A study of the product life-cycle model in the context of political marketing: The case of ANAP

In those countries ruled by democracy, voter's choice is the only source of power. In order to be victorious or to govern, relations with the electorate need to be developed so as to get their support. Political marketing is a concept which energizes the relationship of marketing, politics and electorate and which transforms the dynamism created by the brand loyalty into an intimacy with voters at the same time. Comprehensive political marketing demonstrates the fact that the voters' support can be taken with a wider perspective by adapting the management scientific elements to the political scene. The situation that arises in the study is the reality that the elections entered through political marketing practices will be successful. Therefore, the aim of the study is to demonstrate the political marketing practices necessary to win the election and to become the ruler, showing us the political lifetime of both the political party and the candidate in the political market. In the study, the place and importance of political brands in the political market are put forward, and the steps that political parties take or should take in the way of branding are expressed. For this, the marketing functions are adapted to political parties so that political parties take the place of companies, leader-nominees-party programs of the products, and voters of consumers. Then, the degree to which the political parties contribute to the political campaign to be long-lasting and effective is shown via the product life cycle model in the light of the available data. In the application part of this thesis, the effect of the Motherland Party's implementation between 1983-2002 on the product life cycle of ANAP was demonstrated by case analysis and the reasons for the change in electorate behavior over the years were evaluated within the context of political marketing and the changes in product life cycle were revealed. Moreover, the study which was carried out with a model laid out for the first time in Turkey is expexcted to contribute to those who work in the area of marketing, to political actors, an to thw Turkish political life in general by filling in the gap in the literature.