International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research

Turcotte A., Coletto D., Vodrey S.

Lees-Marshment J., Malik S.

This chapter will explore the branding of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the 2021 campaign and the lessons from this for political branding in a crisis. It explains how the 2021 Liberal-Trudeau brand was visibly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was focused on the present, safety and protection, and while it retained an environmental focus it downplayed the part of Justin Trudeau himself while highlighting the weaknesses of the opposition. This did little to inspire voters already tired of living in a pandemic for nearly two years and support for Trudeau declined significantly between the call of the election and the final vote. The chapter therefore highlighted the challenges of political branding in a crisis and generates lessons both for Trudeau and political leaders around the world.

Gillies J., Wisniewski A.

The 2021 Conservative Party ran what should have been a successful campaign. A weakened prime minister, hobbled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic headwinds of inflation and uncertainty, was an easy target. Coupled with Jagmeet Singh's personal popularity and the relative strength of the Bloc Quebecois, the Tory campaign had a real opportunity to leapfrog the Liberals and win the most seats. Erin O'Toole tacked to the centre, even centre left, by releasing a 100-page plus platform and immediately running a policy wonkish campaign focused on issues the public cared about. They were hoping to mimic the surprise provincial victory by the Tim Houston-led Progressive Conservatives in Nova Scotia in the first week of the campaign. Alas, it was not to last as the softening of the Conservative brand did not break through. Familiar narratives, like gun control and sheep-in-wolf's-clothing attacks, hammered O'Toole in the middle of the campaign and despite presenting a bigger tent image of the party, the Conservatives wound up exactly where they were with Andrew Scheer two years earlier. This chapter considers the bind that the Conservative Party marketing and branding strategists found themselves in appeal to the populist right and alienate moderate voters who are key to a Tory majority government, tack to the centre and alienate the grassroots right, with their focus on everything from vaccination mandates to less government intervention to immigration. The brand is at odds with the political market it hopes to win. It contrasts the O'Toole campaign in 2021 with the Scheer campaign in 2019 and looks at whether the anti-Justin Trudeau message that had become the mantra of the party through three elections simply did not resonate beyond the base.

Turcotte A., Coletto D., Vodrey S.

In the 2021 Canadian federal election, the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), a marginal, poorly organized, and badly funded party managed to get 5% of the popular vote with a rancorous and divisive discourse. Drawing on extensive opinion polling conducted during the election campaign, we isolate and define the appeal of anger politics in the most recent Canadian election. We point out that Maxime Bernier’s party is the latest manifestation in a long tradition in federal politics; fuelled by economic and social grievances and galvanized by charismatic leadership. We show that while the PPC failed to win a seat during the election, it demonstrated that anger remains a mobilizing electoral force for some Canadian voters. Moreover, with an economic recession looming and the precariousness of a minority government, it is likely that “anger” will persist as part of the current electoral calculus in Canada.

Lachapelle G.

On August 15, 2021, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, launched his troops on the election campaign. The Prime Minister of Canada made no secret of his ambition to seek a majority. Governing with the opposition parties and forming coalitions on several issues was not an optimal option for the Liberal Party. The goal of the Bloc Québécois (BQ), a sovereigntist party representing Quebec’s interests in Ottawa, was to stop the ambition of the Prime Minister and get a majority of the votes from Québec voters. The Premier of Québec, François Legault, made it clear that he was supportive of the Conservative Party simply because his analysis was that the CPC had a platform closer to the Québec demands. Therefore, the Bloc had to face a wind coming from Ottawa and one coming from Québec City. To the surprise of everyone, the English debate sparked the attention of Québec voters because of the opening comments made by the moderator that Québec laws are discriminatory—especially concerning the secularism of the state. These remarks sparked debates over the values of Quebecers and the francophobia in the rest of Canada. This unexpected event helped the BQ to regain momentum at the end of the campaign and motivated voters to support BQ candidates. This chapter considers the BQ campaign and how its leader, Yves-François Blanchet, targeted Québec voters, especially after the English language debate. It considers the political marketing and branding strategies the BQ successfully deployed to differentiate itself from both the Liberals and Conservatives and how, once again, the BQ was able to over-perform expectations. As was the case in 2019, this was less to do with the political strategy of the BQ and more to do with a Quebec values-based marketing that emphasized linguistic and cultural brand focus to the detriment of the other campaigns.

