Branding in the political marketplace

Branding in the political
marketplace
A case study of the Norwegian Green Party in
the Oslo City Hall election in 2015
Copenhagen Business School 2016
Msc International Business and Politics
Supervisor: Karl – Heinz Pogner
60 pages STUs: 139 879
Marius Amundsen Flaget
Hand in date: 01/06/2016

Executive summary
Contribution to the field of research
The purpose of my thesis is to take the theory of the identity approach from the commercial
marketplace and apply it in the political marketplace. First, by discussing what happens to
the theory in a conceptual way, and secondly, by using the theory as a theoretical
framework for an internal and external stakeholder group related to the Green Party in Oslo,
Norway.
My contribution to the field of branding will be to explore the appropriateness and fit for the
identity approach in the political marketplace.
Research Questions
In this thesis I am interested in looking at how a political party can project a consistent brand
identity to its different internal and external stakeholder groups. I will address this in a
theoretical way, and then in a practical way, resulting in the following research questions:
1. How does the identity approach translate from the commercial marketplace to the
political marketplace on a conceptual level?
2. How is the Green Party able to project a consistent identity between its internal and
external stakeholders?
3. How can a political party such as the Green Party use the identity approach to ensure a
consistent identity among its stakeholders?
Theoretical Framework
As a theoretical framework I have chosen to use the identity approach in order to compare
how two stakeholder groups, where one is internal and the other is external, view the brand
identity of the Green Party. The framework is largely based on the work by Heding, Knutzen
& Bjerre (2009) and Hatch and Schultz (1997) and is originally intended for use in the
commercial marketplace.

Analysis & method
I have made a qualitative research design using semi structured interviews to interview one
group of employees in the Green Party, and one group of public relations professionals. This
gives the analysis one group of internal stakeholders and one group of external stakeholders.
In order to structure the analysis I have used the identity approach as framework where I
make a comparative analysis to determine if the two groups have similar views on the brand
identity of the Green Party or if there are gaps or conflicting views between the two.
Results & Conclusion(s)
On a conceptual level I found that the application of the identity approach may be applied in
the political marketplace. However, there are differences between the commercial
marketplace and the political marketplace and political parties should beware of these. For
example part of the identity approach that can include a top- down management style that
potentially could violate democratic norms. It would also be important to clarify what role
the leadership and the ordinary members would play when shaping the behavior, culture or
vision of the party. Theoretically, I found that in the political marketplace the identity theory
could be applied in two ways: as a strategy for the party to attract more voters by focusing
on a coherent message and projecting the party as a corporate party brand with a unified
message across all functions. And second, the identity approach can be used as a tool to
detect gaps in how the party is perceived among different stakeholder groups.
Through the analysis I also found that the Green Party in Oslo does not project a
consistent brand identity to it’d different stakeholder groups and several gaps between the
internal and external stakeholder groups used in my sample were detected. The Green Party
can however, create a consistent brand identity by using the identity approach. The party
can also use the approach as a tool to detect gaps between stakeholders, much like in this
analysis.

Contents
1. Introduction:.................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Problem formulation:.............................................................................................................. 2
1.2 Theoretical Choice:.................................................................................................................. 2
1.3 Limitations:.............................................................................................................................. 3
1.4 About The Green Party............................................................................................................ 3
1.5 Research Questions:................................................................................................................ 4
1.6 Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 5
2 Political marketing and the political brand: .................................................................................... 7
2.1 Political marketing................................................................................................................... 8
2.2 Stakeholders in the political marketplace............................................................................... 8
2.3 The political marketplace........................................................................................................ 9
2.4 The political party as an organization ..................................................................................... 9
2.5 The voter as a consumer ....................................................................................................... 10
2.6 Branding in politics................................................................................................................ 10
2.7 Conceptualizing the political brand....................................................................................... 11
2.8 The building blocks of the political brand ............................................................................. 12
2.9 Brand Equity .......................................................................................................................... 12
3 Theoretical Framework: identity approach of branding ............................................................... 12
3.1 The Identity Approach........................................................................................................... 13
3.1.1 Corporate and organizational identity .......................................................................... 14
3.1.2 Corporate Branding....................................................................................................... 14
3.1.3 The brand consumer exchange ..................................................................................... 15
3.1.4 The theoretical building blocks of the Identity Approach............................................. 16
3.1.5 Corporate Identity:........................................................................................................ 16
3.1.6 Organizational Identity:................................................................................................. 17
3.1.7 Image:............................................................................................................................ 18
3.1.8 Reputation:.................................................................................................................... 18
3.1.9 Brand Identity:............................................................................................................... 19
3.2 Identity and branding: From the commercial to the political marketplace.......................... 19
3.2.1 Aligning identity within a political context.................................................................... 20
3.2.2 Corporate Identity......................................................................................................... 20
3.2.3 Organizational identity.................................................................................................. 22
3.2.4 Image:............................................................................................................................ 23

3.2.5 Reputation:.................................................................................................................... 24
3.2.6 Stakeholder- brand exchange........................................................................................ 25
3.2.7 The co-creation of brand identity.................................................................................. 25
3.2.8 Conclusion part one....................................................................................................... 26
4 Design and method: ...................................................................................................................... 27
4.1 Ontology and epistomology .................................................................................................. 28
4.2 Purpose.................................................................................................................................. 29
4.3 Problem formulation............................................................................................................. 29
4.4 Research Design .................................................................................................................... 30
4.5 Methodological choice .......................................................................................................... 31
4.6 The sample ............................................................................................................................ 31
4.7 Collecting the data: ............................................................................................................... 33
4.8 Objectivity ............................................................................................................................. 34
4.9 Reliability and Validity........................................................................................................... 35
4.9.1 Reliability....................................................................................................................... 35
4.9.2 Transcription.................................................................................................................. 37
4.9.3 Translation..................................................................................................................... 37
4.9.4 Validity:.......................................................................................................................... 38
5 Analysis: The Green Party’s identity.............................................................................................. 39
5.1 Corporate Identity:................................................................................................................ 39
5.1.1 Strategy and vision ........................................................................................................ 39
5.1.2 Visual identity................................................................................................................ 41
5.2 Organizational Identity.......................................................................................................... 43
5.2.1 Behavior......................................................................................................................... 43
5.2.2 Culture........................................................................................................................... 46
5.3 Image..................................................................................................................................... 47
5.4 Reputation............................................................................................................................. 50
5.5 Conclusion part two .............................................................................................................. 52
6. Concusion part three..................................................................................................................... 55
7. Conclusion, Implications and Further research............................................................................. 58
8. Bibliography................................................................................................................................... 61
9. Appendix........................................................................................................................................ 65
a. Interview guide- internal stakeholders ..................................................................................... 65
b. Interview guide – external stakeholders................................................................................... 65

c. Interview guide- follow up questions for external stakeholders .............................................. 66
d. Map of nodes used for analyzing the data................................................................................ 67
e. Green Party rectangular logo .................................................................................................... 68
f. Green Party square logo............................................................................................................ 68
g. Talking bubble ........................................................................................................................... 69
h. MDG website, Instagram and Facebook ................................................................................... 70
i. Interview transcripts- Internal stakeholder groups .................................................................. 71
a. Interview transcripts- External stakeholders ............................................................................ 79

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1. Introduction:
Politics have become more than a set of competing ideologies and ideas. Voters are
becoming less faithful to their parties and behave more like consumers when deciding on
who they will vote for. Another development is that academic disciplines such as marketing
and branding, traditionally belonging in the commercial market, have become important
tools for political parties as they compete for votes in the political marketplace.
It is especially in the recent decades that this trend has emerged, and it is especially
in the western world, with election campaigns in the United States running in the billions,
and consultants and marketers making fortunes assisting political candidates in the political
marketplace.
This market oriented approach to politics and the use of business strategies in order
to win elections normally goes under the umbrella term Political Marketing. And under this
term, we find the field of branding. A strong brand is a powerful thing and can be worth
billions; according to Hatch and Schultz (2001) a strong corporate brand can have market
values that are twice the size of book values. A classic example of how strong the power of a
brand can be is coca cola where two thirds of respondents in a blind test preferred the taste
of Pepsi, but two thirds would ask for Coke (Scammel, 2015, p. 12). A brand is an intangible
asset and can be a fickle thing to define, or as one commentator said: “Brands are in fact
looking for a theory” (Scammel, 2015, p. 8). The brand is also a wide concept. It can bring
together rationality, irrationality; it incorporates aesthetics or style; or substance and
reputation. It provides an opportunity to combine the big issues and small details and can
potentially help to analyze or understand communication in terms of functions, image,
identity, style and strategy. Because of this all-encompassing idea of what a brand can be
and what a brand means it can be argued that if you understand your organizations brand-
you understand your organization. And if this holds to be true, can it also be said that if you
understand your political brand you understand your political party?
In this thesis I will look at the identity of the political party - the ability of a party to
send a consistent and unified brand identity, internally as well as externally to all its
stakeholder groups, and I will discuss if the concept of brand identity can be useful for a

