JOURNAL OF
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MANAGEMENT
Interpreting discourse: a critical discourse analysis
of the marketing of an extreme right party
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Mona Moufahim, Nottingham University Business School, UK*
Michael Humphreys, Nottingham University Business School, UK
Darryn Mitussis, Nottingham University Business School, UK
James Fitchett, University of Leicester, UK
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Abstract Viewing marketing as an ideological discourse that places consumption
in a central position in people’s lives provides further insights into the construction
of political marketing discourse. Politicians and political parties now follow the
‘logic of the market’ in their attempts to connect with voters. Critical discourse
analysis can be used in general to study the nature of political marketing
discourse and specifically to document the web of identities and power relations
that this discourse reproduces. To illustrate this application of theory we examine
the marketing of the Vlaams Blok, a successful Flemish extreme-right party.
The Vlaams Blok provides a good example of how the adoption of a marketing
approach is used in politics, especially in the way a political party communicates
to a wide audience using market logic. The analysis echoes approaches used by
advertising and marketing communications scholars and highlights the strategic
use of lexical, rhetorical and other linguistic devices to brand, sell and differentiate
the Vlaams Blok from other political products. The analysis demonstrates that the
Vlaams Blok creates a ready-to-consume product that achieves success at the
electoral ‘checkout’. We set the stage for marketing scholars to help both further
understand how marketing methods are deployed with increasing sophistication
outside the traditional domain of marketing, and to consider the consequences
of a marketing discourse in the civic sphere.
Keywords Political marketing, Critical discourse analysis, Extreme right, Vlaams
Blok
*Correspondence details and biographies for the author are located at the end of the article, p. 557.
JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 2007, Vol. 23, No. 5-6, pp. 537-558
ISSN0267-257X print /ISSN1472-1376 online © Westburn Publishers Ltd.
doi:10.1362/026725707X212829
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MARKETING AND POLITICS
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Consumption is now established, through the influence of marketing thinking, as a
“dominant force in society” (Brownlie et al. 1999, in Dermody and Scullion 2001:
1087). This force extends beyond the commercial realm into other spheres of human
society and the “discourses of marketisation and commodification are increasingly
intruding into new realms of life such as relationships, politics and family” (Hackley
2003: 1328). Business models and commercial discourses are becoming pervasive
in political and social contexts (Hertz 2001; Norris 2004). Politicians have adopted
a commercial logic in order to cater to this ‘market’ of citizen-consumers. Political
parties are often managed like businesses (O’Shaughnessy 1990), politicians have
become fluent in business jargon (Brownlie 1997) and appear to have adopted the
language of marketing to address voters (Chilton and Schaffner 1997).
The ‘marketisation’ of politics and political discourse could arguably be linked (as
cause and effect) to disillusionment, apathy and alienation from political parties by
citizens, especially among the younger generation (Norris 2004). But the ‘logic of the
market’ and the actions of marketers do not mean that citizens completely withdraw
from political participation1. Rather, voting and other traditional forms of formal
civic engagement are only one path to political activity (Nugent 2001). Politicised
consumers can, and do, choose other channels to express their political concerns.
For example, consumers take part in mass demonstrations, wear clothes with slogans
making political statements, boycott products and services and volunteer in their
local community. Riddling (2001) has demonstrated that the involvement in local
community by American citizens is a reaction to a political system that they see as
dysfunctional and untrustworthy. Other forms of civic engagement include joining
single-issue interest groups (e.g. an NGO, or a charity), religious organisations and
trades unions (Norris 2004). Less formally still, people also express their political
interest in online communities or through the consumption of political satire.
Perhaps marketing, as a ‘dominant force,’ has created a ‘political’ consumption
that enables involvement in social life and the creation and maintenance of social
relationships enriched by this consumption that represents values which consumers
feel unable to express through traditional channels (following Putnam 2000, in
Gibson et al. 2003; Brownlie et al. 1999, in Dermody and Scullion 2001). Grasping
the meaning of political consumption is a challenge for marketing as an academic
discipline and for political parties if they want to make politics meaningful to their
electorate (Dermody and Scullion 2001) and to understand the sentiments of the
citizen-consumer.
The application of marketing techniques in political practice seems widespread
and substantial sums of money are spent each year in political advertising, much
of which goes to organisations and through channels very familiar to mainstream
marketing scholars and practitioners. For example, the Conservative Party in the
United Kingdom delegated their communication process to the high profile marketing
communications organisation Saatchi & Saatchi (Scammel 1996). In contemporary
US presidential elections, huge sums are spent on advertising campaigns. It is has
been estimated that, in the 2004 US state and presidential elections, at least 400
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1
Political participation is defined as “…those legal activities by private citizens
that are more or less directly aimed at influencing the selection of governmental
personnel and/or the actions they take (Verba et al., 1978: 46; in Norris, 2004)”.
Moufahim, Humphreys, Mitussis and Fitchett Interpreting discourse
million dollars would be spent on advertising2. It is therefore clear that the usefulness
of marketing techniques has been recognised by political parties.
All the above suggests that there are two sides to political marketing that need
to be examined. One is the expression of political sentiment through consumption.
Significant progress is being made in this area by marketing and consumer behaviour
scholars who research issues such as consumer protest, ethical consumption and so
on (e.g. Linstroth 2002; Dermody and Scullion 2001; Elliott 1996). The other side
to this issue is the action of political parties and the way that they seek to market
themselves to potential voters. This side has received insufficient attention from
marketing scholars and it is to this end that we extend our consideration.
Political marketing
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The marketing of political parties and their adopted ideologies can be analysed
through the lenses provided by the literature of political marketing and persuasive
communication. Political marketing exists as a discrete discipline, awkwardly
straddled between political science and marketing. Contributors tend to be both
political scientists and management studies scholars, joined by a common interest in
the marketing of political parties but separated by different theoretical and empirical
traditions.
Political parties and politicians use marketing extensively to achieve their political
goals and connect with voters but appear to borrow marketing tools and concepts
in an ad hoc and instrumental fashion. This instrumentalism is a reaction to widely
acknowledged problems of engagement with the formal political system. According to
Mortimore (2003), for example, marketing can be used as a tool to deal with voters’
distrust and apathy. This is evident from the increasing use by politicians of political
consultants to deploy sophisticated marketing techniques (O’Shaughnessy 1990).
