overlooking the differences between
promoting a set of policies and marketing
a commercial product.4
Existing political marketing analyses
tend to have two limiting characteristics.
The first is that they are generally
applied to election campaigns, where
there are structured opportunities to
‘sell’; scholars have come more slowly
to the recognition that politicians
pursue promotional strategies just as
assiduously once elected. The administrations
of Reagan and Thatcher,
which retained close links with campaign
advisers and pursued aggressive
news management strategies, sharply
exposed the need for marketing analysis
from within government. Blumenthal’s
The Permanent Campaign and Cockerell,
Hennessy and Walker’s Sources Close to
the Prime Minister were early efforts by
journalists to capture this dimension of
the governing process.5
However,
like the academic analyses that later
Taking its cue from early accounts
of political parties being sold like
soap powder, political marketing has
developed into a recognised subdiscipline
of political science.1
Political
marketing analyses are premised on
two assumptions. First, that the choices
voters make at election time are
analogous to the choices consumers
make between commercial products
or services. Secondly, and by extension,
that parallels exist between
marketing a consumer product or
service and promoting a political
party. Such analyses vary in the
degree of explanatory power that
they attribute to commercial marketing
models. Some assume strong parallels
between commodity marketing
and political advocacy.2
Others make
weaker assumptions about shared terminology
and techniques.3
Many are
careful to highlight the dangers of
taking the analogy too far, and of
178 ᭧ PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1479-1803/06 $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 13, NO. 3, 178–187 FEBRUARY 2006
Catherine Needham
Department of Politics,
Queen Mary,
University of London, Mile End,
London E1 4NS, UK
Tel: ϩ44 (0)20 7882 3712
Fax: ϩ44 (0)20 7882 7855
E-mail: c.e.needham@qmul.ac.uk
Special issue papers
Brands and political loyalty
Received (in revised form): 8th November, 2005
CATHERINE NEEDHAM
is a lecturer in politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and is writing a book on New Labour and public
service delivery for Palgrave Macmillan. Her research interests include political communications, citizenship and
public service reform. She has written a number of articles on branding including ‘Brand leaders: Clinton, Blair
and the limitations of the permanent campaign’, Political Studies, Vol. 53, No. 2, 2005, and ‘New and improved?
Labour’s brand values’, Renewal, Vol. 9, Nos. 2–3, 2001.
Abstract
Incumbent political parties, like the providers of commercial goods and services, are seeking to
secure repeat sales at a time when consumer loyalty is under threat from proliferating choice and
social realignment. As with other large and infrequent purchases, parties need to use marketing not
only to win a sale (an election) but also to minimise post-purchase dissonance and encourage brand
loyalty so that consumers will buy their product in the future. Successful parties develop brand
attributes in their leaders to maintain relationships with supporters beyond the initial transaction,
although in doing so they create problems for leadership succession.
BRAND LOYALTY IN POLITICS
There are several characteristics of a
brand that render it a useful explanatory
concept for analyses of voter
choice. First, brands simplify choice
and reduce dependence on detailed
product information, in much the same
way as party labels relieve voters of the
need to familiarise themselves with
all the party’s policies.11
Secondly,
brands provide reassurance by promising
standardisation and replicability,
generating trust between producer and
consumer, much as parties emphasise
unity and coherence in order to build
up voter trust.12
Thirdly, brands, like
parties, are aspirational, evoking a
particular vision of the ‘good life’ or
holding out the promise of personal
enhancement.13
Fourthly, to be successful,
brands must be perceived as
authentic and value-based, necessitating
congruence between the internal
values of the product or company and
its external message. In the same way,
successful parties must link their external
presentational strategies to a set of
core values, if they are to retain
voter support.14
In politics and the
marketplace, voters and consumers
must negotiate the conflicts between
loyalty to trusted brands and the
novelty of the new, while making sense
of complex and conflicting product
information. For fast-moving consumer
goods such choices must be negotiated
on a daily basis, whereas political
choices are more infrequent. However,
even within the political marketplace
there is diversity: the ‘big’ purchases
every four to five years at a general
election; the ‘second-order’ purchases
of local and European elections; and
the regular choices about which party’s
version of events or policy options
should be accepted and endorsed.
