POLITICAL BRANDING: TURNING TO SYMBOLIC POLICY

Abstract

Political branding has traditionally been viewed as a sub-discipline of political marketing. This paper proposes to go beyond the marketing approach and consider political branding as a kind of symbolic politics. Symbolic politics as a theoretical and methodological direction allows, first of all, to raise the question of expanding the field of application of political branding as a means of political influence. If, within the framework of the marketing paradigm, political branding is considered as a competitive tool mainly in electoral processes, then the inclusion of political branding in the subject field of symbolic politics allows us to raise the question of its use to solve a wider range of political tasks, including the formation of national identity, trust in public authorities, increasing the prestige of certain forms of civic activity, etc. The appeal of the theoretical and methodological potential of symbolic politics also allows us to take a different look at the very process of constructing political brands. If the marketing approach requires political brand managers to focus on a rational person who is aware of his needs, striving for maximum benefit, able to evaluate the results of his actions, then the paradigm of symbolic politics tells the creators of political brands that the political preferences of citizens are not so much the result of rational calculation, but rather a consequence of the assimilated mythologemes and ideologemes. In the paper, a political brand is defined as a recognizable and easily distinguishable symbol that can attract attention and act as a stimulus that triggers certain cognitive and emotional processes in the psyche. The defining role in the creation of political brands of such symbolic constructs as mythologemes and ideologemes is substantiated. Brand competition is seen as a battling of political forces for appropriation of the right to include myths and value judgments that are popular in mass consciousness in the brand being created. The conditions of “burnout” of a political brand are revealed. Attention is drawn to the use of symbolic mechanisms in the policy of challenging and discrediting the brands of political rivals.