That these experts are selected for their marketing expertise rather than political
ideology could be an indication of the recognition of the usefulness of a marketing
approach in the conduct of politics. As noted above, the need to ‘connect’ to the
politically apathetic and distrustful, with the perceived success that some marketers
have had in connecting to fickle consumers, might drive the use of marketing tools
and concepts in the political domain (broadly following Mortimore 2003). It is not
surprising therefore that business practices have pervaded the political arena. In
everyday speech, on TV news reports, in newspapers, business language is used by
journalists or politicians to describe political processes and behaviours. The extent
to which business (and marketing in particular) and politics share more than jargon
has been widely explored by academics in the field of political marketing (see among
others Lock and Harris 1996; O’Cass 1996; Shama 1973).
Efforts have been made to extend political marketing as an academic discipline
beyond the limitations of traditional mass marketing theory. These extensions
reflect advancements in both marketing theory and political marketing practice. For
example, political marketing includes studies of exchange and relationships between
political entities and the way that techniques borrowed from industrial, services and
relationship marketing are, or could be, deployed by political marketing practitioners
(e.g., Lock and Harris 1996). The enriching of the field has also prompted discussion
about the concepts and strategies that define political marketing as a separate discipline.
As a consequence, political marketing is developing as a holistic concept that includes
the whole behaviour of the political organisation and the application of marketing
2 The Guardian, 23rd October 2003
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concepts and techniques as well as the responses of the citizen-consumer (e.g., Ingram
and Lees-Marshment 2002; Wring 1996; Omura 1979; Shama 1976, among others).
This broadening of both political marketing practice and the theorising of political
marketing has necessitated that political marketing emerges as an interdisciplinary
subject (e.g., Hunt 1983; in Henneberg 2004) studying not just the application of
marketing tools and concepts to politics but also the whole range of social theory that
informs our study of post-industrial consumer society.
Political marketing literature reflects both the varied intellectual heritage and the
eclectic nature of political marketing practice. Attempts to extend the discipline are
genuine reactions to real conceptual and practical issues. Unfortunately, because of
the ad hoc development of political marketing theory and practice described above,
the theoretical heart of the discipline is poorly defined, contested and criticised as
thin and static (Henneberg, 2004). This is perhaps due to the lack of integration of the
new developments in marketing scholarship and the dominance of the now contested
managerialist and mix-management perspectives (see Henneberg 2004). Most
harshly, because of its lack of well-developed intellectual core, political marketing
is even described as something like an “academic parvenu” (O’Shaughnessy and
Henneberg 2002: xiv) or as an intellectual arriviste (Bauman, 1997). This pastiche
of theory has left political marketing as a discipline that “has to develop its own
frameworks adapting those from the core marketing literature and, second that it has
to develop its own predictive and prescriptive models if it is to inform and influence
political action” (Lock and Harris 1996: 16). In other words, political marketing as
a discipline has to build a strong conceptual core. Any systematic study of political
marketing that seeks to rely solely on the existing political marketing literature for
its conceptual foundation is, therefore, going to be problematic. Potential solutions,
though, can be found in theories and methods that have been applied in both the
marketing and political science literatures. The one that we will explore herein is
a discourse approach, applied in the marketing literature to understand identity
and power relations in advertising (e.g., Elliott and Ritson 1997; Elliott 1996) and
similarly applied in critical and political fields to understand political disputes and
political rhetoric (e.g. Schön and Rein 1994 ).
There are two aspects to the conceptualisation of political marketing practice
as a discourse. First, we argue that a marketing discourse creates a logic that leads
us to find solutions to our wants and needs in the market. A marketing discourse
constructs us as consumers, rather than say citizens and our attitudes, expectations
and behaviour follow from that broad identity construction. Second, within that
broad identity of consumer, marketing provides us with the symbolic resources to
construct or represent one or more identities for ourselves (all some variation of a
consumer identity). The ideology of marketing, embodied in marketing discourse,
has contributed to the current centrality of consumption in creating meaning and
significance in people’s lives. Marketers now help provide for the physical needs of
consumers but also provide the symbolic material for their identity construction and
expression. As such, marketing logic has shaped and continues to shape the social
sphere by defining the space within which we constitute social relations as social
exchanges. We will argue that this discourse appears to have emerged in political
marketing and constructs voters not as citizens active in civic society but as consumers
deciding which policies and politicians will they buy with their vote. Politicians, on
the other hand, play the appropriate role and seek to ‘sell’ themselves and their
policy (market) offerings.
To examine this issue, we need here a theory and method that is able to analyse
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Moufahim, Humphreys, Mitussis and Fitchett Interpreting discourse
the discourse of marketing and the ideology it embodies, along with the discourse
of politics. In order to provide empirical underpinning, a particular methodology
has been adapted for use with a specific example: the extreme right. The success
of the extreme right could be understood in the light of a successful connection to
the voters (in marketing terms the communication about the market offering, the
development of emotional bonds and the creation of product or brand loyalty). If a
marketing discourse has indeed colonised political discourse we would expect to see
these concepts emerge in political marketing.
METHODOLOGY: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
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The analysis of extreme right (ER) discourse needs a methodology that provides tools
for analysis and interpretation, in addition to dealing with the particular nature of
the discourse studied. The ‘problem’ in researching marketing and political discourse
is their ‘taken-for-grantedness’. The ideologies that they embody have naturalised the
world views they defend and made them unquestioned and invisible. The presence of
power and ideology in both marketing3 and politics calls for an analytical framework
that recognises and manages the ideological nature of texts and discourses. Critical
discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) is particularly relevant here. For example in
1990, Fairclough had already applied discourse analysis to discuss the language of
consumers (Fairclough 1990), and in 1996, Elliott (1996) advocated the application
of discourse analysis to the study of marketing phenomena (see also among others Ellis
et al. (2005); Hackley (2003); Catterall and Maclaran (2002); Proctor et al. (2002)).
Elliott (1996) also mentioned that political marketing might offer opportunities for
studying how managers (or here a political party) construct their perspective of the
customer (here the voter and Flemish identity) in comparison with how customers
construct their views of organisations and products (see Elliott 1996). This section
aims at indicating why and how CDA provides a useful entrée to understanding the
success of the ER’s political marketing.
