•Robert P. Ormrod, PhD
•Department of Economics and Business
•Aarhus University
•Aarhus, Denmark
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Day 2: Exchanges, relationships and stakeholders
Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Recap from yesterday: wide and narrow interpretations of political marketing
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•Interactions in political marketplaces
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•Relationships and stakeholders
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•A definition of political marketing
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Agenda
Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Yesterday, we talked about wide and narrow interpretations of the scope and nature of political
marketing
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•A wide interpretation sees the contribution of political marketing on the societal level and on
management activities
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•A narrow interpretation focuses on management activities only
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•I argued that it is necessary to adopt a wide interpretation of the scope of political marketing
Recap from yesterday
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The concept of exchange is central to understanding marketing
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•Initially, the commercial exchange was seen as a transaction
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•In the 1990’s, the exchange was seen as part of a wider relationship management exercise
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•In the last ten years, the focus has moved to the value that the exchange facilitates, rather than
the exchange itself
The political exchange
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•In commercial and nonprofit marketing, the exchange is seen as dyadic
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•The exchange is between two actors who both bring something of value (e.g., a product and money)
to the marketplace
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•The actors exchange what they have brought to the marketplace, and both are better off
Dyadic exchange
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The exchange in political marketing is normally seen as the vote for the promise of good
government
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•But does this capture the unique characteristics of the political marketplace?
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•You can vote for a candidate, but will the candidate keep their promise...?
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•Can the candidate keep their promise at all...?
What about political marketing?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The unique aspect of the political exchange is that it is not necessarily possible for the
candidate to keep their promise
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•They may not get elected
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•They may not be part of the ruling government
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•Environmental factors may mean they cannot fulfill their promise
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•One cannot both have Texan taxes and Scandinavian welfare benefits...
The political exchange
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•We need another way of understanding what happens when voting occurs
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•We can understand this as an interaction – not an exchange – between the voter and the
candidate/party
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•So where does the exchange of value take place?
Interactions
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Instead of exchanges taking place in single marketplaces, we need to look at the process that is
involved from the election to the realisation of the promise
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1.The candidate/party must be elected to parliament
2.The elected member/party must be able to influence legislation
3.External factors (such as the economy, social climate, public opinion) must allow the legislation
to be passed
Interaction marketplaces
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•So there are three marketplaces involved in each exchange of value in the political context:
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1.Electoral marketplace (voter – candidate/party)
2.Parliamentary marketplace (elected members – other elected members)
3.Governmental marketplace (government – citizens)
4.
•Interactions in each of these three marketplaces must be successful for one exchange of value to
occur!
The triadic exchange
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

The triadic model of political exchange
VOTERS
CITIZENS
PARLIAMENT
GOVERNMENT
PARTIES
CANDIDATES
Parliamentary Political Interaction
Parliamentary Marketing
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The interaction between the voter and the candidate/party can be seen as the proto-interaction –
it has to occur before any political exchange process can begin
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•Of course, candidates/parties that stand for re-election have to deal with their history...
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Voter – candidate/party
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Electoral interactions are between voters and political actors
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•The interaction consists of a vote for the promise of good government
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•The voter may not get anything in return if the political actor cannot influence legislation –
thus it is not an exchange!
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•The political actor does not have to fulfill the promise even if they do have the influence
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•
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Electoral interactions
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Parliamentary interactions are between political actors within the parliament
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•If the political actor has the ability to form a government, then the actor can have influence
over the development of policy
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•Sometimes the actor cannot affect policy – this means that the second interaction is not possible
and the promise given in the electoral interaction is broken
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Parliamentary interactions
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•If the parliamentary interaction is successful then the political actor is in a position to
fulfill the promise given in the electoral interaction
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•The interaction between the government and citizens is mediated by the implementers of policy –
teachers, doctors, police and so on
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•But what happens if environmental factors mean that the policy cannot be implemented?
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Governmental interactions
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Towards the end of the electoral cycle, citizens can assess whether the candidate they voted for
last time has fulfilled their promises
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•Promise fulfillment in the governmental marletplace may influence the interaction in the
subsequent electoral marketplace
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•So it is not enough to look at one interaction marketplace on its own!
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•The triadic interaction model can  help structure our understanding of the impact of previous
events on current behaviour
…and back to the electoral marketplace
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Better luck next time...!
•
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…but what if your candidate/party wasn’t elected?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Each political exchange is the result of interactions in three marketplaces
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•Each marketplace has focal actors with different characteristics, and interactions can occur
simultaneously
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•There are also other actors that directly affect the political marketing strategies and tactics
that are appropriate in each marketplace
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•A wide intepretation is necessary!
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The political exchange: a wide or narrow interpretation?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The first part of today’s lecture focused on the exchange in the political context
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•Now you are going to apply the triadic interaction model of political exchange to the real world
(testing theory through empirical investigation)
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•Download one of the election manifestos from the course website
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•To what extent do you find evidence of the three marketplaces in the manifesto?
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•Do you think that a triadic structure can tell us more than a dyadic structure, or is the triadic
structure just an unneccesary complication?
Now it’s your turn!
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Interactions are repeated over time
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•These repeated interactions lead to the formation of relationships
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•Long-term relationships are built upon trust and reduce the likelihood of a customer choosing a
different product
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•What are the characteristics of relationships in the political context?
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•How are these relationships related to the triadic exchange structure?
Political relationship marketing
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Yesterday, we compared three approaches to political marketing:
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• - the sales-based approach
• - the instrumental/managerial approach
• - the relationship-based approach
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•I argued that the relationship-based approach was most useful in the political marketing context
A relationship approach to political marketing?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Strategy: wide focus on stakeholders rather than specific voter groups
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•Interaction: two-way dialogue to uncover stakeholder needs and wants
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•Activities: management of relationships throughout the electoral period (although focal
stakeholders can change over time)
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Recap: the relationship-based school of political marketing
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Political relationship marketing can be understood on two levels:
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–Macro: the relationship between the political actor and the structural and systemic
characteristics of the political marketplace
–Micro: interactions and exchanges are between the political actor and individual stakeholders
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•As with commercial organisations, relationships have to be managed
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•Relationships can be short- or long-term, actor-specific, dynamic and vary in intensity
Political relationship marketing at the macro and micro levels
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Political relationship marketing emphasises the importance of relationships at two levels, the
macro (system) and micro (individual) levels
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•This means that it is necessary to have a wide focus – what happens at the individual level
affects the system level, and vice versa
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•One cannot be understood alone – the other level is always affected!
Political relationship marketing: a wide interpretation
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

