Human Branding in Political Marketing: Applying Contemporary Branding Thought to Political Parties and Their Leaders

Abstract

Political marketing advances by engaging with new and advanced concepts from both of its parent disciplines. One of the most recent fields of brand research—the study of the human brand—is taken into the political marketing arena in this essay. Human branding is an emergent topic in mainstream marketing. The value as a brand of a person who is well-known and subject to explicit marketing communications efforts is being investigated in many fields. The concept has clear prima facie value in political marketing, where the role of a political leader as part of the political marketing offer has been recognized extensively. Politics is also a unique context given the relationship between leaders and parties, each of which has some unique brand associations. The process of exploring the application of human branding in politics also provides a context in which some of the interactions among party and leader, human brand, and organizational brand can be explored and further developed. Among the conclusions are that political party leaders require brand authenticity as an advocate of the party policy platform and brand authority to command the organization and deliver on the policies being advocated. Implications for party and campaign management are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• human branding
• brand associations
• brand persona

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Speed

Richard Speed is Pro Vice Chancellor (Regional) at La Trobe University. He has a particular interest in the use of sponsorship as a marketing resource and in using marketing in nonprofit settings. His research has appeared in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Management, among others.

Patrick Butler

Patrick Butler is Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of the Executive MBA programs at Melbourne Business School. Formerly at the School of Business Studies at Trinity College Dublin, he has been a Visiting Professor at Senshu University, Tokyo, and has taught and presented in China, the U.S., and Europe. His research on marketing strategy and public management has been published in international books and journals.

Neil Collins

Neil Collins is Professor of Government and Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. He is a past president of the Political Studies Association of Ireland and a former Centennial Scholar at the American Political Science Association in Washington DC. He is the author of several books, including Understanding Chinese Politics, Manchester University Press, 2013.