Election Marketing and Neuromarketing from a Politician's Perspective: A Thematic Analysis of the Content of Interviews Conducted in the Pre-Campaign During the SARS-Cov-2 Pandemic in Romania

Abstract

The pandemic period has generated major changes in all sectors, across the globe, and these changes are also felt in election marketing practices that ramify on political consumer behaviour. The current environment may lead to permanent changes in election marketing practices, and neuromarketing could be a valuable tool to target the needs and desires of eligible voters. In this direction, we conducted a fundamental research, from the perspective of politicians, during the pre-campaign period of the pandemic in Romania. Thematic content analysis was used to identify themes in the textual dataset based on word content. The themes identified in the data analysis were the following: (a) Perceptions of election marketing; (b) Perceived changes in election marketing practices over time in Romania; (c) Perceptions of the politician in terms of marketing; (d) Attributes required of a Romanian politician; (e) Perceptions of lobbying practices in Romania; (f) Romanian politicians' perceptions/understanding of neuromarketing techniques; (g) Election marketing strategies during the pandemic period. Politicians want their messages to reach all segments, or the context generated by SARS-Cov-2 directs the implementation of new electoral marketing strategies.

Keywords

• election marketing
• neuromarketing
• political marketing
• sars-cov-2
• marketing