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How to Choose a Political Marketing Orientation:

Voter Orientation or Political Brand Identity Orientation?
By TJ Weber
Abstract
No entity has as much impact on as many lives as a government. Through social programs, taxes,
military use, and many others, every life is impacted every day by public sector entities. This
power, influence, and relevance to public life is acquired through the means of marketing, with
candidates, parties, and interest groups spending billions of dollars each cycle in hopes of
winning the democratic process, allowing them ultimately to exert their policies upon the
public, changing the political and policy landscape of their country, city, state, or nation.
Despite the enormous importance, utilization, and impact of marketing on politics, very little
thought within marketing research literature has been given to understanding how political
marketing strategy is developed, functions, or the antecedents for its success. This paper aims to
be a starting point in changing this. It proposes a testable conceptual framework of political
marketing strategy modes, using extant research and examples from political campaigns to
develop a parsimonious model for what types of campaign modes exist, and how campaign
strategies are chosen. Further, this paper lays out an agenda for future research, aiming to help
marketing researchers move forward in researching and understanding political campaign
strategy.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2406046

Introduction
In recent years, considerable resources have been given to marketing professionals in running
increasingly complex and intricate marketing campaigns aimed at selling candidates or policies
to voters (Sparrow and Turner, 2001; Lees-Marshment, 2009; Gordon et al, 2012). Despite this
rapid influx in the utilization of marketing toward purely political goals, almost no research has
identified what modes of political marketing strategies exist, or how theyre chosen and
undertaken by political campaigns. In addition to this, most research on political marketing
consist of post-hoc rationalizations analyzing how individual campaigns played out, and are not
generalizable over different campaigns or time. This paper aims to reverse this trend by fusing
established literature in related fields as well as evidence from multiple elections to create a
cohesive, parsimonious, and testable framework to explain the phenomena involved with
campaign modes of political marketing strategy.
The purpose of the following sections is to identify and define the terms and expected
antecedents of a conceptual framework of campaign mode choice using established marketing
theory and relevant literature within the realm of political marketing, defined as: political
organizations adapting business-marketing concepts and techniques to help achieve their goals
(Lees-Marchment, 2001b). First, this paper identifies, defines, and elaborates on two types of
political campaign modes: voter orientation and brand identity orientation. Next, the paper
identifies the factors that lead to choosing this strategy: ideological congruity, future office
orientation, and length of term. After this, I identify moderating factors in the model:
environmental turbulence and candidate ability. The paper then concludes by establishing a
testable framework of campaign political strategy and a two by two framework to understanding

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2406046

levels of campaign strategy, followed by future research direction and discussion on how to
better understand the phenomenon in this paper.
Two Paths: Voter Orientation and Political Brand Identity
Voter Orientation
Within the study of marketing strategy, two main concepts are market orientation and brand
identity. Market orientation is the process of a company being strategically oriented toward a
customer focus (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993). This is contra to other
potential business orientations such as product-orientation, cost-orientation, sales-orientation,
and several others. Market orientation has been found to have innumerable benefits to business,
including, but not limited to: increased business profitability (Narver and Slater, 1990),
innovation (Hurley and Hult, 1998), organizational learning (Slater and Narver, 1995), and
development of strategic competitive advantage through market-driven capabilities (Day, 1994).
With the level of marketing research devoted to market orientation, and level of political
spending on marketing tactics, it would seem inherent that a corollary to market orientation
would exist in political campaign strategy literature.
However, this construct has not been developed. Therefore, this paper posits the existence of
Voter Orientation as a strategic political campaign mode. A voter orientation strategy is defined
for the purpose of this paper as: A political campaign that primarily focuses on current voter
demands to achieve an orientation consistent with the median voter. The closest parallel within
research literature to this is Hennebergs (2006) follow strategy. Similarly, a voter orientation
is a campaign strategy focused on external demands of voters. However, given the dearth of
empirical evidence within marketing literature surrounding market orientation, and profound

lack of it in any related concepts within literature in other disciplines, conceptualizing it as

