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.) toUniversity 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

CONTENTS
=======================================
==============
SNO

PARTICULARS

=======================================
===============
Declaration
Certificate
Acknowledgement
List of Tables
List of Graphs
Chapter-1 INTRODUCTION
1.1Industry Profile
1.2Company Profile
1.3Introduction to the Topic
1.4Literature 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).
Its 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 Abercrombies (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. AMAs 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 AMAs 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 longterm 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 peoples 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 (OCass, 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 (OCass, 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). Nixons 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 customeroriented 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. Businesss
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 Pre-industrial
Products are selected
runs by party bosses and centred on marketing

by distributors and

the political party.

delivered

to

consumers
generically.

When

something sells out,

Product Concept

An internally driven organization run Product Concept

more is ordered.
Sells the quality of

by Washington insiders and centred

the product through

on the candidate. Stresses finding the

the brand. Example:

best possible candidate.

Model

Ford

manufactured
Selling Concept

An externally driven organization run Selling Concept

quality.
Companies

by Madison Avenue experts and

Procter and Gamble

centred on the candidate. Attempts to

create

create favourable impression of the

new products. They

candidate by the voter.

begin to experiment
with

Marketing Concept

for
like

markets

for

image-based

An externally driven organization run Marketing

advertising.
Companies

by marketing experts and centred on Concept

identify

the voter. Polling determines the

needs

message sent to the voter.

develop products to

first
consumer

and

then

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 partys 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)

CORE
Parliamentary representation (belongingness & social identity).

Baines

Voice in government (social participation & identity).

al.,

et

(2003)

further

ACTUAL

explained

Party policies, values & statements (issue informing).

that parties

The politicians (points of reference for voter).

are

Manifesto commitments and partys ability to deliver on promises (trust

important in

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).
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
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

Process 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

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 partys
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 electorates 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 crossdisciplinary 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 Politians, partys 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.
OShaughnessy (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 marketings domain
The author accepts normative arguments and theory propositions for the application of marketing
in politics and marketings 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 marketings delimited boundaries or domain. We must move beyond
theoretical arguments based on unsupported propositions of marketings 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 organizations 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). Houstons (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 marketings 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 entitys 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 consumers 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 markets research-defined demand. Satisfaction of the markets 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 markets
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 partys
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 marketings 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 partys 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 organizationcentered orientation counters the organizations 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 politicsyou 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 oCass) Department of

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

Canadian political consultants perspective about political marketing (Jennifer leesmarshment 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

Mean
Variance
Observations
Pooled Variance
Hypothesized Mean
Difference
Df
t Stat
P(T<=t) one-tail
t Critical one-tail
P(T<=t) two-tail
t Critical two-tail

MALE
3.291809
0.152343
153
0.143976

FEMALE
3.330157
0.114398
44

0
195
-0.5908
0.277669
1.652705
0.555339
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 voters mind.

2. Impact of political marketing through social media on the basis of age group ?
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances

Mean
Variance
Observations
Pooled Variance
Hypothesized Mean
Difference
Df
t Stat
P(T<=t) one-tail
t Critical one-tail
P(T<=t) two-tail
t Critical two-tail

AGE> AGE<
25
25
3.2264 4.6226
15
42
3.2706 3.3031
36
07
0.1200 0.1446
46
62
64
130
0.1365
85
0
192
0.5753
7
0.2828
58
1.6528
29
0.5657
16
1.9723
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 youngers 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 .