Tagline(s) & slogans - The essence of political marketing

'Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye', well I can assure you one thing, the moment you read the opening four words of this piece the first thing comes to your mind is of the popular advertisement campaign of Cadbury India (renamed to Mondelez India recently). Similarly 'Desh Ki Dhadkan' reminds you of how Hero Motorcycles have positioned themselves as the favourite ride of the Indians. Taglines play such an important part in a brand's life because of their recall & emotional value. 

The branding umbrella today is not just limited to products and services but encompasses spheres such as politics, social work, etc. The General Election of 2014 is no doubt the biggest branding exercise undertaken in the political sphere of India. Thanks to the outreach of print, electronic and majorly social media that the field of political marketing has taken extreme prominence in this general election. The political scenario in the country can be analysed as a case study in marketing, operational & financial administration and human resources.

Coming to marketing and taglines we have some of India's best creative agencies working whole time for their political clients ranging from McCann Worldgroup for the BJP and Dentsu for the Congress and many more for other parties.

Taglines & slogans have been used before too in Indian politics like 'India Shining' used by BJP during the 2004 general elections but the sort of traction that the concept got in 2014 general elections has taken the concept to new heights. BJP's 'Abki Baar Modi Sarkar' has been a rage on the all the forms of media with social media leading the race. Hardly we can find anyone who has not heard Abki Baar Modi Sarkar advertisement campaign or jokes & memes with same tagline doing rounds on Facebook and Whatsapp. In the electronic media its 'Ache Din Aane Waale Hain' is grabbing all the possible eyeballs.


Impressive work has been done by Congress which currently on the back foot has tried to project the importance of unity over control by a single individual under its 'Main Nahi Hum' slogan. Another one to its kitty is 'Har Haath Shakti Har Haath Tarrakki' which sings the tune of empowerment & development and blends the message with the party's election symbol 'Hand' (Haath).


There are a lot many regional parties with their own taglines particularly wooing the regional voters. The advantage of this form of marketing is conveying a uniform and crisp message to the voters without confusing them regarding the policies of the party concerned.

At this point one can't really decide if these campaigns have an affect on the voting behaviour of the voter but this can be said with certain surety that these taglines have created a lot of recall value for the parties, the prominent faces of the political parties and to some extent the ideologies & future vision of the parties.

To gauge what it means for political parties a post result study and analysis would make things clear for them and help them design their strategies in a more polished way in future.

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