Paper for the 2003 PSA Conference Political Marketing group panels Political Marketing and Party Leadership Jennifer Lees-Marshment and Chris Rudd Contact details: Dr. Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Director of the Centre for Political Marketing, Department of Management, Keele University, Keele, Staffs ST55BG. Email
[email protected] Dr. Chris Rudd, Department of Political Studies, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Email:
[email protected] Abstract Party leaders in Westminster systems are important, the focus of attention of the media, public and fellow politicians. When there is a change in party leadership, academic analysis has tended to focus on the ‘elective ability’ of the new incumbent as the reason for the change, and debated their potential success in improving the electoral performance of the party. This paper, however, looks beyond this narrow criterion for leadership success and offers an analysis of leadership change and performance using a broader political marketing framework. Drawing on examples of recent party leadership changes in the UK Conservative Party and the New Zealand National Party, we focus on the new leader and her/his relationship to the party organization, the party ‘product’ and party ‘promotion’. We analyse a wide range of factors behind both the selection of a leader and their ability to succeed in their goals once elected. Both parties provide ample opportunity to understand some of the constraints on party leaders to manage and change their party, and enhance our understanding as to why leadership change does not always have the desired effect of improved electoral performance. Introduction Political marketing is a well-acknowledged phenomenon in the politics of western liberal democracies, with marketing being used by political parties, parliaments and public services.