A RESEARCH ON THE USE OF MARKETING COMPONENTS IN SELECTION CAMPAIGN IN THE PROCESS OF POLITICAL MARKETING

SİYASAL PAZARLAMA SÜRECİ İÇERİSİNDEKİ SEÇİM KAMPANYALARINDA PAZARLAMA KARMASI ELEMANLARININ KULLANILIMI ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Abstract

Marketing is expanding its scope and boundaries day by day to include social, political, environmental and public spaces with the economic dimension including commercial products and services. This adds a social and political character to the marketing as well as commercial character. These qualities of marketing are discussed and studied with different aspects in different studies. Political parties and political candidates have had to make use of marketing science to differentiate from their opponents, to win new voters, to ensure party dependence in the electorate. Elections, one of the indispensable elements of politics, are the most important turning points in democratic life. In election campaigns, effective use of marketing mix members will affect voters' voting preferences, party and candidate differences and voter dependence positively. The transformations occurred in the political arena and voters in recent years such as mass media and developments in technology, change of electorate loyalty, changing the ideological stance and attitudes of the parties, increasing the number of conscious voters and changing the factors affecting voting behavior require political parties and political candidates to pursue different strategies and policies. Political parties and parliamentary candidates have had to give new emphasis to attract attention to the target group in order to easily adapt to these changes in voter behavior and not to be indifferent to these changes. This study compares political candidates' use of political marketing mix in their election campaigns and their vote rates and it assesses the effectiveness of political marketing mix elements used by parliamentarians and how they are used in the 3 November 2002 general parliamentary elections. By drawing attention to what needs to be done to implement effective political communication, it presents some contr ibutions and suggestions related to the results obtained from practice and theory a little more professionalism. The use of political marketing in our country is increasing day by day which is referred to get used to ideological preferences and constantly influence the voter masses who have been party addicted by voting the same party and convince them to go to the polls. It is widely accepted that the tool, technique and strategies seen it increasingly lately in the media and used in political marketing frequently are a convenient, short and important way to shed light on the decisions people make and in the acquisition of information by people for democracy. It can be said that political parties that succeeded in elections in recent years used political marketing techniques and tools more in relation and communication with voters in comparison with their competitors. The aim is to move the target audience towards the desired point (Chisksand and Carrigan, 2006: 271). Communication through political campaigns links the aims of candidates with the behaviour of voters it serves as a bridge between the hopes of the voters, the dreams and the activities of the candidates (Uztuğ, 1999: 18). The election campaigns, most known part of political marketing, not only allow for the increase of awareness of different leaders and different ideas but also convince voters to vote and prefer elections at the same time. This study mainly aims to reveal the levels of use of political marketing mix members in election campaigns based on their parliamentarians, unlike their similarities. In addition to, the aim of the study is to determine whether there is a meaningful relationship between the levels of the members of the parliament and the levels of use of the political marketing mix, the degree of voting, the demographic characteristics and the level of political consulting. The majority of the MPs who participated in the survey are male. Evaluating the sample as age, it is determined that 41-50 and 51-60 members of parliament participated in the survey. Also it is determined that the number of married members of parliament is higher. When we examined the MPs who participated in the survey in terms of education level, it is observed that more than half has an education at university level. Moreover, when parliamentarians are examined in their previous occupations before entering the parliament, they are found to have different occupations. Taking all this into account, it can be safely concluded that the example of the survey includes members of parliament with different demographic characteristics. During the election campaign of the MPs in the scope of the research sample, the utilization rates of human resources are evaluated by frequency and percentage method. The degree to which members of the parliament benefit from political marketers, political advisers and professional advisers are at a minimum. Political parties and parliamentarians are largely identified with party members, party workers and volunteers in their campaigns. Voluntary work of these groups without paying a certain fee is seen as an advantage for parties and candidates. When looking at the usage ratings of the media tools that MPs are using in the election campaign process it is observed that MPs benefit from television, billboards and newspapers. The reason why the use of televisions so much is due to the fact that the more candidates and political parties are on the television, the more likely it will be to influence voters' opinions. The reason for the 39.5% rate of utilization of the newspapers is that it is not possible to broadcast political advertisements on television during the election campaigns but it is possible to advertise with the newspapers. This shows that MPs have a very high level of beneficiary participation from non-governmental organizations and their affiliates. When considering the mean and standard deviations of the distribution variables which are political marketing mix elements, it is determined that they are above the average which the u

Özet

Pazarlama ticari ürün ve hizmetleri kapsayan ekonomik boyut ile birlikte, sosyal, siyasal, çevresel ve kamusal alanları da içerecek boyutta her geçen gün kapsamını ve sınırlarını genişletmektedir. Bu durum pazarlamaya ticari niteliğinin yanı sıra sosyal ve siyasal bir nitelik eklemektedir. Pazarlamanın bu nitelikleri farklı çalışmalarda farklı yönleri ile tartışılmakta ve incelenmektedir. Siyasi partiler ve siyasi adaylar rakiplerinden farklılaşmak, yeni seçmen kazanmak, seçmen kitlesinde parti bağımlılığının oluşmasını sağlamak için pazarlama biliminden vazgeçilmezlerinden olan seçimler demokratik hayatın en önemli dönemeçlerindendir. Seçim kampanyalarında pazarlama karması elemanlarının etkin bir şekilde kullanılması, seçmenlerin oy tercihini, parti ve aday farklılığını ve seçmen bağımlığını pozitif yönde etkileyecektir. nasıl kullanıldığı ile ilgili verileri değerlendirmektedir. Bunun yanı sıra etkin bir siyasal iletişimin uygulanması için yapılması gerekenlere dikkat çekerek ilerde yapılacak olan uygulamalı ve teorik çalışmalara yönelik olarak elde edilen sonuçlarla ilgili bazı katkılar ve öneriler sunmaktadır