James Moran reviews an extensively well-researched and thorough book dealing with every level and stage of political campaigning

Moran, James

English

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2011/08/07/book-review-campaign-communication-and-political-marketing/Book Review: Campaign Communication and PoliticalMarketingJames Moran reviews an extensively well-researched and thorough book dealing with every level and stageof political campaigning.Campaign Communication and Political Marketing. Philippe J Maarek. Wiley Blackwell. April 2011.Find this book at: Google Books AmazonPhilippe J. Maarek’s analysis of the structure and development of political marketing is a thorough, ifsomewhat overly clinical examination of the strategies used by election campaign teams. Maarek,Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the Paris-East University, has authoredvarious writings on political marketing, though this is perhaps his most comprehensive book on thesubject to appear in English.Maarek analyzes, in four meticulously sub-divided parts, the communicationstrategies used by political figures in their campaigns for public office andtheir public relations campaigns whilst in office. He begins by giving anaccount of the development of modern political marketing, focusing on thepost-war US presidential election campaigns (particularly Kennedy andReagan). He moves on to give an account of the general rules followed bypolitical marketing campaigns (such as the need to be coherent in one’scampaign messages), before giving an analysis of different politicalmarketing tools and the best way of structuring a campaign team.Maarek is at his best when he describes, with almost scientific precision, acomplex system within marketing. During the section on what audience totarget during a campaign, Maarek employs a series of clear diagrams todescribe the relations between the “transmitter” (a campaign team), the“medium” (TV, radio etc) and “opinions relays” (columnists or televisionpersonalities). He moves on to describe how thorough opinion polling mustinfluence said targeting, outlining a detailed summary of socio-culturalcategories for different kinds of voters.Maarek becomes somewhat less precise when he deals with the more cutting-edge aspects of politicalmarketing, particularly the internet. Whilst keen to point out the growing importance of online campaigning –he makes particular mention of Obama’s 2008 campaign – Maarek himself seems to hold the medium atarms length. Younger readers may find references to “iApps” embarrassing perhaps, and Maarek even talksof the internet providing a “quality of communication close to that of the printed version”. One might say thisis a somewhat condescending attitude toward the new medium, particularly as online readership rises andthe print media enters into crisis.The book is not the best choice for a reader wishing to read an anecdotal account of the PR men roamingthe corridors of power, as Maarek’s writing is academic and serious. This is not to say his extensive andimpressive research doesn’t offer many fascinating examples of political marketing strategies. One is the useof subliminal messages by the George Bush campaign team in 2000 – a TV advert showed the word“Democrats” and then the word “Bureaucrats”, in between showing the word “Rats” so quickly as to be nearlyinvisible to conscious perception. Another is a study by the University of Michigan wherein participants wereshown clips of candidates in an election they were unfamiliar with. 58% identified the candidate who laterwent on to win the election, through first impressions alone.Though the book is littered with these fascinating examples, Maarek deals very little with the art of politicalmarketing. The author’s approach might be described as scientific, with every stage of a political marketingcampaign described with precise subdivisions and diagrams. Maarek rarely gives us an insight into the morecreative thinking that goes into political campaigns, and the emotional responses they receive – he cites“Yes We Can” as new high-point in political marketing and explains its coherence within a campaignstructure, but he does not go on to describe why the message chimed with so many Americans andmotivated young voters so effectively.This is an extensively well-researched and thorough book dealing with every level and stage of politicalcampaigning. Though full of interesting information about historical political campaign, it lacks a detailedaccount of the actual creative process of coming up with campaign ideas. However, despite that, Maarek haswritten an impressive and extensive guide to the structures underlying political marketing.James Moran works for the political research think tank Gulf Centre for Strategic Studies.

Book review: campaign communication and political marketing

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