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Examining Brand Strength of Political Candidates: a Performance Premium Approach

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  • Beth L. Fossen

    (Indiana University)

  • David A. Schweidel

    (Emory University)

  • Michael Lewis

    (Emory University)

Abstract

Despite the growth of research on political marketing, fundamental questions concerning brand value of political candidates and its relationship with marketing mix activities remain unanswered. This research extends premium-based brand valuation methods to the political context by presenting a performance premium approach to assessing the strength of politicians’ brands and exploring the relationship between politician brand strength and political advertising. We develop a joint hierarchical Bayesian model of brand performance and marketing activity and estimate our model using data on the election performance and advertising expenditures of political candidates from US House of Representatives elections. Our findings suggest that politicians who possess a strong brand—those that perform better than expected given the partisan leanings of their districts, advertising spending, and other model controls—face a consequence for their brand strength in which political advertising by their opponents has a stronger negative impact on their performance compared to the effect of political advertising against politicians with weaker brands. We discuss the implications of our findings for political marketing.

Suggested Citation

  • Beth L. Fossen & David A. Schweidel & Michael Lewis, 2019. "Examining Brand Strength of Political Candidates: a Performance Premium Approach," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 6(3), pages 63-75, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:custns:v:6:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s40547-019-0092-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s40547-019-0092-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. David A. Schweidel & Neil Bendle, 2019. "Marketing and Politics: Strange Bedfellows no More," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 6(3), pages 37-40, December.

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