parallel to market orientation is the most helpful in explaining the phenomenon. With this
definition, this paper aims to develop the antecedents of choosing a voter oriented political
marketing strategy.
Voter orientation has yet to have any empirical research on it as a strategy mode, including
identifying its existence, antecedents, or effectiveness. Some related research has found evidence
of voter orientation as a construct without identifying it as such, such as campaigns in Europe
and the US increasingly relying on sophisticated qualitative and quantitative research to align
directly with current voter concerns rather than relying on standardized party ideology and its
associative heuristics like many previous campaigns (Lees-Marchment, 2001b; Sparrow and
Turner, 2001). Within the literature that does identify a voter orientation, it has primarily focused
internally from an organizational behavior perspective rather than a strategic function, calling it
political market orientation. (Omrod and Henneberg, 2008; Ormrod and Savigny, 2012).
Others have also researched it as an organizational process (Lees-Marchant, 2001a), as well as a
form of political marketing evolution within campaigns in the UK (Lees-Marchment, 2001b). It
has also been found conceptually as a possible way for EU politicians to better serve their
constituencys and regain popularity (Balestrini and Gamble, 2011). However, no research has
developed voter orientation as a mode of political strategy or identified the reasons for choosing
it as such.
While each of the previously identified findings are congruent with the conceptualizations in this
paper, its scope is to identify reasons for choosing voter orientation and brand orientation as
differing (but not inherently separate) modes of political marketing strategy.

An illuminating example of voter orientation is Scammells (2007) account of Tony Blairs

repositioning before the 2005 election. Concerned with rising unpopularity and cynicism
regarding both his candidacy and his Labour Party, Blair enlisted the help of a consulting firm
specializing in repositioning. The firm, Promise PLC, researched and found which undecided
and female voters that previously voted for Blair and the Labour Party were primarily disaffected
through decisions to enter the Iraq War and the perception that Blair had lied about the reasoning
for doing so (Scammell, 2007). Because of this, the party had Blair focus on candor, humility,
and a willingness to listen, which forced Blair into publicly being put into awkward and hostile
situations, including a hospital worker publicly asking him if hed be willing to wipe someones
backside for 5 an hour (Scammell, 2007).
Meanwhile, in the background, the consultant group also built Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, up as a figure with credibility to focus as the maintainer of the partys key priorities,
without Blair (Scammell, 2007). This helped the party show accountability for its actions and
leaders, while also showing a new way forward, re-orientating itself toward voters and more
importantly for them, maintaining control of the British government. This is a clear example of
voter orientation positively influencing election outcomes through a clear and concise strategy to
realign with voter interests. Therefore, the following proposition is made:
Proposition 1: Voter orientation has a positive relationship with positive electoral outcomes
Political Brand Identity Orientation
Further, work on political branding within research on political campaigns is virtually nonexistent. The nearest concept to a branding orientation in political science literature is
Hennebergs (2006) lead strategy. It is a strategy primarily focused with energy and ideas from

within rather than voter orientations external focus. Like with voter orientation, the level of
empirical studies in branding in marketing research enhances and explains the phenomenon in
parallel much better than the extant literature from other fields. For the purpose of this paper,
political brand orientation is defined, using an adapted variation of the American Marketing
Associations (2013) definition, as: "a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that
identifies one politician distinctly from other politicians. Further, in consumer marketing,
branding focuses on creating an identifiable marker or symbol for a product or service to
simplify choice, promise a particular level of quality or engender trust with consumers (Keller
and Legmann, 2006). This strategy is also used similarly in political marketing, and with this
definition, this paper aims to develop the antecedents of choosing a brand identity oriented
political marketing strategy.
While little empirical research has been done to date, political brand identity is something that is
almost certain to exist (Gordon et al, 2012). Both political parties (Snyder and Ting, 2002) and
individuals have been found to have identifiable brands (Thomson, 2006). Within limited
research it has been found that candidates have brand personality dimensions (Funk, 1996;
Hoegg and Lewis, 2012), create entry barriers to political markets (Lott, 1986), and have similar
benefits to consumer brands (Thomson, 2006). Research has found that voters within
congressional elections tend to know more about parties as proxies for brands than individual
candidates, although nearly every candidate has significant differences from their party (Snyder
and Ting, 2002). Further, Snyder and Ting (2002) posit that candidates make a choice in which
party to join based on a comparison of their own positions to an ideal point within that brand, as
well as their chances of winning with its affiliation. In addition, both the party and candidate as a