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political party as a tool for discovering differences in how the brand identity of a party is
perceived on the inside and outside the organization.
1.1 Problem formulation:
In this thesis I am interested in looking at how a political party can project a consistent brand
identity to its different internal and external stakeholder groups. I have chosen to use the
Green Party in Oslo, Norway as case study. The Green Party is interesting because they are a
fairly new party, they are a fairly small party, and during the last City Hall election
(municipality election) in Oslo in 2015 they performed quite well and were given two seats
at the City Hall council.
In order to look at the Green Party’s brand identity, I will apply the theory of the
identity approach. First, I will from a theoretical point of view like to conceptualize how the
Identity theory, that is originally applied in the commercial marketplace, can be applied in
the political marketplace, and second, I would like to use the theory too look at how and if,
the Green Party manages to be consistent in their brand identity, and if they have any
discrepancies or gaps in their brand identity in how the party is perceived from both internal
and external stakeholders.
1.2 Theoretical Choice:
The identity approach provide a distinct framework for analyzing a brand compared to more
general concepts such as the original brand model by Keller (1993), Aaker’s brand
personality (1997) or the consumer based approach (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009). The
focus of the brand identity is the relationship between different internal and external
stakeholders of the brand, and the potential differences or similarities in the perception of
the brand between these groups. The approach looks at the organizational identity of the
brand, the corporate identity of the brand, and the brands image and reputation. By using
the Identity Approach it is possible to get an organized overview over different stakeholders,
and analyze the different or similar views among them of the brand itself. The approach
could potentially prove to be valuable to the management of political parties as it can

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potentially identify sources of conflict between stakeholders, reveal discrepancies between
stakeholder groups or offer insight as to what alienates voters or other stakeholder groups
from the party.
1.3 Limitations:
As this thesis will cross the threshold of politics and marketing it is important to emphasize
that in this thesis I will not opinionate on the policies of the Green party. As far as it is
possible I will discount political issues from the research and focus on branding and the
identity of the Green Party as those are the issue of my thesis.
The identity approach is a very comprehensive theory, which requires insight from a
potentially vast population of stakeholder groups that in turn can require comprehensive
and quite diversified methods of data gathering for the data to be gathered in the most
optimal way. I will therefore, for the sake of feasibility and clarity, limit my research to only
two different stakeholder groups; one internal and one external, and where it is possible,
generalize on these findings.
I will also limit the timeframe to the period of six months following the September
2015 election as reference frame for the respondents in my analysis. This is because this is
the period in which the data was collected, and because I would like to have a time limit as a
framework when interviewing my respondents.
1.4 About The Green Party
The Green Party was founded in 1988 and was for a long time a marginal party in the fringes
of the political marketplace in Norway. The party has its main focus on environmental issues.
In Oslo they want to push the city in a more environmental direction by building safe bicycle
paths, reduce the space for cars and increase investments in public transportation, make
Oslo carbon neutral, support a vibrant and diverse art scene, provide green and accessible
art spaces for everyone, give city boroughs greater authority and improve finances (“About
the Green party,” 2016).
In the Oslo City Hall election of 2015 the Green party made a transition from being a

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small party to entering City Hall with 8,1% the votes, up from 2,1% in 2011
(“Valgresultat.no”, n.d; “NRK Valgresultat 2011 Oslo”, 2011). This was seen as a huge success
for the Green Party and gave the party two seats in the City council filled by Hanna E.
Marcussen and Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, with Lan Marie Nguyen becoming a well-known face
in Norwegian media (“Byrådet”, n.d). The City Council consists of three political parties that
make up a coalition. In addition to the Green Party, the Labor party and the Socialist leftwing
party make up this coalition (“Byrådet”, n.d). Also very visible on behalf of the Green Party in
Oslo is the Member of Parliament, Rasmus Hansson who often makes public appearances
and represent the party in media (“Rasmus Hansson”, n.d). However, in the time period after
the election in Septemger 2015 the Green Party has fallen in the polls and by March 2016
they are polling at 3,2% (Ipsos, 2016).
1.5 Research Questions:
Based on the previous discussions and presentation of my problem formulation, theoretical
choice and limitation, this thesis will address the question of how political parties can build
and sustain a brand identity in the political marketplace. This question will be analyzed
through the following three research questions:
3. How can a political party such as the Green Party use the identity approach to ensure
a consistent identity among its stakeholders?
The first question is addressed through a theoretical discussion in section 3, 2 and answered
in full in part 3, 2, 8. The two other questions are explored and analyzed in section 5. The
analysis is based on a series of semi structured interviews using the identity approach as
framework. The conclusion to question 2 is found in part 5, 5 and the conclusion to question
3 is found in part 6. Based on these research questions, part 7 provide an overall conclusion,
addressing in full how political parties can build and sustain brand identity in the political
marketplace.

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1.6 Literature Review
In the field of political marketing there has been an increase of interest in the application of
branding over the years (Smith & French 2009, Scammel 2007). Sigge Winther Nielsen has
summarized the available literature on political branding in his paper: On Political Brands: A
Systematic Review of Literature (2015). And in addition a special issue on political branding
from 2015 in the Journal of Political Marketing volume 14, issue 1-2 (Needham & Smith,
2015) offers insight into the recent developments within political branding. Together they
provide a good overview of existing and current literature on political branding.
In his paper, Nielsen has conducted a systematic literature review; he identifies and
categorizes research on Political Branding in the following subcategories: The economic
political brand perspective, the relational political brand perspective, the political brand
community perspective, the voter-centric brand perspective and the cultural political brand
perspective (Nielsen, 2015, p. 12). These categories or “approaches” are also found in Brand
management: Research, Theory and practice by Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre (2015) who in
addition presents a seventh perspective; the identity approach.
The research that has been done so far is quite diverse and comes from a range of
different perspectives ranging from economics, to psychology, to anthropology (Nielsen,
2015). Margaret Scammel (2015) argues that the brand concept is an effective way to
understand political images, and can fuse insights in areas as diverse as political science,
economics and political marketing and cultural analysis. She also suggests that branding can
unify emotional and rational accounts of political behavior (Scammel, 2015, p. 16; Needham
& Smith, 2015, p.1).
Early studies in political branding focused on brand managers and how they would
influence political consumers/voters, and assumptions were largely based on the economic
political brand perspective, while cases were focused on entities such as parties, candidates
or campaigns (Niffenegger, 1989; Lock & Harris, 2001). In this view the task of the brand
managers were to influence the voter’s view of the brand by using linear communication in
order to influence voters. Tools such as the 4 P’s of marketing (price, product, place and
promotion) were employed to ensure that the brand is recalled by voters at the right place
and time (Lock & Harris, 2001, p.950). Nielsen uses Hillary Clinton’s campaign of 2007 as an
example, when she collected vast amounts of voter data and tailored messages to match the

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brand image that Hillary wanted to convey to specific voter groups (Nielsen, 2016, p. 12).
Research on Brand Communities has been concerned with how voter engage in social
consumption of politics (Dermody & Scullion, 2001; Phipps, Brace-Govan & Jevons, 2010).
They use sports teams and how supporters engage with their teams. The research itself was
largely based on anthropology. Busby and Conshaw also look at political branding through
brand communities. The theory of consumer tribes is used to look at the Tea Party
movement in the United States. The authors argue that the movement is defined by its users
and explore the use of social media (Busby & Cronshaw, 2015).
Brand Personality is how voters ascribe brands with human like characteristics. Based
on personality psychology, scholars Smith & French (2009) have written on personality traits
on UK political parties. Two other papers (from 2015) also look at political brands through
brand personality theory. Guzman, Paswan and Van Steenburg analyze political brands in
Mexico using Aaker’s brand personality scale (Guzman, Paswan & Van Steenburg, 2015). And
De Landtsheer and De Vries use psychological profiling to identity personality characteristics
of a former EU president (Landtsheer & De Vries, 2015). In addition, an article by Gorbniuk,
Kusak, Kogut and Kustos (2015) use the personality approach to look at different Polish
Parties presenting 88 different personality descriptions (Gorbinuk, Kusak, Kustos & Kustos,
2015). Related to this is a paper by Speed, Butler and Collins use associative network theory
to look at how voters develop perceptions of politicians and look at the brand associations of
political party leaders and like stress the importance of authenticity, and also brand
authority (Speed, Butler & Collins, 2015).
A fourth perspective is brand culture. This perspective is on the sociological
dimensions of long-term cultural streams that can strengthen or weaken a party brand over
time. Disruption and disconnection in society becomes the main variable, and not the
pattern or behaviors of voters or parties (Nielsen, 2015, p. 15-16).
The brand relationship perspective has had research focused on the
relation/relationship between parties/leaders and voters (Scammel, 2007). Dean, Croft and
Pitch (2015) also investigate the emotional aspects of party branding, with their analysis
built on relationship marketing and the importance of symbolic policies and authenticity
(Dean, Croft & Pitch, 2015).
The consumer-based perspective looks at the voter’s memory of a brand and how
associations stored in people’s head shapes their image of a political party or a politician