followed,6
these approaches have been
of limited value. They tend to be
descriptive, telling the story of how
Thatcher, Reagan, Clinton or Blair
used the communications machine
rather than developing and testing an
explanatory model of communicating
as an incumbent. Further, such analyses
tend to present governing as a
sub-category of campaigning. Promotion
from within office is perceived
either as an extension of the
winning campaign, or part of the
‘long campaign’ that precedes the
next election. Similarities of personnel
and tactics between campaigning and
governing are taken as indications that
the strategy remained unchanged from
the campaign to the incumbency.
A second limitation of political
marketing analyses is that they tend to
offer simplistic and outdated models of
marketing, failing to encompass the
changing paradigms in what Henneberg
calls the ‘mother discipline’.7
Political marketing has caught up
slowly with the shift within commercial
marketing from a commodity focus
to a brand focus, reflected in the rise in
market value of ‘intangible’ assets.8
There is no political variant of the
diverse marketing literature that defines
and dissects the role of the brand.
Discussions of intangible aspects of
political appeal have tended to focus on
narrower concepts such as image and
reputation.9
Where branding has entered
political marketing analyses the
brand has been equated with the party
name, and used as a descriptive term
rather than as an explanatory variable
with strategic implications.10
It is
helpful to consider how a brand focus
can improve understanding of political
decision making, and, in particular,
repeat purchasing at elections.
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BRANDS AND POLITICAL LOYALTY
cluded, it is still possible to identify in
most constituencies five or six parties
that are realistic challengers in local,
regional or national elections.19
For
voters the complexity of choice has
been increased by the introduction of
new electoral systems for different contests.
A voter in London in May 2004
would have been voting on the same
day using three different electoral systems
for the mayoral elections, Greater
London Assembly and European parliament.
Voters must make choices between
a diverse range of parties in a
variety of systems, reconciling tensions
between long-standing loyalties with
the appeal of newer parties with narrow,
more focused messages. The success
of the UK Independence Party in
pushing the Liberal Democrats into
fourth place during the European parliament
elections in 2004 highlights the
willingness of voters to experiment
with the new, particularly in so-called
‘second-order’ elections.20
A second feature of brand-based
analyses of politics is that they help to
explain how voters make decisions in
an environment of informational
complexity. A brand focus steers
analysts away from unrealistic assumptions
about political knowledge. It is
known from economic and sociological
theory that asymmetries of
information, bounded rationality, herding
behaviour, ‘satisficing’ (settling for
what is readily available rather than
striving for maximum rewards), and
concerns about status and belonging
create the lens through which
consumers (and voters) make choices
about cost and quality.21
Accompanying
product proliferation is the
unprecedented access voters and
consumers have to information about
the products on offer. In addition
Conceiving political parties as brands
helps to explain two aspects of voter
decision making. First, party brands
provide a basis for long-term loyalty in
an environment where products
(policies) are fairly fluid. Initial patterns
of support — for political parties as for
other infrequent purchases such as
financial products — are likely to be
shaped by family, but the process of
detachment from these formative social
settings appears to be intensifying.15
A well-studied process of political
dealignment has left many citizens
without political loyalties, and an
increasing number inactive in the
political marketplace.16
Many supporters
remain loyal though dissatisfied
through fear of taking a risk with the
unknown, turning out at elections to
back a party for which they have little
enthusiasm.17
Levels of consumer
dissatisfaction and withdrawal from the
commercial marketplace are less
pronounced, although the literature on
post-materialism indicates a body of
people who are less concerned with
acquisition and market participation.18
In this more fluid environment, parties
and companies must work harder to
build long-term relationships with
supporters to ensure repeat sales.