brand are seen as brands positioning both themselves and candidates in a favorable way in order
to win with voters (Snyder and Ting, 2002).
In the limited research on candidate dimensions, a proxy that is conceptually close to consumer
brand dimensions in many ways, Funk (1996) found several dimensions similar in nature to
Aakers (1997) brand personality dimensions: competence, trustworthiness, warmth/likeability,
and intelligence. Further, similar research has shown Democrats as typically more associated
within these dimensions as intelligent and Republicans as competent (Hoegg and Lewis, 2012).
It has also been posited that candidates carry with them a brand based on their appearance due to
judgments unconsciously made about their physical appearance congruent with their party and its
reputation (Hoegg and Lewis, 2012). Similarly, it has also been shown that candidates from
families with multiple elected officials carry a distinct brand name advantage over candidates
that are first generation politicians (Feinstein, 2010). Further, issue ownership theory has posited
that at the party level, parties differentiate themselves based on perceived competencies in
governing (Petrocik, 1996) while those using an associative network theory of consumer
memory have theorized that political brands are close yet different relatives of consumer brands,
having traits such as cultural identity, heuristics, and self-concept reinforcement (Smith and
French, 2009).
While these individual studies show evidence of a political branding presence within political
marketing strategy, no research has specifically identified, defined, and shown the antecedents of
it or choosing it as a strategy. Using these studies as well as the definition developed at the outset
of this paper, it is now possible to then identify the antecedents and possible factors involved in
building and maintaining a political brand. Possible factors include, but are not limited to: logo
(see: Bennett and Lagos, 2007 for a summary of political logos), trademark, advertising, names

of candidates (Feinstein, 2010) and physical appearance of candidates or figureheads of

organizations (Hoegg and Lewis, 2012; Gordon et al, 2012). Each of these likely has an impact
on the choice to develop a brand, as well as the efficacy of taking such action as a political actor.
There are many great examples of political brand identity orientation and how it functions in
terms of electoral success. For example, Barack Obamas 2012 campaign had such strong brand
identity and marketing prowess that it won two Grand Prix awards in Cannes. One for top
campaign that advertises a provocative idea that challenges assumptions and another for
campaign that challenges the assumptions made in the advertising industry (Sweney, 2009).
Another good example of this is in Michigans sparsely populated first congressional district,
where former congressman Bart Stupak, a Democrat, was famous for telling constituents you
betcha when asked any question. It turned into yard signs, television commercials, and seven
consecutive re-elections. While not at the large, operationalized, level of the Obama campaign,
Stupak turned a regional colloquial essence into an identifiable brand to which people did, and
still do, feel a connection to. Even after his controversial Stupak Amendment angering
Democrats, followed by his controversial Affordable Care Act vote angering Republicans in
2010, Stupak was considered as still having an impeccable reputation in his district and was
still unbeatable by insurgents from either party (Gilgoff, 2010). Using this logic, the following
proposition is made:
Proposition 2: Political Brand Identity is positively related to successful election outcomes.
With definitions for voter orientation and brand identity orientation established, this paper will
now identify the factors used by campaigns in selecting their strategic mode. These include:
ideological congruity, which represents the extent to which a candidate and its constituency are

alike politically; length of term, or the frequency at which a candidate has to run for re-election
in order to maintain office; and future office orientation, or the extent to which a candidate plans
to run for higher office in the future. The next three sections will identify these factors and how
they impact the decision of a campaign to select either campaign mode.
Ideological Congruity
Political ideology, as measured using an X-Y equilibrium with the extremes of authoritarian and
libertarian on the y-axis and socialist and capitalist on the x-axis, measures the ideology of the
candidate and its constituents. The difference between these two ideological scores gives us the
ideological congruity, or the level to which a candidate and the seat hes running for tend to
agree on political issues. In theory, the ideal ideology for a candidate is that of the median voter
of the constituency for which theyre running (Snyder and Ting, 2002). However, that ideal is
rarely realized, and candidates tend to have differing ideologies which in turn have an impact on
their choice in mode of political marketing strategy. Beyond the obvious axiom of Democrats
typically winning liberal constituencies and Republicans wining conservative ones, the
difference between the perceived ideology of candidates and their constituencies is often a
defining issue in a campaign.
For instance, in a 2013 special election Elizabeth Colbert-Busch ran against former South
Carolina governor Mark Sanford in South Carolinas First Congressional District. Sanford,
coming off a disgracing resignation from his governorship after being caught in Brazil on taxpayer dollars visiting a mistress, was widely written-off as a candidate (Cillizza, 2013).
Meanwhile, Colbert-Busch was covered very favorably in the media as a strong but moderate
female businesswoman coming to DC to mend deals and preach bipartisanship (Isenstadt, 2013).
However, Colbert-Bush ended up losing handily by around 9%. How? South Carolinas First

