Political Marketing: A Comparative Study of the Democrat and the Pheu Thai Party’s Campaign Strategies in the 2013 Bangkok Governor Election

Abstract

The present research consisted of 2 research questions, namely, (i) Upon comparing the processes of election campaign strategies used by the Democrat Party and Pheu Thai Party in the Bangkok Governor Election in 2013, what are the similarities and differences of such the processes in the view of political marketing aspect?; (ii) How did the Bangkok Governor Election in 2013 pose any consequences to the political changes, which subsequently affected the processes of election campaign strategies in the view of political marketing aspect of the Democrat Party and Pheu Thai Party? The present is a qualitative research which is intended to study political environment and factors which relate to the election campaign and affect the processes of political marketing strategies of the Democrat Party and Pheu Thai Party, whereas the analysis of the proposed issue was conducted under the conceptual framework of political marketing and political communication. The theoretical framework in the present research consisted of the collection of information from the research study, analysis of documents and in-depth interviews. According to the research’s result, it appears that Democrat Party and Pheu Thai Party had applied political marketing concept in full range with the election, but using different processes of political communication. Due to the political changes occurred during the political conflict situation before the Bangkok Governor Election in 2013 and the technological changes, Democrat Party decided to use the political environment, which was a negative campaign, as a strategy for discrediting Pheu Thai Party in full areas, and was targeting at the group of people who shared concurring political concept and ideology, whereas such the negative campaign was combined with policy strategy, instead of using the policy for the election campaign solely. Such the strategies were applied in the last mile of the election (few days before the election), and it resulted in the critics against Pheu Thai Party. Pheu Thai Party, who was avoiding any negative environment that may incur against its party, therefore, emphasized and rather used the policy campaign as a main strategy for gaining votes.