The Political Marketing Revolution: is marketing transforming the government of the UK? Paper for the 2004 PSA Conference, Political Marketing group panels, University of Lincoln, April 2004 by Dr. Jennifer Lees-Marshment Centre for Political Marketing & Management www.keele.ac.uk/depts/mn/cpm Keele University, Keele, Staffs, ST5 5BG Tel: 01782 584372 Email: j.lees-marshment@keele.ac.uk Abstract The paper will explore how marketing is permeating all areas of British politics, potentially transforming a leadership-run system to that dictated by public needs and demands. No longer confined to party politics, organizations including the monarchy, the BBC, universities, local councils, charities and the Scottish Parliament are adopting the tools of market intelligence to understand their market needs and demands. Politicians, professors and princes are using marketing to design their political product in the hope it will satisfy the ever-critical political consumer. Whilst acknowledging some of the limits of this revolution, it will focus on the questions that its possibility raises. These include whether the student or patient really does know best and can decide their own education and health care. It calls for a debate about the movement of the British political system towards a market-orientation and a re-negotiation of the relationship between leaders and the market, one that whilst recognising the need for political leaders to listen, places some responsibilities on the political consumer, a new relationship that might work more effectively for both side of the political marketing relationship. Copyright © 2004 [Political Studies Association]