Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. 20, No.

1, 2015 71

Information technology revolution and transition

marketing strategies of political parties: analysis
through AHP

Arpit Jain*, Anil Kumar and

Manoj Kumar Dash
Behavioural Economics Experiments and Analytics Laboratory,
213, D Block,
ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management,
Morena Link Road, 474015, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
Email: arpitjn20@gmail.com
Email: anilror@gmail.com
Email: manojdash@iiitm.ac.in
*Corresponding author

Abstract: As the technology has been evolving, India has been witnessing an
increased internet revolution growth. Due to information technology (IT)
revolution, all political parties in India are campaigning their party and
candidate through social networking sites to capture the confidence and to win
the trust of electors in parliamentary elections in 2014, this revisited their
marketing strategies: transition from offline to social media. This study
develops a conceptual model and identifies the major factors to the
merchandising strategies of political parties: transition from offline to online.
analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to produce a hierarchy structure
model to prioritise the influencing factors of electors of by the survey of
judgment. The results of our analyses show that the growth of internet
technology occupied the first rank followed by internet penetration and
e-marketing. The findings of this research show that all the offline channels are
converting into online channels with very fast speed due to the technology
revolution.

Keywords: technology revolution; campaign; analytic hierarchy process; AHP;

transition; social media; merchandising.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Jain, A., Kumar, A. and
Dash, M.K. (2015) ‘Information technology revolution and transition
marketing strategies of political parties: analysis through AHP’, Int. J. Business
Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp.71–94.

Biographical notes: Arpit Jain is a graduating student in the Department of

Management Studies at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and
Management, Gwalior (M.P), India and his interested area is marketing
research and optimisation modelling in management.

Anil Kumar is a full time research scholar in the Department of Management

Studies at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management,
Gwalior (M.P), India. He has MSc (Mathematics), MBA (Marketing) with two
years of teaching experience and presently pursuing his PhD in the area of
econometrics modelling and fuzzy optimisation for consumer’s electronic
buying behaviour.

Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

72 A. Jain et al.

Manoj Kumar Dash is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of

Management Studies at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and
Management, Gwalior (M.P), India. He earned his MA, MPhil, PhD and MBA
in Marketing from Berhampur University, Berhampur (Orissa). He has
published more than 53 research papers in various journals of international and
national repute. He is the author of three books and edited five books. He was
involved as chair member in the conducted International Conference of Arts
and Science held at Harvard University, Boston (USA). His areas of
research are: marketing science, consumer behaviour, behaviour economic,
decision-making modelling, fuzzy multi-criteria optimisation and marketing
research.

1 Introduction

Information technologies have played a role in campaign organisation since the 1970s,
but it is only over the last decade that adopting new technologies like online participatory
media, such as social networking sites or discussion forums became an occasion for
organisational restructuring within political parties and campaigns (Howard, 2006). This
emergence of IT has fundamentally changed the media landscape, contributed to an
extensive deregulation of markets and individualised patterns of consumption and
increased the segmentation of consumer tastes and preferences (Zarei et al., 2014) which
lead to changes in youth’s attitude towards politics and young people are interested in
political matters and do support the democratic process (Angelis et al., 2005). The IT
penetration varies from country to country, but in India it may have not crossed 19.19%
of the population, yet, but in absolute numbers this percentage works out to almost
200 million, tells a story released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI Report, 2014) which is a very important for the merchandising strategies of
political parties.
Political marketing informed and influenced election campaigns in the USA (Miller,
2013), Sweden (Stromback, 2007), China (Sun, 2007) etc... For some, marketing strategy
lies at the heart of electoral success (Kotler and Kotler, 1999). Commentators suggest we
have also reached an era of the ‘permanent campaign’ (Blumenthal, 1980) and so in turn,
political marketing has been viewed by some, as a method of governance (Ho and Vogel,
2014). The term political marketing has been more widely used ambiguously as a ‘catch
all’ phrase to characterise a variety of changes that have been taking place in the practice
and presentation of politics. The marketing concept holds that the needs of consumers are
of primary concern and should be identified and attempts made to satisfy the identified
needs. Basically, marketing concept in commercial terms is based on the premises that all
company planning and operations will be customer oriented and the goal is profitable
sales volume and that all marketing activities in organisations will be organisationally
coordinated. As such the philosophical basis of the marketing concept is that customer
want satisfaction is the economic and social justification for an organisation’s existence.
When a political party or candidate applies this concept to the political process, they must
be in a position to adapt to and satisfy voters’ needs (Reid, 1988). Falkowski and Cwalina
(2012) argued that candidates dispense information in order to produce a shift in
behaviour and maintain voter support. To do this effectively requires a sufficient
understanding of the values placed by voters on selected factors or criteria when arriving
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 73

at a choice (Newman and Sheth, 1987). Davies (2012) proposes that research and debate
should focus on the marketing orientation of political parties. The marketing concept
provides a means of focusing all departments effectively and efficiently towards
customer-need satisfaction and creating exchanges at a profit (Basoglu et al., 2013). If a
political party’s product is developed in relation to (or in consideration of) voters’ values
and needs and the party delivers the proposed product, voter satisfaction should be
increased. Voters will have a sense of being part of a politically responsive institution
(Towner and Dulio, 2012). The main objective of this study is to develop a hierarchy
structure model of the perspectives and sub-criteria, which influenced one’s candidate
selection decision during elections. Perspectives and sub-criteria have been identified by
literature review.
The paper is organised as follows. In first section introduction and background of the
study have been explained. In second section the conceptual model process is explained
by the researchers by taking help from previous literature. In Section 3, research factors
have been identified on the basis of extensive literature review, in-depth interview, focus
group and pilot testing. Section 4 is discussed about data collection and methodology. In
fifth section, analysis and conclusion has been explained.

