In this article, we seek to distinguish between two concepts often conflated in the literature: political market orientation and political marketing orientation. In the discussion, we focus specifically on voters rather than other actors in the political sphere such as competing parties, party members, the media, and lobby groups due to the centrality of the electorate in the political marketing literature and in political practice. We identify five key issues that influence the ability of parties and candidates to successfully leverage a welldeveloped political marketing orientation. These are (1) that it is difficult to control symbolization, (2) that it is difficult to control personality, (3) that there are value and symbol abnormalities, (4) that the public mind is unknowable, and (5) the corrupting power of negative campaigning. Finally, we distinguish two areas of further research, "downstream" research focused on political marketing orientation and "upstream" research focused on political market

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	democracy, market intelligence, politics, political marketing, political marketing orientation, voters
Research Division:	Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Research Group:	Marketing
Research Field:	Marketing management (incl. strategy and customer relations)
Objective Division:	Economic Framework
Objective Group:	Management and productivity
Objective Field:	Marketing
UTAS Author:	O'Cass, A (Professor Aron O'Cass)
ID Code:	82454
Year Published:	2012
Deposited By:	Management
Deposited On:	2013-02-04
Last Modified:	2018-03-28
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