A barrier to loyalty in politics, as in
the marketplace, is the proliferation of
new products. Consumers and voters
have more choice than in the past. In
the commercial sector, they negotiate
a marketplace in which the range of
choice is not limited to local stores
but incorporates the seemingly infinite
choices available on the internet. In
politics in the UK, the number of
political parties has proliferated. Over
130 parties stood at the general election
in 2005, up from 30 in 1979.
Even if novelty candidates are ex-
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in order to secure ‘repeat purchases’.
In a political terrain of declining
party membership and voter dealignment,
successful candidates cannot assume
that the positive impressions that
brought them to victory will keep their
winning voter coalitions together until
the next election.25
They must build
relationships with voters in order to
secure positive endorsements, whereas
opposition parties may be able to
secure support simply through a policy
of differentiation. Thus the challenge
for incumbent parties can be conceived
as one of effective relationship market-
ing.
Relationship marketing is a useful
focus for politics, because it moves
away from a transactional focus on the
point of sale, ie the election.26
It also
avoids the assumption, embodied in
the term ‘permanent campaign’, that
election campaigning and governing
blend into one.27
It recognises that
political parties, like companies, must
retain existing supporters as well as
converting new ones.28
The value of
relationship marketing for politics has
been noted by a number of authors,
although the distinctive strategic position
of incumbent parties has not been
discussed. It is a process of reducing
what de Chernatony and McDonald
call ‘post-purchase dissonance’.29
In the
relationship marketing approach attention
is focused on what Gro¨nroos
calls the promise concept.30
As he
puts it, ‘Fulfilling promises that have
been given is equally important as a
means of achieving customer satisfaction,
retention of the customer base,
and long-term profitability.’31
Egan notes that relationship marketing
may be particularly important in
sectors where purchases are far apart:
‘Throughout the intervening period
to newspapers’ expanding consumer
supplements, the internet provides an
enormous amount of information
about products, offering price comparability
and personal testimonies
about particular products. Similarly,
political parties now disseminate more
information than ever before, through
their websites and e-mail listservs.
Online news sites, message boards and
weblogs provide an unprecedented
amount of detail and commentary.
While the availability of such information
can assist consumers and voters in
making choices, it raises the opportunity
costs of making an informed
assessment. The existence of much
information that does not come
through the trusted filter of a
newspaper or a pressure group leaves
consumers and voters with the
complex job of assessing its reliability.
The high costs of acquiring information
compared with the likely payoffs
act as a disincentive to become
informed.22
Studies have suggested that
voters rely on cognitive shortcuts as a
substitute for detailed information.23
These shortcuts are developed on the
basis of impressionistic perceptions of
candidate and party, justified by post hoc
rationalisations.24
The clear parallels
between this process and the way that
consumers use brands in the commercial
marketplace suggest that parties can
gain electoral payoffs if they understand
and utilise branding insights.
BRANDING INCUMBENTS
All political parties face the challenge
of fostering an attractive brand, but
there are distinctive challenges for
incumbent parties. Incumbent parties
are under pressure to sustain their
winning coalitions from within office
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BRANDS AND POLITICAL LOYALTY
Gordon Brown. The role of these
party leaders (or de facto party leaders in
the case of presidents) in personalising
the brand needs further exploration.
PARTY LEADERS AS BRANDS
The importance of political leaders to
a party brand has been noted.35
Smith
gives examples of party images tested
by MORI, and shows the interrelatedness
of leader and party brands.36
A MORI poll in the 2001 election
showed that voters said that
image (of leaders and parties) was
a greater determinant of voting behaviour
than the parties’ policies.37
For
parties seeking to develop relationships
with voters over several elections,
orienting their appeal around a
popular leader helps to consolidate the
party’s appeal. This is particularly the
case given a media environment that
is increasingly focused on personality.38
Through using the party leader as the
brand, a shortcut to sum up all the
desirable attributes of the party, it
is possible for parties to reconfigure
loyalty in an era where institutional
ties are weak.39
Taking the successes first — those
party leaders who were able to secure
repeat purchases through re-election
— it is possible to identify a number
of common themes: a politician
with apparent conviction and an acute
sensitivity to public opinion, success
at identifying and promoting symbolic
policies, and an adeptness at securing
personalised rather than general
party acclaim. Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan associated themselves
with an era of smaller government,
lower taxes, individual self-reliance and
a robust defence policy. Butler and
Collins note:
the supplier may be using marketing
communications to keep their product
at the ‘‘front of mind’’ of the con-
sumer.’32
Egan uses the example of
long-term financial purchases to illustrate
his point but his comments
have clear relevance for politics. For
incumbent parties they can do this
through securing the credit for successful
policies while blaming others (their
predecessors or ‘globalisation’) for unsuccessful
ones. However, as White
and de Chernatony argue, parties must
offer emotional as well as functional
payoffs to the electorate.33
They must
develop appeals that resonate with the
aspirations and instincts of voters as
well as showing a capacity for competent
policy delivery. Such an approach
can form the basis of an
ongoing relationship with voters, helping
to secure repeat purchases.
