No Brand No Party

Abstract: Purpose: Analyzing the outcomes of the Swedish Elections held in September 2018, in order to understand the brand building process in the political context and to find those factors able to shape the success of a party. Methodology: Literature review, case study, questionnaire Findings: The respondents display a high level of trust for their favorite political parties, but lower levels of involvement and especially loyalty. We believe that this is an important finding since loyalty is the main key in reaching strong partisan brand equity. Original/value: The paper is first of its kind to combine a consumer-oriented branding approach in regard to the 2018 Swedish elections. Limitations: The survey shows that more than 60 percent of our respondents are supporting the right block, while less than half of Swedish citizens actually voted for them in the election. Therefore our results are slightly biased to the right of the political map.