Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ON
POLITICAL MARKETING:
Programme of
JAIPUR
Batch2008-10
MBA (sem-2nd)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
VIBHA PORWAL
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DECLERATION
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Particulars Page
no.
1. Marketing 5
2.Political marketing 6
3.Political campaign 18
4.History of Indian politics 21
5.Emergence of political advertising in 22
India
6.Model code of conduct for the guidance of 27
Political parties and candidates
7.General Election in India 2009 34
8. Different media used for advertisements 44
in recent elections
9. Conclusion 55
10. Bibliography 55
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POLITICAL MARKETING
1.Marketing
5
stakeholders. Coping with these exchange process calls for a
considerable amount of work and skill.
6
assess their impact. A similar view is expressed by Scammell
(1995).
7
In Maarek’s view, political marketing has become an integral
and vital component of political communication. In his words:
“Political communication…encompasses the entire marketing
process, from preliminary market study to testing and targeting”.
It should be noted that Maarek admits that the main areas of
application of political marketing are image-making campaigns
and election Campaigns.
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marketing is to enable political parties and voters to make the
most appropriate and satisfactory decisions” .
Scammell (1999) notes that, due to the rapid expansion and the
diversity of this field of science, there is still no consensus on
the definition of political marketing. In her view, political
marketing shares with history the desire to explain political
leaders’ behaviour, shares with political science the desire to
understand the political processes and shares with political
communication an interest in the art of persuasion.
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by Scammell (1995). For Lees Marshment political marketing is
the outcome of the marriage between marketing and politics
and, empirically, “it represents the permeation of the political
arena by marketing”. In her view this combination provides a
more complete picture of the behaviour of political parties.
Kotler and Kotler (1999) also add that the political arena, unlike
the commercial world, is highly charged with ideas, emotions,
conflict and partisanship. Moreover, O’ Shaughnessy (1999)
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points out that the use of negative advertising does not apply to
mainstream marketing.
Lock and Harris (1996) conclude that political marketing is at a
“craft” stage and they find the assumption that there is direct
transferability of mainstream marketing theory to political
marketing “questionable”. They claim that political marketing
has to develop its own frameworks by adapting the core
marketing literature and develop its own predictive and
prescriptive models.
11
Similarly, Lees-Marshment (2001) puts forward a broader
theoretical concept: that of comprehensive political marketing.
She argues that this new concept views political marketing as
applicable to the whole behaviour of a political organisation. In
her words, it is about “not simply how [parties] campaign, or
how individual candidates organise, but how parties design their
“product”. Analysis is made of behaviour at the beginning
through to end of an electoral cycle (not just the election
campaign) and includes the leadership, MPs (and candidates),
membership, staff, symbols, constitution, activities such as party
conferences and policies”.
12
Commenting on that definition, Franklin (1995) emphasizes that
it “will need to accommodate even further diversity, expressing
the varied analytical approaches, assumptions, and disciplinary
backgrounds of communication scholars”.These backgrounds
range from political science to history, from cultural theory to
sociology and to social psychology.
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communications approaches. Political marketing is no longer a
subset of broader processes: political communications becomes
a subset of political marketing, tools of promotion within the
overall marketing mix”.
14
Through the prism of the aforementioned arguments it can be
claimed that political communication can offer guidance to
political marketing on how to improve its negative perception,
on how to make its outcomes more substantial to voters, on how
to improve its standards and on how to attract media attention.
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element of governance. Thus, from being a subset of a party’s
electoral communication, it has now grown so much that it has
“annexed” political communication as one of its components.
1. Product Function:
In political marketing practice, there should be an exchange
between political parties and electorate in the electoral market.
Like mainstream marketing each political party has to offer
some product which they wanted to sell in the market. Here
party wants to market its product which is the promise of a good
government. In some cases, the product may be image of the
candidate, an ideology or certain specific foreign policies.
Hence the entire marketing process is designed to market the
product. In USA, the main product function of Democratic party
was to sell Obama Brand and a good governance based on
change.
2. Distribution Function: The distribution function refers to the
conditions regarding the availability of exchange offer to the
exchange partner. The function has two aspects campaign
delivery and offering delivery. The campaign delivery function
provides the primary exchange partner- the electorate-with
access to all relevant information about the political product.