2 Conceptual model development

A party collaborating in parliamentary elections or any business should determine the

wants, interests and values of voters/consumers and present him in the simplest way to
best match these necessities. Even though the candidate is ready to support the country’s
key social, economic, or political issues, he’s ineffectual to see however varied citizens
understand these issues. Therefore, the candidate ought to try and match his balloting
strategy to totally different citizen segments that is, to seek out the most effective position
for himself in every of them same with business to better position himself before the
consumers.
The Figure 1 explains the transition of marketing mix to political the marketing mix
where, four classical marketing mix fundamental will apply to political marketing also:
product, price, place and promotion. The first, product includes the tangible/intangible
features which benefit the consumers same in political marketing where the product is
major voting promises spelled out by the candidates, which are publicised through
political advertising, press releases and also the candidate’s public appearances like in
elections party’s manifesto is considered as a product in which political parties make
promises and describe future plans for development and prosperity which makes them
reliable for citizens. Second, the price is the worth of the merchandise offered by the
candidate refers to the overall prices that voters would bear if the candidate came into
power. It includes economic prices, like tax will increase or budget cuts, psychological
prices, which include will voters feel comfortable with the candidate’s religious and
ethnic background or not whereas in the business price refers to the amount paid to obtain
that merchandise which is of use to consumers. Third, place (distribution) is that the
selling stimulant that refers to the candidate’s ability to induce his message across to
voters in a personal manner. The selling strategy for the distribution of the campaign’s
message combines the work of volunteers used as a customised extension of the
candidate into native markets and the work of activists (‘door to door’), distributing the
candidate’s badges, registering voters and soliciting funds familiarise the voters with the
74 A. Jain et al.

candidate’s program and his image throughout direct contact with the voters (e.g., rallies
in town centres, roadside meetings, etc. which make electoral candidate presence)
(Niffenegger, 1989). In business, place plays an important role as it enables the product
reaches to the needful consumer and vice-versa. The fourth fundamental, promotion is the
one which publicises the electoral candidate, party’s message, etc. to the voters through
different channels like media coverage, advertisements and so on, similarly in business
promotional activity communicates the product features, its benefits to the consumers
which influence the decision of consumers to an extent.
Figure 1 Transition from marketing mix to political marketing mix

Source: Adapted from Niffenegger (1989)

 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 75

Figure 2 Transition from STP in marketing to STP in political marketing

Source: Adapted from Smith and Hirst (2001)

The segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) approach is explained in Figure 2 in
which strategic segmentation process begins by identifying the segments that exists using
appropriate measures such as segmenting on the basis of demographic, geographic
factors, etc. Clearly this is important as segments may be constructed using any base,
however irrelevant (e.g., in political marketing segmentation is done on voting
behaviour/party loyalty, etc.). Second, decisions need to be made over which segments
are attractive enough to be targeted (i.e., segments that are very disparate/small, etc.
might be ignored or given less attention). Third, a better understanding, parties and their
policies may be set more effectively; some issues having greater resonance with some
segments than others. Finally an appropriate marketing mix activity may be formulated in
terms of the actual policy/issues to highlight or downplay for a given segment, the way to
communicate with them or so on whereas in case of the market segmentation process
begins by identifying the customers that exists using the appropriate criteria. Second,
76 A. Jain et al.

decisions need to be made over which segments are attractive enough to be targeted over
other segments.
Finally, identify the different advantage for each segment and then the appropriate
marketing mix activity may be formulated in terms of the product features, price and
promotional strategies and so on. The STP approach promises better targeted policies
towards identified and attractive segments. However, the political market is different
from the private sector business market (Lock and Harris, 1996) on various aspects.
Positioning in politics, for example, is not a value free activity. Finally, identify the
different advantage for each segment and then the appropriate marketing mix activity
may be formulated in terms of the product features, price and promotional strategies and
so on. The s STP approach promises better targeted policies towards identifying and
attractive segments. However, the political market is different from the private sector
business market (Lock and Harris, 1996) in various aspects. Positioning in politics, for
example, is not a valuable free activity.

Figure 3 Transition from overall market situation to overall political market situation
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 77

Figure 3 depicts the overall market situation where a consumer reaches the market to
buy/consume product or services, where the different producers is present with their
respective products and each one of them tries to capture that customer by implementing
or using different marketing tools and techniques such as advertising, costing of product,
showcasing product features, etc... The producer uses different activities like service
centres, distribution channel, IT services, etc. to reach the targeted customers and build as
well as maintain trust or goodwill. This whole system or market is governed by
Government and RBI as they come up with new policies, taxation policies like Import
Rate, Export Rate, CRR and so forth, which contains the fair functioning as well as the
involvement of consumers in the marketplace. The political market is also same to market
situation to a greater extent as here citizen or common man decide for the party candidate
from different parties which, influenced by activities like campaigning, party manifesto,
candidate image, past record, etc. that affects the like/dislike of the masses. The political
parties use party offices, IT services, etc to reach the targeted population and capture
them as today, every political party has a presence on social networking sites, their
offices are in each and every city and town which help them to reach citizens (Jehangir
et al., 2012). This whole process or system is governed by the Election Commission as
they implement new policies, rules or a guideline which has to be followed by political
parties to compete in elections. As the marketing concept holds that the needs of
consumers are of primary concern and should be identified and attempts made to meet the
identified needs political marketing concept holds that the demands of citizens are of
primary concern and should be identified and attempts made to meet the identified needs.
Here, we find out how the political market place is gained from the market place and
the different bodies’ works in case of both the market position. The political market
works same as the market, it is just that in political market, the parties aim to capture
common man/voters whereas in market producers/manufacturers aim to capture
consumers like in India, political parties are continuously engaging with voters to know
about their inputs/needs and position themselves accordingly. The marketing concept
provides a means of focusing all departments effectively and efficiently towards
customer-need satisfaction and creating exchanges at a gain. If a political party’s product
is developed in relation to (or in consideration of) voters’ values and needs and the party
deliver the proposed product, voter satisfaction should be increased in which social
networking sites plays an important role as this medium keeps political parties updated
about their voter’s needs and values. Voters will have a sense of being part of a
politically responsive institution (Newman and Sheth, 1987).

3 Identification of transition factors

The variable identification process of this study that have an effect on the transition in
political marketing strategies from offline to social media market is being represented
during which we first did extensive literature review by going through previous studies to
know the factors, after which we take in-depth interview of experts/voters who are
updated with new technology and use social networking sites which is helpful to know
the transition in political marketing strategies, after in-depth interview we have focus
group to know about the opinions and beliefs of voters and eventually we did pilot testing
of identified factors to know their applicability in real time scenario.
78 A. Jain et al.

