this political organization.

The marketing concept and marketing’s domain

The author accepts normative arguments and theory propositions for the application of marketing

in politics and marketing’s extended domain generally. However, empirical research is needed to

determine the extent that the marketing concept has been adopted by political parties and

whether they can be said to be marketing oriented. This is the essential test of the generic

concept of marketing, and marketing’s delimited boundaries or domain. We must move beyond

theoretical arguments based on unsupported propositions of marketing’s domain and application

to empirical investigations which detail the true domain and extent of the application of

marketing. The marketing concept is argued to be a useful philosophy which can be applied to

both profit and non-profit organizations (Brownlie and Saren, 1991; Kotler and Zaltman, 1971).

One of the earliest expressions of the marketing concept as a general management philosophy

was that of Drucker (1954) and since this time there have been many definitions, arguments in

favor of and criticisms against the marketing concept (Drucker, 1954; Houston, 1986; Keith,

1960; Levitt, 1960, 1984; Mc Kitterick, 1957; Webster, 1988). Overall the marketing concept

holds a position within marketing that sees it widely accepted as a foundation of the discipline

(Kotler and Levy, 1969), and argued to be applicable in a wide range of contexts (Kotler, 1972;

Kotler, 1986; Kotler and Levy, 1973; Wensley, 1990). Basically the marketing concept holds

that the needs of consumers are of primary concern and should be identified, and attempts made

to satisfy the identified needs. The marketing concept in commercial terms is based on the

premises that all company planning and operations will be customer oriented and the goal is

profitable sales volume and that all marketing activities in organizations will be organizationally

coordinated. As such the philosophical basis of the marketing concept is that customer want

satisfaction is the economic and social justification for an organization’s existence. When a

political party or candidate applies this concept to the political process, they must be in a position

to adapt to and satisfy voters’ needs (Mauser, 1983; Newman and Sheth, 1987; Reid, 1988).

Nimmo (1970) argued that candidates dispense information in order to produce a shift in

behavior and maintain voter support. To do this effectively requires a sufficient understanding of

the values placed by voters on selected factors or criteria when arriving at a choice (Newman and

Sheth, 1987). Houston’s (1986) interpretation of the marketing concept provides a linkage

between the marketing exchange process and the marketing concept as a means of creating and

facilitating effective exchanges. Marketing has been extended to include all organizations and

their relationships. Relationships are with any public not just commercial customers and,

therefore, include exchanges of value between any social entities (Kotler, 1972). Politics falls

within marketing’s extended domain centrally because an exchange takes place when a voter

casts his or her vote for a particular candidate. They are engaged in a transaction and exchange

time and support (their vote) for the services the candidate offers after election through better

government. Marketing, then, is applicable to political processes as a transaction occurs and is

specifically concerned with how transactions are created, stimulated and valued. However

Houston (1986) provides a very succinct outline of the marketing concept and one that addresses

such criticisms. Arguing that the marketing concept is a managerial prescription relating to the

attainment of an entity’s goals. For certain, well-defined but restrictive market conditions and for

exchange-determined goals which are not product related, the marketing concept is a prescription

showing how an entity can achieve these goals most efficiently (Houston, 1986). Essentially, the

key task and objective of an organization is to determine the needs, wants and values of its target

markets and manage the organization to deliver the consumer’s desired satisfaction more

effectively and efficiently than competitors. This interpretation of the marketing concept dictates

an understanding of the market, and it does not suggest that products be designed to satisfy only

a market’s research-defined demand. Satisfaction of the market’s demand is important to the

extent which it yields profits. Houston (1986) contended that an organization that has decided to

offer a single, undifferentiated offering instead of designing products to suit each perceived

market segment, may have arrived at this decision with a thorough understanding of the market’s

response and the accompanying costs, and is in fact an ideal user of the marketing concept. The

marketing concept provides a means of focusing all departments effectively and efficiently

towards customer-need satisfaction and creating exchanges at a profit. If a political party’s

product is developed in relation to (or in consideration of) voters’ values and needs and the party

delivers the proposed product, voter satisfaction should be increased. Voters will have a sense of

being part of a politically responsive institution (Newman and Sheth, 1987). The theoretical

arguments for examining the incorporation of marketing into politics is the generic concept of

marketing (Kotler, 1972; Arndt, 1978; Kotler and Levy, 1969). The generic concept of

marketing broadened marketing in two significant ways, by extending it from the private sector

into the non-commercial and public sector and by broadening exchange from only economic

exchanges to any kind of exchanges (Kotler, 1972; Kotler and Levy, 1969). Marketing therefore

includes all organizations and their relationships with any public (Bagozzi, 1975; Kotler, 1972).

Consistent with these views of broadening marketing’s domain Kotler and Levy (1969, p. 15)

proposed that: the choice facing those who manage non-business organizations is not whether to

market or not to market, for no organization can avoid marketing. The choice is whether to do it

well or poorly. This is the choice facing political parties. With such choices, to make an

important concept within marketing and one that raises fundamental issues for parties, is the

marketing concept.

