Brand Equity is built around political parties or politicians?
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The power of political parties versus politicians was put to the test in yesterday’s presidential election. It has become quite challenging for voters to determine who stands for what in a nation where political party lines are blurred as a result of politicians inside political parties swapping parties. In Sri Lankan politics, ideologies are developed by individuals who pioneered a certain school of thought, such as United National Party founder D. S. Senanayake and SLFP founder S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake.
The party founded by the late prime minister D. S. Senanayake is also one that the current president, Honourable Ranil Wickremasinghe, is a member of. If any political party was founded in the recent past on the principles of a single person, it would be the SLPP, which former president Mahinda Rajapaksa served as the foundation for. Apart from these, numerous other political parties exist that were founded by people whose beliefs were propagated by their constituents. As an illustration, Sajith Premadasa, the late Mr. Premadas’ son, is currently carrying on his father’s ideology.
Though the United National Party (UNP) is regarded as Sri Lanka’s founding party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was founded in 1935. The founding members of this party were Dr. N. M. Perera, Philip Gunawardene, Leslie Gunawardene, and Dr. Colvin R. De Silva. Although there are numerous more Sinhalese and Tamil parties in Sri Lanka that have been there for a while, just a few stand out as well-established organisations with firmly held beliefs.
The party’s founding ideals, which centre on specific people, appear to have persisted through the years, despite changes in form and colour. In this way, certain parties underwent a rebranding process while maintaining their similar ideals.
Presidential election of 2024
For most politicians and political parties, the 2024 presidential election will serve as a decisive event. The incumbent president had a formidable staff supporting him this time around; without them, he would have been without an organising mechanism for his presidential campaign. Thus, we may conclude whether or not Sri Lankans actually vote for political parties or politicians based on the election’s ultimate results. The actions of people who left the SLPP to join the president have to be motivated by two things:
i. They can take advantage of the election time and beyond IF they back the incumbent president.
ii. The SLPP’s support base is based on their name rather than the party’s name or ideas.
Simultaneously, Sajith Premadasa and the incumbent president, Honourable Ranil Wicrememsighe, are competing against each other as formidable contenders from the same political party for the presidency. To make matters even more competitive and complex, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s eldest son also desired to run in the same presidential election.
Voters’ Dilemma
From the start of the election, the movements made by each candidate have left voters completely perplexed. Even though he understood he would have a greater chance in a general election for parliament, Dilith Jayaweera still desired to run for president.
Confused layers:
a. First time voters – After being the generation of Aragalaya, they are now eagerly waiting to elect a young president than an older contestant when they cast their vote. Of course, they have seen very little of the political scenario of Sri Lanka. They were kids when the war against the LTTE was over. Wiping out terrorism has made a world of difference.
b. Senior Citizens – 65+ tier of the society will end up voting Sajith Premadasa as they still have very strong connotation with the name Premadasa, due to the work done by late president Premadasa. For them UNP is Premadasa.
c. 6.9 Million voters – People who voted for the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa were on the fence. Half of them are for sure the floating voters who would use their vote for another change. As president Gotabaya failed to deliver what was expected from him, and that the voters presume it all happened due to former president Gotabaya’s fault, they would now want to try the same with Anura Kumara. Fraction of this would still vote Namal Rajapaksa as he hales from the founder of SLPP and also the legendary achievements Mahinda Rajapaksa has had such a charismatic leadership, that people still vote for the party he backs.
d. 5.5 Million Sajith Voters – after casting their vote in front of Sajith’s name in the year 2019, now they are excited about the opportunity they have in their hands to make another change. A fraction of these votes will go to the President Ranil Wicremesinghe.
e. Hard-Core UNP voters – for the last two presidential elections, the hardcore UNPiers lost the game as they didn’t know whom to vote. It will be interesting to analyse and see how many of them would vote for RW and how many would vote for SP this time.
Brand Equity Grid for main contestants
Awareness: The extent to which voters are familiar with the candidates. Without a doubt, people are well-aware of the candidates’ backgrounds and policies, and all of the contestants are well-known. Everyone received the same score in this area. Probably NR scores slightly lower in this aspect as he made a last minute appearance. However, the equity his father carried as a political brand has given him the advantage.
Association: In this case, affiliation with a well-known political party qualifies as an association. Everyone is doing well in this area as well, with the exception of RW, who ran for office on his own. Whilst SP and AKD were getting ready for this election, NR has no clue of contenting or not as Dhammika Perera was to contest. RW was busy with his duties that he carried out well to prove him as an effective president who can handle the pressure well.
Performance – RW has the best performance of all the contenders because he is the only one who has served as president. Furthermore, his ability to revive the economy in the aftermath of Aragala was regarded as the primary motivator for his election. Performance is essential for a brand to have value. On the other hand, this operates somewhat differently in the political sphere. Voters would take a chance and cast their ballots, assuming the selected candidate will perform, because their awareness and associations are strong enough to warrant considering voting for candidates.
However, in case if they don’t perform, it takes more than 5 years to change the chosen person. Surprisingly, this is not something many people would consider at the point of voting. The voting psyche is something unexplainable. NR and SJ also get an ascribed value of performance as both their fathers have performed in the past. Between the two, NR has a better advantage as his father is still alive and also he has the recency effect among loyal SLPP supporters.
Loyalty – As far as loyalty is concerned, who has a devoted, loyal base of voters? AKD has no big base as he’s getting his breakthrough for the first time. He had had only 400, 000 plus votes in the last presidential election. RW and SP have a loyal base but it would surely split into two as they both belong to one strong party. NR as opposed to all of them has a bigger loyal base of voters that has been built from 2018 election onwards.
Conclusion: Because RW and SP’s scores are split, NR does better than the rest in terms of political brand equity for individuals. If RW and SP had run together under one banner, the election would have been fair and the results would not have been diluted or split between them. As a result, it will be fascinating to observe how people act in this election. Everything will become clear by tomorrow evening at the latest. We wish the best for the person who wins and hope and pray that they will serve Mother Lanka well!
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