The business of elections

Abstract

Two marketing reserach techniques, Conjoint Analysis and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), are imported to the political world and presented as superior substitutes to the conservative popularity contest surveys. Both techniques go deeper than "horse-race" popularity contests to analyze the roots of political success. Political Conjoint Analysis (PCA) and Political QFD (PQFD) identify and quantify consistent theoretical and operational features which statistically determine electoral victors. The successful application of such marketing techniques in the political world will hopefully eventually lead to Total Quality Politics (TQP) and intensify competition over voter satisfaction, rather than voter manipulation. Possible beneficial results of such techniques are a refinement of candidates' qualities in light of public demands and constant change in candidates' reservoirs due to the inability of existing pools to match voter preferences.