The effect of political marketing practices on Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Elections: 1994-2019 Period

The dynamism brought by the modern age affects political life as well as societies, and the innovations that occur as a result of this dynamism shape politics. The communication tools used by the actors in political life while conveying their messages to the voters and the content of the messages they give to the voters are among the factors that affect the success of the election. Therefore, the orientation of leaders and candidates to political marketing practices in their speeches is seen as a way to achieve success in political life. As a newly used concept in political life, the aim of political marketing is to enable the active use of political marketing mix elements in order to gain political success by directing political consumer behavior. The way to be followed in this direction is to design political studies in a way that reflects the needs, demands and expectations of voters defined as political consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the results obtained from the political market research on political consumer behavior correctly and to determine all the political activities to be implemented in that direction. The aim of the study is to analyze the contents of the speeches of 1994 İBB Presidential Candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and 2019 İBB Presidential Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu in the written media in the central media from the date their candidacy was announced to the elections, in terms of political marketing mix, and to serve as the İBB Presidency. The aim of this study is to examine the messages given by the two winning candidates to the voters while winning the political consumer preference. The speeches of the two candidates who aspire to the office of IMM, from the announcement of their candidacy until the elections, are examined through content analysis in the study. Keywords: Product-Sales-Market Oriented Political Products, Political Marketing, Political Marketing Mix, Political Consumer, Political Consumer Behavior, Policy Design, Content Analysis, Leader in Political Marketing, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.