O’Shaughnessy argues that political
parties fail to recognise the importance
of relationship marketing and
branding.34
However, it is possible to
argue that it is sensitivity to the
symbolic and emotional aspects of
relationship building that helps to
explain successes and failures in recent
election campaigns in the UK and
USA, in particular the success of
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher,
Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and George
W. Bush. It can also help to illuminate
the failures of single-term politicians
like George Bush senior and John
Major. These examples are discussed in
more detail below. Further it can cast
light on the difficulties that successors
to successfully branded leaders face in
winning voter support. In addition to
Bush senior and Major, such problems
have been experienced by Al Gore and
may be a problem for Tony Blair’s
eventual successor, looking likely to be
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notion that Clinton had no ‘‘core
values’’ was becoming a Beltway
cliche´’.44
However, they too were
never rejected by the voters. Clinton
left office after the maximum two
terms, and Blair has indicated that he
will step down as Labour party leader
before the next general election.
These successful political brands can
be contrasted with the electoral failures
of their successors: George Bush senior
and John Major. In both cases these
leaders won one election but were
unable to create relationships with
voters to secure repeat purchases. Both
leaders attempted to differentiate themselves
from their predecessors but in
doing so were unable to develop
positive narratives to appeal to voters.
Major attempted to develop a political
brand that was more conciliatory and
caring than that offered by Thatcher
but failed to marshal symbolic achievements
or promote strategic vision
during his time in office.45
Similarly,
George Bush senior offered a
more hands-on and policy-oriented
presidential style but could not offer a
distinctive set of values — and indeed
was portrayed in the cartoon Doonesbury
as an ‘invisible man’ for his lack
of political presence.46
For the purpose of understanding
political brands these examples are
instructive. The successful leaders differentiated
themselves not only from
the opposition but also from elements
of their own party, thereby building
problems of succession into their
appeal. Reagan, Thatcher, Clinton and
Blair defined their personal brands
in opposition to traditional elements
within their party, and continued
to do so even after gaining office.
They emphasised the break with the
past, rather than continuity, a perhaps
‘Ronald Reagan garnered much support in
US presidential elections by dwelling on
themes — appealing to the masses with a
broad focus, symbolism and emotiveness,
rather than with the specific positions and
programme that are followed only by the
‘‘political nation’’.’40
Scammell argues, ‘Thatcherism was not
so much as ideology, but more a style
of leadership and a set of values’.41
While the detail of policies was shaped
by their market, their appeal was that
of a successful brand: simple, aspirational
and clearly differentiated from
those of the opposition. Despite public
(or at least media) outrage at some of
their policies — Reagan’s Iran-contra
adventures, Thatcher’s remodelling of
the NHS — they were leaders who
successfully achieved repeat purchases.
Indeed, they were never rejected by
the voters; both left office for reasons
other than electoral defeat.