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(Smith & French, 2009). This view is based on cognitive psychology.
Finally, very little has been written about brand identity in a political context.
Schneider and Ferie (2015) employ the concept of brand identity and in their study; they
look at the two biggest political parties in Germany and at what happens when party
branding follows the preferences of either voters or party members. They argue that brand-
building is an ongoing process of relationship building, and that party members are
important in creating and maintaining a brand. In their paper they stress how important it is
to consider internal brand building as well as external brand building noting that if the party
develops a strategy for its brand that party members find favorable, the party can utilize its
members as communicators of its party’s character traits to the voters (Schneider & Ferie,
2015 p.87). They are also the first researchers “to offer an empirical model that can assess
political party brands from the perspective of both internal and external stakeholders”
(Schneider & Ferie, 2015 p.65.) In their study, brand identity acknowledges the similarities
and differences between internal and external stakeholders and they emphasize the
importance of being aware of these groups. In their study, party members and party
leadership are on one side (internal) and voters on the other (external) (Schneider & Ferie,
2015 p.67). This narrows and limits the scope of the study to two different stakeholder
groups. Missing from their paper is a thorough theoretical discussion of the appropriateness
and issues regarding the application of a branding strategy intended for the commercial
market place in the political marketplace.
2 Political marketing and the political brand:
In order to get an understanding of branding and the use of branding in the political
marketplace it is necessary to get an understanding of what the political marketplace is, who
the different actors in the marketplace is, and understand concepts such as the political
brand. In this section I will outline and define the different terms and concepts necessary to
understand the political brand, and the environment that the political brand exists in.

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2.1 Political marketing
Ormrod (2012) defines political marketing as “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” (p. 13). Newman (1999) writes that in
its simplest form, political marketing is the application of marketing principles in the political
marketplace. Political marketing is the application of business marketing principles and
procedures in political campaigns by various individuals and organizations. The procedures
involved include the analysis, developments, execution, and management of strategic
campaigns by candidates, political parties, governments, lobbyists and interest groups that
seek to drive public opinion, advance their own ideologies, win elections, and pass
legislations and referenda in response to the needs and wants of selected people in groups
in a society (Newman, 1999, p.3). Public opinion can be defined as the preference of the
adult population on matters of relevance to the government (Erikson & Tedin, 2015, p.7).
2.2 Stakeholders in the political marketplace
Ormrod argues for a wide interpretation of stakeholders in the political marketplace. He
argues that it would be an impossible task to identify each stakeholder in all the different
political systems out there, and stakeholders in political systems are context- specific, and
vary from where the political systems exist (p.12-13). The church would for example be an
important stakeholder in one political marketplace but irrelevant in another. A study by
Nigel de Bussy and Lorissa Kelly (2010), that conducted in-depth interviews with 23
politicians and political advisors, found that “the notion of stakeholding is in wide use in
politics and that it refers, in principle, to those with a legitimate interest or claim in a
particular situation or policy decision” (p.300). But in practice, the politicians and their
advisors pay the most attention to those with the power to assert their influence (p. 300). In
this thesis I have chosen to limit the scope of stakeholder groups to only two: employees of
the Green Party and public relations professionals.

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2.3 The political marketplace
In the commercial marketplace organizations trade their goods with others in exchange for
money or other resources, and in the political marketplace parties offer their policies and
candidates in exchange for the votes needed to gain office (Schlesinger, 1984, p. 380).
However, the commercial and political markets are not identical. Some notable differences
are that unlike in the commercial market the political party offers collective goods- policies
of the winning party will affect all the voters regardless of which vote was casted by the
voter. Another differentiating factor is that the political market operates more incoherent in
accord with the election cycle (Schlesinger, 1984, p. 381).
The political marketplace is also different today than earlier when candidates were
likely to meet relatively cohesive and homogenous constituents. However, in recent years
political arenas have become more heterogeneous, contentious and fragmented (Newman,
1999, p.4). Voters today are likely to be issue oriented, and attuned to candidate’s personal
qualities, and they are exposed to more sources of information, more critical reporting, and
media provides an unrelenting environment for politicians and elected officials (Newman,
1999, p.4; Lees-Marshment , 2009,p.8). This makes voting behavior less predictable. The rise
of single-issue causes and the growing influence of special interest groups have made it
more difficult to map out voter opinion and tailor policies to suit different voters (Newman,
1999, p.4). Older models of voting behavior that explain election outcomes on societal
foundations such as party identification offer less guidance for election outcomes than they
did in the past, and consumer-behavior in politics suggests that voters are more likely to
choose on a more rational basis (Lees-Marshment, 2009). Politics also become a “product”
that is offered on the market and is differentiated from a commercial product in that the
political product is a multi-component phenomenon that consists of the party, the person
and the ideology (Speed, Butler & Collins, 2015, p. 132).
2.4 The political party as an organization
Downs defines a political party as “a team seeking to control the governing apparatus by
gaining office in a duly constituted election” (Downs, 1957, p. 137). According to Schlesinger
(1984), political parties’ offer collective benefits, and compensates its participants indirectly,

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which makes the party a non-market- based organization. But the party also competes for
votes by offering policies in return for votes which is a market based trait and gives the
political organization a combination of different properties (p. 389). Political parties also
tend to appear as homogeneous entities, similar to businesses in the sense that they can
manage their marketing and branding (Lees-Marshment 2009;Reeves, de Chernatony, and
Carrigan 2006). I will therefore consider a political party to at least partially be market- based
and also to be an organization that is capable of managing its own branding
2.5 The voter as a consumer
In a contemporary political campaign, having a marketing orientation means that candidates
recognize the nature of the exchange process when they ask voters for their votes.
Candidates have to view their campaigns from the point of view of their voters,
constituencies and financial donors: the consumers in political campaigns (Newman, 1999,
p.4) This rise of the political consumer is not just about the way people vote, but the nature
of their attitude to politicians. It is about what they demand, how they want to be involved,
how they question authority or scrutinize lack of delivery. There is also a demand for
demonstrable improvements in performances such as better schools or healthcare (Lees-
Marshment, 2009, p.9). The voters in mature democratic systems are characterized by larger
volatility in voter behavior and weakened party alignment (Brennan & Henneberg, 2008,
p.561).
2.6 Branding in politics
An important stem of research in political marketing is branding. It is not universally
accepted that political parties are in fact brands. As mentioned in the discussion of Political
Marketing, there are differences between the commercial and the political marketplace, and
for some “political parties are not soap powder brands, and should not be treated as such”
(Smith & French, 2009, p. 210). However, over the years there has been a stream of papers
that accepts political parties as brands (Nielsen, 2015; Smith & French, 2009; Scammel,
2007). According to Jennifer Lees-Marshment, political branding is about how a political

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organization or individual is perceived overall. It is broader than the product itself, and
where a product has a functional purpose, a brand offers something additional; something
more psychological and less tangible (Lees-Marshment, 2009, p.111). On political branding,
Margaret Scammel writes that “the beauty of the brand as a concept is that it is broad and
inclusive; it brings together the rational and apparently irrational; the hard and the soft
elements of voter choice, the big dimensions of political reputation and the seemingly trivial
details of appearance and tone of voice” (Scammel, 2015, p. 7).
2.7 Conceptualizing the political brand
There has been a steady stream of papers that accept politicians and parties as brands
(Nielsen, 2015; Smith & French, 2009; Scammel, 2015; Needham & Smith, 2015). The
existing literature suggests a wide range of definitions of a political brand. For the purpose of
this thesis I will define political branding as: “Political representation that are located in a
pattern, which can be identified and differentiated from other political representations”
(Nielsen, 2015, p. 9). By this definition political representations can be understood as names,
symbols, imagery and other artifacts associated with a political entity. There are two
arguments that support the choice of this definition. The first is that the definition is only
concerned with politics. There are no references to the world of business, which is where
branding has its origin. Secondly, in the field of brand management there are two overriding
views: one with a positivistic point of view, and one with a constructivist view. The
positivistic view means that the brand is “owned” by the marketer who controls the
communication to a consumer/receiver. The brand is then seen as something lifeless that
that is created by its owners and can be positioned, segmented and used to create an image
(Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 21). The constructivist view states that the meaning of
the brand is created in the interaction between the brand and the consumer, and that the
image of the brand forms in consumer memory and influence behavior (Heding, Knudtzen &
Bjerre, 2009; Smith & French, 2009). In the latter view the consumer to a large extent
“owns” the brand. Nielsen’s definition does not take a stand in this debate, but is neutral.
This leaves room for wider interpretations.

