Contents

Article title	Authors
Introduction (editorial)	Jennifer Lees-Marshment
Political Marketing: the cause of an emerging democratic deficit in Britain?Political marketing, as a set of techniques for policy design and development, was welcomed as a route towards a more participatory form of democracy. However, as New Labour attempted to rebrand itself to suit key segments of the electorate, we find that voters are not participating to any greater extent. In fact sections of the electorate are rejecting the democratic process, feeling that parties have little care for those outside their target segment. This paper questions the way New Labour employed marketing and, drawing on primary data, relates this to the dramatic fall in turnout in 2001.	Darren G Lilleker
Square Peg, Round Hole? : Can Marketing-Based Concepts Such As The ‘Product’ And The ‘Marketing Mix’ Have A Useful Role In The Political Arena?Over recent years, whilst there has been increasing acceptance of the existence and role of marketing in the political arena, there has also been much discussion as to the applicability of its concepts and models.  This paper focuses upon issues surrounding definition of the ‘product’ and the ‘marketing mix’.  It examines the varying definitions of the political ‘product’ and, from the perspective of elector as ‘consumer’, offers its own.  In addition it suggests that political marketers should follow the lead of their counterparts in the fields of service and social marketing and modify the marketing mix to suit the political environment in which they function. Finally, based upon existing definitions of the political ‘product’ and the criticisms of the current marketing mix frameworks, initial suggestions are made for the provision of a new political marketing mix.	Jenny Lloyd
A Conceptual Model of Political Market OrientationThis article proposes eight constructs of a conceptual model of political market orientation, taking inspiration from the business and political marketing literature. Four of the constructs are ‘behavioural’ in that they aim to describe the process of how information flows through the organisation. The remaining four constructs are attitudinal, designed to capture the awareness of members to the activities and importance of stakeholder groups in society, both internal and external to the organisation. The model not only allows the level of a party’s political market orientation to be assessed, but also aids the party in making a context-specific decision with regard to the reallocation – or not – of party resources in order to attain the party’s long-term objectives.	Robert P. Ormrod
Membership Benefits, Membership Action: why incentives for activism are what members wantThis article identifies the benefits of political party membership and which of these benefits also operate as incentives for participation. This exploration is conducted in the context of competing relationship marketing hypotheses, and frameworks from other relevant academic disciplines. Exploratory empirical research identifies two purposive and three solidary benefits of membership. Values functional motivations, socialization and job satisfaction are identified as having statistically significant relationships with participation.  Frequency of agreement with party policies and enhancement functional motivations do not appear to have any relationship with participation. The article concludes that members using their membership as a vehicle for realizing solidary benefits are more likely to respond to incentives for participation, whilst those merely seeking a relationship with their party are more likely be inactive.	Sue Granik
Vote Winner or a Nuisance: email and elected politicians’ relationship with their constituentsMPs have traditionally relied on the organisation and image of their national Party for the bulk of their voter support, but constituency service is probably more relevant for electoral success than at any other time in history. So far, however, new technology has had a very limited impact on the constituency role of MPs.  The emergence of email represents potentially a ‘killer app’ which might revolutionize the way MPs approach re-election.  One of the main effects of email is to encourage MPs to consider techniques and terms in common business usage, such as direct marketing and segmentation of their key audiences.   By looking at how MPs use email to support their constituency role, this article assesses whether MPs use email as part of a relationship marketing strategy, a traditional transitory marketing approach or ignore marketing altogether.  The marketing approach taken, combined with the resources available, will determine whether MPs use email only because they think they should or because they have grasped the campaigning opportunities it represents.	Nigel Jackson
Electoral Participation and Non-Voter SegmentationThis article examines some of the issues and debates surrounding electoral participation in the UK from a political marketing perspective.  In particular, this article reviews the current literature and details some of the output of primary research into non-voter behaviour and investigates the opinions and motivations of the electorate.  The role of the Electoral Commission and the effects of all-postal voting are analysed. This article both challenges and supports previously presented arguments regarding political issues and voting.  In addition, electoral turnout and voter participation is reviewed and the consequences for democracy discussed.	Declan Bannon
Young People’s Attitudes Towards British Political Advertising: Nurturing or Impeding Voter Engagement?This article presents findings from a national survey of ‘potential’ first time voters at the 2001 British General Election – specifically their attitudes towards the print advertising used by the main political parties during this election. In analysing the data, the authors were particularly interested in examining the claim that political advertising contributes to a sense of malaise – most acutely apparent among young people. While we found high levels of claimed advertising awareness, this was coupled with largely unfavourable attitudes towards most of the print advertising used in the election. Despite these judgements, most young people considered the advertising to be at least as persuasive as its commercial cousins. Not surprisingly the evidence provides a mixed picture in terms of the role political advertising plays in the political dispositions of young people. As a familiar discourse advertising offers the political classes an entry point to establish a dialogue with young sections of the electorate. However, for many young people, political advertising appears to help reinforce their predilection about politics being something one naturally distrusts.	Janine Dermody And Richard Scullion
Marketing Government ReformsThis article examines government communication on two large-scale Belgian governmental reforms: the Federal Administration and the police forces. Using Lees-Marshment’s typology of marketing processes, we identify the marketing of the changes by the Federal Administration as sales oriented: a finished product or an expert-developed administrative reform project to be sold to the public. Declining enthusiasm for communication and growing product disagreement gradually forced this reform to disappear from the market. The Police reform followed a market-oriented marketing process. It responded to public outrage. The Government merely reacted to external information. This explains why it failed to deal with a changed market situation. A content analysis of articles in both popular and quality newspapers examines the representation of both reforms in the media and seems to confirm our observations. This article shows that marketing reforms are extremely difficult when there is no shared understanding of the product to be marketed.	Dave Gelders And Steven Van De Walle
Political Marketing Segmentation  – The Case of UK Local GovernmentThis article considers the nature and use of segmentation in political marketing. The importance of an awareness of political marketing at a more local level will become particularly important with the onset of regional government.  The article particularly concerned with segmentation in local government where there has been little empirical research.  The results of a survey amongst local government officers are presented.  The article concludes that a significant minority of local government officers use segmentation.  The key factors facilitating the use of segmentation were found to be education, experience, the role of the chief executive and central government pressure.	Patricia Rees And Hanne Gardner
The impact of new technology on the communication of parliamentary informationDiscusses the results of an exploratory study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which investigated the impact of technology on the communication of parliamentary information to the general public in the United Kingdom.  As Stage 1 of the project, interviews were conducted with representatives of the public information services of the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.  Stage 2 consisted of interactive, electronically-assisted interviews, delivered in a roadshow environment, where members of the public were given the opportunity to explore, and provide critical feedback on, parliamentary websites.	Rita Marcella, Graeme Baxter And Nick Moore
Political Campaign Advertising: Believe It or NotThe extent that political advertising in elections is believed by voters’ is an important issue for public policy, political marketing, and marketing in general. Much effort and funding is devoted to communicating with voters’ during elections via advertising. This study examined political advertising believability and three potential antecedents of believability during an election. The data were gathered via a random sample of voters immediately following an election and the results indicate that believability is influenced by a voters’ involvement, perceived control and satisfaction and that party preference plays a key role in believability of competing campaigns.	Aron O’Cass