In the leadership strategies of Clinton
and Blair it is possible to see
attempts by centre-left parties to replicate
these strategies. Both leaders
strived to develop simple, reassuring
and credible messages, which distinguished
them from opponents and
resonated with the aspirations and
values of voters. These premiers were
particularly effective at differentiation
from opponents and at appealing to
voter aspirations, although the value
dimension was problematic for leaders
who much of the time looked too
eager to please.42
Tony Blair became
mired in repeated accusations of ‘spin’,
which ultimately led to the resignation
of his communications adviser.43
Clinton
struggled in his early years of office
to develop a distinctive message which
left him with the reputation of being a
weak president. As Klein puts it, ‘the
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BRANDS AND POLITICAL LOYALTY
conceived, as Gore failed to achieve
credit for the economic vigour of the
Clinton years, and did not develop his
own distinctive political project. The
lesson from this for Blair’s successor is
that they must develop a brand that is
distinctive from that of Blair, while
offering a simple and aspirational narrative.
For Gordon Brown, a man often
described as lacking an ‘emotional hin-
terland’,51
the ability to offer voters
an emotional as well as a functional
promise, as White and de Chernatony
put it, may prove elusive.52
CONCLUSION
Three arguments have been made here.
The first is that voters use brands in
politics similarly to how consumers use
brands in the marketplace: to reduce
complexity in an environment of
proliferating choice and information.
The second is that brands are the basis
for ongoing relationship marketing
through which incumbent parties can
keep their winning coalitions together
in order to ensure repeat sales. The
third is that successful party leaders
have sought to promote personal
brands by focusing on a small number
of key attributes and by using
policies as signalling devices. Successful
leaders are those who are able to
offer personalised brands, with simple,
aspirational and consistent messages,
built on a small number of symbolic
policies rather than a broad legislative
programme. Such leaders thrive by
distinguishing themselves from their
party brands rather than embracing
them, and secure repeat purchases —
re-election — by convincing voters
that the alternative both from the
opposition and from their own parties
is unappealing. Problems of succession
surprising tendency given the need to
retain loyalty. Clinton, for example,
offered people ‘a choice that ‘‘is not
conservative or liberal, Democratic
or Republican’’ and depicted himself
as one of ‘‘a new generation of
Democrats’’’.47
After the Republican
success in the 1994 Congressional
elections, he developed a strategy of
‘triangulation’, ‘a third position, not
just in between the old positions of the
two parties but above them as well’.48
Similarly, Blair continued to evoke the
spectre of old Labour after taking
office, associating it with the ‘forces of
conservatism’.49
In that sense it is more
appropriate to see these leaders’ appeal
as based on personal rather than
institutional brands. Their popularity in
office did little to secure the long-term
success of their parties, and may indeed
have hampered the opportunity to
deliver repeat purchases by weakening
voters’ affinity with party brands. Just
as the line between celebrity and
product brands has blurred, as music
and film stars use their names as brands
on which to hang product lines, so it
is possible to see politicians promoting
their party on the coat-tails of their
personal appeal.
The case of Al Gore is instructive,
and may offer clues to the likely success
of Blair’s successor. Gore was less
successful than Bush senior and Major
in that he failed to achieve an initial
sale, let alone a repeat purchase. Many
of the same problems of differentiation
attended Gore like these other
leaders, however. In the final two years
of the Clinton presidency, as Clinton
was reasserting his political authority in
the wake of the Lewinksy scandal,
Gore was distancing himself from the
president to develop his own political
appeal.50
Ultimately this strategy was ill
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(6) O’Shaughnessy ref. 3 above; Franklin, B.
(1994) ‘Packaging Politics’, Edward Arnold,
London, UK; Scammell, M. (1996) ‘The
odd couple: Marketing and Maggie’,
European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30, Nos.
10–11, pp. 122–134; Nimmo, D. (1999)
‘The permanent campaign: Marketing as a
governing tool’, in Newman, B. (ed.) ‘The
Handbook of Political Marketing’, Sage,
London, UK, pp. 73–86; Franklin, B.
(1998) ‘Tough on Soundbites, Tough on the
Causes of Soundbites’, Catalyst, London,
UK; Ornstein, N. and Mann, T. (2000)
‘Conclusion: The permanent campaign and
the future of American democracy’, in
Ornstein, N. and Mann, T. (eds) ‘The
Permanent Campaign and its Future’,
American Enterprise Institute and the
Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, pp.
