IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668 PP 46-60 www.iosrjournals.org 2nd International Conference on 'Innovative Business Practices and Sustainability in VUCA World' 46 |Page Organized by GNVS Institute of Management – Mumbai in April - 2018 Political Branding: An Exploration of Potential Areas of Research Hemantkumar P. Bulsara 1 , Roshni A. Singh 2 1 Assistant Professor (Economics & Management), In charge – Management Section & Head, Applied Mathematics and Humanities Department, S. V. National Institute of Technology (NIT, Surat), Surat - 395 007, Gujarat – India E-mail: hemantbulsara@gmail.com, hbulsara@amhd.svnit.ac.in 2 Research Scholar (Ph.D. – Management), S. V. National Institute of Technology (NIT, Surat), and Assistant Professor, S. R. Luthra Institute of Management, Surat - 395 007, Gujarat – India E-mail: roshni.a.singh85@gmail.com Abstract: VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity are no longer just the issues faced by the commercial world, but also by the contemporary world of politics. These can be attributed to few of the factors such as: high political convergence; decreasing voter turnout and loyalty; voter cynicism; continuous media attention and scrutiny; need to improve brand image and equity; and cope up with changing macro environmental factors like growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to name a few. This VUCA has led the need for application of commercial branding principles in politics; to identify and differentiate the parties and political products from the competitors and build long-term voter relationship. Political branding has been relied upon by politicians and parties in many countries few of them include the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. Even the Indian Prime Ministerial Elections 2014 has transformed the facet of Indian politics with catholic capitalization of the concepts of ―marketing and branding‖ in the political arena. Despite branding has permeated into politics in numerous ways, it has derived limited academic attention (Marsh and Fawcett 2011). As the domain of political marketing and branding is proliferating, there is a need to identify various areas that practitioners and researchers can investigate; and work upon to build and manage strong political brands. Hence, the objectives of this study are: to analyze the political branding strategies suggested by researchers as well as those used by political parties and candidates across the world; and propose potential areas of research in political branding. Cooper’s Taxonomy of Literature Reviews has been considered as a guide to perform systematic review of literature. The literatures reviewed were then organized, analyzed, and their implications were drawn in context of three set of brand equity drivers quoted in Kotler et al. 2012; which are: brand elements, marketing program and secondary associations. The analysis section evaluates the arguments of various researchers and strategies used by political practitioners. The discussion and implication section of this study depicts future scope of investigation that can be used as research objectives to base the potential research in the field. This study will be beneficial to the political practitioners for mobilizing their research and branding activities around these areas, and for the academia, researchers and students to conduct detailed research in milieu of their country or region adding to the existing body of knowledge in the field. Keywords: Political Branding, Political Marketing, Branding, Marketing, Politics, Review I. Introduction Anything can be marketed; be it physical goods, services, ideas, persons, place, property or experiences (Kotler et al. 2012). The question hence punch the clock is, can marketing and branding be applied to politics. If yes, what is to be marketed and branded: political parties, candidates, ideologies or policies; and how? Having accepted the existence of political brand raises the question of how to build and manage these brands. This study hence endeavors to elucidate such inquisitions with reference to application of marketing and branding concepts in politics. Political marketing is delineated as the set of processes, activities or political institutions applied by political parties, candidates and individuals to create, exchange, deliver and communicate promises of value to voters, political party stakeholders and society at large (Hughes & Dann 2009). Political branding is the way political parties identify and differentiate themselves to voters and political market in general (Mensah 2012). Political branding has been relied upon by politicians and parties in many countries including the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, to name a few. Even the Indian Prime Ministerial Elections 2014 has