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Basic assumptions in CDA
Fairclough (1989: 24) uses the word ‘discourse’ to refer to the whole process of
social interaction. Understanding such processes can be undertaken using a discourse
analytic methodology. Discourse analysis (DA) is considered particularly appropriate
to explore the relationships between texts and context (Phillips and Hardy 2002;
Fairclough 1992). Through the analysis of the historical and social context, DA helps
to understand how meanings are constructed and how a broader social reality is
constructed, maintained and experienced by people (Phillips and Hardy 2002). CDA
3 Marketing is still commonly conceived of as a neutral tool, an unbiased way of
looking at the world. In consumer society, marketing rhetoric is presented as a
liberating force for consumers. This conception of a ‘value-free’ marketing would
deny the notion that, as discursive practice, marketing actively constructs a world
where individuals build their identities through commodities (Morgan, 1992).
The ostensibly value-free nature of marketing (and the market generally) suggests
that marketing is a powerful discourse indeed, but now so naturalised that it may
be rendered invisible to the citizen-consumer. Marketing is, according to Morgan
(1992: 137) “better understood as a set of practices and discourses which help
constitute and shape social relations in modern western societies”.
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is not interested in language per se, but rather, in the linguistic character of social
and cultural processes and structures (Titscher et al. 2000: 146). It is concerned,
according to Van Leeuwen (1993a: 193), with a) discourses as the instruments of
power and control and b) discourses as the instruments of the social construction of
reality (which for political marketing would be for example, about the construction
of problems and solutions that suit particular political agendas).
A basic assumption of CDA is that there is a dialectical relationship between
discursive events and the context4 in which they are embedded (de Cillia et al. 1999).
Through discourse, social actors constitute knowledge, situations, social roles as well
as identities and interpersonal relations (de Cillia et al. 1999). According to Wodak
(2001: 66), “discourses as linguistic social practices can be seen as constituting nondiscursive and discursive social practices and, at the same time, as being constituted
by them”. In addition, CDA reveals that discourses are not only expressions of social
practice (Jäger 2001), but are also ideological (Wodak 2001). Accordingly, CDA seeks
to unveil the hidden web of domination, power, discrimination, and control existing
in language (Wodak 2001), which is conceptualised as a medium of domination
and social force (Habermas 1977). For example, it is through language that power
relations are legitimised (Wodak 2001).
To sum up, CDA explicitly focuses on the dynamics of power, knowledge and
ideology which surround discursive processes (Phillips & Hardy, 2002). It explains
the role of discourse in the way the abuse of power is constituted and sustained5
(Fairclough and Wodak 1997). This particular aspect of CDA is particularly useful
for the study of the discourse of powerful ideologies, with their hidden effects and
concealed power relations (Meyer 2001). The discourse of an ER party, with its
components of rhetoric, metaphor, argument and pseudo-argument, and so on,
should highlight the way the text works in providing a persuasive account of the
world. CDA can unlock ideologies and recover the social meanings expressed in
discourse, by analysing the linguistic structures and discourse strategies within an
interactional and wider social context (Teo 2000).
On a more practical level, one could ask how one should set about operationalising
a critical discourse analysis. Within CDA there are two different views on the
relationship between language and society. On the one hand, Fairclough uses the
theory of multifunctional linguistics and the concept of orders of discourse. On
the other hand, Wodak and van Dijk consider a sociocognitive level in defining
the relationship between language and society (Meyer, 2001). Fairclough’s model
is, according to Titscher et al. (2000), suitable for the analysis of the contexts of
social and discursive change, such as in his study of the way universities in England
are marketed (see Fairclough 1992). Wodak’s approach is suited to the analysis of
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4 i.e. situations, social structures, institutions, and so on.
5 This orientation of CDA towards political involvement and application of the
research findings to create notions of justice and equality is clear in the type of
research where a CDA methodology is adopted. For example, because it makes the
assumption that language repeats and legitimises injustice and inequality (Titscher
et al. 2000), CDA has been applied in the fields of gender issues, media discourse,
identity research and issues of prejudice, namely racism, anti-Semitism or sexism
(Wodak, 2001; Titscher et al., 2000. For research with a critical approach to these
topics, see among others: Wodak et al. 1999; Martin-Rojo and van Dijk 1997;
Pedro 1997).
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implicitly prejudiced utterances. Her approach facilitates analysis and decoding
of allusions typically concealed in such utterances by referring to background
knowledge (Titscher et al. 2000: 165). The discourse-historical approach is based
on the theory of text planning by means of which the intentions of the speakers
and the extralinguistic factors (such as the status of the participants, time and place,
sociological and psychological characteristics) in text production are identified
(Titscher et al. 2000). Those elements of socio-psychological, cognitive and linguistic
levels are considered as essential in the text production (Wodak 1990; in Titscher et
al. 2000: 155). It is worth pointing out that the discourse-historical approach finds
its focal point in the field of politics, where it tries to develop conceptual frameworks
for political discourse (Meyer 2001: 22).
Wodak et al.’s (1999) approach to the study of discriminatory discourses would
seem particularly appropriate for the study of the ER’s political strategy and discourse.
This discourse-historical approach was initially developed to study the constitution
of an anti-Semitic stereotypical image that emerged in public discourse in the 1986
Austrian presidential campaign of Kurt Waldheim (Wodak et al. 1999; Mitten
1992; Gruber 1991). The approach was further developed in studies dedicated to
the racist discourse against Romanian immigrants and to the discourse about nation
and national identity in Austria (see Wodak et al. 1999; Matouschek et al. 1995).
The discourse-historical approach also proved invaluable to de Cillia et al.’s (1999)
research on the discursive construction of national identities and nations. Examples
of this approach are found in the study of the organisation of the European Union
(see for example Straehle et al. 1999; Iedema and Wodak 1999), or the discursive
construction of national identities (see for example Wodak et al. 1999; de Cillia et
al. 1999). Wodak’s approach is the one adopted in this paper, because her specific
method 1- has already been fruitfully applied to influential research (see among
others de Cillia et al. 1999; Mitten 1992; Wodak et al. 1990) and has highlighted
the way national identities and a particular reality are created through discourse
(which is of interest in this research, i.e. a reality where the ‘others’ are presented as
threats to the particular model of society, ethnically homogeneous and prosperous,
constructed by the ER); 2- is interdisciplinary and combines in its analysis historical,
socio-political and linguistic perspectives (which, we argue, are keys to understanding
the ER’s political marketing discourse).
