Political Marketing: The Modernization of the Concept, Its Methodological and Politico-Technological Bases

The article is devoted to modern approaches to the study of political marketing, including the analysis of current political technologies, as well as the opportunities and limitations associated with their implementation. Such technologies are of particular relevance in the political process of post-modernity described in the categories of hierarchy, performativity, contextuality, discreteness and simulation. According to the authors, political marketing today is increasingly becoming an object of interdisciplinary research, in particular, it is actively considered from the point of view of synergy (the general theory of self-organization). The authors conclude that currently there is an active update of the main campaigns and concepts of political marketing. Patterns found in the analysis from the point of view of the system-synergistic activity of a modern changeable and non-linear context within which political marketing strategies are implemented deserve separate consideration: (1) The power of the administrative resource and the variety of informal contacts and connections among the subjects of political marketing do not always ensure the successful implementation of political marketing strategies in a changing society. (2) Of particular importance in this situation are the "point-like" measures of influence on the imbalanced politicians and the public space when, to achieve the goal, the deliberate and skillful nudging of an unstable system that is ready for profound changes (public sphere, public opinion, electorate's sentiment) in the direction necessary for political actors is required rather than a massive intervention. (3) Political marketing is effective when the infrastructure of the influence of the power or of powerless political actors is consolidated, that is, when all resources (political, economic, symbolic capitals) are brought together and work on a single task (electoral, political, administrative). (4) The condition for a successful use of political marketing is reliance on soft power technology. An attractive and consistent image of political power, consistently fixed in the minds of potential voters and in public opinion, affirmed within the public sphere using a symbolic capital, is needed. According to the authors, the key conditions for the effectiveness of political marketing technologies are, respectively: (1) the timeliness of advocacy impacts (political marketing actors need to be proactive in modeling the desired state of public opinion on significant issues); (2) the complex and systemic impact on the opinions of potential voters, its linking with a wide range of problems that really concern the latter; (3) the adequacy and proportionality of the implemented marketing effects of the current social and political situation and the structure of the political moment; (4) the density and intensity of marketing influences, their focus on certain problem situations and reference groups that allow changing the popular mood and the political situation among potential voters in relatively short periods of time by displacing undesirable opinions and attitudes to the periphery of the public space; (5) the ability to create, reproduce and relay non-contradictory political discourses associated with value ideas shared by potential voters; (6) the clear articulation of the position of a political actor implementing marketing strategies on contemporary challenges and problems, the putting forward of a positive and constructive alternative to current challenges and problems, policies, strategies and approaches.

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