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Book Cover for: The Sage Handbook of Political Marketing, Paul Baines

The Sage Handbook of Political Marketing

Paul Baines

The Sage Handbook of Political Marketing is a comprehensive resource that introduces the theory and practice of political marketing in a global, yet simultaneously localized, world. The practice of political marketing has evolved significantly during the 20th and 21st centuries, adapting to the rise of mass media, marketing communication, advertising, and the web. Traditionally dominated by US, European, and Australasian scholars, the field has up-to-now emphasized the Americanisation and professionalisation of campaigning styles.

Since the start of the new millennium, however, political marketing has transformed into a data-driven, specialized profession. With increasing digitalisation and the advent of AI, political marketing involves personally targeted, evidence-based messaging with real-time engagement and sentiment analysis. This approach is not limited to democratic regimes but is also widely adopted by authoritarian states worldwide.

The handbook addresses the global perspectives on political marketing, covering a myriad of contexts, cultures, and regimes. It encompasses insights into political marketing in regions seldom discussed in the literature, including Zimbabwe, Japan, India, Hong Kong, and Ukraine. These chapters enrich the debate on political marketing's impact on democracies and its use in non-democratic societies.

Organized into four parts, the handbook covers strategy, propaganda, digital evolution, ideology, and contemporary practices in political marketing. It explores topics such as the marketing of ideology, the impact of the internet and social media, the use of AI in political marketing, and the role of fake news and disinformation in campaigns. The handbook addresses the use of political marketing techniques in crisis management, political branding, the measurement of political marketing effects, and political marketing use outside of electoral campaigns.

The Sage Handbook of Political Marketing is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, students, and politicos in general, seeking to understand the complexities of political marketing. It provides a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of the field, equipping readers to engage with the theoretical and practical aspects of political marketing in a rapidly changing world.

Part 1: Strategy in Political Marketing: Orthodox and Occidental Perspectives
Part 2: Political Marketing, Propaganda, and Digital Evolution: Global South and Eastern European Perspectives
Part 3: Ideology in Political Marketing: Advocacy, Movements, Lobbying, and Public Diplomacy
Part 4: Contemporary Political Marketing: Cybercampaigning, Fake News and Social Media


Book Details

  • Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
  • Publish Date: Oct 13rd, 2025
  • Pages: 704
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
  • EAN: 9781529609707
  • Categories: Marketing - DirectGeneral

About the Author

Baines, Paul: - Paul Baines is Professor of Political Marketing and Associate Dean (Business and Civic Engagement) at the University of Leicester. He is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University and an Associate Fellow at King's College London. He is author/co-author of more than a hundred published articles, book chapters and books on political marketing issues. Over the last 23 years, Paul's research has focused on political marketing, public opinion and propaganda. He is a Fellow of the Market Research Society and the Institute of Directors (IOD). He holds bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Manchester, a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education from Middlesex University and an MSc in Quantitative Methods for Science, Social Science and Medicine from Lancaster University. Paul's teaching has encompassed undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience levels, including MBA and executive MBA teaching, in the US, UK, Canada, Sweden, Finland, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, and Cyprus across a number of aspects of marketing, political marketing and PR.

Paul is (co-)editor/(co-)author of numerous marketing texts, including, with Chris Fill, Sara Rosengren, and Paolo Antonetti, the best-seller, 'Marketing' 5E (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Fundamentals of Marketing 2E (Oxford University Press, 2021, in press), also with Chris Fill, Sara Rosengren and Paolo Antonetti, Political Marketing (Sage Publications, 2011), Propaganda (Sage Publications, 2013) and with Sir Robert Worcester, Roger Mortimore and Mark Gill, the polling treatise Explaining Cameron's Catastrophe (Indie Publishing, 2017). Paul's research/strategy consultancy includes experience working with numerous government departments on strategic communication research projects as well as small, medium and large private enterprises including IBM, 3M, Saint Gobain Glassolutions, Fulham Football Club and many others. He is a non-executive director of the Business Continuity Institute, and operates his own strategic marketing and market research consultancy, Baines Associates Limited.

Previous work for UK and US government clients has looked at, inter alia, fear and guilt appeals and their persuasive application in communications by terrorist groups and how we might counter those communications. Ongoing research work includes grant funding for a project to evaluate the effectiveness of police social marketing/counter-terrorism communications.
Harris, Phil: - Professor Phil Harris is Professor Emeritus at the University of Chester and was previously Executive Director of the Business Research Institute and held the Westminster (Grosvenor) Chair in Marketing and Public Affairs. He is a past Chairman of the Marketing Council (UK) PLC, Board member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Professor of Marketing at the University of Otago, New Zealand and Founding Director of the Centre for Corporate and Public Affairs at Manchester Metropolitan University. Prior to becoming an academic he held positions in the international chemical, and foods industries with ICI and RHM and has chaired or been a board member of the American Marketing Association, Academy of Marketing, and the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. He has advised government on Medium Sized Businesses and Small Business and helped found the Educate North Awards in 2015 and University Enterprise Challenge in 2016 and is very focused on developing high quality entrepreneurs regionally and internationally both in the not for profit, private and public sectors.
Panagopoulos, Costas: - Costas Panagopoulos is a visiting professor of Political Science and a fellow at the Center for the Study of American Politics at Yale University for the 2015-2016 academic year. He is also Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy and the graduate program in Elections and Campaign Management at Fordham University. A leading expert on campaigns and elections, voting behavior, media and public opinion, campaign strategy and campaign finance, Dr. Panagopoulos has published numerous book and dozens of articles, including A Citizens′ Guide to U.S. Elections: Empowering Democracy in America (coauthored with Aaron Weinschenk, Routledge, 2016). He has also been part of the Decision Desk team at NBC News since the 2006 election cycle. In 1992, while a student at Harvard University, Dr. Panagopoulos was a candidate for the Massachusetts State Legislature.