1.1.1 Importance of the Study
It is well-known that studies on the voting behavior of American voters has a long history and has produced fruitful results. Campbell (1960) and other scholars studied the elements affecting voting behavior of voters based on the “personal image and charisma” of candidates. They believed that during presidential elections in 1916, 1952 and 1956, candidates attracted the support of a large number of non-partisan candidates. Both Nimmo & Savage (1976) and Wattenberg (1990, 1991) concluded that the voting behavior of American voters had switched from partisan identification to candidate-centered awareness. This research showed that political parties are playing a decreasing role in affecting voting behavior of voters in the US. This means that mass media plays an increasingly important role, especially TV. Voters have thus started to pay greater attention to the character and capability of candidates. In addition, personal charisma of candidates has exceeded the operation of political parties in determining outcomes. The study of Chen Shih-min (1992) and KuoYu-chong (2001) showed that increasingly, reports both at home and abroad revealed that partisan identification is decreasing annually. On the contrary, the image of candidates will affect the decision of voters and even become the major variant or determining element. 1
Taiwan has much more experience of practicing democracy. Almost every year, elections occur at various levels. During election campaigns, fathers and sons and couples will help each other. Joining in an election campaign is like running a family business. If an election is like a business, then candidates can be viewed as merchandise. How to successfully market merchandise during election campaigns is very important. Therefore, campaign strategy, personal marketing and image management play important roles during election campaigns. Based on the concept of business administration, the researcher analyzed the connections among campaign strategy, personal marketing strategy and image management with the aim of assisting candidates to win elections. This research is thus important in its practical ramifications. The 21st Century is a century of marketing. Just as businesses need
1 Please see Chen Shih-min, 1992, “Image of Candidates and Voting Behavior of Voters”, Research on Journalism, Volume 46, pp.149-168. Kuo Yu-chong, 2001, “The Study of the Relevance Between the Political Electoral Advertising Strategy and the Performance in Television Commercials Among Three Major Candidates in the Year 2000 Presidential Election in Taiwan”, Thesis of Political Science Graduate School of National Sun Yat-sen University. pp. 9-17
marketing, so do individuals. Every individual in society constitutes unique merchandise. Therefore, everyone needs to invest in himself just like a company does. He needs to develop his own branding, draft marketing strategy and grasp the opportunity to market himself. The major task of personal marketing is “to know yourself and your counterparts”. Image management involves methods of presenting oneself; some people are equipped with professional skills but do not knowing how to present them. As a result, the opportunity of offering services to the public is lost. This study thus has important ramifications.
Taipei and Kaohsiung have gradually become the core cities in the north and south of Taiwan, respectively. After the alternation of the ruling party, Kaohsiung city has turned into a modern metropolis of the south, and candidates must change their characters as the era and environment change. Candidates should pay special attention to the features of the city’s evolutionary transformation while designing their campaign strategies. The features of Kaohsiung city’s transformation are listed as follows:
1. From a city ignoring the surrounding ocean to the one taking advantage of the ocean.
2. From an industrial city to a business metropolis.
3. From a city focusing on traditional production to the one focusing on innovative industry.
4. From an economic and military harbor to an international tourism harbor.
5. From cars, motorcycles and buses to the mass rapid transit network.
6. From holding general city activities to managing festival celebrations.
7. From the construction of scenic resorts to the economic development of a waterfront city.
8. From government regulations to city governance and city partnership building.
9. From city development to regional governance and global connection.
10. From the mechanism of the market economy, the spirit of social economy, and the characteristics of a community economy to the creativity of a knowledge-based economy.
11. Focus on the three key patterns of a city: life, economy and ecology.
The election of the Kaohsiung City Council has a history of 49 years, starting from the fourth term (1958-1961) when Kaohsiung City was still a provincial city, to the sixth term (2002-2006) when Kaohsiung City was transformed into a municipality. From the date of lifting the ban on Marshal Law, local elections in Kaohsiung City have become complicated, since immigrants account for a majority of the total population. As a
result, the fame, presentation, and marketing strategy play increasingly important roles and are worthy studying.
1.1.2 Background of Study
I have served as an assistant for a sixth-term Kaohsiung City Councilor and have a strong interest in understanding the election. Any election, regardless of candidates or political parties, needs to have sound campaign strategies to give candidates a competitive advantage2 if they want to obtain final victory. From the primary within their own parties to the official beginning of election campaigns, candidates, especially those who do not have much fame or who are running in a local election for the first time, need to allow voters to understand the correlations among their campaign strategies, personal marketing and image management. These are some of the most important tasks that candidates and think tanks need to consider.
In recent years, both central and local elections have experienced transitions of political parties. Taiwan has become a full-fledged democracy. Reviewing elections over the years, whether the successful candidates have a common feature in the correlations among their campaign strategies, personal marketing and image management, and whether the feature can serve as a reference for future promising candidates, candidates’ think tank need to collect this information.
Taiwan has experienced many years of democracy. Elections at various levels are held almost every year. Competition in local elections is particularly fierce. This study views an election as a social business, and candidates as merchandise. How to market the merchandise during campaigns so that they are accepted by voters depends on the personal marketing strategy of respective candidates. This study takes the sixth and seventh terms of Kaohsiung City Councilor elections as an example for a case study with the aim of building a victory model based on campaign strategy, personal marketing and image management.
This study utilizes the correlations among campaign strategy, personal marketing and image management of candidates to find the principles adopted by the current
2 Competitive Advantage: Porter (1985) is based on the theory of value activities businesses.
He proposed the concept of value chain to have strategic thinking on various value activities of businesses and evaluate their impacts to basic structure of cost and differentiation.
Therefore, strategy should be a consistent set. It is comprised of activities to allow businesses to have differentiation. Competitive advantage is helpful for formulating a more concrete and feasible strategy. Strategy is not just a general vision, but a specific activity design different from other competitors. Therefore, the successful strategy analysis of this study is significant.
Kaohsiung City Councilors assisted by the results of interviews with experts (Kaohsiung City Councilors and reporters) and a random survey of Kaohsiung City citizens. Based on the results, deductive method will be adopted to analyze the key correlations among campaign strategy, personal marketing, and image management.
The most suitable campaign strategy model will also be found for respective candidates for the future reference of promising candidates.
I trust that my past experience of participating in elections, and observing the election of this year’s Kaohsiung City Councilors, will help me in studying personal image management strategy. In addition, by studying related theory, detailed analysis of case study and interview of election candidates, a successful election campaign will be found for the future reference of local election candidates.