Defining a Political Brand Alliance: The Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition

The purpose of this paper is to posit a definition of a political brand alliance, and thereby advance the political marketing and brand marketing literature. This is achieved by building upon and extending Erevelles et al (2008, p.32) definition of brand alliance, and applying it to the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties’ Westminster level coalition, established in 2010. The paper argues that: “A political brand alliance is the association between two or more independent political party brands. The perceived value of the integrated offering may or may not be enhanced in the minds of the electorate. It does not involve explicit joint-branding efforts by the partners in the alliance. Neither does the alliance seek to present the integrated political offering as one joint political party in the market place. It may to some extent involve a change in the meaning of the political product of each political party brand in the coalition. However, a political party’s product would not effectively cease to exist in the absence of the brand alliance” (Adapted and Extended from Erevelles et al, 2008, p. 32)