3.1 Literature review

Over the last decade there has been a marked increase in research into marketing’s
relevance and application to politics, both of theoretical (Butler and Collins, 1999) and
applied nature (O’Cass, 1996). In 1990 it was possible to conclude that, using the idea of
evolutionary stages in the development of marketing (Keith, 1960), political marketing
has moved from sophisticated selling (using advertising/elections broadcasts, etc. to
‘push’ party political ideas) to a ‘nascent marketing era’ (Smith and Saunders, 1990). The
marketing concept is argued to be a useful philosophy which can be applied to both
profit and non-profit organisations (Brownlie and Saren, 1991). Examining political
processes and electoral behaviour from a marketing perspective may offer new
insights into the behaviour and performance of political parties (Schuster and Harris,
2014). Lees-Marshment (2001) supports that political marketing is a marriage between
political science and marketing and that it borrows the core marketing concepts and
techniques, adapting them to suit traditional tenets of political science. She further finds
(Lees-Marshment, 2002) that the most effective political interest groups are now using
political marketing to design the package they offer to supporters. They go through a
four-stage process of conducting market intelligence, designing their product
accordingly, communicating this to potential supporters and finally delivering campaign
progress. She further develops a ‘market-oriented party model’ which in her own words
(Lees-Marshment, 2006), “provides a broad and complex framework to discuss how
political parties utilize marketing techniques and concepts from start to finish,
incorporating a range of behavior and activities”.

3.2 In-depth interview

After literature review, a group of people were interviewed about their opinions and
beliefs regarding the transition in political marketing strategies who are experts which
continually keep in touch with social networking sites and updated with the new
marketing tools.

3.3 Focus group

After in-depth interview, voters were asked about their perceptions, beliefs in focus group
study regarding identified factors that they affect the transition or not and asked about
their recommendations for factors which might affect the transition of marketing
strategies.

3.4 Pilot testing

Eventually getting the factors, these factors were analysed from the point of view of their
practicality, applicability in real time situation that these factors are the reason for
transition in political marketing strategies or not. After doing the literature review,
in-depth interview, focus group study and pilot testing we identified the factors and the
sub-factors which affect the transition offline to online of political marketing strategies
are given in Table 1 with their explanation.
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 79

Table 1 Dimensions of political marketing

Factors and explanation Sub-factors

1 Growth of information technology (IT) 1 Adopting new technologies:
IT is an important emerging sector of Indian economy adopting technologies like
and grows by 13–14% in 2013–14 to touch networking sites, blogs,
US$225 billion by 2020 (OECD Publishing, 2010). which help voters to
Information technologies have played a role in connect.
campaign organisation since the 1970s, but it is only 2 Information accessibility:
over the last decade that adopting new technologies also make data accessible
became an occasion for organisational restructuring through several websites,
within political parties and campaigns. As a result, a blogs and e-newsletter.
completely new and different way of planning and 3 Fast worldwide
conducting the campaign emerged, which Howard communication: rapid
(2006) defines as the hypermedia campaign, “an agile changes in the mode of
political organization defined by its capacity for communication among
innovatively adopting digital technologies for express people.
political purposes and its capacity for innovatively
adapting its organizational structure to conform to new 4 Cost minimisation: IT
communicative practices.” minimises the cost of
acquiring new services.
2 Internet penetration 1 Availability of internet:
Internet penetration rate, which can be derived from the internet users in India have
percentage of internet users in the total population of a crossed 200 million mark
country. It may vary from country to country, but in (TRAI) with seven out of
India it may have not crossed 17% of the population, eight accessing the internet
yet but in absolute numbers this percentage works out to from their mobile phones.
nearly 200 million, says a report released by the IAMAI 2 Evolution of web-based
(IAMAI Report, 2014) which is a very significant media: new medium to
market for political parties. Increased availability of obtain information like
internet ready smart-phones and other communication blogs, social networking
devices, as well as the evolution of web-based new sites, etc.
media like personal websites, social networking sites,
blogs, e-newsletters, have redefined methods of political 3 Anytime connectivity:
communication, contributing to a significant shift to the provide information to
use of social media in elections (Miller, 2013). voters/citizens 24*7.

3 Social and cultural change 1 Perception: perception of

Cultural and social factors are equally important among citizens regarding political
developed nations, there are commonly shared parties marketing strategies.
characteristics. Family influences are diminishing 2 Family/religious beliefs:
(Thrassou, 2007), as are religious influences, thought shared cultural values and
his pattern is neither absolute, nor clear, nor constant beliefs of family on
(Solomon, 2007). In developed countries, national citizens’.
culture is another factor with diminishing influence, this
being a distinctly separate phenomenon to nationalist 3 Changing lifestyle: lifestyle
feelings/tendencies and their observed increase or change makes youth more
decrease. On the other hand, cultural diversity within tech savvy.
developed countries has in fact increased the effect on
behaviour of nationality-based subcultures (Angelis
et al., 2005).
80 A. Jain et al.

Table 1 Dimensions of political marketing (continued)

Factors and explanation Sub-factors

4 Competitive environment 1 The personalisation of
Competitive environment is a situation where the citizen politics: voters’ choice
has an option between more candidates in election. In depends increasingly on
this intensifying competitive environment, political their relationship with the
campaigns are conducted primarily through mass media individual candidate.
and citizens participating in them as a media audience, 2 The politicians’ image: the
which result in the changes taking place in modern image rather than substance
democracies, in the development of new technologies is central in political
and in citizens’ political involvement significantly, marketing.
influence the theoretical and practical aspects of political 3 The role of public relations:
marketing efforts. Modernisation causes changes from initiate changes in voters’
direct participation in election campaigns to opinions, but also to
spectatorship. In this way, politicians more and more influence the media.
often become actors in a political spectacle rather than
focus on solving real problems that their country faces.
They compete for the voters’ attention not only against
their political opponents, but also against talk shows or
other media events (Harris, 2001).
5 Innovative mechanism 1 Customisation: customising
Innovativeness is defined as ‘the degree to which an the service offering to
individual is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas connect to more and more
than the other members’. The interactive elements of voters.
new technologies such as e-mail and chat rooms are 2 Interactive new
highlighted as the more novel and important functions, technologies: introduction of
allowing greater direct dialogue between parties and new technologies like
voters. Furthermore, online shops and membership e-mail, chat rooms,
appeals may help a party’s financial-base significantly. membership, etc.
Finally, the ability to ‘network’ – to link sites together 3 Professionalism: increases
with well-placed web links and to place party links to the efficiency and
other web resources – is also a major boost to publicity effectiveness of political
and visibility over large distances. The use of websites parties.
as online libraries and the use of web networks and
e-mail to link party structures and members may help
intra-party education, communication, particularly with
larger parties, as well as aiding greater organisational
openness and efficiency (Parkin, 2012).
6 Demographic characteristics 1 Age: a different generation
Demographic trends describe the historical changes in of voters like Gen X, Gen Y
demographics in a population over time. In India, which has a different approach.
has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 2 Gender: male/female has
and more than 65% below the age of 35 and with a sex different perception and
ratio of 1.12 (Basu, 2007), which helps the political demands from political
parties to capture the mind of voters. As previously, parties.
network television and major newspapers dominated 3 Education: different
coverage of elections and were the primary targets for education level changes their
electioneering advertising and publicity, there is a major approach/ perception
shift towards the role of social media in elections where towards politics.
demographic variables leads to the differential impact on
political choice like age of different voters have different 4 Income: upper class and
approach towards candidates (Bongaarts, 2009). lower class people’s
perception differ.
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 81

