The political brand, its brand equity and the voter : Conceptualisation and test of a model of the relationship with the political brand based on the measurement of its brand equity

We have chosen in this research to transpose and adapt several concepts used in the field of Management Sciences and more specifically Marketing - notably the concepts of brand and brand equity - to the political sphere. The main objectives of our research are to contribute to Keller's conceptualization of brand equity (1993), to validate a measure method and to apply it to another field. The ultimate goal is to test our conceptualization of a model of the relationship to the political brand based on the measure of its brand equity.

Based on the first ballot of the 2012 French presidential election, this research proves the relevance of Keller's conceptualization of brand equity (1993) applied to the political field: directly or indirectly, political brand equity does stand for the differential effect of political brand knowledge on voter response to the marketing of the political brand. Furthermore, strong, favorable and unique associations are those which create value. Our studies also allow to validate a dual conceptualization of the political brand (Phipps, Brace-Govan and Jevons, 2010) while proving the moderating effect of the congruence between the candidate's personal brand and the party's corporate brand. At last, testing the model allows to better understand the relationship between the political brand and the voter. According to us, the concept of political brand can help politicians as well as parties to develop their awareness of, build, manage, measure and control their brand equity. Developing a measure of political brand equity thus allows the possibility of a real management of the political brand.