The political marketing strategies of the Greek parties in the representative elections of 2023

Political marketing is developing more and more over the years and constitutes nowadays an independent scientific scope. It does not include only communication methods and public relations, but pretty much every activity that concern the political behavior of people or parties. According to Bigi (2017), political marketing offers theoretical frameworks and methodologies to study voters ‘behavior and parties and candidates ‘positioning strategies (Blumenthal, 1980; Nimmo, 1999; Sparrow & Turner, 2001). In 2023, representative elections took place in Greece. For the first time since 1989, the electoral system of simple proportional representation was implemented. Our interest was focused on how the parties dealt with the implementation of the proportional system in their marketing strategies, how it affected the design of their pre-electoral campaigns and how it was integrated in the political and public discourse during this period of time. This presentation includes information on how political parties positioned themselves regarding the new electoral system, if they offered cooperation to others or not, and how they managed the results after the elections. Our analysis is based on the marketing mix theory which includes the 4 Ps- product, price, place, promotion, which is also implemented in political marketing. According to the theory, the political product consists of the party and the candidates together with their image and the electoral program (Farrell & Wortmann, 1987; Shaw, 1994). The price which is asked to be paid, corresponds to the vote by the voters. Distribution depends on the organization of the party and the initiatives of the campaign at each level, local and national. Promotion includes communication activities with the electorate (Bigi, 2017). Every pre-electoral campaign is based more or less on this marketing mix. Another important role plays, also, the way the political competition is developed. In our presentation, we suggest that the political and electoral competition is based on three pillars- persons, parties, issues- all of which interact within the institutional framework as it is configures by the electoral law. For our presentation, we have gathered information and data regarding the marketing strategies, the methods and tools applied and the issues promoted by parties, from newspapers, mass media (TV and radio) and social media.