Table 1 Dimensions of political marketing (continued)

Factors and explanation Sub-factors

7 Face consciousness 1 Likeness of candidate by
Face refers to a sense of favourable social self-worth others: it is important that
that a person wants others to have of him or her in a others like the political party
relational and network context. Face is fundamentally a and candidate.
social-self construction issue. It stresses people’s social 2 Friends influence: influence
needs more than their private needs. In the case of of friends on selection of
political marketing citizens with strong face candidate/political party.
consciousness possess high social needs in
3 E word-of-mouth: reference
consumption. Such social needs make citizens pay more
from friends and peers for
attention to the extrinsic attributes (e.g., brand, prestige)
the candidate and political
than intrinsic attributes (e.g., quality, value) of a
party.
political party due to their desires to express their
images, positions, or feelings toward group members. 4 Online communities: peer
Face defines the liking of a candidate in election due to group which has
his/her friend influence. high influence on the
decision-making process of
citizens.
8 E-marketing 1 Social networking sites:
E-marketing is defined as using the internet and other social networking sites or
interactive technologies to create and mediate dialogue discussion forums plays a
between the firm and identified customers (Brodie key role in connecting with
et al., 2007). In the case of political marketing, youth.
e-marketing refers to online participatory media, such as 2 Political campaigns:
social networking sites or discussion forums, which campaigns to reach a very
play a key role in the current political campaigns and large number of users in
offer the chance to gather large data sets of voter very short time.
expression and behaviour. For instance, in the case of 3 STP: better segmentation,
US elections the messages posted by thousands of targeting and positioning
Twitter users allowed the analysis of the differences in (STP) of voters for elections.
social interaction between parties. A common feature of
traditional mass media and online participatory media is 4 E-branding of candidates:
that both offer politicians a way to reach a very large developing a brand image of
number of users in very short time. But the main candidates by heavy
difference is that in the latter, users can also reach large advertising and promotion.
numbers of other users by posting publicly accessible
comments (Garcia et al., 2012)

4 Research methodology

4.1 Data collection

Through structured questionnaire a sample format given in appendix Table A1, the data
has been collected from voters who are chosen from an applicable background and other
fields which meet our demands. First, the researchers studied the background of the
experts and through referral sampling and other procedure chose only those who were
having relevant experience, according to the requirement of study (like they use social
networking sites, write blogs, have been constantly in touch with the political updates)
which help them to give proper judgement. Total 20 experts’ responses were taken into
consideration for the analysis, five from each group, i.e.,
82 A. Jain et al.

a academicians – who are working in the political marketing field

b employees – working class people other than academicians
c youth – students who belong to the age group of 18–25 years and actively involved
in social networking sites
d general public – people who are households and belongs to the age group of 45 and
above and actively participate in social networking sites.

4.2 Analytic hierarchy process (AHP)

AHP is a useful approach for evaluating such complex multiple criteria alternatives (Wu
et al., 2012). AHP is one of the widely used approaches to priorities multiple factors
(Saaty and Peniwati, 2008). In order to evaluate or select an alternative, a design concept
or a solution, weighted rating methods are generally used. It is a combinatorial decision
analysis of quantitative and qualitative methods. The basic idea of AHP is to establish an
orderly hierarchical system (Saat,y 1980) by analysing elements of complex systems and
their mutual relations. Proposed by Saaty (1980), AHP has been employed to aid in many
MCDM problems, particularly when qualitative criteria are involved. AHP is a useful
approach for evaluating two or more competing alternatives along multiple criteria. AHP
requires a decision maker to determine the relative importance of each criterion/factor by
means of pair wise comparisons between the relevant criteria/factors included in the
analysis. AHP performs pair wise comparisons to derive relative importance of the
variable in each level of the hierarchy and/or appraises the alternatives in the lowest level
of the hierarchy in order to make the best decision among alternatives. AHP is an
effective decision-making method especially when subjectivity exists and it is very
suitable to solve problems where the decision criteria can be organised in a hierarchical
way into sub-criteria. The prioritisation mechanism is accomplished by assigning a
number from a comparison scale developed by Saaty (1980) to represent the relative
importance of the criteria. Pair wise comparisons matrices of these factors provide the
means for calculation of importance (Sharma et al., 2008).
Table 2 Pair wise comparison scale

Intensity of
importance Explanation
1 Two criterion contribute equally to the objective
3 Experience and judgement slightly favour one over another
5 Experience and judgment strongly favour one over another
7 Criterion is strongly favoured and its dominance is demonstrated in practice
9 Importance of one over another affirmed on the highest possible order
2, 4, 6, 8 Used to represent compromise between the priorities listed above

4.2.1 Mathematical formulation of AHP

The mathematical formulation of the AHP has been well presented by Saaty (1980). In
the section, the key mathematical derivation is reproduced with respect to the seminal
work of Saaty (1980). The basic assumption is that any MCDM can be structured using a
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 83

hierarchical method with different qualitative or quantitative judging criteria. The

simplest one is that we need to select different alternative subjects to a single layer of
judging criteria (Kumar and Dash, 2014). The example figure of AHP is illustrated in
Figure 4.

