Abstract
Some of the most important propositions in the political marketing literature hinge on assumptions about the electorate. In particular, voters are presumed to react in different ways to different orientations or postures. Yet there are theoretical reasons for questioning some of these assumptions, and certainly they have seldom been empirically tested. Here, we focus on one prominent example of political marketing research: Lees-Marshment’s orientations’ model. We investigate how the public reacts to product and market orientation, whether they see a trade-off between the two (a point in dispute among political marketing scholars), and whether partisans differ from non-partisan voters by being more inclined to value product over market orientation. Evidence from two mass sample surveys of the British public (both conducted online by YouGov) demonstrates important heterogeneity within the electorate, casts doubt on the core assumptions underlying some political marketing arguments and raises broader questions about what voters are looking for in a party.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 89-104 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Party Politics |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 22 Feb 2012 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Published online before print February 22, 2012, doi: 10.1177/1354068811436040Party Politics February 22, 2012 1354068811436040
Funding: We are grateful to Research & Innovation at the University of Strathclyde for funding the first survey reported here and to the British Election Study team for fielding the second survey via their NSF-funded Continuous Monitoring Survey.
Thanks to Joe Twyman and Kate Davies at YouGov for their help and support during the data collection process. Previous versions of this research were presented at a Greater Glasgow Politics Group seminar (February 2009), at the inaugural conference of the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Elections and Representation Studies (March 2009) and at a Political Marketing Group panel at the annual meeting of the Political Studies Association in Edinburgh (March 2010). We thank participants at all three events for their helpful comments and suggestions. We also thank anonymous reviewers of this and earlier drafts of the paper.