Politics and the market

El-Sayed Elewa* examines the increasing use of marketing techniques in political campaigns

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Over the last two decades, as the market economy came to dominate, a business smart culture developed that merged economics, politics and commerce. It is against this backdrop that the concept of "political marketing" arose, as attention was increasingly paid to supply and demand and consumers and producers within the political marketplace. Electoral campaigns are one of the main expressions of political marketing, as candidates set out to convince the public of particular points of view.

Electoral marketing comprises research, planning, advertisements, promotion and distribution. There is also the intense outreach brought about by competition for political power and over policy. In paving the way for major decisions, and in ensuring public acceptance of policy changes, political marketing plays a central role.

In Egypt the emerging political climate is particularly favourable to political marketing. There is a political awakening taking place among citizens, increased democratic participation and a wide margin in the media for discussion and debate.

Interest in techniques for the marketing of political ideas has as a consequence grown. In the presidential elections we saw the tight orchestration and planning of campaigns. The Internet was exploited, and its use will grow as a campaigning tool, as will digitalised media campaigns via mobile phones. We can expect to see more and more use of opinion polls and focus groups, and many more debates and discussions on satellite channels, TV and radio. We will also see advertising strategies imported into political campaigns as parties and personalities attempt to brand themselves.

Some say that politicians are produced by history and not by the vagaries of market forces. Others insist such a view belongs to an age now past. But the fact is that many capable politicians have lost elections because they failed to market both themselves and their ideas.

Resounding speeches reliant on the rhetoric of logic no longer sway public opinion, which is now accustomed to the sound-bites produced by the communications revolution. The message must be crisp, clear and concise. The candidates, politicians and parties capable of projecting a political vision and ideas that agree with those of the public will be the ones who win most votes.

As a guideline candidates must take the following steps: they must target campaigns at registered voters according to age, gender and profession, with due attention given to population density; they must study their constituencies and know its demographic character as well as its levels of economic and productive activity and its social characteristics.

Successful campaigning must take into account the political characteristics of the target group, including its intellectual and faith-based orientation and the influence of the dominant political party. Due account must be taken of the sociological make-up of the district, whether it is urban, rural, or Bedouin.

Successful candidates will have to determine the issues over which the local community is most concerned, whether these be inflation, health provision, education, unemployment, etc.

Successful campaigns on the local level must also identify the available means of communication and then utilise these, which could include clubs and youth centres, though not, of course, mosques and churches, as well as local associations, which will supplement newspaper, magazine and radio and television campaigns. Campaign teams will be increasingly obliged to adopt innovative means of reaching out to the electorate, convening electoral conferences and public meetings, holding rallies and erecting campaign tents, and sending out representatives to canvas the public. Letters from candidates will be delivered to individual voters who have been identified by pollsters as having yet to make up their minds as the focus increasingly shifts towards building the popular base of support for individual candidates.

We can expect to see the increasingly creative use of electoral marketing in successive campaigns. One sign of this will be the manner in which candidates stick to the line adopted by their parties. They will be required more and more to keep on message, focussing on a single idea and slogan that they present to the public in language voters will understand. In appealing to the electorate the non-verbal elements of communication will take on greater importance. Body-language, eye contact -- the whole gamut of signs of approval and support -- could well determine the popularity of individual candidates with the public.

In addition to training in such methods, candidates will need to upgrade their verbal performances. To become successful speakers they will have to save the strongest and most important points until the end of a speech, exploit the emotional inclinations of the public by playing up their support of family values, motherhood and children, love of the homeland and reverence of religions, and provide easily understood models to explain complex elements of policy.

As candidates become increasingly disciplined in transmitting the messages required by their parties so their centrality to party campaigns will grow. Those campaigns will seek to create and support electoral symbols that operate on subliminal levels as emotional associations made by the public are fully exploited. Campaigns will also make intensified use of direct, personal communication via publications and will be quick to refute rumours. Finally, efforts will be made to monitor and assess the success of all the techniques adopted during a campaign.

Political marketing in the parliamentary election campaigns will open up new horizons in mass communications. This will aid in oiling the mechanisms of free and fair elections, and will assist in Egypt's nascent democratic transformation. What is spent on such activity in the way of funds, efforts and materials is reasonable price for democracy and the establishing of a serious and effective political process.

* The writer is professor of political science at Helwan University.