So tell me, how do I look? : A study of how voters perceive the political brand image of the Sweden Democrats

Abstract: There has been a growing interest in applying concepts and strategies of brand management in the political sphere. However, it has been argued that the phenomenon of political brand image has been given little attention. Therefore the purpose of this study is to explore the political brand image of the Sweden Democrats from voters’ perspective. The choice of exploring the Sweden Democrats opposed to other parties is that it has tried to rebrand itself from its previous racist ideologies and from being a single-party issue party. The study is based on different theories about brand image. Three dimensions will be used, brand awareness, perceived brand quality and brand associations, in order to cover the phenomenon political brand image. This study is conducted as a qualitative case study with a realistic approach. The analysis and findings show that participants still have perceptions related to the party’s history and that it still to a large extent is perceived as a single-issue party. However, it has also appeared that the Sweden Democrats to some extent are on the right way to stop being associated with racism. Limitations within this study are, time restriction and lack of knowledge whether participants sympathize with the Sweden Democrats or not. The practical implication is that this study could be of use both of the Sweden Democrats and other parties who seek to explore political brand image. The original value of the study is that it acknowledges the three dimensions when exploring political brand image.