Applying marketing to politics

Shama (1973) believes that many concepts and tools are shared by marketing of goods and

services and political marketing. Posner (1992) and Niffenegger (1989) argue that politicians

have become likened to consumer products ,complete with marketing strategies and promotion

campaigns which enable them to gain market share and increasingly election campaigns are

being compared to marketing campaigns (Kotler, 1975; Kotler and Kotler, 1981; Mauser, 1983).

It is argued that parties must understand the basic elements of marketing to be successful not

only in the short term but also in the long term (Niffenegger, 1989; Reid, 1988). This marketing

analogy is more than coincidental as Kotler (1975), Niffenegger (1989) and Shama (1973)

believe the very essence of a candidate and political party’s interface with the electorate is a

marketing one and marketing cannot be avoided. Marketing is not a panacea or cure all, but a

process allowing a more effective and efficient method to design and implement political

campaigns. Marketing offers political parties the ability to address diverse voter concerns and

needs through marketing analyses, planning, implementation and control of political and

electoral campaigns. Kotler and Andreasen (1991) propose that the difficulty in transposing

marketing into public and non-profit organizations (political parties) is a function of how

organization-centered such organizations are as opposed to customer-centre. An organization-

centered orientation counters the organization’s ability to integrate marketing. Therefore

marketing is viewed currently as a marketing mindset of customer-centeredness (Kotler and

Andreessen, 1991, p. 42), and is seen in organizations which exhibit: customer centeredness,

heavy reliance on research, are biased towards segmentation,

define competition broadly, and have strategies using all elements of the marketing mix (Kotler

and Andresen, 1991, p. 53). Foxall (1989) and Trustrom (1989) advocate that only a synergistic

and purposive application of the sum total of marketing tools and concept is marketing. Further

the marketing concept appears to provide the necessary integrating mechanism and that the:

implementation of one or indeed all of the marketing functions without adoption of the

marketing concept is not marketing. However, having adopted the marketing concept it is not

necessary to implement all of the functions, merely those which are appropriate to prevailing

circumstances (Trustrom, 1989, p. 48). As such the marketing concept appears to be both a

philosophical and practical guide for the management of marketing. However one important

point missing from the literature is the diversity of applications or situations the concept can be

used in or, more importantly, is used in, especially in relation to politics.

UNDERSTANDING OF THE MARKETING CONCEPT

The depth of understanding of the marketing concept is examined first from the results of the

stage 1 interviews. The interview results indicate that those who hold the highest positions within

the party and who are responsible for political marketing decision making and management have

a minimal understanding of the marketing concept. For example, interviewee 4 expressed a

simplistic understanding of the marketing concept, believing that the marketing concept was:

essentially finding out what people want and then telling them what they want to get elected.

Table II provides a summary assessment of the respondents of stage 1 understands of the

marketing concept. In conclusion to the expressed understanding of the philosophy called the

marketing concept, six of the seven interviewees expressed no understanding of the term or what

it meant. The only interviewee who expressed a minimal understanding of the term was incorrect

when compared with those generally expressed in the marketing literature. Interview findings

imply that this managerial body within this party does not have any understanding of the

“marketing concept”.

Interviewee attitude towards the marketing concept

During the interviews those respondents that expressed no understanding of the marketing

concept were provided with a brief definition and objectives of the marketing concept in order to

provide feedback on their attitude to it. The findings from the interviews indicate neither a

positive nor a negative attitude towards the marketing concept and its applicability to politics and

this political party The findings indicated a belief that the marketing concept may move the

party away from those philosophies which they espouse and as such is viewed negatively for that

reason, and that adopting such a philosophy would only work short term. However, some

interviewees expressed the view that if this philosophy will get candidates elected, it is good.

There is, in the comments from one interviewee, a view that such philosophy would entail: that

again it is the flight to the middle ground, telling people what they want to hear to get candidates

elected. Another who expressed a mixed attitude towards the marketing concept as a philosophy

on which to base or guide political marketing, commented that: “I think there is conflict between

that approach and politics…you are not going to govern well. I think probably you have to adapt

it a little in that you let them think you are giving them what they want or just tell them what

they want to hear, and a fair bit of that goes on”. Generally those interviewed in stage 1, when

exposed to a definition and objectives of the marketing concept, had a somewhat negative

attitude with regard to its suitability and overall use within the party. However, the implication

from some interviewees is that if it can be used as a manipulative tool or will aid in winning

elections then it would be viewed more positively.

Analysis of marketing concept dimensions/adequacy and influence survey Results

Marketing concept dimensions and adequacy of the marketing concept were addressed through

the questionnaire administered in stage 2. This stage provides an indication of the level of

support for such a concept within this party.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

As this research primarily focused on “Impact of Political Marketing through Social Media on

people “a qualitative research approach has been selected. This approach provide basis to explore

complex issues involved in research. Political marketing is a complex issue. In depth a

questionnaire is designed and has been used to collect the important and required information for

the purpose of research. In research we use convent sampling method for collecting the primary

data.

