Branding in the political marketplace

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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: 140 937

Master’s Thesis

Marius Amundsen Flaget 1/6/2016

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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.

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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.

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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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2 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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3 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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4 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:

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?

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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5 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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6 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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7 (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 m arketing 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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8 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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9 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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10 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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11 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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12 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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).

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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

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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

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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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25 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.

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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

Branding in the political marketplace