An Analysis On Political Marketing And The2012U.S Presidential Campaign

Political marketing is an indispensible part in political activities of the UnitedStates. The thesis analyzes the current situation of political marketing from thetheoretical and practical perspectives. In terms of the theory of political marketing,there is currently no clear and comprehensive theoretical structure in this field. Giventhe purpose of political marketing, the thesis argues that the nature of marketing inpolitical marketing should be subject to the nature of politics. Based on thisassumption, the definitions of political marketing are also analyzed and comparedand the definition given by Henneberg was advocated. Besides, five concepts ofpolitical marketing are also analyzed from a comparative perspective with the focuson the consumer-oriented concept and the marketing-oriented concept. The thesisargues that the marketing-oriented concept among the five concepts is most likely tobring about a sound political campaign for the long-term benefit of the people andthe country.On the basis of the theoretical analysis, the application of political marketing inthe2012U.S. presidential campaign is also analyzed, which shows that the conceptof consumer orientation determines strategy formulation in this campaign and theethics and other moral aspects emphasized in political marketing studies are ignored.The thesis argues that there exits contradiction within current politicalmarketing. On the one hand, it enhances voters’ position in political activities,alleviates the information disadvantage of voters and standardizes the politicalmarketing process; on the other hand, it aggregates the inequity among voters and thepolitical and ideological polarization. The thesis puts forward that the existingproblem of political marketing is due to the gap between political marketingpractices and political marketing studies and the lack of relevant regulations in thisfield. At last, the future trend of political marketing and suggestions to solve existingproblems are also discussed.