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1. Introduction
Political marketing is about political organizations (political parties, interest groups and local councils) adapting business-marketing concepts and techniques to help them achieve their goals, conducting market intelligence to identify citizen concerns, change their behavior to meet those demands and communicate their "product offering" more effectively.
Political practices are supposed to serve as affirmations of a country's democracy; they should involve a process where citizens of a country participate in the full discussion of critical national issues such as job creation, economic growth and development, security and stability, among others ([46] Osuagwu, 2008).
2. Problem statement
Politics today is increasingly being influenced by marketing, and the same advanced technological methods used by corporations to market products are being used by politicians to market themselves and their ideas.
Because of the increasing interest in political marketing and its relationship with making good and efficient political policies and practices; the researcher tries to investigate the major factors influencing success of political marketing. This can be achieved by responding to the major research question:
RQ1. What are the key elements of a successful political marketing?
3. Objectives of the study
Throughout this study, the researcher aims at investigating the concept of political marketing and the factors affecting its successful implementation. Toward this aim, the following two objectives can be targeted:
(1)] Undertake an extensive literature review that will set the theoretical foundation of the research and bridge the fields of political and business marketing.
(2)] Investigate the key elements permitting the success of political marketing strategy.
4. Literature review and theoretical framework
The application of marketing to politics has been somewhat neglected in both the marketing and politics literature ([55] Mauser, 1983; [44] O'Shaughnessy, 2001). Because marketers have developed a body of knowledge and technical expertise directly related to the analysis and persuasion of large groups of people, their discipline can contribute to an understanding of politics. [212] Dunleavy (1990) indicates that recent distinctive insights into electoral change have been made by social scientists in such spheres as political geography, occupational sociology and economics. Moreover, [19] Harrop (1990) suggests that a marketing perspective offers a "fresh slant on understanding electoral change."
Political marketing and the mainstream marketing
[203] Kotler and Keller (2009) define marketing as an...