• - stabilises the party’s core support
• - reduce the number of swing voters
• - reduce the volatility of the party system
• - deepen democracy by including citizens in the development of legislation
• - broaden democracy by involving citizens in the implementation of legislation
Advantages of political relationship marketing: the macro level
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

- increases citizen inclusion
•- decreases the distance between the governers and the governed
•- enables the meeting of like-minded individuals
- reduces the use of resources on voter identification (voter self-select rather than have to be
segmented)
- increases relevance as members can ’opt-in’ to those policy areas that interest them
- increases the resource base (included members are loyal members – and paying members)
Advantages of political relationship marketing: the micro level
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Look at the advantages for the adoption of political relationships marketing at the macro and
micro levels
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•Do you see evidence of this in the election manifestos?
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•Are the advantages realistic in practice? Why/why not?
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Now it’s your turn!
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Commercial marketing emphasises the importance of co-creating value with the customer and consumer
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•However, we have to take other influencers – stakeholders – into consideration (opinion leaders,
opinion formers etc.) when we co-create value with customers and consumers
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•This is even more important in the political
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•So a good understanding of stakeholders is important!
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Political marketing and stakeholders
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Before we can understand what or who a stakeholder is, we have to know what a stake is
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•There are many different ways of understanding a ‘stake’ in the political context
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• For example: A personal interest in legislation
– A moral right to comment on legislation
– A legal right to affect the design of legislation
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•So stakes can vary greatly in formality, reciprocity and enforcability
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What is a stake?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Simply put, a stakeholder has some form of stake in an organisation
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•…but there are many definitions of ‘stakeholder’...
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•These definitions vary from very narrow (specific stakeholders) to very broad (just about
everything)
So what or who is a stakeholder?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•“any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s
objectives”
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• Key words: Affect and affected by
– Organisational objectives
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Definition: Freeman (1984)
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•“any group or individual that can be influenced by, or can itself influence, the activities of the
organisation”
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• Key words: Influence and influenced by
– Activities (not objectives) of the organisation
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Definition: Gray et al. (1996)
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•“any naturally occuring entity which affects or is affected by organisational performance”
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• Key words: Naturally occuring entity (not manufactured)
– Affect and affected by
– Organisational performance
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• In addition to being organisations/individuals, entities can be:
– Symbols, images and architypes
– Living, dead, yet-to-be-born
– Memes (units of culture)
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Definition: Starik (1994)
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Which actions and strategies can stakeholders use to influence political organisations, their
policies and legislation?
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•Do we want stakeholders to have this influence?
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•The impact of stakeholder inclusion in the policy development process can be constructive or
destructive to the success of legislation
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•After all, including stakeholders in the development of legislation can change the legislation to
the advantage of the stakeholder
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The stakeholder perspective
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Who identifies who or what is a stakeholder - the organisation or the stakeholder?
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•Strategic/instrumental: which stakeholders are necessary for the organisation to consider to
achieve its goals?
•Normative: which stakeholders should an organisation take into consideration?
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•…and how does this affect the definition of a ’stakeholder’ that we use?
Understanding stakeholders
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Stakeholders vary between those that have a measurable influence over the ability of the
organisation to meet its goals and those stakeholders that are recognised by societal institutions
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•Easy to implement in an organisational context…
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•…but is it too specific?
Strategic/instrumental approach
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•A normative understanding concentrates on which staeholders should or ought to be taken into
consideration
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•Stakeholders vary between those owed responsibility on the one extreme, to including all
stakeholders at the other extreme
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•The normative approach allows for cultural norms to influence the identification and treatment of
key stakeholders
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•Too diffuse?
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Normative approach
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Joins the normative and analytic stakeholder approaches
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•Takes human nature into consideration
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•Focuses on relationships and interactions
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•Provides concrete guidelines for political managers (rather than a focus on stakeholders in
general)
Convergent stakeholder theory
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•There are several ways of categorising stakeholders:
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– - Whether they are internal or external to the organisation
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– - Whether they are primary or secondary
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– - Whether they are core, strategic or environmental
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– - The stakeholder’s level of power relative to the political actor, the legitimacy of the issue
and the urgency with which the issue needs to be addressed
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Categorising stakeholders
