Analysis of the literature on political marketing using a bibliometric approach

• Author: Somnath Chakrabarti,Krishna Teja Perannagari
• Date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2019
• Published date: 01 February 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

Analysis of the literature on political marketing using a

bibliometric approach

Krishna Teja Perannagari | Somnath Chakrabarti

Department of Marketing, Indian Institute of

Management Kashipur, Kashipur, India

Correspondence

Somnath Chakrabarti, Associate Professor,

Department of Marketing, Indian Institute of

Management Kashipur, Kashipur, Uttarakhand

244713, India.

Email: somnath.chakrabarti@iimkashipur.ac.in

The current study presents a quantitative investigation of the literature on political

marketing using a bibliometric approach. This study has analyzed 214 documents col-

lected from the Web of Science database for the period between 1996 and 2018

using VOSviewer software and bibliometrix R package. Based on the insights gained

from the analysis, the authors discuss the structural characteristics of various scien-

tific agents involved in the publication process. The results of this study indicate that

the literature on political marketing is highly fragmented and is still in its nascent

stages. It further stresses the need to improve collaboration among researchers and

promote this discipline within the research community.

1|INTRODUCTION

The marketing concept has evolved, and its scope extends beyond

conventional products and services to include offerings by nonbusi-

ness organizations (Kotler & Levy, 1969). Given that each political

party has a mission, structure, competition, and a reporting hierarchy

for the members, it can be considered a nonbusiness organization

(Katz & Mair, 1994). Analogous to other organizations, political parties

also strive very hard to communicate their policy offerings and ensure

the party's victory in general elections (Lees-Marshment, 2001).

Political marketing is the application of different marketing tech-

niques and concepts by political actors to achieve the goals of the

political organization (Ingram & Lees-Marshment, 2002). Political mar-

keting is descriptive as it explains the exchange dynamics involved in

political activities and prescriptive as it helps in understanding constit-

uents and recognizing sympathizers and provides recommendations

about how to accomplish the goals of the political organization. This

concept was first used by Stanley Keller to explain mass persuasion in

political propaganda (Scammell, 1999). When the definition of market-

ing was modified in 1985 to add the word ideas by the American Mar-

keting Association, this concept received acceptance into the

marketing literature.

As the discipline received acceptance among academicians, studies

focused on voter behavior, political branding, social media marketing,

and image management, among others. However, there is a

shortage of research papers focusing on the publication activity,

characteristics of existing studies, and their contribution to the

advancement of literature. To fill the mentioned research gaps and

explain the relevance as well as penetration of political marketing

within the academic discipline, the authors have identified bibliometric

analysis as the most appropriate technique.

This study presents an up-to-date overview of the research litera-

ture to facilitate a greater understanding of the concepts of political

marketing and acts as a preliminary reference for new entrants to get

familiar with the discipline. The approach adopted in the current study

provides useful information to guide the researchers about publication

opportunities, key actors (publication sources, institutions, and coun-

tries, among others), and cooperative practices. The study also high-

lights the structural characteristics of different scientific agents

involved in the publication process. Based on the insights from the

analysis, research agenda for advancing the literature in the political

marketing discipline is developed.

2|THEORY AND BACKGROUND

Political marketing is an outcome of societal-level changes resulting in

a decline in political partisanship, technological advancements such as

the emergence of Web 2.0, and environmental trends like globaliza-

tion and marketization. Political marketing emerged as a separate dis-

cipline by borrowing the notion of exchange, relationship perspective,

and market intelligence techniques from marketing; definitions and

models that help in distinguishing and determining the behavior of

Received: 17 June 2019 Revised: 24 July 2019 Accepted: 2 September 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2019

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2019. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of13

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2019