Figure 4 Example of a hierarchical structure (see online version for colours)

According to Figure 4 which shows that there are i alternatives of the problem, namely
A1, A2…Ai. In addition, there are n judging criteria C1, C2…Cn. One important step in
AHP analysis is to conduct pair wise comparisons between the criteria. Assume wij is
such relative weighting of criterion i over criterion j and that no interdependency exists
among the criteria, the relative weighting of criterion j over criterion i would then be
1/wij. Therefore, we can construct a reciprocal matrix in the following form to show the
relationship of different relative weightings.
⎡ 1 w12 " w1n ⎤
⎢1 ⎥
⎢ w12 1 % # ⎥
A=⎢ ⎥ (1)
⎢ # # % # ⎥
⎢1 1 ⎥
⎢⎣ w1n " 1 ⎥
w2 n ⎦
The above matrix can be rewritten in the following form:

⎡ w1 w1 " w1 ⎤
⎢ w1 w2 wn ⎥
⎢ w2 w2 ⎥
⎢ % w2 ⎥
A = ⎢ w1 w2 wn
⎥ (2)
⎢ # # % # ⎥
⎢w wn ⎥
⎢ nw " wn ⎥
⎣ 1 w2 wn ⎦

where wi are the actual weightings of each criterion. A matrix of this form is also
consistent because wjk = wik/wij for all i, j, k = 1… n (Saaty 1980). If we multiply the
matrix by its weighting vector w = [w1…wn] T, then we will obtain the following linear
equation:
84 A. Jain et al.

⎡ w1 w1 " w1 ⎤
⎢ w1 w2 wn ⎥
⎢ w2 w2 ⎥ ⎡ w1 ⎤ ⎡ w1 ⎤
⎢ % w2 ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
A = ⎢ w1 w2 wn
⎥⎢ # ⎥ = n⎢ # ⎥ (3)
⎢ # # % # ⎥ ⎢ wn ⎥
⎣ ⎦ ⎣⎢ wn ⎦⎥
⎢w wn w ⎥
⎢ nw "
wn ⎥⎦
n
⎣ 1 w2

Or (A – nI) w = 0. In this format, we can find a non-trivial solution on w if n is an eigen

value of A. Since the rank of A is 1 as all rows are multiplied by any one of the rows,
there is only 1 eigen value. The sum of all eigen values of A equals to its trace which is n;
therefore, n is an eigen value of A. Therefore, the elements of the weights vector can also
be expressed as follows:

∑
1 n
Wi = WijW j (4)
n j =1

In reality, the relative weightings (wij) are estimated values only; otherwise, we do not
need to calculate (or estimate to be precise) the weights vector. The question is whether
or not such estimation is reliable. This can be done normally by a set of expert panel and
a final consensus can be reached. Delphi study is also possible. However, an easier
approach is that a pre-defined scale is employed to aid the judgment. It is not uncommon
in the literature to use a scale of 1 to 9 (or just the odd numbers) to represent the
importance of criterion i over criterion j. In other words, the reverse scale (1/9…1) is
employed to show the negative relationship. This poses a problem on the accuracy of the
pair wise comparison as only discrete values are used.
To tackle above problem, Saaty (1980) introduced the concept of consistency ratio
(CR). The concept is very straightforward. If there is any error due to inconsistency, the
following value would be non-zero:

∑
n
λmax − n = − λi (5)
i =1

where λmax = λ1, λi, i = 1,…,n are the eigen values of A.

Since λmax = n represents the ideal case, Saaty (1980) suggested that consistency
index (CI) can be calculated, using the following formula (Saaty, 1980):
CI = λmax − n / (n − 1) (6)

In other words, CI is a measure of the deviation of λmax from n. Based on the above
equation, it can also be noted that there are (n2 – n)/2 comparisons need to be made in
order to construct the matrix. Above discussion is a brief introduction to one level of
hierarchical structure. The analysis can be extended to a full hierarchy of many levels. Of
course, the more levels of the hierarchical model are involved, the more comparisons are
needed and using the final CR can conclude whether the evaluations are sufficiently
consistent. The CR is calculated as the ratio of the CI and the random index (RI) n values
which is shown in Table 3. The number 0.1 is the accepted upper limit for CR. If the final
CR exceeds this value, the evaluation procedure has to be repeated to improve
consistency.
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 85

CI
CR = (7)
RI
Table 3 Random index

10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
RI 0.00 0.00 0.58 0.90 1.12 1.24 1.32 1.41 1.45 1.45

5 Analysis

After selecting the evaluation criteria, it was essential to know how important one
evaluation category (or its associated criterion) was over other criteria. In other words,
decision makers have to determine the weights between the main evaluation categories
and the associated criteria. The different weights of evaluation categories and their
associated criteria were calculated with the help of AHP method discussed in Section 4.2.
To complete the process, first the responses from the different experts are recorded in a
matrix form and the geometric mean is evaluated. The Table 4 shows the geometric mean
of all the criteria’s.
Table 4 Geometric mean matrix

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8
C1 1.0000 0.8737 0.4673 1.1900 1.1689 0.5301 0.6746 0.6525
C2 1.1445 1.0000 0.4575 1.4275 0.3534 1.4330 0.5327 0.9427
C3 2.1398 2.1858 1.0000 1.3619 0.9387 1.6751 0.6553 0.6228
C4 0.8404 0.7005 0.5650 1.0000 2.0099 0.9875 1.7844 0.4828
C5 1.0864 2.8299 0.7662 0.5553 1.0000 1.8377 1.9925 2.7010
C6 1.8864 0.6978 0.5416 1.1791 0.5582 1.0000 2.3604 1.2897
C7 1.4824 1.8772 1.2561 0.6177 0.5019 0.3909 1.0000 1.0477
C8 1.5325 1.0608 1.5788 2.1063 0.3798 0.8878 0.8481 1.0000

Table 5 Synthesised matrix

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8
C1 0.0900 0.0778 0.0705 0.1261 0.1691 0.0606 0.0685 0.0747
C2 0.1030 0.0891 0.0690 0.1513 0.0511 0.1639 0.0541 0.1079
C3 0.1926 0.1947 0.1508 0.1443 0.1358 0.1916 0.0665 0.0713
C4 0.0756 0.0624 0.0852 0.1060 0.2908 0.1130 0.1812 0.0552
C5 0.0978 0.2521 0.1155 0.0588 0.1447 0.2102 0.2023 0.3091
C6 0.1698 0.0622 0.0817 0.1249 0.0808 0.1144 0.2397 0.1476
C7 0.1334 0.1672 0.1894 0.0654 0.0726 0.0447 0.1015 0.1199
C8 0.1379 0.0945 0.2380 0.2232 0.0550 0.1016 0.0861 0.1144
86 A. Jain et al.

