Branding and Image-Based Politics Study

This study was conducted for Honors Marketing Research credit and as a preliminary survey for my undergraduate thesis. I wrote, distributed, and statistically analyzed a survey of 100 students. The executive summary is included below.

  • Client: Marketing Research ourse and Honors Program
  • Completed: Spring 2019

In this survey of 100 Baylor students under the age of 25, results showed that three different campaign sign strategies employed by three politicians, bright and detailed (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), traditional (Ted Cruz), and minimalist (Beto O’Rourke), resulted in very different levels of brand equity. A Qualtrics survey was run and sent out among Baylor political organizations and the Baylor Business Fellow program, and those willing to take the survey were majority Republican, resulting in Republican-skewed survey results. Nevertheless, useful information can still be found. This survey showed that the bright and detailed campaign sign resulted in the highest recognition rate, and minimalism resulted in the highest recall rate. Traditional designs can still hold high brand equity among conservatives for opinions about the politician image, but the traditional design did not result in likability or passion to be one of its highest rated attributes, unlike the nontraditional designs. Hope was the single most significant factor for determining whether or not a respondent would rate the campaign advertisement positively or negatively. Likewise, politicians should pay incredible attention to how to market so that their design inspires the most hope.

Example Open-Ended Question Result