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Communication, Strategy, and Politics
Political Marketing in Canada

Political Marketing in Canada

Edited by Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson and Jennifer Lees-Marshment

Published by: University of British Columbia Press

Series: Communication, Strategy, and Politics

Imprint: UBC Press

320 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm, 18 tables, 14 figures

Paperback
9780774822299
Published: July 2012

£26.99

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Hardcover
9780774822282
Published: January 2012

£31.00

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

Political parties worldwide are using marketing tools such as targeting and segmentation to win elections. Are these strategies making politicians and governments more responsive to voters' needs, or do they pose a threat to democracy? Political Marketing in Canada, the first book to ask this question of Canada, considers the consequences of political marketing in the realms of public policy, leadership, and the government-citizen relationship. Through dynamic case studies that range from the resurrection of the Conservative Party, to media accounts of political marketing, to Tim Hortons as a political brand, the authors trace how political marketing is transforming the old system of brokerage politics into a new, distinctly Canadian model. Citizens are now viewed as consumers, and platforms and promises have been repackaged as products. Whether this trend is positive or negative, the authors argue, depends on how politicians and governments carry out political marketing – and its promises – in practice.

Part 1: The Marketplace

1 Introducing Political Marketing / Thierry Giasson, Jennifer Lees-Marshment, and Alex Marland

2 The Canadian Political Market and the Rules of the Game / Yannick Dufresne and Alex Marland

3 The Diversity of the Canadian Political Marketplace / Elisabeth Gidengil

Part 2: Political Parties and Institutions

4 Amateurs versus Professionals: The 1993 and 2006 Canadian Federal Elections / Alex Marland

5 Under New Management: Market Intelligence and the Conservative Party's Resurrection / André Turcotte

6 The Impact of Market Research on Political Decisions and Leadership: Practitioners' Perspectives / Jennifer Lees-Marshment

7 "Buyer" Beware: Pushing the Boundaries of Marketing Communications in Government / Kirsten Kozolanka

8 Market Orientation in a Minority Government: The Challenges of Product Delivery / Anna Esselment

9 Does Public Opinion Research Matter? The Marketing of Health Policy / Lisa Birch

10 Selling a Cause: Political Marketing and Interest Groups / Émilie Foster and Patrick Lemieux

Part 3: The Media and Citizens

11 As (Not) Seen on TV: News Coverage of Political Marketing in Canadian Federal Elections / Thierry Giasson

12 Are We Friends Yet? Online Relationship Marketing by Political Parties / Tamara A. Small

13 Double-Double: Branding, Tim Hortons, and the Public Sphere / Patricia Cormack

14 Marketing and Efficacy: Does Political Marketing Empower Canadians? / Royce Koop

Part 4: Conclusion

15 Challenges for Democracy / Thierry Giasson, Jennifer Lees-Marshment, and Alex Marland

Glossary

References

Index

Alex Marland is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Thierry Giasson is an associate professor in the Communication and Information Department at Université Laval. Jennifer Lees-Marshment is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Auckland.

Contributors: Lisa Birch, Patricia Cormack, Yannick Dufresne, Anna Esselment, Émilie Foster, Thierry Giasson, Elisabeth Gidengil, Royce Koop, Kirsten Kozolanka, Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Patrick Lemieux, Alex Marland, Tamara A. Small, and André Turcotte.

The book is a collection of sophisticated, learned research into the nuts and bolts of modern campaigning, aspects too often ignored in Canadian political science, which tends to view politics through the loftier prisms of history, ideology or procedure. The editors and contributors to this volume force us to confront the reality that modern Canadian politics is as much about commercial marketing principles as it is about any of the other more intellectual and less pragmatic views of what drives our political world. - Susan Delacourt (The Literary Review of Canada, July 2012)