Figure 5 Hierarchical structures of identified factors through AHP (see online version for
colours)
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 87

Practicing Table 4, the geometric mean of eight evaluation criteria, synthesised matrix is
prepared which is finding out by dividing the value by the sum of its respective column
value. Table 5 provides the values of synthesised matrix.
According to the same philosophy shown in Figure 4, AHP model is developed. The
model a three-layer hierarchy comprising of eight criteria and 28 sub-criteria are prepared
(Figure 5) which forms a part of the analysis. In the following table, we use
equations (6) and (7) to check the CR and then the model is analysed. Later using the tool
the Table 6 is formed which represents the overall priority scores as well as ranks of
factors which affect the citizens’ candidate selection style with AHP. As per the result,
growth of internet technology (IT) got rank 1, which holds a 17.38% weight and its λmax
is 4.155 and CR is 0.0517 which is less than 0.1 that ensures its consistency as per the
equation (7), internet penetration is on rank 2 (14.35%) in which λmax is 3.002 and CR is
0.0011 < 0.1, e-marketing is on rank 3 (13.13%) by having λmax (4.055) and CR (0.020
< 0.1), competitive environment (12.76%) is on rank 4 where λmax is 3.001 and CR is
0.0006 < 0.1, social and cultural change (12.12%) is on rank 5, in which λmax is 3.001
and CR is 0.0005 < 0.1, innovative mechanism (11.18%) got rank 6, where λmax is 3.006
and CR is 0.0003 < 0.1, demographic characteristics (9.87%) comes on rank 7, in which
λmax = 4.0808 and CR is 0.026 < 0.1 and finally face consciousness (9.22%) is on rank
8, where λmax = 4.0007 and CR is 0.0002 which is again less than 0.1, that means the
data is consistent.
Table 6 Overall priority scores of criteria affecting citizens’ candidate selection style with
AHP

Rank
CDMS group Criteria priority Overall
Criteria within Criteria consistency test
and priority (%) within group rank
factor
Growth of C11 0.230(23.00%) 3 λmax = 4.155, CI = 0.0517 (Rank 1)
internet C12 0.209(20.95%) 4 RI = 0.90, CR = 0.057 < 0.1
technology (IT)
(17.38%) C13 0.269(26.92%) 2
C14 0.291(29.14%) 1
Internet C21 0.425(42.55%) 1 λmax = 3.002,CI = 0.0011 (Rank 2)
penetration C22 0.256(25.65%) 3 RI = 0.58,CR = 0.0019 < 0.1
(14.35%)
C23 0.354(35.41%) 2
Social and C31 0.389(38.92%) 1 λmax = 3.001,CI = 0.0005 (Rank 5)
cultural change C32 0.246(24.62%) 2 RI = 0.58,CR = 0.0009 < 0.1
(12.12%)
C33 0.209(20.95%) 3
Competitive C41 0.364(36.44%) 1 λmax = 3.001,CI = 0.0006 (Rank 4)
environment C42 0.295(29.54%) 3 RI = 0.58,CR = 0.0011 < 0.1
(12.76%)
C43 0.340(34.00%) 2
Innovative C51 0.362(36.25%) 1 λmax = 3.006,CI = 0.0003 (Rank 6)
mechanism C52 0.247(24.70%) 2 RI = 0.58,CR = 0.005 < 0.1
(11.18%)
C53 0.390(39.04%) 3
Notes: Overall consistency test: λmax = 8.794, CI = 0.11336,
RI = 1.41, order (n) = 8, CR = 0.080 < 0.1
88 A. Jain et al.

Table 6 Overall priority scores of criteria affecting citizens’ candidate selection style with
AHP (continued)

Rank
CDMS group Criteria priority Overall
Criteria within Criteria consistency test
and priority (%) within group rank
factor
Demographic C61 0.284(28.40%) 2 λmax = 4.0808,CI = 0.0260 (Rank 7)
characteristic C62 0.103(10.36%) 4 RI = 0.90, CR = 0.029 < 0.1
(9.87%)
C63 0.201(20.18%) 3
C64 0.410(41.04%) 1
Face C71 0.207(20.77%) 3 λmax = 4.0007,CI = 0.0002 (Rank 8)
consciousness C72 0.182(18.25%) 4 RI = 0.90,CR = 0.0002 < 0.1
(9.22%)
C73 0.289(28.92%) 2
C74 0.320(32.05%) 1
E-marketing C81 0.212(21.25%) 3 λmax = 4.055,CI = 0.0185 (Rank 3)
(13.13%) C82 0.201(20.11%) 4 RI = 0.90, CR = 0.020 < 0.1
C83 0.263(26.37%) 2
C84 0.322(32.25%) 1
Notes: Overall consistency test: λmax = 8.794, CI = 0.11336,
RI = 1.41, order (n) = 8, CR = 0.080 < 0.1
Table 7 Overall ranking of all evaluation criteria

Priority Rank
Perspective Integrated Intergraded
Sub-criteria within within
and priority priority ranking
group criteria
Growth of Adopting new 0.230 3 0.039 12
internet technologies (C11)
technology (IT) Information accessibility 0.209 4 0.036 14
(C1) (0.1738) (C12)
Fast communication (C13) 0.269 2 0.046 5
Cost minimisation (C14) 0.291 1 0.050 2
Internet Availability of internet 0.425 1 0.060 1
penetration (C21)
(C2) (0.1435) Evolution of web-based 0.256 2 0.036 15
media (C22)
Anytime connectivity 0.354 3 0.050 3
(C23)
Social and Perception (C31) 0.389 1 0.047 4
cultural change Family/religious beliefs 0.246 2 0.029 17
(C3) (0.1212) (C32)
Changing lifestyle (C33) 0.209 3 0.025 24
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 89

Table 7 Overall ranking of all evaluation criteria (continued)

Priority Rank
Perspective Integrated Intergraded
Sub-criteria within within
and priority priority ranking
group criteria
Competitive The personalisation of 0.364 1 0.046 6
environment politics (C41)
(C4) (0.1276) The politicians’ image 0.295 3 0.037 13
(C42)
The role of public 0.340 2 0.043 8
relations(C43)
Innovative Customisation (C51) 0.362 2 0.040 10
mechanism(C5) Interactive new 0.247 3 0.027 21
(0.1118) technologies (C52)
Professionalism (C53) 0.390 1 0.043 7
Demographic Age (C61) 0.284 2 0.028 19
characteristic Gender (C62) 0.103 4 0.010 28
(C6) (0.0987)
Education (C63) 0.201 3 0.019 25
Income (C64) 0.410 1 0.040 11
Face Likeness of candidates 0.207 3 0.019 26
consciousness (C71)
(C7) (0.0922) Friends influence (C72) 0.182 4 0.016 27
E word-of-mouth (C73) 0.289 2 0.026 22
Online communities (C74) 0.320 1 0.029 18
E-marketing Social networking sites 0.212 3 0.027 20
(C8) (0.1313) (C81)
Political campaigns (C82) 0.201 4 0.026 23
STP (C83) 0.263 2 0.034 16
E-branding of candidates 0.322 1 0.042 9
(C84)

