The Human Face of Political Parties ꟷ Political Brand Perspective

For a long time the debate about linkage between political parties and voters had been dominated by two approaches: sociological approach, according to which parties are expected to aggregate interests of particular social groups (Lazarsfeld et al. 1944, Berelson et al. 1954, Lipset, Rokkan 1967) and psychological, party identification approach (Campbell et al 1960: 143). Especially the latter dominated the debate (and analysis) of political behavior, mainly due to its role as a filter, through which citizens perceive the world of politics. Despite its popularity, the concept of party identification did not enable the comprehensive explanation of the relationship between parties and voters in Poland. What is more, due to unfavorable systemic conditions (weak civil society and instable party system) and impossibility to satisfy the condition of its transgenerational transmission the existence of party identification in Poland can be put under question. Our main objective is to examine the link between parties and voters in terms of consumer-brand relationship. The central element of this approach - the political brand - is composed of experiences, feelings, images, issues, sentiments or symbols, that reflect the general sentiment surrounding various parties (Smith 2005). The overall image of the party is used for summary judgments and decisions, including vote choice. The strong, positive and distinctive image of the brand enables building positive relationship between party and voter, which effects in electoral support for the party. The political brand approach better describes party attachment of the Poles, characterized by low level of interest in politics, low propensity to turn out and high levels of volatility. It better describes the relationship between parties and voters in changing political environment where traditional cleavages and stable party identification are no longer useful. Political branding does not require that voters are always loyal to one particular party, but they can choose a party which is the most attractive for them at the moment (Kapferer 2004, Schneider 2004, French, Smith 2008, Smith, French 2009). Multiple sources and content of information implicate weaker stability of brand voters, who may switch from voting for the party once it departs from its usual image (loses credibility or behaves in unexpected way - Aaker et al. 2004). The switch is possible even if party policy remains stable, as the change of support for a party may also be a result of changing public sentiments, or a desire for change, caused by curiosity, boredom or disappointment with party performance (Newman 1999). In the present paper we examine the image of political brands (parties) and its influence on the vote choice using the quantitative data which combine traditional post electoral survey with marketing tool used to analyse traditional brands. The data confirm that the image of the party is strongly related to vote choice, yet not all elements of the image equally influence the propensity to support a party. The research reveals that personality of party leader is the most influential factor shaping voters’ preferences.