The discourse-historical approach stresses the importance of the ‘context’ of
discursive events. It is important to record settings as accurately as possible, given
the significance of context in the understanding and interpretation of the discourse.
According to Wodak (2001: 65), the approach “attempts to integrate a large
quantity of available knowledge about the historical sources and the background of
the social and political field in which discursive ‘events’ are embedded”. In addition,
the historical dimension of discourse is analysed by exploring the ways in which
particular genres of discourse are subject to diachronic change (Wodak et al. 1990,
1994). Because, the discourse-historical approach is characterised by a focus on
a specific problem and not on specific linguistic devices, the analysis draws on an
eclectic pool of theoretical and methodological approaches. The understanding of
the object under investigation dictates the choice of the most useful and relevant
theories and methods. Besides, there must be a constant movement between theory
and empirical data. As intertextual and interdiscursive relationships are investigated,
it is important to consider recontextualisation in order to connect genres, topics and
arguments.
The discourse-historical approach to CDA focuses on three interrelated dimensions,
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which are a) the semantic elements of discourse (i.e., the content or the topic); b)
the strategies6 adopted to achieve determined aims and; c) the linguistic means and
forms of syntactical means used in the text (de Cillia et al. 1999). The procedure of
discourse-historical method is hermeneutic and interpretative (Wodak et al. 1999: 53).
The three analytical dimensions (semantic, strategic and linguistic) are systematically
and recursively related to the totality of contextual knowledge (Titscher et al. 2000:
153). In addition to being interpretative, CDA is explanatory. Texts are deconstructed
and embedded in their social conditions, which link them to ideologies and power
relationships. Therefore in order to interpret political discourse, critical analysts
rely on systematic procedures and methodology and also on their reflections as
researchers (Fairclough and Wodak 1997). However the analyst’s own experience of
the phenomenon is only a minor part of the whole picture. The analysis is completed
by a systematic in-depth investigation that goes beyond ordinary experience, and by
a reliance on social theories and theories of language (Fairclough and Wodak 1997:
281). This is why the content of the text is not ‘discussed’ here, i.e. the arguments
defended by the extreme right are not refuted or assessed. We are not trying to find
out what the text exactly ‘does’7 but ‘how it is doing it’ (‘it’ being the construction of
a particular discourse, that happens to be increasingly successful in Belgium).
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In order to explore the theory and method described above, we undertook an exemplar
analysis of some political marketing material. We chose texts from an extreme right
Belgian party, the Vlaams Blok, because it has achieved considerable success at the
polls, despite a concerted campaign against it. Although citizens are increasingly
apathetic and uninterested in mainstream politics, the loyalty of voters to ER parties8
and their willingness to vote pose important questions about political consumption
and the potential for a case study of successful political marketing. Relevant to our
interest in political marketing, most ER parties have, according to Rensmann (2003),
doubled their electoral turnout over the last two decades and have managed to turn
De Cillia et al. (1999) identified for example constructive strategies, where
persuasive linguistic acts serve to build a particular national identity and establish
solidarity and identification with the ‘we- group’ and, in the same time, distancing
from and marginalising the ‘others’. They also identified perpetuation strategies and
justification strategies which attempt to maintain, support and reproduce national
identities in order to support continuities. In that scheme, the immigrants are
constructed as a threat to national identity. Justification strategies and legitimation
strategies are used to defend and preserve problematic narratives of controversial
events in national history.
7 Which would necessitate interviews of the speakers (i.e. the VB leaders) and the
VB voters, and is beyond the scope of this paper.
8 Mudde (2000) and Camus (2002) suggest that a party can safely be considered as
belonging to the ER family when it includes in its ideological core the characteristics
of ultra-liberalism, xenophobia and authoritarianism. Social affairs’ discourse
and the acceptance of democracy and pluralism are also key features of the ER
ideology. In addition, Mudde (2000) notes that ER parties all claim national unity
and national preference (i.e., granting political, economic and social rights only to
nationals). Mudde (2000) shows that Western European ER parties also share an
inclination to an anti-establishment stance and authoritarianism through the “law
and order” leitmotiv.
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‘new’ voters into loyal voters. This raises marketing questions, especially if we accept
the liberal democratic consensus that discriminating against people on the basis of
their ethnic origin or religion is unacceptable. Those political parties’ theses are
controversial, sometimes undemocratic, but nevertheless increasingly successful in
Western European democracies. The focus of the empirical section of this paper is on
the extent that the Vlaams Blok, a particular ER party, has managed to use marketing
communications to sell its product and diminish the importance of its less palatable
aspects.
THE VLAAMS BLOK: BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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The Flemish Vlaams Blok (henceforth VB) has been particularly successful at finding
consumers for its politics. It has experienced a series of successful elections since it was
founded in 1978. The VB is, according to Mudde (2000) and Swyngedouw (1998)
one of the most successful ER parties in Western Europe and depicted by Davies and
Lynch (2002: 355) as “one of the most significant far-right movements in Western
Europe”. On June 13th 2004, nearly 1,000,000 people (i.e. 1 Fleming out of 4) voted
for the VB at the June 2004 elections. In October 2004, Le Soir published a survey
showing that 26.9% of voters intended to vote for the Vlaams Blok in forthcoming
elections, which makes it the leading political party in the Northern Region of Belgium.
Examining the VB through a marketing lens provides interesting insights in terms of
persuasive communications and marketing strategy. An organisation that manages to
get 25% of market share is intrinsically worth examining, especially if one accepts the
liberal democratic assumption that their product is inherently flawed (i.e. extreme
rightist with strong features of racist and discriminatory discourse, see Mudde 2000).
It is worth noting that we are confronted here with marketing processes and not
mere propaganda. The VB does use marketing to enhance its political campaigns9 .