Using the same approach, the relative importance weights with respect to the main eight
value propositions, which affect marketing strategies of political parties and their
associated criteria were calculated and the results are summarised in Table 7. The
integrated priority scores for the evaluation criteria were obtained by computing the
product of criteria weight scores with respect to the corresponding evaluation category
and the weight scores of its associated evaluation category. The integrated priority scores
give an indication of the important factors that influence the transition in the marketing
strategies of political parties. Availability of internet got rank 1 with integrated priority
score 0.060, cost minimisation of growth of internet technology got rank 2 with an
integrated priority score 0.050 and so on. The sub-criteria, gender of demographic
characteristic got 28th rank with lowest integrated priority score 0.010.
90 A. Jain et al.

6 Conclusions and discussion

Political marketing is a fundamental part of political life. Presidents and prime ministers;
politicians and parties; government departments and councils all use marketing in their
pursuit of political goals. Market research is used to understand what the people they
serve want and need when deciding on policies and service design; voter profiling helps
create new segments to target; strategy guides creation of the political brand to develop
an attractive vision; internal marketing guides the provision of volunteer involvement;
analytics and experimental research tests and refines communication messages and
delivery management sets expectations and helps to convey progress once a politician is
elected or a program begun. Success in politics is measured by the ability of a leader to
move public opinion in the direction he or she wants it, which lead to the emergence of
political marketing. It involves new ways of communicating with the voter, mainly
related to the development of new technologies such as social networking or mobile
marketing. In this study, AHP methodology has been used to evaluate transitions in
political marketing strategies, i.e., from offline to social media marketing. The
methodology contains three stages:
1 to outline a set of factors affecting the transition that was done through a systematic
review of literature
2 to calculate the importance levels of evaluation criteria by applying the analytical
hierarchy process (AHP) method
3 to establish a hierarchical model using the AHP method.
Based on the above result (Figure 5), growth of internet technology is on rank 1 on the
hierarchical level which automatically indicates the influence level of internet on voters
which changes political marketing strategies, internet penetration is on second rank on
priority list that signifies the percentage of internet users in the total population of our
country, e-marketing got rank 3 which is surely required to tap youth voters, competitive
environment finds rank 4 which indicates the level of competition in the country, social
and cultural change is on rank 5 which shows the importance of society and culture on
one’s decision, innovative mechanism is on rank 6, demographic characteristics are on
rank 7 which includes the individual’s personality and finally the face consciousness is
on eighth rank on the priority list of the hierarchy. These factors also subdivided into
sub-factors which affect the main criteria and with the help of AHP these sub-factors are
also priorities as per their main factors. In the Figure 6, sub-factors having:
1 holds first rank
2 holds second rank and accordingly.
In this study, the focal point has been on how knowledge of domain experts can be
leveraged to better understand the factors affecting the transitions in political marketing
strategies. As the time changing, political marketing strategies are also changing and the
political parties are becoming more transparent, interactive and involved with the public,
thanks to social networking sites which at both the personal and mediated levels will
continue to play an integral role in campaigns in democracies around the world in the
future.
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 91

References
Angelis, V.A., Lymperopoulos, C. and Dimaki, K. (2005) ‘Customers’ perceived value for private
and state-controlled Hellenic Banks’, Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Vol. 9, No. 4,
pp.360–374.
Basoglu, A.N., Daim, T.U., Dogan, A., Taskin, F. and Gomez, F. (2013) ‘Exploring the impact of
communication on innovation’, International Journal of Business Information Systems,
Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.70–90.
Basu, K. (2007) ‘India’s demographic dividend’, BBC News [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
south_asia/6911544.stm (accessed 24 September 2011).
Blumenthal, S. (1980) The Permanent Campaign: Inside the World of Elite Political Operatives,
Beacon Press, Boston.
Bongaarts, J. (2009) ‘Human population growth and the demographic transition’, Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 364, No. 1532, pp.2985–2990.
Brodie, R.J., Winklhofer, H., Coviello, N.E. and Johnston, W.J. (2007) ‘Is e-marketing coming of
age? An examination of the penetration of e-marketing and firm performance’, Journal of
Interactive Marketing, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp.2–21.
Brownlie, D. and Saren, M. (1991) ‘The four P’s of the marketing concept: prescriptive, polemical,
permanent and problematical’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp.34–47.
Butler, P. and Collins, N. (1999) ‘A conceptual framework for political marketing’, in
Newman, B.I. (Ed.): Handbook of Political Marketing, pp.55–72, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Davies, P.J. (2012) Winning Elections with Political Marketing, Routledge, New York, NY.
Falkowski, A. and Cwalina, W. (2012) ‘Political marketing: structural models of advertising
influence and voter behavior’, Journal of Political Marketing, Vol. 11, Nos. 1–2, pp.8–26.
Garcia, D., Mendez, F., Serdült, U. and Schweitzer, F. (2012) ‘Political polarization and popularity
in online participatory media: an integrated approach’, Proceedings of the First Edition
Workshop on Politics, Elections and Data, pp.3–10.
Harris, P. (2001) ‘To spin or not to spin, that is the question: the emergence of modern political
marketing’, The Marketing Review, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.35–53.
Ho, R. and Vogel, D. (2014) ‘The impact of social networking functionalities on online shopping:
an examination of the web’s relative advantage’, International Journal of Business
Information Systems, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.25–41.
Howard, P.N. (2006) New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen, Cambridge University
Press, New York, NY.
IAMAI Report (2014) Internet in India, Internet and Mobile Association of India [online]
http://www.iamai.in/PCov_Detail.aspx?nid=3251&NMonth=1&NYear=2014 (accessed June
2014).
Jehangir, M., Dominic, P. D. D. and Khan, A. (2012) ‘The contribution of human resources to
e-commerce capability and business performance: a structural equation modelling’,
International Journal of Business Information Systems, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.148–161.
Keith, R. (1960) ‘The marketing revolution’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp.35–38.
Kotler, P. and Kotler, N. (1999) ‘Political marketing: generating effective candidates, campaigns,
and causes’, in Newman, B.I. (Ed.) Handbook of Political Marketing, pp.3–18, Sage,
Thousand Oaks, California.
Kumar, A. and Dash, M.K. (2014) ‘Factor exploration and multi-criteria assessment method (AHP)
of multi-generational consumer in electronic commerce’, International Journal of Business
Excellence, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.213–236.
Lees-Marshment, J. (2001) ‘The marriage of politics and marketing’, Political Studies, Vol. 49,
No. 4, pp.692–713.
Lees-Marshment, J. (2002) ‘Marketing good works: new trends in how interest groups recruit
supporters’, Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp.358–370.
92 A. Jain et al.