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This includes the dissemination of information regarding crucial
party policies and programs, placing the candidates in right
channels, making sure that medium of distribution fit the
ideology of the party etc.
17
6. Fund Raising Function: In mainstream marketing fund
raising is not an issue. But political marketing management
cannot survive without fund raising. In fact the success of other
functions largely depends on fund raising function. In order to
provide the political actor with appropriate resources, a distinct
fund raising function needs to be addressed. A political party
depends to a varying extent on membership fee, donations, etc.
During the past decade even the Indian political parties realized
the importance of marketing and advertising in elections.
Parties started hiring political consultants and ad agencies, to
develop their positioning strategy among different socio
economic classes of Indian public. Before understanding the
whole strategies and view point of political parties we must
learn what political campaigning is and its various techniques.
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3.1 Political campaign
3.2 Techniques
• Campaign advertising
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Campaign advertising is the use of paid media (newspapers,
radio, television, etc.) to influence the decisions made for and by
groups. These ads are designed by political consultants and the
campaign's staff.
• Media management
• Other techniques
20
Writing directly to members of the public (either via a
professional marketing firm or, particularly on a small
scale, by volunteers)
21
Using endorsements of other celebrated party members
to boost support.
Since the first elections held in 1952, there had been 14 Lok
Sabha elections in India, including that held in 2004.
The Congress has been a major political party and had formed
the government maximum number of times. In 1977, the
Congress was defeated by the Janata Party. Morarji Desai
(Desai) became the first non-congress PM of India. However,
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his government did not last long and the Congress regained
power in 1980 under the leadership of Indira Gandhi (Indira).
The BJP consolidated its position in the 1989 elections and won
86 seats. In 1989, though the Congress was the single largest
party with 197 seats, the Janata Dal, which had won 142 seats,
formed the government with the support of the BJP. The
coalition government lasted for 15 months, after which mid-
term elections were announced. During the election campaign,
Rajiv was assassinated at an election rally in Sriperumbudur,
Tamil Nadu. Again, a sympathy wave swept the country and the
Congress returned to power with P V Narasimha Rao (Rao) as
PM. The new government served its full term. However, the
BJP had emerged stronger, winning 120 seats...
23
The case also discusses the political advertising campaign of the
present ruling party - Congress that mainly targeted the masses.
The case ends with a debate on the efficacy of political
advertising campaign in general, and explores reasons why the
'India Shining' campaign was unsuccessful
5.1Introduction
Analysts felt that the decision to go for early elections was made
in view of the booming Indian economy, encouraging state
assembly election results, peaceful relationship with India's
neighboring countries and the major opposition party - the
Indian National Congress (Congress) being in a demoralized
state.
They felt the popularity of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was at its peak.
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campaign was supported by another catch phrase 'Feel
Good Factor.'
On the other hand, the Congress hoped it would win more than
the 112 seats it had won in the last elections. Party leaders
expressed the opinion that the maximum they could win was
135 seats
25
The campaign was aimed at highlighting India's achievements
under the NDA government. The government reviewed all the
proposals submitted by the agencies but was not satisfied. It
then approached 11 other agencies in October 2003. Finally,
Grey Worldwide-India (GWI), a part of the Grey Global Group,
bagged the contract.
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good. It also ridiculed Advani's catch phrase by terming it as
'Fail Good.'
The campaign argued that the masses were not benefited by the
'feel good' factor that the NDA was stressing.
Orchard's advertisement strategy was to counter the mood set by
the "India Shining" campaign.
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zindgi mein sukh chain nahi hai? Sochiye! Congress ka haath,
Gareeb ke Saath" ("What is a use of that government which
cannot bring peace and prosperity in the lives of the poor.
Think! "The hand of Congress is with the poor."...
Various opinion polls and exit polls too suggested that the NDA
government would be re-elected. However, the election results
stunned all political parties in India as well as leading
psephologists and political experts.
The NDA managed to get only 188 seats with the leading party -
the BJP getting 138 seats. The Congress and its allies got 219
seats of which the Congress on its own bagged 145 seats. With
the support of the Left parties, who bagged 53 seats, the
Congress formed the next government.
The defeat of the NDA's major allies - the TDP and the
AIADMK, meant that the NDA did not have any support to
draw on.
The defeat of the NDA in the Lok Sabha elections ignited a
debate not only among its leaders but also among psephologists
and other experts. They tried to draw conclusions on why the
NDA had lost despite a major advertising campaign. A few
analysts felt that the "India Shining" campaign made false
claims since the whole of India was not shining.
