Come April, and over 1,500 individuals from over 38 recognized national and state political parties, over 1,100 individuals from non-recognized registered political parties and over 12,000 independent candidates shall be contesting in the Lok Sabha Elections. Their target market—over 650 million eligible voters. And their target—at individual level winning, a seat in Lok Sabha, and at party level, winning with majority, thereby coming to power for the next five years. Can this target be achieved without a planned marketing process? Political advertising is one of the critical aspects of this marketing process that can determine the fate of parties and individuals.
Political parties since time immemorial have been marketing themselves at the local, regional, state and national level to grab the voters' share during the election time. Traditionally, political parties had been achieving this by organizing rallies, coloring walls, hanging banners, street campaigning and using other promotional materials like handouts, posters, leaflets, audio cassettes, badges etc. But today, with explosion of the media, emergence of multiple media channels and media vehicles, political advertising in India is entering into a new phase. Advertising agencies are looking forward to grab the party accounts and even the political parties want to bring professional expertise ensuring they do not miss on the potential voter on the day of election. After all, the risks involved are too high, once lost the next chance to compete only comes after five years. This phenomenon was evident during the state assembly election late last year and moreover, with Election Commission withdrawing the ban on political advertising in November 2003, the advertising activity is going to heat up in the coming Lok Sabha Polls. |
