Measuring political brand equity: a consumer oriented approach

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of how voters view the political brand by analysing the mental maps that voters create when asked to think about a political party. The analysis is both in terms of the nature of the maps and also in terms of the equity associated with a map. Design/methodology/approach: A consumer-oriented approach is developed for mapping the political brand. The brand maps are analysed to discern brand characteristics. Furthermore, methods are developed to assess the power of political brands and concomitantly, political brand equity. Findings: The method provides interesting insights into the nature and equity of brand associations for the two main political protagonists, i.e. Conservative and Labour. Key branded characteristics are highlighted for each party, both in terms of general structure, and also those associations that form a central role in voters' maps. For the partisan sample chosen, both parties are shown to have strong brand equity, with the Conservatives slightly stronger than Labour. Practical implications: The method is straightforward to apply and provides important information to political marketers about the nature and power of the associations held in memory by voters. Taking a wider stance, the approach can be applied to any branding situation. Originality/value: This paper provides a means by which a brand mapping process, new to politics, can be combined with methods facilitating the analysis of brand maps to produce a means by which brand equity can be measured. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Measuring the changes to leader brand associations during the 2010 election campaign

The 2010 UK General Election was unique in that for the first time, televised leaders' debates took place. The impact of these plus paid for advertising and uncontrolled events are considered, and their likely affect on the image of Brown, Cameron, and Clegg, the three main party leaders, discussed. Then, using a brand-mapping approach, we analyse changes to consumer perceptions of the leader brands from just prior to the first debate through to he election day itself, Thursday 6 May. Specifically, we consider whether, over the campaign, the number of leader associations increases, which policies were ssociated with which leader, and the favourability of the leaders associations. We then use a measure of brand-image strength to chart overall changes to the leaders. Finally, we consider how Brown's image was affected by the so-called Duffy' affair. © 2011 Westburn Publishers Ltd

Measuring brand association strength: a consumer based brand equity approach

Purpose: To date, the brand equity literature has been limited by a gap in the measurement of a key driver of consumer based brand equity (CBBE). The authors' aim is to address this gap by developing a new, consumer-based measure of brand association strength, a critical element of CBBE. Design/methodology/approach: This paper, based on cognitive psychology, takes a recently developed brand mapping approach and uses its features, along with network analysis measures designed specifically by the authors for this particular analysis, to produce a novel measure of brand association strength. Findings: Traditional network analysis measures (e.g. number of associations, density) neglect to take into account the underlying structure of consumers' brand associations as reflected in concept maps. The authors use primary research on a well-known brand (McDonald's) to show that both number of associations and a modified density measure taking account of the special structure of concept maps can be used to generate an intuitive and readily understood measure of brand association strength. Originality/value: The paper develops a new measure to analyse brand association strength for any given brand. As such it contributes to the methodological and practical development of the CBBE construct. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Resource location for relief distribution and victim evacuation after a sudden-onset disaster

Quick responses to sudden-onset disasters and the effective allocation of rescue and relief resources are vital for saving lives and reducing the suffering of the victims. This paper deals with the problem of positioning medical and relief distribution facilities after a sudden-onset disaster event. The background of this study is the situation in Padang Pariaman District after the West Sumatra earthquake. Three models are built for the resource location and deployment decisions. The first model reflects current practice where relief distribution and victim evacuation are performed separately and relief is distributed by distribution centers within administrative boundaries. The second model allows relief to be distributed across boundaries by any distribution center. The third model further breaks down functional barriers to allow the evacuation and relief distribution operations share vehicles. These models are solved directly for small problems and by using a direct approach as well as heuristics for large problems. Test results on small problems show that resource sharing measures, both across boundaries and across different functions, improve on current practice. For large problems, the results give similar conclusions to those for small problems when each model is solved using its own best approach

The political brand: a consumer perspective

As there is not universal acceptance of political parties as brands, the paper justifies and theoretically supports considering them as such. It then uses a cognitive psychology perspective to explain in detail how consumers learn about political brands. From this, the interaction between the leader, the party and its policies is considered as a means by which political brand image forms in consumer memory. This is followed by an analysis of the potential benefits proffered by political brands to voters. These benefits, it is postulated, motivate consumers to learn about, interact with and eventually help decide upon a political brand. Finally, the paper considers the future of political brands, in particular through the prism of postmodern consumer behaviour. © 2009 SAGE