Political Branding in India: Brand BJP

Political Branding In India: Brand BJPGROUP 6

ADITYA MAHADEV PRAKASH

LEELA KRISHNA A

NIKHIL DARAK

RAHUL GUPTA

SUDHEENDER S

Problem Statement

COMPONENTS OF MR PROBLEM

Factors influencing inclination to vote for a political party Perception of the party

MARKETING RESEARCH PROBLEMDetermine factors that influence urban youth voters’ inclination to vote for a political party

Perception of Brand BJP vis-à-vis other political parties on the above determined factors

MANAGEMENT DECISION PROBLEMHow should BJP position itself in the minds of the urban youth to secure their votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections?

Exploratory Research : BCM

Inferences• Party leaders are very important

for BJP – Primary Associations • BJP is strongly associated with RSS

and the Hindutva ideology

• Any association to development and better governance is only at the secondary level and through a leader

Strategy of placing leaders known for development before the party has penetrated the psyche of the urban youth

Exploratory Research: Secondary Data

Key Secondary Data Facts

35% of the total eligible voters in the upcoming elections will belong to the age group of 30 years and below. 47% if we define youth as 35 and below.

Approximately 90,000 first time voters, in the age group of 18 to 22 will be eligible to vote in each of the Lok Sabha constituencies

According to a representative survey conducted by India Today, more than 47% wanted Narendra Modi as their next Prime Minister

The number of like for Narendra Modi’s page on Facebook (11.1m) is greater than that of Arvind Kejriwal (4.6m), BJP(2.5m), INC(2m), AAP(1.6m) and Rahul Gandhi(0.3m) combined

According to a recent poll conducted by the Times Now-C Voter group, the NDA led by the BJP is poised to capture 227 seats of the 543 seats available in the Lok Sabha.

Exploratory Research: Focus Groups

Selection Factors

• Clean and Intellectual Leadership

• Vision of the party

• Declaration of PM candidate

• Inclusion, Experience at the national level

Media Channels

• Presence on the web and social media platforms

• Newspaper and Electronic Media important as well

Attributes of a leader

• Team-Player• Proven Track Record

• Pro-development

Attributes of a Voter

• Aware of political parties and their agenda

• Aware of social and national issues

• Unbiased towards caste, language and religion

Exploratory Research: In-Depth Interviews

Motivators to Vote for a Party

Good Infrastructure

Development

Anti-Corruption Measures

Past performance

Communication Channels

Multimedia focused

Communication

Social Media

Door-to-door Campaign

Leader

Leader before party

Absence of leader has a

negative impact

Party Ideology

Large Impact

Compensated by growth-

focused agenda

Populism

Negative impact

Exploratory Research: Projective Techniques

Urban youth have a negative perception towards the INC with issues such as dynasty politics, corruption and policy paralysis dominating the responses

BJP has a relatively better image with factors such as development, growth and lesser corruption

INC is credited with possessing an intellectual leadership team whereas the BJP is regarded as a party with internal conflicts

INC is personified as old, rich and deceitful in contrast to the BJP which seems to be regarded as a middle-aged, mature but confused individual

Hypotheses - Exploratory Research

BJP is perceived to have a pro-Hindutva agenda by urban youth

Clear leadership is important for voters to consider a party as favourable

Past performance of contesting candidate influences voting decision

Development and growth are the prime influencers for urban youth to vote for a political party

Decisive leadership is associated with BJP than Congress

BJP is considered less corrupt than Congress

Secularism is associated more with Congress than with BJP

BJP is considered more pro-development than Congress

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Survey Demographics

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State-Wise Distribution

Male

82%

Female

18%

Gender

18 - 2326%

24 - 2872%

29 - 331%

34 and above1%

Age Groups

18 - 23 24 - 28 29 - 33 34 and above

Factor Analysis

Factor 1 : Maturity of the party

Factor 2: Hygiene of the party

Factor 3: Image of the party

Factor 4: Inclusivity of the party

Qualified leadership team

Non Corrupt Decisive leadership

Minority Inclusion

Declaration of PM candidate

Secular Party Ideology Pro poor policies

Amicable foreign policies

Pro development

Past Government performance

Focus on rural development

Experience at the national level

Rotated Component Matrixa

Component

1 2 3 4

Non-Corrupt .022 .711 -.122 -.074

Secular .078 .755 .171 .323

Minority Inclusion -.135 .449 .393 .571

Pro-poor policies .047 .099 -.170 .738

Pro-development .258 -.490 .366 .068

Decisive Leadership .041 -.157 .745 .133

Qualified Leadership Team .562 -.050 .153 .020

Party Ideology .399 .428 .456 -.009

Past Governance

Performance

.251 .067 .705 -.172

Declaration of PM candidate .746 -.085 .187 -.153

Amicable Foreign Policies .764 -.016 -.095 .252

Experience at the National

Level

.636 .143 .122 .173

Focus on Rural Development .193 -.089 .083 .664

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

Reliability Measures

KMO 0.673

Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity

0.000 (Significance)

