Political Branding Strategies: Campaigning and Governing in Australian Politics

Political Branding Strategies tells the story of branding by the Australian Labor Party across seven years. This is an account of three brands – the Kevin07 brand crafted for Kevin Rudd, The Real Julia brand of his successor, Julia Gillard, and that of the party. Drawing on insider insight and a new framework to understand and evaluate political branding, Labor's strategies are considered in two case studies. They tell of skilful use of comprehensive branding strategies and costly disregard of basic branding principles, of stunning success and shattering reversal. This is a story with lessons for practitioners, researchers and citizens in democracies everywhere.