Exploring the process of creating and managing personal political brand identities in non-party environments: the case of the Bailiwick of Guernsey

Pich, C. ORCID: 0000-0003-1259-2827, Armannsdottir, G. ORCID: 0000-0001-5458-8434 and Dean, D., 2020. Exploring the process of creating and managing personal political brand identities in non-party environments: the case of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Journal of Political Marketing, 19 (4), pp. 414-434. ISSN 1537-7857

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Abstract

How do you create and build a personal political brand? Personal branding can enable individuals to self-commodify and formulate distinct identities created from both tangible and intangible characteristics. However, there is little insight into how individuals create and manage their personal brand identities. This paper contributes to this lacuna in the literature and focusses on personal political branding. Contextualised in the British Crown Dependence of Guernsey; the island community has no political parties and Parliamentarians [deputies] stand as independent candidates. Deputies construct their own personal brand with the aim of resonating with their constituents often with limited resources and without the ‘political machine’ found in party-systems. Therefore, this study examines the deputies’ strategies to create, build and communicate their brands in a non-party system. Findings indicate that Guernsey’s politicians created their desired identities around key components including legacy, heritage and experience, personality characteristics opposed to focused policies, personal values and acknowledged that brand building was a continuous process of maintaining presence, and communicating personal aspirations. Therefore, Guernsey’s politicians formulated their personal political brand identities without the mechanisms of a party system. This paper extends the personal branding literature demonstrating the challenging process of formulating and managing personal political brands in a competitive environment and presents a Personal Brand Identity framework, a strategic tool to evaluate and refine desired identities within and beyond the setting of politics.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Journal of Political Marketing
Creators: Pich, C., Armannsdottir, G. and Dean, D.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 9 October 2020
Volume: 19
Number: 4
ISSN: 1537-7857
Identifiers:
NumberType
1363160Other
10.1080/15377857.2020.1825271DOI
Divisions: Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by: Linda Sullivan
Date Added: 09 Sep 2020 15:52
Last Modified: 09 Apr 2022 03:00
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/40653

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