BJP v/s the Ideal Party

Findings• BJP does well on 2 of the four factors and has a favourable image as well• The Hygiene factors are an area of concern particularly the Non-Corrupt and Secular

variables for BJP

Factor I Factor II Factor III Factor IV

Qualified Leadership Team

Declaration of PM Candidate

Amicable Foreign Policies

Experience at National Level Non-Corrupt Secular Pro-Development

Decisive Leadership

Party Ideology

Past Governance Performance

Minority Inclusion

Pro-poor policies

BJP 4.03 4.11 3.79 4.05 2.71 2.87 4.29 4.34 3.53 3.82 3.32 3.61

3.99 3.29 3.89 3.46

Ideal 4.61 3.48 3.93 3.93 4.63 4.20 4.67 4.67 3.68 3.98 3.39 3.63

3.98 4.50 4.11 3.51

BJP v/s AAP





Experience at National Level Non-Corrupt Secular Pro-Development

Decisive Leadership Party Ideology


Minority Inclusion Pro-poor policies

BJP 4.03 4.11 3.79 4.05 2.71 2.87 4.29 4.34 3.53 3.82 3.32 3.61

3.99 3.29 3.89 3.46

AAP 3.53 3.29 3.13 2.08 3.82 3.79 3.53 3.18 3.82 2.45 3.68 3.92

3.01 3.71 3.15 3.80

Findings• BJP received favourable ratings for Political Maturity and Party Image• The AAP received favourable ratings for Hygiene and Inclusivity

BJP v/s Congress

Findings• BJP loses out on the Inclusivity factor when compared to the INC• Low ratings of the INC of variables under the Image factor (Factor 3) can be attributed

to the recent scams and policy paralysis





Experience at National Level

Non-Corrupt Secular Pro-Development

Decisive Leadership

Party Ideology


Minority Inclusion

Pro-poor policies

BJP 3.86 4.00 3.80 3.91 2.52 2.61 4.23 4.25 3.23 3.82 3.16 3.50

3.89 3.12 3.77 3.33

Congress 2.57 2.25 3.05 3.57 1.52 2.57 2.57 2.02 2.43 2.27 3.34 3.52

2.86 2.22 2.24 3.43

Discriminant Analysis

Objective : To verify difference in perception towards different criteria across suitability to form the next government

BJP :

Decisive Leadership is the most important predictor variable

82.9 % of the cases have been correctly classified

Inference : Decisive Leadership is the most important predictor variable explaining voter’s inclination to vote for BJP while its communal is the reason voters don’t want BJP to come to power

Model is significant

Inferences

Congress

Decisive Leadership and Declaration of PM candidate are the most important predictor variables

90.9% of the cases are correctly classified

People who believed Congress to be a prospective ruling party credited its decisive leadership and declaration of PM Candidate while people who dismissed Congress for being corrupt and anti-development

AAP

Discriminant model is not significant (sig. = 0.505)

Overall the model has not been able to discriminate beyond reasonable significance supporters of AAP from non-supporters which is reflected in the low percentage of cross validation (47.4%)

Positioning of Leaders

Goodness of Fit

R-Square 0.906

Stress 0.12

Findings• Arvind Kejriwal ranks high on both

dimensions• Narendra Modi is perceived to be the

most worthy PM candidate• Rahul Gandhi perceived entirely

different from the set of leaders evaluated

Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis Result Inference

Congress is synonymous with dynasty politics

H0 is rejected Respondents associate Congress with dynasty politics

BJP has a strong divisive Hindutva agenda H0 is rejected BJP is perceived as a right wing party

BJP is now synonymous with Narendra Modi H0 is rejected Narendra Modi has emerged as the face of BJP

Congress is truly a secular party H0 is not rejected

Urban youth does not believe Congress is truly a secular party

BJP is a dangerous communal outfit H0 is not rejected

Urban youth does not hold extreme views against BJP

Congress is Gandhi’s family party H0 is rejected Reiterates the dominance of dynasty politics in Congress

Congress resorts to vote bank politics H0 is rejected Urban youth recognises Congress’s divisive tactics

Prefer to vote for a local candidate rather than national leader from another region both competing for the same seat

H0 is rejected People prefer to vote for a candidate from their own region

Brand Attributes of National Leaders

Narendra Modi

• Visionary• Modern• Dictatorial• Earthy

Rahul Gandhi

• Confused• Unapproachable

Arvind Kejriwal

• Earthy• Dictatorial• Secular• Modern

• Rating is taken on a 7 point semantic differential scale• Mean value analysis is done to assign attribute which is closest to the leader

Research Inferences

Factor Analysis

• Variables can be grouped into 4 factors

• BJP scores low on non-corruption and secularism

Discriminant Analysis

• BJP is perceived as a strong divisive Hindutva political party

• Perceived as non-secular

Multi Dimensional

Scaling• Narendra Modi

low on public engagement as compared to Arvind Kejriwal

Parametric Test

• BJP is associated with internal party conflicts

Recommendations

Focus on voters from other religions and not just Hinduism

Build a non corrupt image by expelling corrupt leaders and engage with people on the issue of corruption

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate should increasingly focus on building public engagement

Announce pro-poor policies in its manifesto and aim for inclusion of lower sections of society

Avoid conflicts in the party going public and members should stay united for the common goal

Narendra Modi should distance himself from his dictatorial image

THANK YOU!

References

1. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/demographic-dividend-at-its-peak/article5102093.ece2. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/F3XMazoBlhQneWqCXWWRnM/Young-India-as-a-political-

constituency.html3. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/90000-per-seat-young-india-could-swing-elections-

2014/4. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/FFe0ejUdMKehcwFB5FImuL/High-voter-turnout-points-to-change-

in-urban-youth-attitudes.html5. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/assembly-elections-2013/delhi-assembly-

elections/Delhi-election-2013-Young-guns-fired-up-this-poll-chief-electoral-officer-says/articleshow/26922014.cms

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Political Branding in India: Brand BJP