They said that the campaign alienated the common man for
whom India was not shining at all. Salman Rushdie, a well-
known writer in India, commented, "The gulf between India's
rich and poor has never looked wider than it does today, and the
government has fallen into that chasm."...
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6. MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT FOR THE GUIDANCE
OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND CANDIDATES
1. General Conduct
(1) No party or candidate shall include in any activity which
may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or
cause tension between different castes and communities,
religious or linguistic.
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Organising demonstrations or picketing before the houses of
individuals by way of protesting against their opinions or
activities shall not be resorted to under any circumstances.
II. Meetings
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authority concerned well in advance and obtain such permission
or license.
III.Procession
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(6) If two or more political parties or candidates propose to take
processions over the same route or parts thereof at about the
same time, the organisers shall establish contact well in advance
and decide upon the measures to be taken to see that the
processions do not clash or cause hindrance to traffic. The
assistance of the local police shall be availed of for arriving at a
satisfactory arrangement. For this purpose the parties shall
contact the police at the earliest opportunity.
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(v) not allow unnecessary crowd to be collected near the
camps set up by the political parties and candidates near
the polling booths so as to avoid Confrontation and
tension among workers and sympathizers of the parties
and the candidate.
VI. Observers
(i) (a) The Ministers shall not combine their official visit
with electioneering work and shall not also make use of
official machinery or personnel during the electioneering
work.
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(b) Government transport including official air-crafts,
vehicles, machinery and personnel shall not be used for
furtherance of the interest of the party in power;
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(c) make any promise of construction of roads, provision of
drinking water facilities etc.; or
(d) make any ad-hoc appointments in Government, Public
Undertakings etc. which may have the effect of influencing the
voters in favour of the party in power.
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India is currently holding general elections—the largest
democratic election in the world—to the 15th Lok Sabha in five
phases on April 16, April 22/23, April 30, May 7 and May 13,
2009. The results of the election will be announced on May 16,
2009.
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Each of the party coalitions has indicated their choice for prime
minister, should they win a majority to form a government.
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Sandesh that Manmohan Singh is the UPA coalition's Prime
Ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections.
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alliance with Congress if they get enough number of seats
after the election. Once again, the media has speculated that
Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, could
potentially be projected as the front's Prime Ministerial
candidate, but no official move has taken place yet. If
Mayawati's party can win enough seats, she has openly
stated that she would be willing to take the support of the
national parties to become Prime Minister. No other
candidate has publicly expressed interest in becoming
Prime Minister thus far.
7.2 Campaigning
7.2.1 United Progressive Alliance
The Congress party has bought the rights for the Oscar winning
soundtrack Jai Ho from the movie Slum dog Millionaire
and this song will be used as the official campaign tune by
the party. The song title Jai Ho translates to Let there be
victory, and the Congress hopes that this popular song will
galvanize the masses during the almost one month long
election season.
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under-privileged sections of the Indian society. The full text
of the manifesto is available at the Congress website.
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media buyer GroupM. “While they are involved in
political affairs, they may not be interested or inclined
to vote, so these digital initiatives aim at interacting with
them and getting the message out”
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Minister Manmohan Singh). The BJP intends to use
Advani's name & image as the main focus in these
elections.BJP also launched parody of Jai ho. It is shown in
the media as Bhay ho.
42
The web-bases campaign has modest targets but is perhaps the
most interesting part of the party's poll efforts. It begins by
hoping to enrol a lakh of volunteers online in addition to
some 40,000 who have signed up. Those who sign up will
be asked to organise small neighbourhood or drawing room
discussions on politics and will be provided videos and
presentations by the BJP.
43
The Congress opted for a dedicated Internet campaign
for the Rajasthan assembly elections.
Unlike the Congress that chose one of its advertising and media
agency Crayons way back in September, the final call on
the agencies for BJP comes after much delay. Thanks to the
present slowdown, there is a pressure on the country’s main
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opposition party’s fund raising which also comes from the
private sector companies.
The party has also run its campaign on radio, through private
FM channels and All India Radio. Because about 288
constituencies today have access to FM which is all the
more reason to use the medium extensively. It has huge
penetration and is not too expensive too.
45
Shining’ slogan. The party wishes to run a positive
campaign this year.