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2.8 The building blocks of the political brand
Having defined political branding as “Political representation that is located in a pattern,
which can be identifies and differentiated from other political representations”, I would now
like to clarify what a political brand consists of. Smith & French (2009) breaks the political
brand down to three separate entities drawing on the work of O’Shaughnessy and
Henneberg (2007). These three separate entities that together form the political brand are:
the party itself, the politicians and the policies as a service (Smith & French, 2009). Together
they make up “the political brand”.
2.9 Brand Equity
Brand equity can be understood as how much financial value a brand holds, but also has a
subjective meaning for the consumer who experiences the brand; “A consumer perceives a
brand’s equity as the value added to the functional product or service by associating it with
the brand name” (Aaker & Biel, 1993, p.2). The creation of brand equity is at the heart of
brand management (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 11).
3 Theoretical Framework: identity approach of branding
Tilde Heding, Charlotte Knudtzen and Mogens Bjerre, in their book “Brand Management:
Research, Theory and Practice, identify seven perspectives from different schools of thought
on the concept of branding. In their book “Brand Management: Research, theory and
practice they give a neat overview over the Identity Approach. Most of the theoretical
discussion will be based on their work, and supplement with other journal articles such as
Hatch and Schultz (1997) and Scammel (2015). Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre work under the
assumption that there are two overriding brand management paradigms in Brand literature.
This view is supported by a range of other scholars as well (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000;
Smith & French, 2009). One view is positivistic, which means that the brand is “owned” by
the marketer who controls the message to a passive consumer/recipient. The other is
interpretive and in this view and assumes that that the brand is created in mind of the

13
consumer, and therefore the consumer to a large extent “owns” the brand (Heding,
Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 21; Smith & French, 2009, p. 210). The different theories
presented by Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre by can be seen through both an interpretive
paradigm and a positivistic paradigm, or through both. The Identity approach, chosen as
framework in this thesis, is the latter where both interpretive and the positivistic “lenses”
can be used because of the complexity of the approach. The identity approach consists of
several supporting themes that can be seen through both positivistic and interpretive views.
These supporting themes that can be seen through both lenses are also why the approach
was chosen for this thesis, as the identity approach provides a framework that takes the
views of both internal and external stakeholders into account. This allows the researcher to
look for differences or discrepancies in how these stakeholder groups perceive the brand
identity.
The identity approach puts the corporation and its employees at the center of
attention of the exchange (communication) between the brand and the consumer, but the
communication is not perceived to be linear only. Identity is context-dependent and can be
seen as the result of negotiation between external and internal stakeholders (Heding,
Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 54).
In addition to visual and behavioral aspects of brand identity that are internal, the
identity theory also rests on the assumption that image and reputation, that are external,
are a part of the brand identity. This will be further explained in the next sections. But as two
of the factors are internal and two are external, they also contribute to how the Identity
Approach can be seen through both a positivist and interpretive lenses where the marketer
or the consumer “owns the brand”.
3.1 The Identity Approach
At its core, the Identity approach is about the creation of a unified, visual and behavioral
identity. The brand should express a unified and coherent identity by using the behavioral
and visual identity of the corporation to create the brand. It is assumed that consumers give
identity characteristics to companies based on their total experience of the company. And
this line of thought places the corporation and its employees at the center of brand equity

14
creation (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 48).
However, these are only internal factors, in the identity approach; image and
reputation (that are external factors) are also assumed to be determinants for consumers
brand choice (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 52).
The identity approach is made up from four pillars. These are organizational identity,
corporate identity, image and reputation. All which will be further outlined in this section.
3.1.1 Corporate and organizational identity
“Organizational identity refers broadly to what members perceive, feel and think about their
organizations; It is assumed to be a collective, commonly-shared understanding of the
organizations distinctive values and characteristics” (Hatch & Schultz, 1997, p. 357). It also
becomes embedded with the organizational culture of the organization (Hatch & Schultz,
1997, p. 358). Corporate identity, however, is different in that it is a function of leadership,
and in its focus on visual identity. Both concepts build on an idea of what the organization is,
but corporate identity emphasizes the importance of top management in the formulation of
corporate identity through strong links with vision and strategy (Schultz & Hatch, 2015, p.
357). For an organization to have a strong corporate identity all marketing and
communication activities needs to be integrated, elevated and aligned through the entire
organization on a strategic and corporate level. From this assumption corporate branding
plays an important role in the identity approach because “alignment of all communication in
one unified identity requires strategic-level brand management” (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre.
2009, p.50).
3.1.2 Corporate Branding
In the identity approach the corporation becomes the brand. This is different from product
level branding (where each individual product has a distinguished product brand) in the way
that corporate branding creates one unified message across all functions in the corporation.
A corporate brand is based on the long-term idea of the brand. It allows corporations to use
their heritage to create strong brands, involves the whole organization and gives employees

15
a vital role; values and beliefs become key ingredients in creating a differentiation from
other corporations and brand equity is created from the visual and behavioral identity of the
organization (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 51).
3.1.3 The brand consumer exchange
In addition to the internal factors such as visual identity and behavioral identity, external
factors of image and reputation are considered to be key determinants in a consumer’s
choice of brand. Traditionally in brand management, the exchange between the brand and
the consumer is the focus. In the identity approach, this focus is expanded to include all
stakeholders (those with a legitimate interest or claim in a particular situation or policy
decision) and not only consumers (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 53.)
As before mentioned the exchange between the brand and the consumer is not
perceived to be linear only. Identity is context-dependent and can be seen as the result of
negotiation between external and internal stakeholders. In addition, because the Identity
Approach consists of different “building blocks”, the question of the brand- stakeholder
exchange becomes more complex. From a strategic and visual point of view, the exchange
between brand and stakeholder comes from the creation of a coherent visual identity. In
order for this to be successful, the sender needs to control all communication which is
communicated linearly (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 53). The behavioral aspects of
brand identity are believed to be context-dependent and both individually and socially
created. This gives a constructivist view of identity, and the identity becomes a result of co-
creation (dialogue) between stakeholder and brand (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p.
53).
The external factors of the Identity Approach, image and reputation imply a
stakeholder perspective of the exchange. Image is communicated linearly, but the reactions
(interpretation) of the stakeholders are perceived to be central in forming the identity.
Reputation is more long term than image and more focused on relationship building than
linear communication. The visual identity is the only point of view that is linear only. But
because brand identity becomes a multidimensional approach, the identity of the brand

16
becomes more constructivist as identity becomes context-dependent and socially
constructed. Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre also argue that the “brand – stakeholder” view itself
is challenged “because the social construction of identity implies that identity is not
something that can be formed inside a company and then sent to consumers, who perceive
the message exactly as it was intended” (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 54).
Identity becomes something that is co-created because it is formed externally (by
the consumers) and internally (by the corporation). A successful brand identity is dependent
on aligning these external and internal factors.
3.1.4 The theoretical building blocks of the Identity Approach
The core theme of the Identity Approach is brand identity. Brand identity is made up from
four supporting themes: Organizational Identity, Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation.
Each of these four supporting themes is explored separately and together they make up
brand identity. These four themes can be divided into two categories: external and internal.
Corporate Identity and Organizational Identity are internal, while Image and Reputation are
external (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 55).
3.1.5 Corporate Identity:
The academic literature has two perspectives on how to maintain and create a corporate
identity: A visual perspective that use visual means to build brand identity and a strategic
perspective that has a strategic vision of the brand.
The visual school is concerned with the visual manifestations of the corporate
identity and the way the organization expresses itself visually. According to Abratt and Shee
“visual identity is a part of the deeper identity of the group, the outward sign of inward
commitments, serving to remind of its real purpose”(Shee & Abratt, 1989, .p 68). Ideally this
should be outward signs and symbols of the inward commitment of the organization such as
the logo, the name, color, sound or touch (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 56). The
visual school has been criticized for being too narrow in practice because of its focus only on