The following quotations illustrate their marketing orientation:
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Marketing comes from the study of the needs of consumers, and from this follows the
production of resources which could satisfy those needs. A company must study first
the needs of its consumers and adapt its production according to those needs. Political
marketing broadly follows the same line of thought.
This definition comes from a brochure10 distributed to local VB candidates, advising
them on the best way to lead a political campaign. In the same brochure, Filip
Dewinter, one of the leaders of the VB, justifies the utilisation of marketing strategy
by stating that:
Political marketing is a global project with which the candidate can organize well his/
her political activities. The VB is choosing without a doubt an antidemagogic practice,
with which we have so often tried to be the voice of the people.
9 It is worth noting that the VB ‘publicly’ rejects the use of marketing in politics,
while applying it, and promoting/explaining its use to its candidates. In numerous
accounts, the VB publicly appears to disapprove of marketing use, or ‘spin’ by
other political parties.
10 Brochure: Politieke Communicatie-Technieken, Deel 1. De persoonlijke campagne
van de kandidaat. Vlaams Blok publications. (Translation: Political communication
techniques- Part 1: The personal campaign of the candidate)
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Here in this quote, the VB stresses the importance of marketing as political instrument,
and at the same time rejects the accusation of manipulation, spin and demagogic
practices that could be associated with the use of marketing in politics (Baines and
Egan 2001; Scammell 1995, in Harris 2001; Newman 1994; Sabato 1981).
In addition, since the 1991 elections, a team of professionals from an advertising
agency has been hired to design the party’s advertising campaigns (Vander Velpen
1992). The result of their work was a strong visual campaign that set the trend
for the series of subsequent campaigns. Short punchy slogans were associated
with recognisable symbols. There were for example: in 1991, boxing gloves and a
“Self-defence” slogan; or in 1999, a family and “Boss in one’s land”. These slogans
have always been used in combination to the well-known party slogan “One’s
own people first”11. With marketing, the VB proposes a well-crafted product that
manages to attract voters’ support (its constant electoral support being the evidence),
notwithstanding its xenophobic nature. Bosseman (2001) examined the evolution of
the VB’s positioning, targeting and messages from 1977 to 2000. Her work supports
the observation that the VB actively uses marketing to enhance its politics.
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APPLICATION OF CDA TO THE VB’S DISCOURSE
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Analysis of the VB communication material12 highlights the presence of strategic and
rhetorical devices (such as the ones highlighted and described by Wodak and Reisigl
2001; and de Cillia et al. 1999) which build a coherent argument using emotional
cues to enhance the persuasiveness of the discourse. Several texts were selected and
analysed, but one of those stood out: a text that encapsulates all the elements of the
VB’s ideology has been identified and thoroughly analysed. It is an editorial written
by Frank Vanhecke the VB leader, commenting on the condemnation of the VB for
racism in November 2004 and announcing the end of the VB’s era.
Semantic dimension
Consistent with the party’s ideology13, the themes tackled in the VB’s website are
the corruption of mainstream parties, the call for the independence of Flanders and
the rejection of immigrants. In an editorial text, entitled “Today we were executed.
But we will rise” (see http://vlaamsblok.be/index.shtml14), alternative interpretations
are avoided providing the impression that there is a unique persuasive account of
“what is actually going on” (see Teo 2002), the description of a unique ‘reality’.
Systematically in the party’s website (see www.vlaamsblok.be), Vanhecke claims that
Flanders does not have the status and position it deserves within Belgium.
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11 “Eigen Volk Eerst”
12 The selected pages from the brochure were translated into English by the first
author (a native Belgian who is fluent in French, Dutch and English) and then
backtranslated by a professional translator, to ensure the veracity of the translation.
Hence, “the cultural distance between the researcher and the researched”
(Humphreys and Brown, 2002: 932) was minimised.
13 The VB’s core ideology is underpinned by a platform claiming the independence
of Flanders, and on an anti-immigrant stance (Camus 2003; Faniel 2003;
Swyngedouw 1998)
14 For the full text in English, see http://vlaamsblok.be/index.shtm and click on
the British flag on the top right-hand corner of the webpage.
Moufahim, Humphreys, Mitussis and Fitchett Interpreting discourse
Flanders is the free-market oriented Dutch-speaking and politically marginalised
northern part of the country.
The Belgian Parliament, where Francophones are overrepresented […].
(http://vlaamsblok.be/index.shtml).
Therefore rejecting this situation and embracing the VB’s view is normal and
legitimate, especially since the VB holds that Belgium itself does not have any
legitimate foundation: “Belgium, established in 1830 by French revolutionaries, is an
artificial construct […]”.
Strategic devices
PY
Several rhetorical devices and narrative strategies can be identified in VB’s discourse,
which contribute to providing a clear and persuasive narrative for the reader. First,
the VB’s political and identity struggle is presented in a typical ‘us’ versus ‘them’
dichotomy. For instance, in the same editorial (http://vlaamsblok.be/index.shtml),
Vanhecke links Flemish identity to the party’s struggle for political existence.
R
C
O
[about the creation of the new party, the Vlaams Belang] the establishment of a new
party to defend the political priorities that the Vlaams Blok has always fought for:
an independent and democratic Republic of Flanders; the traditional moral values of
Western civilisation; and the right of the Flemings to protect their national identity and
their Dutch language and culture
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O
Second, dismantling or de-legitimating strategies were also identified in the same
text where opponents are systematically delegitimised. For example, Vanhecke starts
by undermining Belgian identity, by explaining its lack of substance: “Belgium,
established in 1830 by French revolutionaries, is an artificial construct dominated
by the Socialist Francophone minority in Wallonia.”; and goes on to argue that antidemocratic attitudes are attached to Belgium because it only serves the interests of a
Francophone minority, to the detriment of Flemings.
What happened in Brussels today is unique in the Western world: never has a so-called
democratic regime outlawed the country’s largest political party.
Despite the fact that a political party should be fought in the voting booth, the Belgian
regime has been harassing the Vlaams Blok with criminal prosecutions for over a
decade.
I thank our one million voters. They deserve a democracy. Belgium does not want to
grant them one; we will.
Thus in addition to avoidance strategies, reversal strategies were identified where
the role of victim and attacker are reversed. Reversal strategies can be identified in
several documents from the VB. For example, the VB was found guilty of racism.
