POST GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT
AY 2019-20 TERM: VI
TITLE OF THE COURSE: Management and Marketing Lessons in Political Campaigns
CREDITS: 2 NO. OF SECTIONS: 1
Name of the Faculty Faculty Email Telephone
Block/ Number
Room No.
Shreyans Mehta
[email protected] 9920866449
CONSULTATION TIME FOR STUDENTS
Name of the Faculty Timing
Shreyans Mehta By appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Politics, for a long time, was viewed in India as an unprofessional and unstructured space which
did not employ managerial practices. The 2014 election in India changed this paradigm on its
head. Professional campaign teams were deployed on the ground for some of the most hi-tech
campaigns like 3-D rallies, data analytics and social media outreach.
Just like politics has changed its view about professionals in India and is learning from them, the
reverse is also true. Imagine a marketing professional who needs to sell the same product to over
a billion people from all kinds of geographic, economic, social and psychographic segments! For
any marketing expert, this belies every marketing concept learnt about segmentation, targeting,
developing niches etc. And yet, every 5 years, this phenomenon repeats in this diverse country.
Could there be something that management professionals of today could learn from the way
politicians run their campaigns?
This course helps develop in participants a broad understanding of how political campaigns use
management ideas. At the same time, it emphasizes on the lessons professionals can derive from
arguably the biggest marketing exercise of the country – the Indian democratic election! The
focus will be across the spectrum of marketing concepts from STP to customer centricity to use
of social media and data analytics in marketing.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course helps participants understand the significance of management and marketing in
politics and also enables them to derive management lessons from political campaigns. The
course has multiple objectives
1) Understand political campaigns as a marketing exercise, and learn how marketing
theories and frameworks get applied to politics
2) Derive management insights from political campaigns
3) Practical application of political and marketing insights to specific brands and/or
election campaigns
PEDAGOGY/TEACHING METHOD:
Lecture/Discussions: These sessions will allow us to derive principles, theories, and their application from
the confluence of management and politics
Assignments/Projects: The course uses assignments and project as an integral part of learning activities
PRE-REQUISITE FOR COURSE, IF ANY: NONE
IF DOUBLE SECTION, ATTENDANCE IN SISTER SECTION: NOT APPLICABLE
EVALUATION
Individual Component Group Component Weightage
Group Project 40
Class Participation 20
Final Exam 40
Total 100%
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
IIM Indore believes in Academic honesty. Academic dishonesty or misconduct is cheating that
relates to an academic activity. It is a violation of trust between the Institute and its
stakeholders. Plagiarism, fabrication, deception, cheating and sabotage are examples of
unacceptable academic conduct. Please consult the Programme manual for the section on
academic dishonesty.
SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS
Module I : Understanding political campaigns
Module Objective: The objective of this module is to introduce political campaigning and give a
strategic view of political marketing
Session 1 Elements of a political campaign
Objective: The aim of this session is to introduce various elements of a political
campaign to students, and to explore how politics and management are
interrelated. In this session, we will also lay out the ground rules for class
discussion
Reading: 1) Tucker, D. and Teo, D. (2017, Dec 06). Obama Campaign rewrites
fundraising rules by selling merchandise. Retrieved from
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obama-campaign-rewrites-f_b_140616
2) Margolis, J. (2016, May 18). Every vote matters. What’s the best way to get
them? Retrieved from
https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-05-18/every-vote-matters-whats-best-way-
get-them
3) Webb, D. (2013, Apr 01). Campaign Guru: The Basic EDlements of a
Political Campaign. Retrieved from:
https://utahpolicy.com/index.php/topics/campaign-guru/70-campaign-guru-
the-basic-elements-of-a-political-campaign
Session 2 The Marketing Strategy for Political Parties: STP
Objective: This session will cover the STP from 2 key perspectives:
1) Selling Perspective
2) Marketing perspective
Reading: 1) Bryson, M. & McDill, W. (1968). The Political Spectrum: A Bi-
Dimensional Approach. Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought, 4(2),
27-31.
2) Text Book Chapter 9
Module II Understanding Consumer Behaviour from a Voter’s perspective
Module Objective: The objective of this module is to give a consumer lens to politics covering
a spectrum of topics from market research, decision making, loyalty, and the social context of
the consumer
Session 3 Voter: Dutiful citizen, Loyal consumer, Passionate crusader
Objective: This session will discuss how voters make choices – AIDA model and how
voter loyalty is created. Then, we will draw parallels to businesses and the
applications in the marketing context
Reading:
1) Textbook chapter 6
Session 4, 5 Technology, Intelligence and Voting
Objective: This session will entail discussion around
1) Research and Data Analytics
2) Social Media Outreach
3) Discussion around Cambridge Analytica
Reading: The session will further discuss the business implications of each of the above
1) Sinnreich, A. (2018, June 12). Cambridge Analytica: Tip of the Iceberg
as Deep as the Ocean. The Globepost. Retrieved from
https://theglobepost.com/2018/06/12/cambridge-analytica-data-
democracy/
2) Pant, S.(2019, Apr 16). Why this is India’s big data election. The Times
of India. Retrieved from
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections/news/why-this-is-
indias-big-data-election/articleshow/68898005.cms
3) Textbook Chapter 5
Session 6 Society, Politics and Communication
Objective: This session will explore how social norms affects voter choices with an aim
to understand the broader social changes which will be key influencers in the
political and business arena in the future. Also, the session will lay emphasis
on a key method of communication – storytelling. We will also focus on
Reading: emerging trends in Indian politics and draw parallels to business in the
context of a fast evolving society
1) Kumar S., Alam M. S. & Joshi D. (2008). Caste dynamics and political
process in Bihar. Journal of Indian School of Political Economy, 20(2),
1-32.
2) Singh, A. (2019, May 22). New socio-political churn reshaping
India?. Observer Research Foundation. Retrieved from
https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/new-socio-political-churn-
reshaping-india-51126/
Module III Politics and Marketing: The Practical Confluence
Module Objective: The aim of these sessions is to facilitate practical discussions on marketing
through the lens of the Indian political scenario
Session 7, 8 The Case Study of the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata
Party
Objective:
The sessions will be a live interaction over a real case and will help figure out
Case: the management elements that the organizations are getting right and the
areas they need to work on
Reading: Khosala, S. (2019, June 13). The story of BJP’s communication and Congress’
miscommunication. Retrieved from: https://www.dailyo.in/politics/narendra-
modi-bjp-rahul-gandhi-congress-nyay-social-media-lok-sabha-
2019/story/1/31086.html
Session 9, 10 Application of insights derived to practical business and political scenarios
Objective: To be able to utilize the learning of the previous sessions to practical
scenarios
Case: Presentation by students on their group projects followed by class
discussions
Text Book for the course: Please give the details of the book if students need to buy the book
Author Title Publisher Edition Remarks, if any
Philip Kotler, Marketing Pearson 15th Edition Don’t need to
Kevin Lane Keller Management buy as it is
already part of
Marketing 101
Reference Text Book: The following books are recommended for supplementary reading:
1. Lance Price , The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi’s campaign to transform India published by
Hodder and Stoughton
Additional Readings:
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