17
design, name or logo.
Hatch and Schultz (1997) argue that corporate identity is not only the visual
expression of a corporation. It is also the way people in an organization think, behave and
work. The strategic school focuses on the central idea of the organization; mission, vision
and philosophy. However, in the identity approach, corporate identity becomes about
merging behavior and the visual identity. It is when the visual and strategic school merges
that the complete corporate identity emerges.
When taking both the visual and the strategic view into account, Corporate Identity
contributes to brand identity in two ways. First, it makes sure that input from strategic
management (mission and vision) is implemented when managing and creating brand
identity. Secondly, it ensures that brand identity is represented visually through
management of product, logo, design and such, representing all visual representations of
brand identity (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 57).
3.1.6 Organizational Identity:
Organizational identity refers to the behavioral and cultural aspects affecting brand identity.
The key concepts in this supporting theme are organizational behavior and culture, these
elements affect how members of the organization perceive who they are and what they
stand for as an organization (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 57). According to Heding,
Knudtzen & Bjerre the organizational identity proves an emotional and cognitive foundation
that members build an attachment. The organizational identity also provides a cognitive and
emotional foundation on which the members can build an attachment (p.57).
Hatch and Schultz (1997) view organizational identity as grounded in organizational
symbols and local meaning and therefore embedded in organizational culture. They argue
that the symbolic construction of corporate identity is communicated to members of the
organization by management, but is interpreted and enacted by members of the
organization based on the culture of the organization, work experiences and social influence
from external relations with the environment. Hence, organizational identity is developed
from the ongoing interactions between members of the organization and top management
(p. 358). Based on their perspective that is grounded in interpretivism and social
constructivism, they also see culture as a context in which “interpretations of organizational

18
identity are formed and intentions to influence organizational image are formulated” (Hatch
& Schultz, 1997, p. 357).
3.1.7 Image:
Image is the basic element of thought and is vital in the identity approach. The aim is to
project a single image to all stakeholders and ensure consistency in the brand image among
those stakeholders. But regardless of how hard and organization may attempt to influence
its image by adjusting its visual, corporate or organization identity, there is a wide
agreements among scholars that it is the receiver of the communication that shapes the
image. According to Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre (2009) “Corporate image is a mosaic of
impressions formed by a variety of formal and informal signals projected by the company.
From this mosaic the recipient pieces together the corporate image (p. 59). Hatch and
Schultz (1997) write that image is a “holistic and vivid impression held by an individual or a
particular group towards an organization and is a result of sense-making by an individual or a
particular group and communication by the organization of a fabricated and projected
picture of itself” (p. 359). And Scammel (2015) argues that that brand images are vulnerable
to media representations, shaped by citizen preferences, media use, interpersonal
conversations and experience and that “political brand images cannot be simply transferred
from parties to voters” (p.16).
3.1.8 Reputation:
The final supporting theme of organizational identity is reputation. Unlike image which is
short-term, reputation takes a long time to form, and is based in what the organization has
done over time and how it has behaved. Reputation is based on the track record of solid
leadership, the perception of competence and credibility to deliver what is promised
(Harrop, 1990, p. 279; Scammel, 1999, p.729). According to Scammel, reputations are
grounded in reality and become a “hard” idea, and no amount of advertising or sparkling can
redeem a product that does not live up to its promises. But because of this, a political image

19
that is conceived as reputation is re- legitimized according to democratic reason and norms
(Scammel, 2015, p. 9). But it is also difficult for an organization to manage a good
reputation. According to Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre the key drivers of reputation are PR and
the communication of corporate social responsibility or corporate success stories and most
effectively communicated through independent third parties. This is in line with Scammel’s
suggestion that reputation is grounded in reality and makes a good reputation a valuable
asset to have for an organization.
3.1.9 Brand Identity:
The four supporting themes presented, together make up the core theoretical concept of
the identity approach: The brand identity. The key is to a successful brand identity is to align
all the different themes, internally and externally, so that the result is a unified and coherent
brand identity that is projected to all stakeholders.
3.2 Identity and branding: From the commercial to the political marketplace
As mentioned in the Literature Review, not much has been written about brand identity
within a political context. In this section I want to look at the identity approach on a
conceptual level and discuss what happens when the theory is conceptualized in the political
marketplace.
The identity approach is about the creation of a unified, visual and behavioral identity. The
brand needs to express a coherent identity, aligning these factors so that stakeholders get a
coherent experience with the organization. According to Heding, Knutzen & Bjerre, this
places the corporation itself and its employees in the center of the creation of brand equity
(Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 52). When transferring this to a political party it would
place the political party and the people in the political party at the center of creating brand
equity. This makes it important to clarify exactly who the people in the political party are and
what their positions are from top management to staff, volunteers and to advisors. Ormrod

20
(2012) argue that stakeholders in the political marketplace depends conditions such as
which type of political system the party exists in and other context dependent factors. It is
therefore likely that the people in the different political parties and their positions would
vary in different political systems or marketplaces and I would therefore open for a wide
interpretation of who the different stakeholders can be.
Also when discussing the identity approach in a political setting we are no longer
discussing corporations, but a political parties. The political parties differ from corporations
in that they are not pure profit seeking organizations, but like Schlesinger (1984) argues, the
political party differs from a market oriented corporation as a political party to offers
collective benefits, and compensates its participants indirectly, which makes the party a non-
market- based organization, but a political party also competes for votes by offering policies
in return for votes makes the political party at least partially market based (p. 389).
So from now on I will refer to corporations as political parties. However, the names
and terms that makes up the identity approach such as corporate identity and organizational
identity, will keep their original names. This also applies to consumers whom I will from now
on refer to as voters- meaning actual voters or potential voters as a part of the electorate.
3.2.1 Aligning identity within a political context
In this section I will provide an overview over the different building blocks of the Identity
Approach and discuss them from a perspective of the political marketplace and finally I will
look at stakeholder issues in the political market place and the co-creation of the political
brand. After the discussion, I will address research question 1 and discuss how the approach
can be employed in the political marketplace in a conceptual way.
3.2.2 Corporate Identity
In a brand management context, marketing and communication activities should be
integrated from a corporate level and corporate identity has a key role in the identity.
Corporate identity is also the first of the four supporting themes in the identity approach.
Corporate identity has its focus on the visual brand of the organization and the

21
alignment of all communications from a strategic level that requires brand management
(Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 50). This gives the top management in the political
party a great responsibility in the formation of corporate identity. This perspective gives the
politicians placed at the top in the organization the responsibility for aligning and integrating
the vision and strategy of the party. However, this could lead to a top- down management
style that can be questioned in several ways in a political marketplace. It may prove to be
effective to execute, but also violate democratic norms and alienate members or voters who
feel like they are not being listened to. Schneider and Ferié (2015) found that practitioners of
political branding need to be aware of voter’s preferences and also the preferences of party
members. By not recognizing the effects a branding strategy might have within the party
there is a risk of internal conflict that can endanger the survival of the organization. But they
also found that following the party- members’ preferences enables the party to utilize its
members as communicators in conveying the party’s character traits to the voters
(Schneider & Ferié, 2015, p. 86-87). Based on this I can speculate that if this form of
corporate identity is executed, a political party must be careful to listen to the preferences
of the party members and voters in order to get desired results and avoid alienation among
voters and party members.
Corporate identity is also the visual manifestations of the organization. This would
mean anything from the choice of colors, the logo, design, web- design or social media. The
goal here as well is alignment and consistency as well as reflecting what the organization
represents. Especially for political parties the choice of logo or colors to represent the
organization often carries emotional and symbolic meaning as they often indicate where the
party stands ideologically or the values the party to which it adheres to. Red is often
associated with socialist movements, the UK labor party used to have a fist in its logo to
display radicalization and black was the color of fascists in Italy and of course, green is the
color now associated with political parties that are concerned with the environment and
nature. Political colors can also help to create collective identities and visual symbols can
play an important role in the emotional life of social movements (Sawer, 2007).

