The Political Marketing Game

The Political Marketing Game identifies what works in political marketing - the rules of the game - showing politicians can choose to play the game to achieve change, not just win votes, because authenticity, values and vision are as much a part of a winning strategy as market-savvy pragmatism. Using 100 interviews with practitioners including advisors to former world leaders Tony Blair, George W Bush, Stephen Harper, Helen Clark and Kevin Rudd, as well academic literature, this book offers political elites tools to navigate the complex and unpredictable electoral market. It shows the democratic impact of political marketing depends on how the game is played. Whilst politicians need to listen, varying responsiveness to public demand is more successful than abandoning their beliefs. Elites need to work in partnership with the public, as voters want politicians who say 'yes we can' not 'yes I can,' using deliberative market analysis so that politics can evolve in the 21st century and become a partnership democracy.

Jennifer Lees-Marshment is Associate Professor in Politics at Auckland University, New Zealand. She is the author/editor of 13 books, including Political Marketing: Principles and Applications (2nd edition, 2014) and The Ministry of Public Input (Palgrave, 2013). Her research interests include political marketing, leadership, public input and governance.