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Congressional District is one of the most conservative in the US, with a partisan registration
advantage favoring Republicans by 11% (Cook, 2013). In fact, The Cook Political Report does
not consider any seat with a registration advantage of more than 5% in either direction to be a
competitive seat (Wasserman, 2012). This example shows the positive impact of ideological
congruity on voter orientation.
Proposition 3a: Ideological Congruity is positively correlated to voter orientation as a mode of
political marketing strategy.
In contrast, at times these ideological congruity issues, as daunting as they are, can be overcome
through campaign strategy. A telling example of this is Democrat Jim Matheson in Utahs 2nd
Congressional district. The congressional district and the state of Utah are routinely one of the
most conservative electorates in the country, with Republicans typically winning by margins in
the region of 20%. However, Matheson has won six consecutive re-elections in the district
through building his own brand: he is an active member of the Mormon church, touts
bipartisanship, and has been against signature Democratic policies such as the Affordable Care
Act, same-sex marriage, and legalized abortion. In fact, in 2012 he won 23% of the Republican
vote within his district (Monson, 2012). Through this, he has been able to differentiate himself
from the national Democratic Party, establishing himself as his own brand, resulting in election
success. Therefore, the following proposition is made:
Proposition 3b: Ideological Congruity is negatively correlated to brand identity as a mode of
political marketing strategy.

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Length of Term
Length of term also has an important impact on the concept of voter and brand orientation, as it
is inherently impacting the time orientation of a campaign, one of the main differentiations
between the two orientations. For instance, amongst the tea party wave of 2010, Nevada
Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was a top target for the NRSC behind heavily
funded candidate Sharron Angle. In April of 2010, poll aggregators had her leading outside their
margin of error by almost 5%, with some individual polls showing her lead as high as 11%
(Rasmussen Reports, 2010) in a mid-term cycle where Democratic turnout is also typically lower
than Republican turnout and Democratic turnout in Presidential years (Real Clear Politics, 2010).
However, the length of Reids term six years allowed him to highlight past legislative
achievements, using his existing brand identity, and having less of a focus of voter orientation
than Angle, who, running on the tea party populism of that cycle was more closely entwined
with somewhat volatile voter trends in the state. Reid ended up winning the seat by a somewhat
comfortable +5.6% margin, despite Republican Brian Sandoval winning the governorship
amongst the same voting populace by around 12% (Real Clear Politics, 2010).
Proposition 4a: Length of term is positively correlated brand identity as a mode of political
marketing strategy.
However, in the same election a record number of house members lost their elections running on
essentially the same record and platform as Reid. However, House members dont have the
luxury of running every six years, or of having as long of a voting record and relationship with
voters as senators do. Most are seen as generic names attached to a party label, unknown as
individuals or brands to their electorate. They are also required to run every two years in a

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variety of different environments on a variety of different issues, increasing the importance of

having a voter orientation. Therefore, length of term likely negatively impacts voter orientation.
Proposition 4b: Length of term is negatively correlated to voter orientation as a mode of
political marketing strategy.
Future Office Orientation
Future office orientation is defined as the likelihood that the candidate involved will someday
run for a higher office. This is an important variable, as most Presidents and U.S. Senators were
elected to a lower office before their current position. For instance, in the early 2000s, both
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took differing positions on whether to authorize use of force
in Iraq. While running in a close primary in 2008 for the Democratic Nomination for President, it
became a key issue. While the vote to authorize force was publicly popular in 2003 when Clinton
took the position (reflecting a voter orientation strategy), by 2008, it was one of the most
unpopular taken in US history, eventually helping Democrats retake the House, Presidency, and
Senate. This vote helped Obama build his brand within the voting public while Clintons more
voter orientation centric position hurt her long-term (Simon, 2008). Obama would of course go
on to win the Presidency running on this platform. Thus, future office orientation is likely
positively related to a brand identity strategy and negatively related to a voter orientation
strategy. Therefore, the following propositions are made:
Proposition 5a: Future office orientation is positively correlated to brand identity as a mode of
political marketing strategy.
Proposition 5b: Future office orientation is negatively correlated to choosing voter orientation
as a mode of political marketing strategy.

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Moderating Factors
In addition to the three independent factors above effecting choice of strategic campaign mode,
there are two moderating factors identified in the model that impact this choice. These are factors
that moderate the ability of a given campaign to successfully have a given campaign style. The
first of these is environmental uncertainty. This is the assumption that in any given political
environment, much like the business world, there is uncertainty. An electorate is an inherently
fluid and unstable collection of interests and motivations that can change rapidly, and is outside
the campaigns loci of control. Further, changes in the electoral environment can be entirely
unpredictable.
For example, in 2004, George W. Bush won re-election. Despite tenuous favorability and
approval ratings, he won the Electoral College in somewhat comfortable manner. However, two
years later, members of the Republican Party running on the exact same platform as George W.
Bush were annihilated at the polls, losing historically significant amounts of seats in the U.S.
House, Senate, and Gubernatorial seats. This shows the impact of environmental uncertainty in
impacting campaign strategy: increased environmental uncertainty wiped out an enormous
number of candidates with both brand identity and voter orientations. Therefore, it is posited that
environmental uncertainty is a moderating effect in the framework.
Proposition 6: Environmental uncertainty moderates the relationship between ideological
congruity, length of term, future office orientation and brand identity and voter orientation
Secondly, not all candidates are created equally. Therefore, it is thus posited that candidate
ability has a moderating effect on the choice of campaign mode choice. This is defined for the
purpose of this paper as: the ability of a given candidate to campaign for office. There are many

