A Political Brand Engagement and Positioning Framework

This chapter investigates two related priority issues linked to political brand positioning, representing under-explored areas of study within political branding. Further, this chapter examines how political brands create and manage intended identities and discusses how researchers and strategists can capture the actual position associated with political brands developed in the minds of voters. To frame the exploration, this chapter adopts related yet distinct concepts such as consumer brand engagement, brand identity, and brand image. Two short case studies are included to illustrate application of the key concepts. Case one focuses on political brands in the Crown Dependency of Jersey and case two focuses on a political brand in Pakistan. The chapter concludes by presenting the ‘political brand engagement and positioning framework’, which serves as a mechanism to capture and compare the intended position and actual position. This is turn will reveal coherency or misalignment of intended brand identity and actual brand image, which strategists can respond and develop strategies to maintain alignment or devise repositioning-engagement strategies to help manage political brands.