However, Vanhecke argues that this decision was itself based on the division between
Francophones and Flemings. For example, it explicitly states that the judges, who
condemned the VB, are politically appointed, and are francophones:
Since 1993 the power to prosecute for discrimination and racism was transferred to a
government quango, resorting directly under the Prime Minister, the so-called Centre
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Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 23
for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism (CEOFR). This quango has now
been vindicated by the Supreme Court, an institution composed of political appointees,
half of them Francophones.
If one follows this line of thought, the condemnation of the VB could be interpreted
as a political decision based on ethnicity (Flemings vs. Walloons), which would make
itself condemnable and racist.
The Belgian Parliament, where Francophones are overrepresented, changed the
Constitution in 1999 in order to limit freedom of expression. It also voted a series of new
laws with the sole purpose of criminalising and defunding our party […].
PY
van Dijk (1993; see also van Dijk, 1991) indicated that reversal strategies are typical
in anti-anti-racist theories, where those who fight intolerance and discrimination
are themselves accused of intolerance and fighting ‘freedom of speech’. It is worth
reiterating that the editorial starts by stating that the VB is a successful party
representing the Flemish voice.
O
The Vlaams Blok was supported by almost 1 million voters in last June’s elections. We
got 24.1% of the vote in Flanders, where 60% of the Belgian population lives.
C
we are the democratic voice of an ever growing number of Flemings […]15.
O
R
In Frank Vanhecke’s editorial, it seems that the roles have been reversed and the VB
opposition to the court decision and the institutions which instigated it, is constructed
as a legitimate and democratic struggle. This reversal strategy is constantly used in
the VB’s discourse. For example:
TH
Have we ever condoned discrimination on the basis of race? No, but that did not matter
to the Belgian establishment and its political courts.
They [the media and political leaders] are co-responsible for the climate of intolerance
in which Haider, Le Pen and Dewinter are presented as a threat to democracy and
therefore a legitimate target. To prevent further tragedies I call on politicians and
journalists to stop demonising the Vlaams Blok.16
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Reversal strategies also involve shifting the focus of attention from one’s own
questionable acts to the motives of those who disapprove of his/her violations (Sykes
and Matza 1957). Within the VB discourse, condemners are identified and named:
mainly traditional parties and the media serving their interest. For example, in the
FAQ section of the VB website17, to the question ‘is the VB racist?’ the party replies:
The VB is certainly not a racist party; we have been branded [racist] by the traditional
parties and their friends from the media, and they blocked us in a political monster
trial.18
It is their political will to undermine VB’s credibility and legitimacy that has led to
VB being branded as racist. In sum, by condemning the condemners, definitions of
15
16
17
18
http://vlaamsblok.be/site_engels_index.shtml
http://www.vlaamsblok.be/index.shtml
http://vlaamsblok.be/afdrukken/afdrukken.php
http://vlaamsblok.be/afdrukken/afdrukken.php
Moufahim, Humphreys, Mitussis and Fitchett Interpreting discourse
racism and discrimination are refuted and reframed as being political tools used to
limit VB’s freedom of speech.
Linguistic dimension
AU
TH
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C
O
PY
Other important features are the choice of words. For example, the heading “A
party unlike any other” is a recurring feature of the VB’s website. It introduces all
the leader’s columns in the VB website (see www.vlaamsblok.be). According to Teo
(2000: 14), the function of the heading is to form a “cognitive macro-structure that
serves as an important strategic cue to control the way readers process and make
sense of the report”. It announces straightaway the party’s positioning strategy
(stressing its differentiation). It states that the party is unique and different from the
other mainstream political parties, consistently depicted by the VB as corrupt and
unreliable. The heading embodies a political promise to the reader that the VB is
different and will do things differently.
In addition, a repertoire of ‘confrontation’ has been identified, in the VB’s
discourse. The words used in the text strengthen the dichotomy between the party
and its supporters and the opponents willing to bring it down. It is a) describing the
action of the opponents with words such as: “forces”; “endanger”; “killed”; “bury”;
“execute”; “terrorism”; “non-founded reports”; “hate” which could associate the
opponent’ actions with undemocratic and violent practices; and b) describing actions
related to the VB with: “defend”; “fought for”; “protect”; “the good fight”; “bury”
(but only in reaction to the establishment attempt to bury the party), which relates
the VB’s actions to the concept of self-defence (e.g. in 1991 the theme of the VB’s
campaign was self-defence and was illustrated by the image of boxing gloves). Other
rhetorical devices, such as metaphors, metonymies are also present in the analysed
texts. For example, across the VB’s communication material, the party portays itself
as ‘the voice’ of Flemish interests and Flemish citizens: “we are the democratic voice
of an ever growing number of Flemings”19.
Concerning the syntax and punctuation used in the VB’s website, there is a
recurrent use of inverted commas around the word ‘discrimination’ or ‘racism’. The
party questions the definition of the word by the Anti-Discrimination Act:
[…] Anti-Racism Act and an Anti-Discrimination Act [which] define “discrimination” so
broadly that every individual can be prosecuted on the basis of them. (The text of these
infamous bills can be found on our website www.flemishrepublic.org).
The questioning of the signification attached to discrimination is also implied in the
next paragraph:
Moreover, according to Belgium’s draconian new laws, every member and collaborator
of an organisation that propagates “discrimination”, can be punished with fines
or imprisonment. Furthermore, the onus of proof has been reversed, so that the
complainant does not need to prove that the accused “discriminates” or propagates
“discrimination”, but the latter has to prove that he does not.
Every time the word discrimination is used in Frank Vanhecke’s editorial it is in
quotation marks. This might imply that the party disagrees with the meaning attached
to the word. Definitions of racism and discrimination are refuted and reframed as
being political tools used to limit VB’s freedom of speech.
19 http://vlaamsblok.be/site_engels_index.shtml
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Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 23
The understanding of racism is used today as a term of abuse to seal the mouth of
political opponents.20
In the party’s discourse, racism and xenophobia are clearly reframed, redefined and
ultimately dismissed within the VB’s communication material; altogether providing
a political product which is disassociated from its questionable features, and thus
becomes less problematic for voters’ consumption, thereby increasing its appeal on
the political market.