22
3.2.3 Organizational identity
Organizational identity is the collective, commonly-shared understanding of the
organizations distinctive characteristics. It refers to the behavioral and cultural aspects of
brand identity. A key difference from corporate identity is that organizational identity is not
a function of leadership, but shared values among the employees in the organization and
organizational culture.
Organizational identity can be said to be closely linked to corporate branding.
Corporate branding is about creating one message across all functions in the corporation. It
is based on the long term idea of the brand which again is linked to the reputation of the
brand (Reputation will be outlined further in a later section). Corporate branding allows
political parties to use their heritage to create strong brands, involves the whole
organization and gives employees a vital role; values, culture, behavior and beliefs become
key ingredients and brand equity is created from the visual and behavioral identity of the
organization (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 51).
The behavior of the people who represent the party would probably be perceived as
a reflection of the party itself. For a political party it is therefore likely that its
representatives need to behave as expected by the public and in accordance with their own
values and beliefs. In a political party it is also likely that the values and beliefs in the party
will be closely associated with not only the culture in the party, but also the policies or the
ideology of the party and the heritage and history of the party. Gareth Smith and Alan
French found that in the UK, the Labor party’s long-term core brand values were promotion
of social justice and reduction of inequality and for the Conservatives it was individual
freedom and lower personal taxation (Smith & French, 2009, p. 213). This could imply a
connection with beliefs and values within a party organization and the political values and
ideology of the party.
If the values and beliefs of the members of the political party can be found to be
reflective of the policies and/or ideology of the party the question of the specific policies of
the party would also need to be addressed. The Identity approach is concerned with the
brand identity of an organization and not policies of political parties. However, if the policies
can be found to have an impact on the supporting themes of the approach it needs to be
further investigated as it would mean that it is not possible to separate the brand identity of

23
a political party from policy offerings. Beliefs and values would be co-dependent with the
political views and policy suggestions of the party.
Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre (2009) argue that for an organization to have a coherent
identity, the organization needs to know who they are, what they stand for and what they
want to become. If a political party was to answer those questions it could also be likely that
the answers would be closely associated with the policies and the political views of the
party. Needham and Smith (2015) argue that parties “that apparently eschew marketing can
develop a more robust brand based on clarity of purpose”, and while some marketing
literature suggests that parties pursue a marketing strategy by weakening ideological
commitment (as a tradeoff), a clear brand can be easier to promote and identify if it is
associated with a clear ideological positioning (Needham & Smith, 2015, p.4). This also
suggests that policy is difficult to separate from the political brand.
3.2.4 Image:
Image in a political context can have a diverse meaning. Image can be associated with
threats to democratic ideals: artifice and illusion and can be inherently suspicious (Scammel,
2015, p. 8). It is however, an important part of how an organization is perceived. And within
the frames of the identity approach, the aim is to project a single image to all stakeholders
and ensure consistency in the image among those stakeholders. If done correctly an image
can be very powerful in politics; for example Vladimir Putin as a macho man, or a cool Bill
Clinton with his saxophone (Scammel, 2015). Image is communicated linearly and can be a
very conscious thing that is cultivated and designed by the sender. But the interpretations by
the receivers are central in constructing and interpreting that image in their own minds.
According to Scammel (2015), because it is the receiver who interprets images it can
explain why some people can vote for one party while apparently preferring the policies of
another party. An example of this is Margaret Tatcher winning a landslide election while
opinion surveys suggested that the public preferred the Labor party on high-salience
substantive issues such as welfare and employment (Scammel, 2015, p. 9). And in the New
Labor era the Conservative party were stuck with an image as the “nasty party” and suffered
in the elections despite voters being a lot more sympathetic to their policy suggestions in
blind tests (Smith, 2009, p. 215).This implies that to a political party, like any organization, it

24
would be important to strive for an image that is a good representation of what the party
actually stands for, and also that the image is understood by the receivers the way the
sender intends it to be.
Smith & French (2009) breaks the political brand down to three separate entities
that are the party, the politicians and the policies as a service. These entities can
independently be seen different by the receivers than the sender, but they can also affect
the image of a brand if the three entities send different or confused signals. If a politician
should say or do something that violates or goes against the policy proposals by the party,
the image could become weakened.
3.2.5 Reputation:
Reputation takes a long time to form and is based on what an organization has accomplished
over time. It is also grounded in reality and becomes a “hard” idea, and no amount of
advertising or sparkling can redeem a product that does not live up to its promises. But
because of this, a political image that is conceived as reputation is re- legitimized according
to democratic reason and norms (Scammel, 2015, p. 9). According to Heding, Knudtzen and
Bjerre (2009) it is difficult to manage a reputation, and Scammel argue that political
representations are very sensitive to, and even at some times at the mercy of the media
(Scammel, 2015, p. 9).
Reputation and image can be hard to separate, but confined in the identity approach
image is more short term and represents the basic element of thought when someone thinks
of an organization. And as a more short term concept it can to a degree be influenced by the
political party. Reputation becomes more long term, and is tied to the political party’s ability
to deliver on promises. It appears more difficult to manage actively in the way that it is
rooted in reality, often the result of communication by third- party stakeholders such as the
media or public relations firms (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2015; Scammel, 2015). As a
factor, it appears that the ability to control reputation, by large, lies out of reach for a
political party.

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3.2.6 Stakeholder- brand exchange
The identity approach is meant to include all stakeholders relevant to the organization-
internal as well as external. The relevant stakeholder groups in the commercial market place
and the political marketplace differs, but common for both is that the stakeholders are many
and can be difficult to get a clear overview of. In their paper on Brand Identity, Schneider
and Ferié (2015) address only three stakeholder groups in relation to a political party: the
party leadership, rank and file party members and voters. In reality there can be countless
stakeholder groups in relation to a political party and the challenge would not only be to
identify who they are, but also who to focus on. This can be challenging in at least two ways:
First, the party would have to identify all stakeholder groups, and second, it is by no means
certain that it is possible or desirable to reach all those groups. Busy and Kelly (2010) found
that even as the term stakeholders is in wide use in politics, in practice the politicians and
their advisors pay the most attention to those with the power to assert their influence (p.
300).
In addition, differences in countries, political systems or other factors makes it
difficult to generalize about how many stakeholder groups that exist or proves relevant to a
given political party in a given political marketplace, but with that regard it can be an
advantage that the notion of stakeholders, in this case, is open for wide interpretations.
3.2.7 The co-creation of brand identity
Identity is believed to be context-dependent and both individually and socially created.
There is therefore a social constructivist view of identity where it is assumed that identity is
the result of co- creation between the stakeholder and the brand (Needham & Smith, 2015,
p.4). This is important because it tells us that regardless of how a political party is able to
create a unified, visual and behavioral identity based on internal factors, they do not control
the message entirely as the stakeholders interpret the message in their own way. A brand
can be seen as a cognitive construct in the mind of the voter and therefore the voter to a
large extent “owns” the brand, but at the same time the political party can be in control with
their own brand communication (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009, p. 85). A political party
(or any organization) can therefore never be sure that the unified, visual and behavioral
identity they communicate is understood by the receiver in the intended way.
In addition, there are the external factors of the identity; image and reputation.

26
Image is communicated linearly, but the interpretations by the stakeholders are central in
constructing that image in their minds, as is also the case with reputation.
It can also be suggested that co-creation of brand identity can affect the different
parts of the political brand differently. The party, the politicians or the policies of a party
could all be interpreted different from what the sender intends, but also different from each
other internally.
3.2.8 Conclusion part one
Although there are differences to operating in the political marketplace from a commercial
marketplace the Identity Approach appears to be a conceivable approach to creating a
coherent brand identity for a political party. It would be an all-compassing approach and also
very comprehensible and require alignment of all the supporting themes of the identity
approach: corporate identity, organizational identity, image and reputation.
When addressing the organizational identity of the party, the party would have to
consider the behavioral and cultural aspects of brand identity. First, the behavior of the
people who represent the party would probably be perceived as a reflection of the party
itself. For a political party it is therefore likely that its representatives need to behave as
expected by the public and in accordance with their own values and beliefs. It is also likely
that the values, culture and beliefs would have an impact on, or influence the policy
offerings of the party. The Identity approach is concerned with the brand identity of an
organization and not policies of political parties, but in shifting the application of the
approach from a commercial to a political marketplace it is likely that policy offerings or
ideology become a part of the equation as it can be suggested that beliefs and values would
be co-dependent with the political views and policy suggestions of the party.
The corporate identity is concerned with the visual brand of the organization and the
alignment of all communications from a strategic level that requires brand management.
This gives the top management in the political party a great responsibility in the formation of
corporate identity. However, this could lead to a top- down management style that can be
questioned in several ways. It may prove to be effective to execute, but also violate
democratic norms and alienate members or voters who feel like they are not being listened
to. If this form of corporate identity is executed, a political party must be careful to listen to
preferences of the party members and voters in order to get desired results and avoid

