Political Marketing and Communication Processes of Thai Political Parties: A study on the 28th General Election in Thailand (24 March 2019)

Abstract

his research article was aimed to study the political marketing and communication used by political parties in the electoral campaigns during Thailand’s 28th General Election in 2019. The study applies political marketing concepts and uses the data obtained from both documentary research and in-depth interviews with the chiefs of communications of four major political parties and the heads of their affiliated media organisations. The study result shows that the Democrat Party’s campaign has combined a sales-oriented party with the party leader character and political integrity concept. The Democrat Party held rallies to communicate with swing voters and utilizing spokesperson and public relations team to communicate with the public through the mainstream and party media. Pheu Thai Party’s campaign has adopted a product-oriented party, advertised itself as a democratic party, and focused on communicating its successful policies in the past through its existing members via the mainstream and affiliated media outlets. Palang Pracharat Party’s campaign has adopted a sales-oriented party, propagated a peaceful discourse and "Pracharat" policy of the former military government, and advertised through mainstream media and state-run media outlets. The Party has expedited the formation of its own stronghold by poaching several old-timer politicians from other parties and communicated through interactive small fora. Future Forward Party’s campaign has blended a product-oriented party, a market-oriented party and a political image building by promoting progressive policies, charismatic leader and against military power. The party has used two-way communication with the young generations through its online media and party activities. The campaign has strategically created a trend in online media first to attract mainstream media attention. Overall, the four parties' political communications in this election shared similar patterns but had distinctive focuses. The key to winning this election was building a party membership base and consistent communication. However, the electoral mechanisms designed to favor the military-backed camp resulted in the winning party in the election being prevented from forming a government coalition and led to deepening socio-political divisions among different ideologies and generations.