Abstract
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) in political marketing campaigns is a significant
subject for empirical enquiry in this era of the digital revolution and democratic resurgence.
Zimbabwe’s vibrant and dynamic political campaign atmosphere, which is indicative of increasing
political participation, clearly demonstrates an interesting encroachment of mainstream marketing
into the political arena. However, the country’s electoral campaigns continue to reveal open
internal political fissures, shaky political organisational structures, increasing factionalism,
discordant and inconsistent messaging, lack of cohesion, hate language, and the polarisation of
stakeholders. As the communication strategies of political organisations become more
sophisticated, given that the everchanging political campaign environment is significantly
influenced by the disruptive digital technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), there
is limited empirical studies on the role of IMC in Zimbabwean political campaigns. The present
qualitative study sought to explore the design, implementation, coordination, and harmonisation
of political parties’ integrated marketing communications mix elements in Zimbabwe. A
grounded theory methodology (GTM) was employed to pursue various study areas of
exploration. Using an exploratory research design, a sample consisting of twenty-two heads of
marketing (HoMs) was drawn from multiple political organisations that participated in the
country’s general election held in July 2018. Open-ended interviews were used to collect empirical
evidence from the participants who had been purposively selected for the study. Performed in a
conversational style, the interviews were conducted virtually via Skype and WhatsApp video
calling between May and September 2020. The interview transcripts and the field notes underwent
rigorous transcription, coding, and analysis in line with Mayring (2014)’s procedure for qualitative
content analysis (QCA) and the ingrained abductive approach. The study identified political
advertising, digital marketing, sales promotions, publicity and public relations, events and
experiences, personal selling, and word-of-mouth marketing as the dominant IPMC elements used
by political organisations in Zimbabwe. The study identified four dominant factors that contribute
to a political organisation’s internal environment: resources (human, financial and material),
internal power relations, organisational structure, and the value system (vision, mission, and
objectives). Significant barriers to IPMC were also identified: turf battles and cross-functional
egos; the episodic nature of political campaigns; organisational factors; the lack of financial
v
resources to implement IPMC programmes; conflicting mental models; creative and philosophical
differences between political marketing practitioners and agencies involved in IPMC
implementation; and a lack of leadership will and commitment. The study identified the following
as major formal theoretical insights arising during the study: the gap between IMC theory and
practice; big data; direct and interactive marketing in political campaigns; sponsorship in political
campaigns (the issue of marketing caught between the law and politics); the discrepancy between
offline and online campaign activities; and the political market’s receptiveness to independent
candidates.
Based on the study’s findings, various recommendations were made to both industry and academia.
The study underscored that political marketing has significant importance for politics – specifically
in elections, referenda, governing, lobbying, and public services management. The study offered
suggestive evidence that IPMC is a key strategic aspect of political marketing, and showed that
IPMCs provide a consistent and positive image, superior marketing precision, distinctive
messaging, and consistently high-calibre service if implemented well. The study called on political
leaders to support IPMC implementation if the success of IMC practice in political marketing is to
be realised. As politics and marketing evolve, political marketing must include IPMC as a practical
and inevitable part of strategic political marketing thinking.
The findings of this research study have contributed to the understanding that modern-day
marketing heavily leans on communication theory, and is more dependent on communication.
Thus, managing future brand communication consider all the stakeholders, not just voters. The
study also produced a conceptual framework that contributes positively to the discourse of political
marketing in fragile and less-developed countries, which are themselves rarely used as research
settings for either IMC or political marketing studies. Thus, the broader realm of political
marketing must continue to advance its own set of prognostic and prescriptive conceptual
frameworks, models, and theories if the findings of this study related to political marketing explain,
inform, and influence political action. Consideration should be given to developing models and
concepts that are derived from African research settings to validate, inform, describe, and prescribe
IPMC solutions for the challenges that face IPMC practice in Africa.