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examples that illustrate its ability to both positively and negatively impact choice of campaign
mode.
For instance, in 2012 Todd Akin campaigned to defeat incumbent senator Claire McCaskill.
McCaskill was seen as all but dead in the water, having been a reliable Democratic vote in the
senate for President Obama, who was hugely unpopular in the state. However, Akins ability to
campaign hindered his ability to build any kind of voter or brand identity orientation. Hindered
by video comments disputing the definition of rape, Akin went on to lose the election handily to
McCaskill. In contrast, in the 2012 North Dakota Senate race, Democrat Heidi Heidtkamp ran in
heavily Republican territory for an open seat. Despite President Obama losing the state by
around 20%, Heidtkamp won the state with the same electorate. She did so by having an
exceptionally good campaign style, differentiating herself from the President while running on
mainly the same positions. She ran largely on character, wearing typical casual North Dakota
dressage while going town to town trying to meet as many of the 300,000 voters in North Dakota
as possible. Her ability helped her create a brand identity orientation that was able to attract more
votes than her counterparts, despite his voter orientation matching up well with the voters of
North Dakota. Therefore, it is posited that candidate ability is a moderating factor in the
framework.
Proposition 7: Candidate ability moderates the relationship between ideological congruity,
length of term, future office orientation and brand identity and voter orientation

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Figure 1: A Conceptual Framework of Modes of Political Strategy

Summary
From the ideas developed above, it is thus posited that within political marketing there are two
distinct but broadly different ways to respond to and develop a campaign strategy based on the
environmental factors: a campaign focused on voter orientation and a campaign based on brand
orientation. The latter focuses on a strategy of policies developed within the campaign and
marketed to voters, and the former on policies developed outside of the campaign, focusing on
current voter demands. They differ in the same sense as a push and pull strategy: a brand
orientation pushes a set of policies, developed and identified through branding, leading voters; a
voter orientation pulls the policies from current voter demands, letting the voters lead rather than
the candidate or party.
Its important to note, however, that these two orientations arent mutually exclusive. Rather, it is
possible to have a brand identity focused on the populism of voter orientation. Many campaigns
have illustrated this: Barack Obamas 2008 campaign won awards for its branding, yet its

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policies reflected that of the public, in rolling back a lot of the Republican legislation achieved
by George W. Bush. The same can be said for Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyders
2010 campaign: he developed his brand as One Tough Nerd while also running to roll back
much of term-limited Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholms policies before him (Smith,
2010). In fact, it is possible that in many cases that the optimal strategy is one that combines both
orientations, building brand identity while closely following voter trends.
Figure 2: A Framework of Potential Political Campaign Modes

In figure two, the different levels of voter orientation and brand identity orientation are grouped
into four possible categories: Campaign Failure (low brand identity orientation, low voter
orientation), The Populist (low brand identity, high voter orientation), The Stalwart (high
brand identity orientation, low voter orientation) and The Leader (high in both). These four

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categories of campaign mode combinations are helpful ways to think about strategic
combinations in a simplified manner. The model does not intend to serve as a definitive,
complicated, or empirical model, but a new way to think about campaign strategy in order to
move forward toward building more sophisticated and empirical models to help explain the
phenomena discussed in this paper.
Future Research Suggestions and Discussion
Due to the purely conceptual and observational nature of this paper, there are many empirical
potential future research directions from it. Firstly, testing the models in this paper would be an
excellent start at better understanding how campaign strategic modes are chosen. It could be
done by interviewing political campaign managers through interviews and then coding answers
to include in testing in the model. Further, secondary data can be used to examine relationships
between the two orientations. For instance, polling can show congruity with the electorate on
individual positions (proxy for voter orientation) as well as name recognition (proxy for brand
identity orientation).
Due to the limited amount of research completed in this area, there are an absolute myriad of
ways to test relationships and develop theory related to political marketing strategy. This paper
aims to be a starting point for just that. It is of the authors priority to further the research area
through starting a research conversation related to political marketing strategy. In the coming
years, with unlimited spending and increased metrics publicly available to researchers, it is hard
to imagine an area within political science, communications, public policy, or marketing that has
more research gaps and public data available for study that can at the same time have such an
obvious impact on public life and public policy outcomes.

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