Lees-Marshment, J. (2006) ‘Political marketing theory and practice: a reply to Ormrod’s critique of
the Lees-Marshment market-oriented party model’, Politics, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp.119–125.
Lock, A. and Harris, P. (1996) ‘Political marketing – vive la diffe´rence!’, European Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 30, Nos. 10/11, pp.14–24.
Miller, W.J. (2013) ‘We can’t all be Obama: the use of new media in modern political campaigns’,
Journal of Political Marketing, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.326–347.
Newman, B. and Sheth, J. (1987) A Theory of Political Choice Behaviour, Praeger, New York, NY.
Niffenegger, P. (1989) ‘Strategies for success from political marketers’, Journal of Consumer
Marketing, Winter, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.115–151.
O’Cass, A. (1996) ‘Political marketing and the marketing concept’, European Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 30, Nos. 10/11, pp.45–61.
OECD Publishing (2010) OECD Information Technology Outlook 2010, OECD Pub., Paris.
Parkin, M. (2012) ‘The impact of multimedia technology on candidate website visitors’, Journal of
Political Marketing, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.143–164.
Reid, D. (1988) ‘Marketing the political product’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 22, No. 9,
pp.34–47.
Saaty, T.L. (1980) The Analytic Hierarchy Process, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Saaty, T.L. and Peniwati, K. (2008) Group Decision Making: Drawing Out and Reconciling
Differences, RWS Publications, Pittsburgh.
Schuster, C.P. and Harris, P. (2014) Newer Insights into Marketing: Cross-Cultural and
Cross-National Perspectives, Routledge, New York, NY.
Sharma, M.J., Moon, I. and Bae, H. (2008) ‘Analytic hierarchy process to assess and optimize
distribution network’, Applied Mathematics and Computation, Vol. 202, No. 1, pp.256–265.
Smith, G. and Hirst, A. (2001) ‘Strategic political segmentation – a new approach for a new era of
political marketing’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35, Nos. 9/10, pp.1058–1073.
Smith, G. and Saunders, J. (1990) ‘The application of marketing to British politics’, Journal of
Marketing Management, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.295–306.
Solomon, M.R. (2007) Consumer Behavior – Buying, Having and Being, 7th ed., Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Stromback, J. (2007) ‘Antecedents of political market orientation in Britain and Sweden: analysis
and future research propositions’, Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.79–89.
Sun, H. (2007) ‘International political marketing: a case study of its application in China’, Journal
of Public Affairs, Vols. 7/4, No. 4, pp.331–340.
Thrassou, A. (2007) ‘Doing business in the industrialised countries’, in Katsioloudes, M. and
Hadjidakis, S. (Eds.): International Business – A Global Perspective, Butterworth-Heinemann,
Oxford.
Towner, T.L. and Dulio, D.A. (2012) ‘New media and political marketing in the United States:
2012 and beyond’, Journal of Political Marketing, Vol.11, Nos. 1–2, pp.95–119.
Wu, W., Kou, G., Peng, Y. and Ergu, D. (2012) ‘Improved AHP-group decision making for
investment strategy selection’, Technological and Economic Development of Economy,
Vol. 18, No. 2, pp.299–316.
Zarei, B., Saghafi, F., Zarrin, L. and Ghapanchi, A.H. (2014) ‘An e-government capability model
for government employees’, International Journal of Business Information Systems, Vol. 16,
No. 2, pp.154–176.
 IT revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties 93

Appendix

Table A1 shows the pair wise comparison of perspectives. All eight perspectives are put
along with other sevens. If someone according to his experience, expertise and perception
finds GIT is more important than internet penetration then he will use ‘upper’ scale to
give score. In Table A1 example he finds that growth of internet technology (GIT) is ‘7’,
very stronger than internet penetration in order to transition of political marketing
strategies so he ticks upper ‘7’ but he also finds ‘growth of internet technology stronger
than ‘face consciousness’. Now he would use lower scale.
Table A1 Sample question from questionnaire (pair wise comparison of perspectives)
Very strong

Very strong
Moderate

Moderate
Absolute

Absolute
Strong

Strong
Equal
Main perspectives Main perspectives

9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Growth of internet A Internet penetration
technology (IT)
Growth of internet Social and cultural
technology (IT) change
Growth of internet Competitive
technology (IT) environment
Growth of internet Innovative mechanism
technology (IT)
Growth of internet Demographic
technology (IT) characteristics
Growth of internet B Face consciousness
technology (IT)
Growth of internet E-marketing
technology (IT)
Internet penetration Social and cultural
change
Internet penetration Competitive
environment
Internet penetration Innovative mechanism
Internet penetration Demographic
characteristics
Internet penetration Face consciousness
Internet penetration E-marketing
Social and cultural Competitive
change environment
Social and cultural Innovative mechanism
change
Social and cultural Demographic
change characteristics
94 A. Jain et al.

Table A1 Sample question from questionnaire (pair wise comparison of perspectives)

(continued)

Very strong

Very strong
Moderate

Moderate
Absolute

Absolute
Strong

Strong
Equal
Main perspectives Main perspectives

9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9
Social and cultural Face consciousness
change
Social and cultural E-marketing
change
Competitive Innovative mechanism
environment
Competitive Demographic
environment characteristics
Competitive Face consciousness
environment
Competitive E-marketing
environment
Innovative mechanism Demographic
characteristics
Innovative mechanism Face consciousness
Innovative mechanism E-marketing
Demographic Face consciousness
characteristics
Demographic E-marketing
characteristics
Face consciousness E-marketing