Published on January 31, 2005

Most parties still struggling with public relations, say experts

The competition among major parties like Thai Rak Thai, the Democrats, Chat Thai and Mahachon has become more intense, but few have an effective public relations and market communication strategy to attract voters, academies and PR specialists say.

“We cannot expect the current election campaign to be terribly exciting if the leading opposition party already acknowledges, even in its campaign posters, that the ruling party will win again,” said Hasan Basar, co-founder and managing director of Bangkok Public Relations Ltd, a specialist PR agency.

However, he said, the current elections were very different in that parties had realised that “look and feel” affects voter preference and that attractive “packaging” makes a difference, regardless of what is inside the box.

But with the exception of Thai Rak Thai, most parties are still struggling with their public relations. Some, though, have succeeded in getting visual consistency in their material – when you see a Mahachon poster, you immediately know it is theirs, he said.

Then comes the next level: does what you see help you to understand what the party or candidate stands for? Chuwit Kamolvisit of the Chat Thai Party has reached this level, Basar said.

Without reading or studying his posters, you know what he wants you to believe he stands for – his sledgehammer says it all.

The third level is whether the voter considers what you stand for to be important, relevant, and appealing to him or her – in that order, Basar added.

The Thai Rak Thai has reached this level. The message is simple: “A vote for Thai Rak Thai is a vote for Thaksin Shinawatra to lead the country with his particular style of leadership.”

The man is the message. This is probably the reason why some Thai Rak Thai campaign posters bear a picture of Thaksin without a single word of text, Basar said.

But pretty designs, visual signatures, or materials that communicate a message are all at the tail end of a public relations process.

“The core public relations function is to find what should be the winning message, and then to ensure that every piece of communication not only puts that message across but also helps to get voters to actually believe you when you claim to stand for a particular idea or plan,” he said.

He said that this was largely absent from the current campaigns – again, with the exception of Thai Rak Thai. Some parties still indulge in messages that are important to politicians, but not the voter. Others have advanced to developing a basket of “offerings” for voters. However, when it comes to communication, most are still at the level of creating “nice posters” and are unable to deliver their basket of offerings with impact or credibility.

“I have not seen any significant difference in advertising and marketing campaigns used by politicians between this and the last election,” said Dr Surapongse Sotanasathien, professor of political communication, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Thammasat University.

“Most political parties are using the same strategy to get votes: attack the others while defending themselves,” he said.

Surapongse added that the only difference was that the Thai Rak Thai, which was the challenger in the last election, had the advantage this time of having voices in government.

The party spent a lot on aggressive marketing and campaigns in the last election, which made it fun and colourful.

“But this time the campaigning is different. The Democrat, Mahachon and Chat Thai parties have become the challengers, but they lack preparation in their marketing and communication activities,” he said.

“We have seen hardly any full-page newspaper advertisements by political parties this time. There are a lot of cut-outs and billboards along the streets, but these advertising materials are not different in term of presentation quality and ideas. Most of them have no unique selling point. The image of the party perceived by voters is not that clear.”

Dr Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, lecturer at the Public Law Department, Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, agreed that Thai Rak Thai had made Thaksin Shinawatra its selling point.

“We have seen many cut-outs of the Thai Rak Thai leader without any wording as the party believes their leader is the key selling point for voters,” said Prinya.

He said the party had also projected its performance and populist campaigns over the past four years in government.

Prinya said that while the Democrats had launched similar populist campaigns to win grass-roots voters, the party had also started its “201” campaign to encourage middle-class voters in Bangkok and urban areas. The campaign asks voters to elect at least 201 Democrats to Parliament so that they could exercise some control over the government.

“I believe that more than half of voters have not yet decided which party to vote for. It is a great opportunity for every party to make their standpoint clear,” said Prinya.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation

Post your comment to this story here