219–234.
(7) Henneberg, S. (2004) ‘Political marketing
and the relationship marketing paradigm’,
paper presented to the Political Studies
Association conference, 5–8th April, p. 6.
(8) Gross, N. (2001) ‘Commentary: Valuing
‘‘intangibles’’ is a tough job, but it has to be
done’, Business Week, 8th August.
(9) Harrop, ref. 3 above; Scammell, M. (1999)
‘Political marketing: Lessons for political
science’, Political Studies, Vol. 47, No. 4,
pp. 718–739.
(10) Lock and Harris ref. 4 above; Scammell, M.
(2001) ‘The media and media management’,
in Seldon, A. (ed.) ‘The Blair Effect’, Little
Brown, London, UK, pp. 509–533; Smith,
G. (2001) ‘The 2001 general election:
Factors influencing the brand image of
political parties and their leaders’, Journal of
Marketing Management, Vol. 17, Nos. 9–10,
pp. 989–1006.
(11) Duckworth, G. (1991) ‘Brands and the role
of advertising’, in Cowley, D. (ed.)
‘Understanding Brands’, Kogan Page,
London, UK, p. 65; McDonald, M., de
Chernatony, L. and Harris, F. (2001)
‘Corporate marketing and service brands’,
European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35, Nos.
3–4, p. 340; Ind, N. (1991) ‘Living the
Brand’, Kogan Page, London, UK.
(12) Feldwick, P. (1991) ‘Defining a brand’, in
Cowley, D. (ed.) ‘Understanding Brands’,
Kogan Page, London, UK, p. 22.
(13) Van Ham, P. (2001) ‘The rise of the brand
state’, Foreign Affairs, September/October,
p. 2; Mitchell, A. (2001) ‘The emperor’s
new clothes: A backlash against branding?’,
Market Leader, Winter, p. 29; White, J. and
de Chernatony, L. (2002) ‘New Labour: A
strategy of the creation, development and
arise from such a strategy, however.
Recent popular and successful leaders
in the UK and USA have been
succeeded by leaders who failed to
establish enduring relationships with
voters.
This discussion has conflicting implications
for politics. On the one hand
it allows parties to thrive under charismatic
leaders. On the other it makes it
difficult for a party to sustain success
once a charismatic leader leaves office.
Parties need to make choices about
whether leader-based brands represent
the best hope of electoral success in a
media environment which personalises
and simplifies politics, or whether they
might be able to sustain a party brand
which could be the basis for longerterm
repeat sales.
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BRANDS AND POLITICAL LOYALTY
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(29) de Chernatony, L. and McDonald, M.
(2000) ‘Creating Powerful Brands’,
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK,
p. 74.
(30) Gro¨nroos, ref. 14 above — emphasis in the
original.
(31) Ibid.
(32) Egan, J. (1999) ‘Political marketing: Lessons
from the mainstream’, Journal of Marketing
Management, Vol. 15, No. 6, p. 498.
(33) White and de Chernatony, ref. 13 above.
(34) O’Shaughnessy, N. (2002) ‘The marketing
of political marketing’, in O’Shaughnessy,
N. and Henneberg, S. (eds) ‘The Idea of
Political Marketing’, Praeger, London, UK,
p. 214.
(35) Lock and Harris, ref. 4 above; Smith, ref.
10 above.
(36) Smith, ref. 10 above, pp. 994–995.
(37) Ibid.
(38) Blumler, J. and Gurevitch, M. (1995) ‘The
Crisis of Public Communication’,
Routledge, London, UK, p. 213.
(39) For a discussion of declining party loyalty
and membership see a special issue of
Parliamentary Affairs on ‘The Future of
Political Parties’, edited by Declan McHugh
and Catherine Needham (2005), Vol. 58,
No. 3.
demise of a political brand’, Journal of
Political Marketing, Vol. 1, Nos. 2–3, p. 47.
