ADDING THE NUMBERS: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela marks her ballot paper at the Orlando West High School polling station in Soweto during the 2009 elections. The columnist says there's a need for political marketing to encourage people to vote. Picture: Shayne Robinson ADDING THE NUMBERS: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela marks her ballot paper at the Orlando West High School polling station in Soweto during the 2009 elections. The columnist says there's a need for political marketing to encourage people to vote. Picture: Shayne Robinson
When establishing the Convention People Party in 1949, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, the great African revolutionary and intellectual who was Africa’s first democratic president, instructed party leaders to “go to the people, live among them, learn from them, love them, serve them, plan with them, start with what they know, and build on what they have… for the masses of the people form the backbone of our party. Their living conditions and their welfare must be paramount in everything we do. It is for them in particular, that our party exists.”
This approach to governance is called political marketing and is a crucial element of effective and efficient politics.
Political marketing is a great tactic to assess how your political brand fits into the lives of voters and citizens.
In 2014, our political parties will contest the fifth national democratic elections amid growing suspicions and uncertainties.
Politics is in trouble with the masses and is perceived to be arrogant, deceitful, corrupt, uncaring, self-serving, incompetent, ignoring citizens’ needs and a quick vehicle for wealth accumulation.
Politics is supposed to be a moral crusade that inspires hope, unity in diversity, patriotism and trust, and not just about pleasing and attracting members and voters.
The 2014 national elections will come at a time when the country is experiencing a huge breakdown of trust and values on all societal levels, yet high levels of trust are crucial ingredients for any democracy, development, peace and prosperity.
As elections get closer, political parties will try to score and create as many points and much trust as they can to win votes. This demands a thorough understanding and compassion for voters and the public’s needs and aspirations.
Author William Gumede writes in Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times that South Africa has seen a huge breakdown of trust between political parties, government, business, labour and citizens.
Since July 5, 2004 (Diepsloot protest) to date, poor communities have turned to protest, accompanied by violence and vandalism against poor service delivery and failure by political parties to deliver on their election promises. Again labour actions, marches against state decisions, the lack of accountability, high levels of crime and corruption, court rulings against governments (ANC and DA), political intolerance and infightings, high levels of unemployment, inequality and poverty have eroded trust between politics and citizens.
These are indications of a drop in fanatical attachment to political parties and reflect a growing need for alternatives.
Electoral volatility increased in the past decade, so voters are more likely to decide on their choice long before elections.
Some citizens have vowed not to vote again.
“In low-trust societies, disagreements are often resolved through violence. In such societies, communities often withdraw into protective laagers, whether ethnic, religious or cultural, which are hostile to outsiders. South Africa needs political parties that can generate trust inside and outside their own constituencies”, Gumede argues.
The volatile situation demands that politics turn to political marketing to better understand and service their markets and residents.
Political consumers have become more cautious and critical of political rhetoric, popular political offerings and development initiatives devoid of local realities.
The country needs parties whose ethical, moral and value-based leadership principles are beyond reproach. Parties need to connect with voters and the public to restore trust, hope and confidence in the country’s politics.
As parties craft their political communication for the coming elections, they are advised to make political marketing the central part of their campaign strategies.
Marketing is the hottest concept in the competitive global markets not only for wealthy global business brands, but for political brands that want to run governments that deliver.
In politics, marketing delivers benefits similar to the pillars of democracy as it gathers meaningful voters’ insights, discovers citizens’ needs through engagement, provides the public with information, offers choices, builds political brands and promotes political inclusivity and mutual exchanges with voters.
Politics and marketing have been bedfellows since the multiparty political system became the standard in countries that embrace democracy.
Political marketing has permeated the political space, transforming politics and governance to dictation by voters’ needs, demands and aspirations to ultimately earn citizens’ interest, passion, trust and loyalty.
Political marketing helps politicians to manage citizens not as occasional voters, donors or taxpayers, but as their customers.
It will assist political parties to tap into the people-ness of voters and the public, as these are the most reliable tools to understand and embrace the role and capacity of community resources such as institutions of higher learning, intellectuals, traditional and cultural knowledge and the civil society.
Though some parties go overboard with their political marketing tactics, many if not all rely solely on marketing to gain power or retain their positions of power.
Political marketing should be used to give voters and the public an opportunity to contribute in the construction of public policies, development of election manifestoes, crafting of political messages as well as the delivery of inclusive development programmes, thus generating confidence, trust and hope.
Old-fashioned allegiances are losing their appeal as society evolves. And, there is a need for political parties to take more care of how their political brands are perceived, to be more in tune with changing voter expectations and to position their leaders and messages to appeal to the increasingly sophisticated and impatient electorate.
As Nkrumah did in the 1950s, our politicians must use political marketing to merge principle and policies with pragmatism to achieve broad, realistic and achievable national goals.
After all, politics, government, marketing and electioneering can be deemed as indivisible.
l Thabani Khumalo is a political and communications consultant with Think Tank Marketing Services in Durban. He writes in his personal capacity.