Turcotte A., Raynauld V.

Over the past decade, right-wing populist politicians, political parties and protest movements have experienced “relative electoral success” by leveraging specific political or policy issues as well as existing public sentiment for political gain. While these phenomena have received significant interdisciplinary scholarly attention internationally, much less work has been conducted on the manifestation of populism on the left of the political spectrum, especially from a political marketing perspective. This chapter addresses this gap in the academic literature by taking an interest in the populist political marketing performance of the left-leaning New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) and its leader—Jagmeet Singh during the 2021 Canadian federal election. Specifically, it takes a deep dive into how the NDP and its leader leveraged the potential—but fell short—of left-wing populist political markets in order to generate enough public support in order to win the elections. In many ways, this study shows that the untapped potential of its left-wing populist politics deserves more scholarly and professional attention.

Lalancette M., Raynauld V.

This chapter takes an interest in Canadian party leaders’ mobilization of hypermasculine political communication and marketing strategies during the 2021 federal election. Building on a visual and textual content analysis of Instagram posts and digital ads shared by leaders of all major federal parties, this paper shows how leadership was framed as in a highly contested, personalized and masculine electoral race. Leaders used image-making and messaging techniques leveraging metaphors, images and frames building on and emphasizing their masculine traits. Most notably, Conservative Party of Canada’s (CPC) Erin O’Toole was pictured in a tight t-shirt on the frontpage of the CPC electoral program. He was also defined as “the man with the plan”. Other leaders used similar strategies throughout the campaign. This paper fills gaps in the academic literature in Canada as it unpacks the role of gender—most specifically masculinity—in party dynamics and identity political marketing in Canada. This chapter also makes a methodological contribution by developing a coding approach identifying direct and indirect appeals to masculinity in electoral political marketing strategies. Direct appeals include the highlighting of masculinity in political leadership, while indirect ones include discussions of political and policy issues related to elements of masculinity (e.g., strength, power, assertiveness). While some research has been done on identity-based uses of social media in political campaigns, this paper spotlights this dynamic in digital political communication and marketing, which has been under-researched. More broadly, it offers a timely look at the dynamics of digital political marketing during election campaigns.

Lalancette M., Wagner A., Bird K., Everitt J.

This chapter addresses the identity marketing strategies of candidates during the 2021 Canadian federal election. Analysing official biographies, we identify the strategies that candidates used to address the immigration status of themselves or their families. We asked the following research questions: How do candidates use immigration in their political marketing? What role do direct and indirect appeals to identity play in how candidates promote themselves? Fuelled by our work on mediatization and personalization of candidates, we take a renewed look at political marketing practices during an election campaign and focus in particular on the under-research dimensions of identity-based uses of political communications in the Canadian context. Overall, our findings reveal that challengers use their immigration stories to demonstrate a commitment to community and country, while incumbents, high-profile individuals, and second- or third-generation Canadians downplay their immigration background in favour of emphasizing their skills and qualifications.

Gillies J., Turcotte A., Raynauld V.

This concluding chapter summarizes many of the lessons learned from the political marketing experiences in the 2021 Canadian election. It considers how practitioners might apply these themes for future elections and why branding and marketing continue to be central to political strategy.

Raynauld V., Gillies J., Turcotte A.

The 2021 Canadian election was a unique experience as a campaign delivered under the constraints of a global pandemic. This chapter provides an overview of the book and considers how this election fits within the evolution of political marketing and branding in Canada.