Political marketing and management is utilised in New Zealand just like any other democracy. New Zealand has a mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system and multiparty system, with the main parties being Labour and National, and minor parties including The Greens, NZ First, Māori Party, ACT, and in 2017 Mana and the Opportunities Party. But the same marketing forces apply as in first-past-the-post systems. As former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark observed:
To win an election in New Zealand…you must command the centre ground. You have your strong core of supporters but you must get centre ground voters…modern politics in democratic societies has become a bit like a consumer exercise. (Clark 2016)
As previous research has shown (Rudd 2005; Robinson 2007, 2009, 2010; Lees-Marshment 2006, 2009, 2012; Lees-Marshment et al. 2015) market research is used, strategies are created, segments are targeted, key product pledges are offered, and marketing communications are utilised before and during the campaign.
However the 2017 New Zealand election was far from predictable: Labour changed leader just before the election campaign started, the Greens lost a co-leader during the campaign, the Māori party who had been in government with lost all their seats, and the incumbent National party, who had up until the campaign been ahead in the overall party polling for overall party and preferred prime minister, won the most votes and seats but lost control of government due to the decision by minor party NZ First. Jacinda Ardern, elected Labour leader just 8 weeks before the election, when the party was languishing in the polls, became Prime Minister.
Explanations for the eventual result will forever be debatable and contestable. This book focuses on the election from the perspective of political marketing and management, covering public opinion, alignment between party policies and public views, market orientation and party strategy, political branding, campaign advertising, and leadership communication. The research draws on quantitative Vote Compass data, qualitative interviews with practitioners, and analysis of a wide range of primary sources including party policy and communication. While it is not possible in a pivot-style book to cover every aspect of an election, the breadth and quality of data utilised means that the book provides a rich and informed analysis of the marketing and management that went on behind the scenes and its’ impact on public views.
Chapter 2 Vote Compass NZ 2017: Marketing insights into public views on policy and leaders by Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Edward Elder, Lisa Chant, Gregory Kerr, Danny Osborne and Cliffton van der Linden, uses a 250,000 respondent Vote Compass data set to help us to understand what the market wanted, essentially, by exploring public views on policy and the leaders.
Chapter 3 Political parties and their customers: the alignment of party policies with supporter and target market views by Jennifer Lees-Marshment et al. explores how prospective party voters and target markets viewed party policies, providing important lessons for practitioners going forward in terms of which groups they succeeded in attracting and those they need to work on in the future.
Chapter 4 Messy Marketing in the 2017 New Zealand Election: the incomplete market orientation of the Labour and National Parties by Jennifer Lees-Marshment explores the extent to which the main parties—National and Labour—followed the market-oriented party model, covering themes such as National’s declining responsiveness in government and Labour’s struggle to convey potential to deliver.
Chapter 5 Candidate Brand Personality and the 2017 New Zealand General Election by James Barrett assesses the brand personality performance of Andrew Little, Jacinda Ardern, and Bill English from their ascension to the party leadership to polling day. It explores their projected competence, energy, openness, empathy, agreeableness, and charisma, highlighting the importance of having a well-rounded brand personality.
Chapter 6 Minor Party Campaign advertising: A market-oriented assessment by Claire Robinson analyses the marketing effectiveness of advertising by five minor parties the Green Party (Greens), New Zealand First, the Māori Party, ACT and United Future, connecting key marketing concepts in relation to voters and competitors with visual manifestations to uncover the extent to which parties demonstrated market-oriented communication.
Chapter 7 Communicating Market-Oriented Leadership in power and opposition by Edward Elder examines how well Bill English and Jacinda Ardern communicated competence, responsiveness, and authenticity in the campaign, applying the Contemporary Governing Leaders’ Communication Model.
The final chapter on political marketing and management research and practice synthesises the lessons from the book for research and practice both in New Zealand and globally. It features interviews with practitioners from National, Labour, the Greens, ACT and United Future which provide important generic lessons for the conduct of political marketing in practice, as well as specific advice for political parties in New Zealand.
The appendix provides Vote Compass 2017 Core Reports generated by Vox Pop Labs which we hope will be useful to researchers and teachers of New Zealand politics and political marketing.
By utilising political marketing theory and analysis, the book provides powerful insights into both the 2017 New Zealand election and political practice. Ultimately, the core goal of political marketing and management is to create and manage political products that meet market demand. But doing this in practice is much harder than the theory suggests. Politicians struggle to connect and communicate, parties ideology gets in the way, potential coalition partners fight over the same market share, new issues rise on the agenda and catch elites by surprise, attempts to convey delivery competence are thwarted by amusing attack ads that uphold long-held negative frames, and plans are thrown up in the air by a changing party leaders. But in other ways practice confirms theory because parties in government ignore advice on what to do to stop losing touch, market research might be conducted but is ignored, and the value of offering clear, costed, delivery pledges is forgotten. As the book will show, not everything about the 2017 New Zealand election was surprising. The final lessons for practice the book offers which are laid out in the conclusion are as valuable for practitioners as they are interesting for academics.
References
- Clark, Helen. (2016). Q&A programme quoted in http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/314305/little-rejects-clark’s-political-wisdom and http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84636485/Labour-leader-Andrew-Little-dismisses-Helen-Clarks-advice-about-commanding-the-centre-ground. Full interview originally posted at http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/helen-clark-resolute-in-bid-top-un-job-video-6494411.
- Lees-Marshment, J. (2006). ‘Political Marketing.’ In New Zealand Government and Politics, 4th ed., edited by Raymond Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 488–498.
- Lees-Marshment, J. (2009). ‘Political marketing and the 2008 New Zealand election: A comparative perspective.’ Australian Journal of Political Science, 44(3): 457–475.Crossref
- Lees-Marshment, J. (2012). ‘National and labour’s leadership, branding and delivery in the 2011 New Zealand election’ Chapter 14 in Kicking the Tyres: The New Zealand General Election and Electoral Referendum of 2001, edited by Stephen Levine and Jon Johansson. Wellington: Victoria University Press, pp. 177–189.
- Lees-Marshment, J, Y. Dufresne, G. Eady, D. Osborne, C. van der Linden, & J. Vowles. (2015). ‘Vote Compass in the 2014 New Zealand election: Hearing the voice of New Zealand voters.’ Political Science, 67(2): 94–124.Crossref
- Robinson, Claire E. (2007). ‘Images of the 2005 campaign’ In The Baubles of office: The New Zealand General election of 2005, edited by Stephen Levin and Nigel S. Roberts. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
- Robinson, Claire. (2009). ‘Vote for me’ Political advertising, pp. 73–89, in Informing Voters? Politics, media and the New Zealand Election 2008, edited by Chris Rudd, Janine Hayward and Geoffrey Craig. Pearson Education.
- Robinson, Claire. (2010). ‘Political advertising and the demonstration of market orientation.’ European Journal of Marketing, 44(3/4): 451–59.Crossref
- Rudd, Chris. (2005). ‘Marketing the message or the messenger?’ In Political Marketing in Comparative Perspective, edited by Darren Lilleker and J. Lees Marshment. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 79–96.