Exploring the Co-creation Process of Political brands

The application of branding theory to the political domain has become a significant area of research (Needham and Smith 2015). Further, there is a shared understanding that political parties, pressure groups, politicians and candidates can be conceptualised as brands (Guzman and Sierra 2009; Needham and Smith 2015; Peng and Hackley 2009; Pich et al. 2014; Smith 2009). However, existing research in this area has highlights the complexity of political brands and diversity of political branding research (Bale 2008; Pich and Dean 2014). For example, existing research has focused on cultural political branding (Smith and Speed 2011), development of new political brands (Busby and Cronshaw 2015; Norm and Stromback 2009), political brand identity (Pich et al. 2014), political brand image (Guzman and Sierra 2009; Pich and Dean 2014; Smith 2001), political brand equity (French and Smith 2010), Phipps et al. 2010; Smith and Spotswood 2013), political brand personality (Smith 2009), psychological profiling of politicians (de Landtsheer and de Vries 2015), political brand positioning (Cwalina and Falkowski 2015; Smith 2005), and political branding of candidates and parties (Milewicz and Milewicz 2014). Despite this breadth and depth, there are many areas that warrant further development and understanding, which ultimately will enhance political branding research (Needham and Smith 2015).

Political brands are co-created by multiple stakeholders including both internal and external to the organisation with the aid of tangible and intangible elements (Milewicz and Milewicz 2014). Political brands need to provide a clear understandable message in order to be considered authentic and credible (Gurau and Ayadi 2011; Smith and Saunders 1990). Existing researchers in this area accept that brands are partly created in the mind of the consumer (or citizen) and deconstructed and understood through in-depth data collection tools. In contrast, political brands can be measured or reviewed by analysing discourse through the practice of content analysis (Milewicz and Milewicz 2014; Needham and Smith 2015). However, political brands are also created, developed and communicated by internal stakeholders within the political organisation (Pich et al. 2014). Therefore, existing research on political brands has tended to focus on a solely external perspective or exclusively on an internal perspective (French and Smith 2010; Peng and Hackley 2009; Phipps et al. 2010; Pich and Dean 2015; Pich et al. 2014) with little attention on internal and external perspectives from (party and voters). Subsequently, future research should focus on a dual orientation and explore the co-creation process of political brands and this will enhance our understanding and contribute to the development of political branding theory (Needham and Smith 2015; Ormrod 2011). Political branding has the opportunity to look beyond the world of political marketing for assistance in knowledge development and fuse insights from different research areas (Needham and Smith 2015; Baines and Harris 2011). This insight will provide political actors with mechanisms and tools to deconstruct and operationalise their political brands.