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This paper examines the effect of marketing on politics. Thus, it focuses on the phenomenon of political marketing. This paper critically traces the evolution of the political marketing and gives a brief overview of its theoretical development. It seeks to address the question of how this approach is adapted into politics. Political marketing is based on the idea that not only firms but also non-profit organizations need marketing activities. It is obvious that firms use marketing. But this view suggests that marketing is critical to the success of also non-profit organizations. In this sense, the term political marketing can be defined as an approach uses the conceptual foundation of marketing theory applied to non-profit political exchanges. Since 1970s, the decline in party membership and increase in floating vote have destabilised Western political life. This has increased the importance of electoral campaigns and also caused pressure on the established party organizations. Increasingly, election campaigns have translated into marketing campaigns and party leaders have transformed into political entrepreneurs. The development of the communication technologies, particularly television, has downgraded the role of the traditional party bureaucracy. Bureaucratic roles have become obsolete and new professional roles have gained ground. A new elite of experts in communication has replaced the political activist and the party bureaucrat. Despite the similarities between political and marketing campaigns, there are still huge differences between them because market and politics are not identical. Even they use the same advertising techniques, unlike economic decisions, the political choices involve moral and ideological dispositions. Thus, this paper argues that a helpful political marketing approach should identify both the similarities and differences between politics and marketing.

International Congress of Human and Social Sciences Research
İTOBİAD

Mustafa BÖLÜKBAŞI