27
alienation among voters and members.
Visually, applying the identity approach in the political marketplace should not be
challenging. The goal here as well is alignment and consistency as well as reflecting what the
organization represents.
Image is difficult to control, but appears to be shaped as a result of the organizational
and corporate identity of the party. A political party needs to be aware of the signals that are
sent, and if that image is encoded as intended by voters. Following Smith and French’s
(2009) breakdown of the political brand which is the party, the politicians and the policies, it
should also be emphasized that the party should ensure that all three send a consistent
image, and also that the voters may still interpret the parts different than intended by the
sender.
This co- creation of the brand identity is also something the party should be aware of
in relation to reputation. Even as reputation is more grounded in actual accomplishments
and behavior over time there could still be gaps between actual reputation and the
reputation that is thought to exist within the party. A political party should also strive so that
all the different parts of the political brand, the politicians, the policies and the party, project
the same image to its stakeholders.
There are differences between the commercial and the political marketplace, and
there are differences between a corporation and a political party. However, adjusting for
these differences it appears that the identity approach can be applied to a political party in a
conceptual way. The approach could likely be applied in at least two ways. First, it could be
used as a strategy for the party as a whole to attract more voters by focusing on a coherent
and clear message and projecting the party as a corporate party brand with a unified
message across all functions. And second, the identity approach could be used as a tool to
detect gaps in how the party is perceived among different stakeholder groups.
4 Design and method:

28
According to Jacobsen (2005, p. 24), method is how you go about gathering data about
reality; method becomes an aid or a tool when you describe reality. During a research
process several decisions have to be made, and these decisions should be based on sound
knowledge of methodology. In this section I will make an overview of these decisions and
describe how I conducted my study.
4.1 Ontology and epistomology
In order to choose a method that can help us to study of a phenomenon that is rooted in
reality, it is important to discuss what reality is. This can be done by discussing the concepts
of ontology and epistemology.
Ontology addresses the nature of being and what reality actually is and the nature of
being. When human beings and social structures are beings are studied, what they do and
think is not necessarily reflected or observed through universal laws like with studies of
scientific phenomenon or physics. There is a school of thought that believes that laws exist
in social structures called positivism, but this way of thinking is challenged by those wo claim
that the study of humans is quite different than the study of particles and atoms. This is
because humans, unlike objects, can learn, react to new knowledge and change behavior.
Because of this, knowledge about humans becomes less general, more time limited and
more context dependent (Jacobsen, 2005, p.25). This is relevant to methodology because it
affects what we are looking for when we are conducting research: general laws or
understanding of something that is unique and special? In my research I believe that I am
investigating a phenomenon that does not abide by any general laws as branding and politics
are both quite subjective topics and appear to be both time limited and context dependent,
this can also have implications on to which degree the results can be generalized.
Epistemology is the theory of the nature of knowledge and how it is possible to really
know something about reality. The positivist view of reality is that an objective reality exists,
and that this reality can be studied in an objective way, and that knowledge can be
accumulated about this objective reality (Jacobsen, 2005, p. 27). This positivistic view is
challenged by the interpretivist view who claims that it is pointless to discuss an objective
reality that applies to everyone. The interpretivist view argues that there is no social
objective reality, only different ways of interpreting reality, that reality can only be explored
when the researcher tries to understand how humans interpret and make sense of social

29
phenomenon, because there are so many ways to understand a phenomenon it is difficult to
accumulate knowledge about social phenomenon, and there are no laws that apply through
space and time so everything must be understood in its context (Jacobsen, 2005, p. 27). In
my study I am asking respondents about how they in light of their professions interpret a
series of concepts such as branding, behavior and identity. I am asking my respondents to
interpret how they observe different phenomenon. This interpretation is grounded in the
way the respondents make sense of the phenomenon and influence the way the
respondents are capable of being objective.
4.2 Purpose
Common for all studies is that they develop new or elaborate on existing knowledge about a
phenomenon. And in addition, all studies have a purpose, which Jacobson (2005) puts in the
following categories: descriptive, exploratory and predictive. Descriptive research is used to
obtain insight and characterize a phenomenon being studied. This could be to describe a
given situation to obtain deeper knowledge. Exploratory research is more concerned with
cause and effect and is often based on existing knowledge. And predictive research is done
in order to make predictions about the future (Jacobsen, 2005).
A fourth category is explorative research which is research that is done for a problem
that is not yet defined or in a field of research where very little is known. This type of
research can typically lead to new theories or hypotheses. According to Jacobsen (2005), the
lines between the different categories are not absolute and some studies can have traits that
overlap from the different categories.
The purpose of this thesis is to look at the concept of branding in the political
marketplace, and to look at how different stakeholder groups perceive the brand identity of
the Green Party. My thesis is meant to describe how brand identity is perceived.
4.3 Problem formulation
With an intention to look at how brand identity can be applied in a political context the
overriding problem formulation was based on how a political party can project a consistent

30
brand identity to its different internal and external stakeholder groups. This was further
developed into the following research questions:
3. How can a political party such as the Green Party use the identity approach to ensure a
consistent identity among its stakeholders?
The methods and the research design have been shaped with the purpose of answering
these questions.
4.4 Research Design
According to Jacobsen (2000, p. 87), the research design should be developed so that it fits
with the chosen problem formulation. Jacobsen (2005) describes two ways to design a study:
Extensive studies that go wide and intensive studies that go deep. Important questions to
address when deciding on research design is how nuanced the study should be or how many
subjects/units you want to investigate. Extensive or intensive studies are not mutually
exclusive, but one is normally chosen in order to get a manageable amount of data to
analyze (Jacobsen, 2005, p. 88).
Extensive design operates with a large sample of units and few variables. The design
can be preferable when you want to generalize your findings to a larger population or when
the purpose of the study is to look at general phenomenon or differences or similarities
between sample units. If the purpose of a study is to map out nuances or details, intensive
design is a better choice. Studies under this category have smaller samples and more
variables. Extensive design is more suitable to give deeper descriptions of a phenomenon or
tell us something about how the subjects of a sample understand a phenomenon (Jacobsen,
2005).
My thesis has an intensive research design. The sample size is quite small and there
are many variables. The decision to use an intensive research design was made because the

31
aim of my thesis is to get as many details and nuances as possible from my subjects, while
also getting an insight into how the subjects understands a phenomenon.
4.5 Methodological choice
It is important to clarify the purpose of the study, acquire prior knowledge of the field of
study and decide which tool of analysis that is best suited for the research (Kvale &
Brinkmann, 2009, p.121). Generally, there are two methods that can be used. They are
qualitative and quantitative. A quantitative method will generally be preferable when
operating with numbers or statistics, while in qualitative research the researcher gets closer
to the informants and get a more subjective and in-depth understanding of the informants
experience than with the use of quantitative research (Lund & Haugen, 2006, p. 22). In
addition, a qualitative method is considered to be more of an open approach, with fewer
requirements for a structure than with a qualitative approach, and with few or no limitations
placed on the information that is gathered. The disadvantage to an open approach is that
analyzing the collected data can prove to be both complex and time consuming (Jacobsen,
2005, p. 130).
The use of a qualitative method also makes it possible to analyze material
continuously as it is gathered and make adjustments to the research design as the research
is carried out and new information is collected and interpreted (Jacobsen, 2005, p 129).
Because of the subject matter and the degree of complexity when addressing the
research question of this thesis, the method I have chosen is qualitative. A qualitative design
enables me to get detailed insights into the phenomenon I have set out to study, and also
enables me to get a deeper and more nuanced insight into how the subjects see, feel and
think about the subject matter; the brand identity of a political party.
4.6 The sample
Jacobsen (2005) writes that the chosen problem formulation should have an influence on
how you chose your subjects of study. I am doing a study on the different perceptions of the
brand identity of the Green Party in Oslo based on the views of two stakeholder groups

32
where one is internal and the other is external.
The internal stakeholder group consists of two members that work in the Green
party’s main office. They were chosen because the theoretical framework I have chosen to
use places a great emphasis on employees, in addition, they both had positions within
communications so I made the assumption that they would have a degree of insight into the
matters of branding and communication of the party And finally, they also had strong party
affiliations that opens for the assumption that they both adhere to and reflect the values
and policies of the Green Party.
For my external stakeholder group I chose to use three public relations professionals.
This is because in light of their profession as PR- consultants, I made the assumption that
they would possess larger than average knowledge of communications, marketing or
branding.
The different subjects of the interviews are as follows:
Internal:
Sindre: A member of the National Executive Committee of the Green Party and former leader
of the Green party Oslo. He is also the communications manager of the party.
Laurie: The head of digital communications for the Green party, Norway.
External:
Jarle: Former journalist and lecturer, and now CEO of a Public Relations Firm.
Lisa: Junior advisor at a communications firm in Oslo.
Hans: CEO of the largest communications firm in Norway.