Emotional appeals: fear and anxiety
PY
To illustrate the presence of strong emotional elements, a campaign brochure was
selected and analysed using CDA. A feature used throughout a campaign brochure is
‘story telling’. The brochure features, for example, an elderly woman who expresses
her views concerning the granting of the right to vote to non-EU foreigners at local
elections.
C
O
I am scared by the violent anti-Israeli demonstrations. All this calls for Jihad and
the slogans saying ‘Hamas, Hamas, all the Jews in the gas chambers’. Come on, it’s
incredible. I am asking myself a lot of questions about foreigners’ right to vote. Although
the majority of the population is opposed to it, that right was voted for. More than 64,000
non-European foreigners are going to decide on my future. That’s unacceptable
TH
O
R
Storytelling has been identified as a persuasive strategy (van Dijk 1993), which
provides a vivid image of ‘facts’ and events as being experienced by ‘real’ people.
The ‘testimony’ is a characteristic of commercial advertising (e.g. for mortgages; diet
drinks, anti-smoking patches, etc.), where people who the viewer can identify with,
present their experience and advocate the use of a particular product or service.
Using juxtaposition, the right to vote for non-EU foreigners was associated with
anti-Semitism through the reference to Hamas and with Nazi ideology (with the
reference to gas chambers). It is interesting to note the link between the legal right
to demonstrate in Belgium and the illegal21 racist/Nazi slogans allegedly shouted
during the demonstrations. The party is skillfully arguing that the rights granted by
democracy (i.e. the right to demonstrate) are actually used for undemocratic ends
(i.e. to spread hatred and racism), making therefore non-EU foreigners unworthy of
the right to vote, and guilty of racism.
In addition, the woman’s testimony is reinforced by a VB’s representative who
shows that the ills the party warns about are experienced by normal people, i.e. ‘you
and me’, and forecasts a gloomy future for voters:
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Brussels will count soon a majority of inhabitants from foreign origins, due to the lax
policies of the traditional parties. Every political commentator can confirm this: the
right to vote by foreigners will cause a political earthquake in Brussels
The life of many Brussels inhabitants will become unbearable if we do not change the
situation. Police do not dare even appear in some neighbourhoods, let alone intervene,
for fear of riots. Foreign inhabitants are considered as votes in the bank; this is why
traditional parties tolerate the situation. However, radical imams put Allah’s law above
ours, and call for homosexuals to be thrown from the top of buildings. The right to vote by
20 http://vlaamsblok.be/afdrukken/afdrukken.php
21 In Belgium, racism and racist comments are liable to prosecution.
Moufahim, Humphreys, Mitussis and Fitchett Interpreting discourse
foreigners must be abolished. This right to vote, along with the most flexible nationality
code in the world, encourages very few foreigners to integrate into society. Whoever
wants to acquire citizenship will have to pass a citizenship test.
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The use of short quotes and stories from ‘normal people’ might have been intended
to stir various emotions, such as fear, anxiety and consequently, the will to protect
oneself in order to reduce the level of anxiety. For example, the VB proposes an
alternative to reduce the level of anxiety: voting for the VB, which is the only party
willing to protect citizens, Flemish identity and put an end to the ‘take-over’ by
dangerous non-EU and mostly Muslim foreigners.
The presence of emotion in the political message of the VB is consistent with
trends observed in commercial marketing. In some commercial advertising campaigns,
there is an overt aim to arouse emotions rather than communicate more rational
attributes (Solomon et al. 2002). Research shows that emotion is central to persuasive
communication (O’Shaughnessy 1996). In addition, studies have shown that emotions
are an important factor in the consumers’ decision-process (see Grunert 2000). This
is also true in the political context. It is now widely acknowledged that emotions
play a significant role in voters’ political and economical evaluations (Abelson et al.
1882; Conover and Feldman 1986 in Rudolph et al. 2000). Research has showed
that emotions influence all human behaviour, including political behaviour (Goleman
1995; Isen 1993; in Falkowski and Cwalina 1999). Marcus & MacKuen (1993; in
Rudolph et al., 2000) demonstrated that people’s political behaviour depends on
their emotional state. Research has also demonstrated that emotional attitudes
towards a party or a candidate are a good predictor of a voter’s decision (Falkowski
and Cwalina 1999; Newman and Sheth 1985; Abelson et al. 1982).
In short, emotions are a key feature in political messages. The example of political
advertising is particularly salient here: there is evidence that emotional appeals
are dominant in political advertising (Kern 1989; in Tedesco 2002). An important
component of politicians’ discourse is related to arousing strong emotions, such as
fear, anxiety, and national pride. It appears that the VB might be engaged in such
an emotional communication strategy in order to better reach and appeal to the
reader.
Summary
The analysis of a few textual artefacts has indicated the VB is intertwined in a
political and rhetorical struggle to prove and install its legitimacy and the legitimacy
of its particular discourse strand. Through the utilisation of strategic and rhetorical
devices, it tries to establish a definition of identity, be it nationalistic identity (i.e.
Flemish) or merely political (i.e. opposition to undemocratic practices). Different
elements and strategies contribute to providing their own version of events creating
the opportunity to re-state the party’s goals and values. The texts we analysed were
coloured by the VB’s particular ideology and the discourse-historical approach to
CDA helped uncover the ideological features of the text. For example, the analysis
of the editorial, ‘Today we were executed. But we will rise”, from Vanhecke showed
that the text left little room for alternative interpretations of the events described,
which makes it (and consequently the reporting of events) ready for consumption.
Through the consumption process, the discourse contributes to the perception of the
readers/consumers-voters of the struggle currently taking place for the VB to gain
access to power.
