INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ELECTORATE’S PERCEPTION TOWARDS POLITICAL PARTY AND ITS BRAND BUILDING

 Dr. V. Aarthi Agnihothri

Assistant professor, Sri Krishna arts and science College, Coimbatore

Dr. Nitin Kumar Saxena

Associate Professor, Jaipuria School of Business, Ghaziabad

Dr. Talha Akbar Kamal

Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Invertis University, Bareilly UP

Dr. Abhinav Priyadarshi Tripathi

Associate Professor – School of Business & Management, Christ (Deemed to Be) University, Ghaziabad, Delhi N.C.R Campus

Dr. Anil Chandhok

Professor, University School of Business, Chandigarh University, Mohali

Prof. Gagan Bhatia

Assistant Professor, Lala Lajpatrai Institute of Management

ABSTRACT

India is one of the world’s largest democratic nations, which implies that people get elected to positions of authority via a competitive election process. As a result, politicians must demonstrate to people what they have in store (manifesto)  for them and why they should choose/vote for them. Without using the tools of political marketing, it will be challenging task for the political parties to communicate with the electorates. To connect with the electorates, campaigners utilize political marketing using various ways of social media. The present research is aimed to discuss the role of social media in political brand building. Further, the study also examines influence of social media on electorate’s perception towards political party considering selected demographic characteristics. . It is observed in the study that there is an important role of social media in the brand building of any political party. In current scenario, political marketing is viewed by theorists as a market in which a product is exchanged between politicians and electorate/ voters. This product might be philosophy, manifestos, or a commitment made by political candidates to enhance the electorate’s living conditions. Further, the study also revealed  that demographic profile of the electorates plays significant role in most of the cases (gender, occupation, qualification, residential area) except age only, which indicates that the influence of social media on electorate’s perception towards political party is not same for all demographic characteristics. Therefore, political parties need to consider the demographic characteristics of the electorates while developing brand building strategies through social media.

Keywords: Political branding, Political marketing, Democratic country, India and Social media.