Political marketing During Office The unresolved question of voter relationship marketing Dr Stephen Dann School of Management, Marketing and International Business, ANU

Marketing and Politics Marketing system of exchange between customer, marketer, organizations and society creates a dynamic series of transactions money, ideas, loyalty and benefit Core philosophy provide for the individual’s needs within the capacity restraints of the organization and society

Marketing

system of exchange between customer, marketer, organizations and society

creates a dynamic series of transactions

money, ideas, loyalty and benefit

Core philosophy

provide for the individual’s needs within the capacity restraints of the organization and society

Our (marketing) assumptions Permanent campaigning is a reality Needham (2005), Newman (1999), Howard (2004) Separation of political party campaigns and governing party campaigns Insufficient divide currently Voters are trading a vote/support for “something of value” emotive, irrational, intelligent and calculating imprecise purchases of uncertain future outcomes

Permanent campaigning is a reality

Needham (2005), Newman (1999), Howard (2004)

Separation of political party campaigns and governing party campaigns

Insufficient divide currently

Voters are trading a vote/support for “something of value”

emotive, irrational, intelligent and calculating

imprecise purchases of uncertain future outcomes

Relationship Marketing (Nordic School) Marketing [which] is to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other partners, at a profit, so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises [p. 138] Grönroos (1990)

Marketing [which] is to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other partners, at a profit, so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises [p. 138]

Grönroos (1990)

Relationship Marketing Practice Customer lifetime value difference between the costs of attracting, keeping and servicing the customer against the revenue generated by those activities (Berger and Nasr, 1998). explicit statement and calculation of the different value of each customer to the organization deliberate exclusion of low value customers (O'Malley and Tynan, 2001; Dorrington and Goodwin 2002). Political applications of exclusion of low return voters could be found in the dogwhistles and wedge politics (Cottle and Bolger, 2008)

Customer lifetime value

difference between the costs of attracting, keeping and servicing the customer against the revenue generated by those activities (Berger and Nasr, 1998).

explicit statement and calculation of the different value of each customer to the organization

deliberate exclusion of low value customers

(O'Malley and Tynan, 2001; Dorrington and Goodwin 2002).

Political applications of exclusion of low return voters could be found in the dogwhistles and wedge politics (Cottle and Bolger, 2008)

Is the Rudd Government using relationship marketing?

Analysis 1 non-campaign promise policy initiatives Yes Ability to cross-sell products once the relationship is established Credibility of interpersonal messages ahead of party political statements Yes Word of mouth is important Declining party loyalty swinging voter populations Yes Brand switching is common, but can be prevented or minimized Multi-party political system Yes There are alternatives in the market. Voters elect the government through selective support of political parties Yes customer controls the selection of the service supplier Election cycles Yes ongoing or periodic desire for the product or service How Present RM Condition

Is the Rudd Government using relationship marketing? Example of trust, reciprocity and commitment in a single political statement: … honours the RuddGovernment's commitments, and allows us to look Australians in the eye and say we delivered the policies they voted for last November. We are doing what we said we would do.

Example of trust, reciprocity and commitment in a single political statement:

… honours the RuddGovernment's commitments, and allows us to look Australians in the eye and say we delivered the policies they voted for last November. We are doing what we said we would do.

Analysis 2: Tag Cloud

Recoded Cloud

Leximancer content analysis emulator machine learning protocol for textual analysis visualization of common themes and related concept groups from textual data Smith, 2000 unsupervised ontology discovery

content analysis emulator

machine learning protocol for textual analysis

visualization of common themes and related concept groups from textual data

Smith, 2000

unsupervised ontology discovery

Supervised Ontology Commitment and the Budget Speech

Commitment

Is there a problem?

Key Takeouts Hallmark indicators of relationship marketing are present in the Rudd Government actions Budget speech analysis Relationship marketing principles are not far removed from good government Trust, reciprocity and commitment Relationship Practice is exclusionary by design Voter Lifetime Value is not an appropriate way to conduct government policy

Hallmark indicators of relationship marketing are present in the Rudd Government actions

Budget speech analysis

Relationship marketing principles are not far removed from good government

Trust, reciprocity and commitment

Relationship Practice is exclusionary by design

Voter Lifetime Value is not an appropriate way to conduct government policy

Questions?