8.1 Television
Only 15% of the total campaign budgets is spent on tv ads.
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language channel to at least Rs. 1.5 lakh on a popular
channel during prime time, say media buyers, while other
platforms such as radio and outdoor are as effective and
cheaper.
“Voter banks are not in big cities but in rural areas where
posters, meetings and mobile vans reach out to more
potential voters than a TV ad which costs 10 times the
amount,” says Sumira Roy, founder of Mumbai-based
advertising agency Postscript. “And spending so much on a
political campaign like the BJP did with the India Shining
campaign last elections, can actually backfire and work
against the party.”
47
While door-to-door campaigning and political rallies continue to
be the mainstay of election campaigns, political parties in
India are looking at advertising campaigns across media
platforms to reach the elusive voter, especially in urban
areas.
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“This platform connects with the rural populations on the
best because it talks to them in the language they
understand and is effective in delivering results.”
8.3 Print
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The lion’s share has traditionally gone to newspapers, and even
though platforms such as digital and radio have gained
significance, loyalties have not shifted yet. According to a
media buying agency, print accounts for 40–50% of the Rs.
400 crore budget in the latest assembly elections.
“Newspapers account for 50% of our spends because it
reaches out to the masses, yet it is a very localised form of
advertising that gets the message across to the lowest local
denominator,” says Ranjan Bargotra, President of Crayons
Advertising Ltd., the agency handling the Congress
account.
Adds Sen, " They are bad leaflets, not advertisements-all it does
is familiarize voters to their faces, so when someone does
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go to the poll booth, they might just recall the face and
make a connection."
Print ad by INC
8.4 Radio
On 21 November, The Election Commission allowed political
campaigns on airwaves. From the very next day, radio
stations in Delhi and other states going to the polls aired
political advertisements, mainly from the BJP and
Congress.
Analysts say the speed with which parties integrated radio into
their campaigns is indicative of the potential it has to reach
out locally. “Radio is a localized medium that reaches out to
19 crore listeners (above the age of 12) and unlike print and
TV, where there are time and space restrictions, radio
allows parties to actually communicate to listeners in their
language” says Sunil Kumar, Managing Director at Radio
Business Consultancy Big River Radio (India) Pvt. Ltd.
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The Congress took six radio spots, the BJP took three. The
ads ranged from 10–50 seconds and cost the parties
between Rs. 250 and Rs. 1,200.
“These ads were not fancy and did not need much production
work as they basically had voice-overs communicating to
voters. So the ads were probably developed in a span of two
days and were all set to air as soon as the government gave
the green light," says Prathap Suthan, Creative Director of
Cheil Communications.
“Many political parties realise the reach of the radio and the
play that the ads would get and are warming up to the idea
of broadcasting their ads on radio," Panday, who is also
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senior vice president of the Association of Radio Operators
for India (AROI), told IANS.
Prior to this, only stations like the All India Radio (AIR) or
BBC's Hindi station used to air such campaigns.
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8.5 Internet
“In 2004 the Internet accounted for less than 1% of the
advertising budget of political parties. Today however, the
digital media makes up at least 10% of the budget,” says
Atul Hegde, Chief Executive, Ignitee India Pvt. Ltd., the
agency handling digital advertising for the Congress.
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The BJP has launched a website for its prime-ministerial
candidate L.K Advani. It had one, too, for V.K Malhotra, its
chief ministerial candidate for Delhi. The Congress opted
for a dedicated Internet campaign for the Rajasthan
assembly elections.
8.6 Mobiles
Around 29 crore Indians use mobile phones. Therefore political
parties are targeting these voters through SMS and
telecalling voters directly. This way of targeting people has
all the advantages of Direct marketing.During these Lok
sabha elections all the parties have used this medium but
definitely BJP raced much ahead.
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The attempt to reach voters who usually do not turn up at
polling booths is driven by an estimate that many of them
might share BJP’s vision for a strong Centre and a
"nationalist" approach to security that includes "hard" views
on anti-terror laws and illegal infiltration. These groups
could motivate people to shed both their cynicism and
lethargy to actually go to the polling stations.
9. Conclusion
How far these campaigns have been successful would only be
possible to know when the election results are declared.
10. Bibliography
www.google.com
www.scribd.com
www.wikipedia.org
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www.bussinessstandard.com
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