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Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 23
CONCLUSION
TH
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A discourse analysis (and more specifically a critical discourse analysis) framework
provides tools to analyse the nature of political marketing and its web of ideology and
power relations. This interpretive approach contrasts with more positivistic research
that previously characterised research into mainstream marketing. An illustration has
been provided through the analysis of the marketing of the Vlaams Blok, a Flemish
extreme-right party. The VB’s powerful discourse (and its marketing) seems to submit
itself very well to critical discourse analysis. The CDA of selected textual artefacts has
highlighted the strategic use of rhetoric and linguistic devices. Associated with strong
branding, hard sell and the dismissal of other political offering, the VB provided a
ready-to-consume product whose popularity is confirmed by the polls. This article
has shown the power of a critical discourse analytical framework in the study of
political and marketing discourse. If CDA allows for and recognises the importance
of political involvement and a partisan stance by the researcher, it does not deal
lightly with the interpretation process and its necessary academic rigour. This is made
possible by the CDA’s systematic methodology. The analytical framework of CDA
highlights firstly, the way the VB uses language to define political identity, to dismiss
a thorny issue (i.e., racism) and to deploy a persuasive argument. Secondly, has
shown that emotional appeals are skilfully used by the party which suggests a certain
sophistication of communication. It seems that nothing is accidental or random.
Further research using CDA on both parties, the Vlaams Blok (VB) and the new
Vlaams Belang (VB’) should highlight the process of the re-branding of the VB as
product and its marketing to the voters. In November 2004, the Vlaams Blok was
condemned for racism by the Cour de Cassation22 but the level of support does not
seem to have decreased. The VB was disbanded, but the Vlaams Belang was promptly
founded, with the same leaders and same structures. The eventual changes in discourse
and the rhetorical devices used respectively by the VB and the current VB’ are of
great interest. Questions arise such as: is the change cosmetic or more profound with
the modification of the party’s political programme and the abandonment of the
extremist stance (in order to join the mainstream in the hope of governing)?
The analysis of the VB and the VB’ ’s marketing should show how a party can remarket itself and stay credible, especially in the eyes of its hard-core supporters, and
also attract new consumers-voters less averse to the former racist discourse. To use a
direct analogy with marketing, we could represent the situation as the following: the
former product (the VB) conquered a reasonable share of the consumers (its electoral
success being the evidence). However, due to a new regulation, the product had to
be withdrawn from the market because of its illegal or dangerous nature, e.g. such as
the case of the withdrawal of asbestos recognised as highly toxic. The organisation
faces two choices: 1) it could simply drop the former product and create a brand
new one, or 2) modify the existing, already successful product. In the second option
(the one that the VB’’s leaders seem to have chosen23), the product’s formulation has
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22 The highest institution of Justice in Belgium
23 Coffé (2005: 217) cited Filip Dewinter, one of the top leaders of the Vlaams
Blok/Vlaams Belang, who said that “any Muslim woman wearing the chadoor or
burka will sign thereby the warrant for her repatriation”. Vanhecke the current
president of the Vlaams Belang said when the Vlaams Blok changed its name to
Vlaams Belang, that nothing would really be lost: “we are changing our name, but
not our stripes”.
Moufahim, Humphreys, Mitussis and Fitchett Interpreting discourse
TH
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PY
to change in order to be re-introduced in the market and comply with regulations.
The company has to direct its marketing towards the existing customer of the former
product and reassure them of the unfairness or incoherence of the regulations and
of the quality of the improved version of the product (here, the VB’) and attract new
customers.
An important point here is the absence of any direct clear reference to marketing,
or marketing rhetoric in the party’s public discourse. As a reminder, the VB adopts
and encourages the adoption of marketing by its candidates, in internal documents.
This raises important questions about whether the use of marketing in politics is
considered as ‘legitimate’ and acceptable by the general public, or at least by the
people the VB seeks to attract. The VB adopts a different approach when dealing
with political marketing. On numerous occasions in the past, the party leaders fiercely
denounced the use of marketing and criticised the ‘spin doctors’ appointed by Belgian
mainstream political parties. This raises the issue of the relevance, or acceptance of
marketing as a legitimate tool for ‘converting’ the masses, far from the spectrum of
manipulation and propaganda. It is maybe an indication that today, political marketing
is still perceived as a tool for mass manipulation, regardless of its claim of customer
sovereignty and empowerment. This might be an indication that, in the political
field, marketing discourse and ideology has not reached yet the full naturalisation
that makes it transparent and unquestioned in other aspects of modern societies.
This provides a lead for further research in the area of political communication, and
critical marketing, far beyond the scope of this paper. Nonetheless, we have shown
that the VB (quarantined by a cordon sanitaire24) is engaged today in a political fight
to establish its legitimacy as a key player in Belgian politics. The VB is clearly using
modern marketing techniques and is, for example, one of the very first parties to
develop its website. The constant success it experiences at the polls is an indication
that the party has managed to ‘reach’ the voters and gain their support.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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This research has been facilitated by the PhD scholarships granted by the ESRC and
the Nottingham University Business School.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND CORRESPONDENCE
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Mona Moufahim is a doctoral student in the Marketing Division at Nottingham
University Business School. Her ongoing research is concerned with political
marketing, consumption and identity.
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Corresponding Author: Mona Moufahim, The University of Nottingham, Jubilee
Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottinghham, NG8 1BB, UK.
T +44 (0)115 8467750
E lixmm8@nottingham.ac.uk
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Michael Humphreys is an Associate Professor and Reader in Organisation Studies at
Nottingham University Business School. His research interests lie in organisational
ethnography, organisational identity and organisational change.
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Dr Michael Humphreys, Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus,
Wollaton Road, Nottinghham, NG8 1BB, UK.
T +44 (0) 115 8466973
F +44 (0) 115 8466667
E Michael.Humphreys@nottingham.ac.uk
Darryn Mitussis is a Lecturer in Marketing at Nottingham University Business School.
His research interests lie in the theoretical and methodological issues that underlie
marketing research and their application to understanding the complex social and
structural issues that influence consumer behaviour.
Dr Darryn Mitussis, Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus,
Wollaton Road, Nottinghham, NG8 1BB, UK.
T +44 (0) 115 8467651
F +44 (0) 115 8466667
E Darryn.Mitussis@nottingham.ac.uk
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James Fitchett is Reader in Marketing and Consumer Research at Leicester University
Management Centre. He is currently involved in research looking at social and
cultural aspects of consumption and markets, with a focus on issues surrounding
discourses of surveillance.
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Dr James Fitchett, School of Management, Ken Edwards Building, University of
Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.
T +44 (0) 116 223 1218
F +44 (0) 116 252 5515
E jaf30@le.ac.uk
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