Marketing Democratically

Abstract

As well as considering what works in political marketing, this research aimed to explore the democratic implications of practice. There have previously been several concerns raised in academic literature, such as using market analysis threatens leadership and elevates voters’ input in political decision-making through focus groups rather than formal elections, which works against citizenship; voter profiling and segmentation encourage focus on some voters more than others; and moderator bias prevents market research ascertaining voter opinion. Rather than just repeat them, as with previous chapters this analysis turns negative into positive, and thus the critique is re-presented as rules on what to avoid in order to practise political marketing democratically. The chapter explores perceived problems elites need to overcome and how they can do this, realising the benefits to democracy, and then, lastly, looks at the potential developments elites explore in their bid to create new ways to use political marketing democratically.

It’s a legitimate criticism that someone like me has a particular kind of view … The answer to that is not to stop people like me doing research, but to have other sources of information.

—Gould (2007)

People’s views evolve the more information people are given, the more considered people’s views can be.

—Glover (2007)

As citizens we play a game electorally don’t we? … we pretend that we expect governments to fix it for us, and actually there are just limited things they can do.

—Pattillo (2009)