(14) Marzano, S. (2000) ‘Branding = distinctive
authenticity’, in Pavitt, J. (ed.) ‘Brand New’,
V&A, London, UK, p. 58; Gro¨nroos, C.
(1994) ‘Quo vadis, marketing? Towards a
relationship marketing paradigm’, Journal of
Marketing Management, Vol. 10, No. 5,
p. 355.
(15) For example, people over 65 are more
likely than younger people to report that
the way that they deal with their finances
reflects the way that their parents dealt with
theirs. Data taken from GfK NOP’s
Financial Research Survey, November
2005.
(16) Whiteley, P. and Seyd, P. (2002) ‘High
Intensity Participation: The Dynamics of
Party Activism in Britain’, University of
Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI; Putnam,
R., Pharr, S. and Dalton, R. (2000)
‘Introduction: What’s troubling the trilateral
democracies’, in Pharr, S. and Putnam, R.
(eds) ‘Disaffected Democracies: What’s
Troubling the Trilateral Countries’,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ,
pp. 17–18.
(17) Lock and Harris, ref. 4 above.
(18) Inglehart, R. (1990) ‘Culture Shift in
Advanced Industrial Society’, Princeton
University Press, Princeton, NJ.
(19) Dunleavy, P. (2005) ‘Facing up to
multi-party politics: How partisan
dealignment and PR voting have
fundamentally changed Britain’s party
systems’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 58,
No. 3, p. 504.
(20) Rallings, C. and Thrasher, M. (2005) ‘Not
all ‘‘second–order’’ contests are the same:
Turnout and party choice at the concurrent
2004 local and European parliament
elections in England’, British Journal of
Politics and International Relations, Vol. 7,
No. 4, p. 97.
(21) Simon, H. (1965) ‘Administrative
Behaviour’, Free Press, New York, NY;
Banerjee, A. (1992) ‘A simple model of
herd behaviour’, Quarterly Journal of
Economics, Vol. 107, No. 3, pp. 797–817;
Veblen, T. (1970) ‘The Theory of the
Leisure Class’, Unwin, London, UK.
(originally published 1925), p. 35;
Baudrillard, J. (1988) ‘Selected Writings’,
Poster, M. (ed.) Polity Press, Oxford, UK,
ch. 3.
(22) Downs, A. (1957) ‘An Economic Theory of
Democracy’, Harper Collins, New York,
NY, pp. 98, 259.
(23) Lazarsfeld, P., Berelson, B. and Gaudet, H.
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(47) Ingram, P. and Lees-Marshment, J. (2002)
‘The anglicisation of political marketing:
How Blair ‘‘Out–marketed’’ Clinton’,
Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 2,
p. 51.
(48) Morris, D. (1997) ‘Behind the Oval Office’,
Random House, New York, NY, p. 80.
(49) Blair, T. (1999) Speech to the Labour Party
Conference, 28th September, available at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/
460009.stm.
(50) Gould, J. (2003) ‘It only feels like death:
‘‘Rebranding’’ the Democrats for a
post-2002 world’, Journal of Political
Marketing, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 1–12.
(51) Naughtie, J. (2001) ‘The Rivals: The
Intimate Story of a Political Marriage’,
Fourth Estate, London, UK.
(52) White and de Chernatony, ref. 13 above.
(40) Butler, P. and Collins, N. (1999) ‘A
conceptual framework for political
marketing’, in Newman, B. (ed.) ‘The
Handbook of Political Marketing’, Sage,
London, UK, p. 67.
(41) Scammell, ref. 6 above.
(42) Needham, ref. 27 above.
(43) Kuhn, R. (2005) ‘Media management’, in
Seldon, A. and Kavanagh, D. (eds) ‘The
Blair Effect, 2001–5’, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 94–95.
(44) Klein, J. (2002) ‘The Natural’, Coronet,
London, UK, p. 55
(45) Butler, D. and Kavanagh, D. (1997) ‘The
British General Election of 1997’, Palgrave
Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, pp. 40–41.
(46) McNair, B. (1995) ‘An Introduction to
Political Communication’, Routledge,
London, UK, p. 38.
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