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The power, legitimacy and urgency attributes are most useful when deciding which stakeholders to
focus resources on
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•Power: can the stakeholder force a reaction from the organisation?
•Legitimacy: the right of the stakeholder to make a specific claim
•Urgency: the speed at which the claim of the stakeholder needs to be addressed
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•Stakeholders can score highly on one, two or all three attributes, but the levels of power,
legitimacy and urgency can change across the three interaction marketplaces
Stakeholder attributes
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Stakeholders can affect the ability of organisations to achieve their goals
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•So how can a political organisation manage stakeholders to their advantage?
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•What questions can we ask in order to embed stakeholders in the very core of political marketing
management?
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Stakeholder management
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•There are many different ways of analysing stakeholders, although there seems to be some agreement
in the academic literature on the following questions:
– - What/who are the organisation’s stakeholders?
– - Which coalition do the organisation’s stakeholders belong to?
– - What are the stakeholder’s stakes?
– - How much power do the stakeholders have?
– - Is their claim based on legislation or on moral grounds?
– - How should each stakeholder be treated?
– - What are the dynamics of relations with the stakeholder?
– - Can conflicting stakeholder goals be resolved?
– - How similar are the stakeholder goals to ours?
Stakeholder management process
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•We have also seen how a stakeholder-based approach is more detailed than simply voters
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•Using the manifesto:
- identify five stakeholders
- categorise the stakeholders using power, legitimacy and urgency (I want your reasoned opinion, it
doesn’t have to be ’correct’)
- doe you think that this categorisation changes over the electoral cycle?
- do you think that this categorisation changes in each of the three interaction marketplaces?
Now it’s your turn!
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•We have seen that political marketing:
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- focuses on the wider political context rather than just elections
- has a more complicated exchange structure than commercial marketing
- emphasises long-term relationships rather than discrete transactions
- focuses on multiple stakeholders rather than just voters
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•So how can we define ‘political marketing’?
So what is political marketing?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Political marketing can be defined as:
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•“...a perspective from which to understand phenomena in the political sphere, and an approach that
seeks to facilitate political exchanges of value through interactions in the electoral,
parliamentary and governmental markets to manage relationships with stakeholders.”
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A definition of political marketing
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The definition of political marketing consists of several elements:
- A wide interpretation of political marketing as a research field
- the triadic exchange structure
- the centrality of relationships
- the importance of stakeholder management
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•What do these mean for empirical research…?
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•
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Deconstructing the definition of political marketing
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Yesterday, we learned that a wide interpretation of the scope of political marketing is necessary
to understand the political context
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•Empirical research needs to take this breadth into consideration
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•The wide interpretation enables political marketing research to inform on a wider range of topics
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•It also means that research designs need to be more specific about their aims
Element 1: A wide interpretation
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The definition of political marketing emphasises that there are three interaction marketplaces
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•This raises several questions:
- Which marketplace does your research focus on?
- What does this mean for which stakeholders are in focus?
- What are the implications of your research for the other interaction marketplaces?
- What are the implications of the other interaction marketplaces on your research?
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Element 2: Exchange as a triad
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The definition of political marketing includes both the micro and macro levels of political
relationship marketing
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•At the micro level, interactions between the political organisation and individual stakeholders in
each of the three interaction marketplaces
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•At the macro level, more general relationships between the political organisation and society
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•So which level is your investigation at?
Element 3: A relationship-based approach
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Relationships are important – but with what or whom?
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•The wide interpretation of political marketing includes multiple stakeholders in the three
interaction marketplaces
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•How do we understand these stakeholders?
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•Which stakeholders are relevant to your investigation?
Element 4: The centrality of stakeholders
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•The political exchange is different to the commercial exchange; in the political context, one
exchange is the results of successful interactions in three marketplaces
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•Relationship management and a relationship-building organisational philosophy are essential for
political marketing activities
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•Stakeholders are not just voters and other parties; there are many different ways of understanding
the groups that influence political actors
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•The definition of political marketing consists of four elements that can each contribute to a
rigorous research design
What you have learned today
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

•Tomorrow I’ll be looking at the integrated model of political marketing strategy and its impact on
party organisational structure
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•I will use the integrated model of political marketing strategy to demonstrate how political
marketing in theory can influence the development of conceptual models
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•I will focus on how the integrated model of political marketing strategy is grounded in the
definition of political marketing, and critique the model
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Tomorrow’s lecture
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015

Any questions?
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Political Marketing Theory (POL592), Masaryk University, 16th-18th March 2015