What is political marketing and how does it work? This question sits at the heart of this book. Using the British General Election of 2005 as a case study, this collection focuses on three important elements: the products offered by the parties; the campaign communication; and the perceptions, reactions and attitudes of the voters. Within each chapter is a discussion of the role of marketing in constructing the elements of an election campaign, how marketing informs the communicational aspects and how the strategy is perceived by the voters. This analysis, the first of its kind, allows us to understand how marketing informs the disparate elements of a campaign to understand if politics has entered a market-oriented phase. The book raises a number of important questions, particularly the extent to which marketing has become the new political ideology, and what affect this is having on the voter perceptions of the parties.

Darren G. Lilleker is Senior Lecturer in Political Communication at Bournemouth University and Fellow of the Centre of Public Communication Research. Nigel A. Jackson is Senior Lecturer in Events Management at Plymouth University. Richard Scullion is Senior Lecturer in Marketing Communication at Bournemouth University

1. Introduction - Darren Lilleker, Nigel Jackson & Richard Scullion
2. 'Are you thinking what we're thinking?', or 'Are we thinking what you're thinking?': An exploratory analysis of the market-orientation of the UK parties - Robert P. Ormrod and Stefan C. M. Henneberg
3. The 2005 UK general election and the emergence of the 'negative brand' - Jenny Lloyd
4. Political marketing and the 2005 election: what's ideology got to do with it? - Heather Savigny
5. A marketing analysis of the 2005 British general election advertising campaigns - Janine Dermody and Stuart Hanmer-Lloyd
6. The autistic campaign: the parties, the media and the voters - Ivor Gaber
7. Banking Online: the use of the Internet by political parties to build relationships with voters - Nigel A. Jackson
8. Investigating electoral choice through a 'consumer as choice maker' lens - Richard Scullion
9. Local political marketing: political marketing as public service - Darren G. Lilleker
10. View from the armchair: Why young people took no interest and no notice of the campaigns - Dianne Dean
11. Conclusion: was 2005 the year political marketing came of age? - Darren G. Lilleker, Nigel Jackson & Richard Scullion