SAMPLE SIZE :-

A sample of 200 respondents is to be taken for this study. Respondents of this study are students,

serviceman, businessman, and others. The eligibility of respondents for this study and for filling

this questionnaire is he/she has to know about political marketing and have knowledge about

political advertisements on social media.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

Descriptive Research:

Descriptive research is typically concerned with determining the frequency with which something occurs or the relationship between two variables. The descriptive study is typically guided by an initial hypothesis. An investigation of trends in the consumption of soft drinks with respect to characteristics such as age, gender, and geographic location would be descriptive study.

Descriptive research - Descriptive research aims at describing something. Data collected through descriptive research provides valuable information about the unit under study.

Descriptive research is further classified into:

Cross sectional research- It is one time study involving data collection at a single period of time. Here the sample is not repeated for again and again for the data collection.

Longitudinal research- Longitudinal research involves the repetition of the same sample for the data collection over a period of time.

Experimental research - Experimental research is also known as causal research and it allows one to make causal inferences about relationships among variables.

The Value Of Information

Information can be useful, but what determines its real value to the

The ability and willingness to act on the information.

The accuracy of the information.

The level of indecisiveness the world exists without the

Information.

The amount of variation in the possible results.

The level of risk aversion.

The reduction of competitors to any decision improved by the

Information.

The cost of information in terms of time and money.

DATA Collection Methods

Primary data: - Primary data are to be collected by the researcher, they are not present in reports or journals etc and can be collected through a number of method which can be classified as follow

Questionnaires.

Secondary data: - Secondary data are the data collected for some purpose other than the research situation; such data are available from the sources such as books, , journals, internet etc . The secondary data are readily available and therefore they are less costly and less time consuming. Sources of secondary data are

Internets, .Book, Journals, and Research work of others.

Methodology used for the study

The methodology used in the study is descriptive. A survey was done in different parts of Telecom Sector in Haryana to ascertain the facts about the soft drink brand under PepsiCo and its

sale process, promotion as well as its availability in the market. This project is mainly based on the primary data and information beside this secondary data is also used.

Sampling method adopted - Sampling method adopted for the study was Non Probability sampling. Non Probability sampling is a subjective procedure in which the probability of selection for the population units cannot be determined

Both convenience and judgment sampling is used for the study purpose.

Convenience sampling: - Here the researcher convenience forms the basis for selecting a sample unit. During my project I had collected data from the respondents present near by the outlets.

BIBLOGRAPHY

RESEARCH PAPERS

Political marketing and the marketing concept (Aron o’Cass) Department of

marketing and management, University of New England, Armidale NSW,

Australia.

Canadian political consultant’s perspective about political marketing (Jennifer lees-

marshment university of Auckland and Alex Maryland (Memorial University of

Newfoundland).

Political Marketing vs Commercial Marketing Something in Common for Gains

(Che Supian Mohammad nor, Muhammad Hasmi Abu Hassan Asaari, Noorliza

Karia, Mahmud Sabri Haron University Sains Malaysia).

Studies of Negative Political Advertising (Karen A. Hartman is a social science

librarian, Roscoe L West Library, The college of New Jersey, Ewing, New jersey,

USA.

ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

1. Impact of political marketing through social media on male and female ?

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances

  MALE FEMALEMean 3.291809 3.330157Variance 0.152343 0.114398Observations 153 44Pooled Variance 0.143976Hypothesized Mean Difference 0Df 195t Stat -0.5908P(T<=t) one-tail 0.277669t Critical one-tail 1.652705P(T<=t) two-tail 0.555339t Critical two-tail 1.972204  

On the basis of above analysis we can say that females are more affected by political marketing

through social media as compare to the males.

Reasons-

Females decide who to vote for primarily based on matching of their opinion on certain

issues.

Impact of news

Impact of political campaigning

Impact of Social Media (Face book, whatsapp, twitter etc.)

Impact of advertising (T.V, Radio, Print, Internet, Billboards etc.)

Impact of societal influence

Television is the best media to promote politics on a mass level.

A strong slogan or statement creates a big deal of importance in political advertisements.

Females more remember negative ads better than positive ad.

Negative ads exert a powerful impact on voter’s mind.

2. Impact of political marketing through social media on the basis of age group ?

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances

AGE>25

AGE<25

 3.2264

154.6226

42

Mean3.2706

363.3031

07

Variance0.1200

460.1446

62Observations 64 130

Pooled Variance0.1365

85Hypothesized Mean Difference 0Df 192

t Stat

-0.5753

7

P(T<=t) one-tail0.2828

58

t Critical one-tail1.6528

29

P(T<=t) two-tail0.5657

16

t Critical two-tail1.9723

96  

On the basis of above data we can say that the people of age group which have AGE<25 are

more affected from Political Marketing Through social media than the people of age group

which have AGE>25.

REASONS-

Impact of social media (face book, whatsapp, twitter, YouTube).

Impact of news.

Impact of famous celebrities associated with Political parties.

Political advertisement hits the right emotions effectively.

They influence by strong slogans.

Negative ads exerts a powerful impact on younger’s mind.

They have strong views about issues and candidate.

They vote based on their guts feeling.

They get lots of information on issues from internet, tv, newspaper.

They are influenced through negative ads.

3. Have you ever voted before ?

According to the above data analysis we can say that experienced voters are more than first time

voters in collected data .