27 participants met at the Academy of Marketing Political Marketing Specialist Interest Group one day symposium held at the University of Chester on Friday 8^th October 2010 on:

“Marketing in the 2010 British General Election: Perspectives, Prospect and Practice”

The motley crew attending, displayed in the photo, were drawn mainly from UK universities although Robert Ormrod, came over specially, from Arhus School of Business, in Denmark, and so deserves a special mention. Roger Mortimore, from Ipsos MORI, also deserves a special mention for bringing up the practitioner contingent.

The event began with an excellent dinner (thanks due to Phil Harris!) at Chester University’s mansion house complex and a speech by Councillor Simon Ashley of the Liberal Democrats who gave us an insider’s account of life inside the Liberal Democrats within the Coalition government.

Delegates were then treated the following day to twelve presentations based around papers submitted to a special edition of the Journal of Marketing Management on the British General Election 2010.  

Presentations took place around the relative importance of:
> political communication channel experiences
> semiology and leader image
> an analysis of the nature and content of political advertising
> a study of local and central political marketing co-ordination in elections
> the ethics of advertising
> the use of twitter in the election
> social media usage in politics
> voter decision-making among the young
> brand leader image change during the election campaign
> the election as beauty contest

The photo above shows Gareth Smith (a veteran political marketer since a paper for JMM in 1990) from Loughborough University waxing lyrical (or dancing, shades of big box, little box!) mid-presentation.  

Thanks are due to Phil Harris for providing the venue and cross-subsidising the event together with the generous support of the Academy of Marketing.

You can also see and attend the AM Political Marketing SIG at the Academy of Marketing Conference in Liverpool in 2011. Those with an interest in political marketing should consider submitting a paper to the political marketing track.  

Anyone interested in joining the AM political marketing SIG should email Paul Baines at paul.baines@cranfield.ac.uk.

Paul Baines AM POL MARK SIG CHAIR