Brand personality of candidates in political marketing: The case of Uşak province in 2019 Local Elections

The concepts of products and services, which determine consumption and brand processes, increase the importance of the brand day by day with the increasing competition. For this reason, in a globalizing world where our needs change and increase rapidly, the phenomenon of brand makes its presence felt in every aspect of social life. The concept of politics that actively utilizes marketing has begun to be included in many areas of this discipline in terms of influencing and being preferred. The concept of political marketing emerging in this context appears as an important factor for those who are part of political life. The political process started with propaganda and strengthened its strength through communication and professionalization. While political marketing practices are getting more and more important, the concept of brand has started to take place in the field of political marketing. With the acceptance of figures in political life as brands, brand personalities were examined and brand personality values began to take place in the political brand process. The aim of the thesis is to examine the brand personality of each candidate of the four parties that have candidacy in the 2019 local elections and to investigate the perception and attitude of the voter. For this purpose, face-to-face questionnaires were applied to voters living in Uşak city center and over 18 years of age. The results were analyzed with SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23 statistics programs. In the light of the data obtained, it has been determined that there is a significant effect both among the perceptions and attitudes towards mayor candidates according to the brand personality scale, and among the perceptions and attitudes towards candidates in terms of voters.