33
4.7 Collecting the data:
Once I had decided on which subjects to contact I enquired via e-mail if they would be
willing to let themselves be interviewed for this thesis. They all said yes. I did not send them
a copy of my questions in advance.
I used a semi structured interview guide and designed the questions so that questions
relevant for the Identity Approach would be addressed. The reason for choosing semi
structured interviews is that I felt that this method would provide me with the data required
to answer my research questions by providing an intensive and flexible approach. I used two
different interview guides for the external and internal stakeholder groups. The interview
guides can be found in Appendix 12, 1 & 12, 2. An advantage with conducting a semi
structured interview can be that the subjects are able to reason further beyond their
answers, and through this provide additional information (Hjardemal, Kleven & Tveit, 2002,
p.75). It also enabled that I could ask follow up questions or make changes to the order of
questions. The first questions were about branding and communications in general. Those
were questions that were not directly relevant for my research questions, but still served
two purposes. They functioned as a warm-up, and I also wanted to “operationalize the
concepts” and ensure that the terms we were using, meant roughly the same to the both of
us.
The interviews with the internal stake holders were conducted in the Green Party’s office in
Oslo, while the interview with Jarle and Lisa were both in different cafés. The interview with
Hans was over the phone. Later I also did a follow up interview with the external
stakeholders over the phone. The follow up interviews were done because I needed more
data for the analysis.
During the course of the interview the informants sometimes answered the questions I had
planned for later. In the first interviews I would leave these questions out at the later stage.
But as the interviews progressed I learned that by asking the planned questions anyway I
would sometimes learn new information or get new angels on the questions. This led to
some questions being answered more thoroughly with some subjects and more shallow with
others. During the interview I also found it difficult to get the external stakeholders to

34
separate their private views on the Green Party from their professional views and this may
have led to a somewhat biased analysis.
I recorded the interviews on a recording device and transcribed them later on a computer.
Only Lisa requested that I changed her name.
When going through the data, I used the analysis tool, NVivo, to go through the material. In
order to get an overview of the relevant material I created relevant nodes (categories and
sub categories) that were based on my theoretical framework. I used the Nodes Corporate
identity, Organizational identity, Image and Reputation. In addition I attached subcategory
nodes to Corporate Identity (Vision and strategy and Visual identity) and Organizational
Identity (Culture and Behavior). An illustration of these nodes can be found in the Appendix
12. 4.
4.8 Objectivity
According to Hjardemal, Kleven and Tveit (2002), it is next to impossible to obtain absolute
objectivity, as the research process will almost always include subjective traits from the
researcher (p. 216). The theory of text and theory interpretation is called hermeneutics.
Among hermeneutics, objectivists argue that a subject can find out everything about an
object while remaining completely objective. This was later argued against by philosophers
such as Gadamer who argued that a subject will always have certain prejudices that affect
the subject’s way of understanding a text. These prejudices are based on the subject’s
personality, cultural background, historical background or other factors (Hjardemal, Kleven
& Tveit, 2002, p.43). In my research process I have tried to remain as objective as possible
although I cannot rule out that I may have had prejudices that may have affected the
objectivity of my research.
In my research I have asked my respondents about how they interpret certain
phenomenon about the brand identity of the Green Party. As a researcher I was interested
their professional and objective interpretations, but I found the data material to be very
colored by the respondents own subjective views and that the respondents often had
problems separating their own personal views of the Green Party from their professional
views. The respondents also had some obvious prejudices against the Green Party which also
affects the analysis and becomes a weakness for the reliability of the results.

35
4.9 Reliability and Validity
All empirical data needs to be quality assured. The traditional ways of doing this is to look at
validity and reliability (Jacobsen, 2005).
4.9.1 Reliability
Reliability is concerned with whether or not the results of a study are repeatable (Bryman,
2008, p. 34). And so in qualitative studies it is difficult to test the reliability of the collected
data. Grønmo (2005) argue that when considering reliability in qualitative research, the
reliability of the research becomes influenced by the fact that the influence of the
researcher is more evident during the collection of the data than it would be in quantitative
research (p. 228). Jacobsen (2005, p. 225) writes that the reliability of the data can be
affected by the effect of the study taking place. This means that the data that has been
gathered does not accurately reflect reality, but is created or affected by the study that is
taking place. This can be caused by things such as the researcher interrupting the subject or
disturbing the natural conversation or the body language of the researcher. During the
course of the interviews I was aware of my potential effect on the subjects. And while I tried
to stay as neutral as possible during the conversation, because the interview was semi-
structured I had to have a certain presence in the conversation.
The context of the interview can also have an effect on the results (Jacobsen, 2005,
227). Jacobsen (2005) argue that in qualitative studies, the research process continue to
evolve during the data collection, partially dependent on the researcher’s analysis and
interpretations of the data. The interpretations made by the researcher are tied to the
context in which the data collection takes place, and the research adapted to this specific
context. Therefore, independent identical, collections of data based on the same research
design becomes impossible; the research design and the collection of data becomes
dependent on when the study is conducted, and by whom the study is conducted (Grønmo,
2004, p.228). I preferred to meet the subject face to face as personal interviews provide data
with higher reliability, and also create a greater sense of trust between the researcher and
the respondent compared to for example a phone interview (Jacobsen, 2005, p. 143). It was
only Hans that I ended up interviewing only over the telephone. The subjects from the Green
Party were interviewed in their offices which could be considered their natural habitat, while
the two other PR professionals were interviewed in cafes. Where, even as they both seemed

36
quite relaxed, the general noise and presence of other people can have had an effect on the
results. At a later point, I also had to do a follow up interview with the external stakeholders
in order to gather more data. These interviews were done over phone which also can have
had an effect on the reliability and the quality of the data.
Another factor is whether or not the interview is surprising or planned (Jacobsen,
2005, p. 227). Before the interviews were conducted I had spoken to the subjects over the
phone and I told them about my background and the subject of the study. I did not send
them any of the questions I wanted to discuss prior to meeting them as I wanted the
information to flow freely without being predisposed to any reflection or potential agendas.
It can be argued that the reliability of the data is lower because the subjects were not
allowed to think through the questions, but it can also be argued that the reliability is
greater because the questions were not affected by any predetermined filters or agendas
that could have had an effect on the data. Qualitative research can also have internal
reliability. This is when more than one observer agree about what they see or hear (Bryman,
2008, p. 376). This is not an option as I have conducted the study alone. However, Jacobsen
(2009) argues that you can test internal reliability yourself by critically going through the
most central phases of the research (p. 214). Jacobsen (2005, p. 217) suggests the following
checkpoints: did you get the rights sources, did the sources provide correct information,
when was the information gathered and how is the information extracted? For my internal
stakeholder group I feel that I was able to use subject that was a good fit for what I set out
to study. For the external stakeholder groups, part of the reason for why I chose to use
public relations professionals was because I assumed that they could offer a professional
view on communications and branding. I did, however, find that the subjects often
expressed their subjective opinions of a political party and at times failed to be professional
in their views. Two of the subjects were also not very sympathetic to the Green Party, while
the third, although he did not vote for them, expressed sympathy with their cause and what
they are advocating. I also gathered the main bulk of my data early in the process, before
having a complete overview of what data I was looking for. Because of this I later needed
more information and this led to a follow up interview conducted over the telephone. When
I did the telephone interview I noticed that as Jacobsen (2005, p. 143) writes, that the
amount of data I was able to gather became smaller and the distance between myself and
the respondent felt greater. All of the above factors may have influenced the reliability of

37
the results, in addition I found that the respondents struggled to stay objective, and that
professional and personal views at times overlapped, when we discussed the Green Party.
This has a negative effect on the reliability of the analysis.
This can be because as much as this thesis is concerned with branding; politics is hard
to leave completely out of the equation and politics can be a very passionate subject.
4.9.2 Transcription
The transcription of the interviews can also have an effect on the reliability of the results. To
transcribe means to transform; to change form from one to another (Kvale & Brinkmann,
2009, p.187). Kvale and Brikmann write that the old saying, “translators are traitors”, also
very well apples to transcription (p.187). When transcribing interviews, several problems
arise. Things that are obvious in the context of the conversation can get lost: the tone of
voice, irony and body language are examples. If two persons were to transcribe the same
interview they would probably not end up with identical results (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009,
p.194).
In addition, a choice must be made weather to transcribe word-by-word and include
things like “eeh”, pauses or laughter, or should the transcript be more formalized? I have
chosen to formalize in order to make the analysis more clear and readable to the reader.
I also had an issue with cell phone interference noise on my recorded data that was
done over the telephone, and while it sometimes could be difficult to hear what was being
said, I feel that I was able to accurately hear and transcribe the interviews. Finally, I have
conducted the entire study on my own, including the analysis of the interviews. The absence
of other researchers could also therefore affect the reliability of the study.
4.9.3 Translation
The fact that my data material has been translated from Norwegian to English can also have
an effect on the reliability of my findings. And as I do not believe it to be a problem in this
thesis, sentences or meanings could get lost in translation and some words may not be
accurate when translated.

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