Branding the Candidate: Marketing Strategies to Win Your Vote

by Lisa D. Spiller, Jeff Bergner, Don E. Schultz (Foreword by)

Overview

American voters will be empowered by this revealing, behind-the-scene exposé of the marketing strategies and tactics political candidates use to win their hearts, minds, donations, and votes.

Branding the Candidate: Marketing Strategies to Win Your Vote was written to empower voters to become sharper, more informed political consumers. It does that by taking a close look at political marketing strategies, especially those used by the Obama presidential campaign, which took marketing to a new level of sophistication.

Specifically, the book discusses the creation of the Obama brand; how the Obama campaign used database-driven, political microtargeting and high-tech digital media to reach various market segments; and the campaign's development and implementation of new political fundraising techniques. The book also discusses how a candidate who is created as a "brand" must cope with the challenges of "brand management" once in power. Finally, the authors counsel voters on how to arm themselves against the branding and marketing techniques that will be employed by candidates in the 2012 election, and they reflect on what the widespread extension of these techniques to the political process means for American democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313394041
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/15/2011
Series:	Praeger Series in Political Communication
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lisa Spiller, PhD, is professor of marketing at Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA.

Jeff Bergner, PhD, has served as staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as assistant secretary of state.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword
Foreword by Don E. Schultz
Acknowledgments
Introduction: In the Beginning
1 Promises, Promises
2 It's All Brand "New"
3 The Candidate as Chameleon
4 Speak Softly and Carry a Multimedia Strategy
5 Show Me the Money
6 The Dog Catches the Ambulance: Governing
7 Crystal Ball Political Marketing
Epilogue: Looking Back…Looking Forward
Notes
Suggested Readings
Index

What People are Saying About This

Norman Ornstein

"Jeff Bergner, a political scientist with long experience in Washington policy and campaign politics, and Lisa Spiller, a marketing professor, have married their expertise to create a lively and provocative book about how political campaigns, like those for commercial products, are all about branding. Voters sympathetic to Barack Obama won't much like the tone, but all voters can benefit from a deeper understanding about how modern campaigns use modern communications techniques to give people what they think they want."

Edward Spiegel

"The authors have provided a remarkable historical perspective of political campaigning in America. This is contrasted to today's sophisticated political marketing, which in 2008 was a world apart from anything in the past. These changes are well documented in successive chapters. All marketing programs are analyzed in detail. Their goal of providing an understanding of political marketing has been exceeded. They conclude with savvy lessons learned from the current administration mistakes and a prognosis of the marketing climate in 2012."

William Kristol

"A thought-provoking and fresh analysis of some key aspects of the Obama presidential campaign. When you read this, you'll understand why the promises of candidate Obama have made successful governing so hard. You'll also have a much keener grasp of the character of presidential politics in general in today's America."

Steven E. Schier

"Spiller and Bergner expose and explore the many recent changes in American election campaigns. They provide many helpful warnings for consumers of campaign messages. It's a highly useful read for interested citizens and college courses in American politics."

Dr. Larry J. Sabato

"Trillions are being spent each election season to sell politicians, and every voter needs some consumer protection. Jeff Bergner and Lisa Spiller provide it, and remind us that 'caveat emptor (buyer beware)' is always the best marketplace motto."

Paul Trible

"As a former U.S. Senator, I know the day to day pressures that shape American politics. As a university president, I have also seen many highly abstract studies with little relevance to political life. This book, a unique collaboration between the business marketing and political worlds, is right where theory and practice meet. It is a must read for every citizen who is targeted by today's sophisticated political marketing techniques."

Jonah Gitlitz

"Branding the Candidate is a very timely and impressive book as political fundraising and message communication becomes more dominant in campaigning. It is very complete raising the fundamental issues of branding and is accompanied by probing comments and questions. Direct marketing is so central to these efforts today as audiences have become more narrowly defined and segmented."