Technology of political branding during the parliamentary election campaign 2019 in Ukraine : an analysis of successful cases

Стаття присвячена вивченню особливостей та закономірностей формування партійних брендів, зокрема проаналізовано колористику, партійну символіку, ключові гасла та тенденції зміни основних брендів парламентських партій 2019 року. З’ясовано сутність поняття «політичний бренд» та «партійний бренд», визначено їхні характеристики та структуру. Стаття окреслює особливості процесів віртуалізації та медіатизації політики, вказуючи на місце політичного і партійного бренду у цих процесах. Автор окреслює особливості політичного брендингу як технології політичного маркетингу, аналізує технології формування та просування політичного та партійного бренду. Дослідивши практичний досвід використання політичного брендингу сучасними українськими політичними партіями під час парламентської виборчої кампанії 2019 року, автор вказує на успішні кейси та пояснює їх особливості.Встановлено. що партійний бренд є віртуальним соціальним феноменом, який створює у виборця відчуття приналежності до певної спільноти. З’ясовано, що до спільних ознак всіх партійних брендів можна віднести: наявність цілісних компонентів партійного бренду, гіпертрофований характер особистісного чинника при конструюванні та посуванні політичного і партійного бренду, використання технологій політичної реклами, кобрендингу та «зіркового бренду». Встановлено, що партійні бренди сучасних парламентських партій України можна визначити як ті, що впізнаються більшістю населення, мають схожу популярність як на локальному, так і на національному рівнях, мають потенціал до тривалого перебування у політичному просторі, постійно згадуються у ЗМІ. Виявлено,що відмінними рисами партійних брендів під час виборчої кампанії 2019 року є різні канали комунікації, в яких популяризується бренд, а також домінуюча технологія конструювання бренду. Ключові слова: політичний бренд, партійний бренд, маркетингові технології, медіатизація політики, віртуалізація політики, партійна символіка, гасло, колористика Юлія Сліпецька Львівський національний університет імені Івана Франка Technology of political branding during the parliamentary election campaign 2019 in Ukraine: an analysis of successful cases

XXI Century posed new challenges, namely the rapid development of modern political technologies, virtualization and mediatization of public policy, globalization processes. As a result, the modern political market is constantly replenished with new political brands, which in turn have changed their forms and refocused on the virtual political space. This creates a need for close study of patterns and trends in the formation of political brands, including party space of Ukraine.
The political market, in particular in Ukraine, is full of both one-day political brands and serious political projects that have been successfully "living" and creating the political elite of Ukraine for years or even decades. It should be mentioned that creating a strong and effective political brand allows people to stay in touch with their electorate. This is possible only if there is a visual political product of high quality, as well as the compliance of the political brand with the values, expectations, needs and ideas of the target electoral groups.
The purpose of our article is to investigate the phenomenon of the party brand as well as the analysis of brand strategies of parties that entered parliament during the 2019 election campaign.
There is not a standard definition of a political brand, so by this term we mean a political project focused on creating an image of the subject of the political process, uniting specific target groups. Subtypes of a political brand include a brand personality (the image of a political leader) and a brand organization (party or any other political structure) (Kurban, 2014, p. 57).
The basic components of structure of a political brand are political image and political reputation. A political brand allows us to track the process of forming a holistic and fixed image of a political actor in a particular social group with the obligatory definition of its cognitive structure, which includes a set of special values, characteristics, signs, expectations, moods, emotional perception.
When we talk about a party brand, it should be mentioned that in recent years, parties have borrowed a lot from commercial marketing, trying to make their "product" as attractive as possible. Scholars focus on the electoral behavior of voters and factors that influence it.
In general, the brand of a political party should be understood as a stable set of expectations and emotions regarding the attitude to the result of the political force or to itself (Novakova et al., 2014, p. 310).
In summary, we can ensure ourselves that with the help of a political brand you can follow the process of forming a specific social group of a holistic and fixed image of a political actor with a mandatory definition of its cognitive structure, which includes a set of special values, characteristics, signs, expectations, moods, emotional perception .
The peculiarity of the XXI century is that politics has ceased to be a competition of ideology and political beliefs, and more often it is a platform for virtual images and political brands. Nowadays, for recognition and advancement in the political field, there should be a successful political brand in social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, YouTube, TikTok, constantly creating informational drives and fueling interest in themselves. The virtual activity of the voter creates the illusion of torture in the political process, it is important to use users of social networks to maintain the reputation and image of the brand itself.
Although the political brand took the form of a virtual construct in the conditions of active development of information and communication technologies, it did not lose its social significance. The political brand continues to create a sense of belonging to a particular community for voters, it forms their attitude to others from the standpoint of ideological and value beliefs, forces to implement support for the political brand in the information environment, accepts or rejects certain values and views, imposes specific forms of behavior socio-political circumstances.
When it comes to the party brand, we understand that political parties in their activities try to accumulate a set of positive and psychological qualities that are relayed through images, symbols and signs in order to influence the target constituencies. In this case, the main task of political branding is the need to force, through persuasive interactions, to the electoral behavior determined by the party brand. The specificity of the party brand is its uniqueness, the clarity of its advantages and the voter's belief in the possibility of meeting their own needs and interests by the political force behind the party brand.
By party brand we mean a virtual social construct of a single political organization, which due to the integrity and internal and external consistency, clear structure, functionality, set of methods for achieving strategic goals produces a unique political product to form a voter's political identity, which is realized in constant support of a political party in elections.
Political branding technology involves the following processes: development of a recognizable name and effective abbreviation, search for alternative names to political product, creation of program documents with a declaration of ideas and values, construction of political image, work with political reputation, political product design, political advertising and PR , identification of specific brand persons. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the information supply of the political brand to the target group. The development of a sustainable political brand involves taking into account the level of political consciousness and culture of the voter, the existence of political traditions and established forms of political behavior, the formation of national identity and mentality, as well as the level of political education.
Brand-symbols should be unique in their purpose -to be deeply ingrained in the longterm memory of a potential voter. To achieve this goal, the following procedure should be followed for promotion: application -informing voters about the existence of a particular politician or political party; separationfavorable selection of a particular politician or political party from the general number of candidates; identification -a set of measures designed to identify a particular politician or political party as "their" for the voter; promotion -fixing in the mass consciousness of a positive image of a particular candidate or political party; reminder -constant hearing support of the candidate's name and party name (Lisovsjka, 2012, p. 156).
The technology of creating and promoting political brand involves the formation in the mass consciousness of the population of a stable positive image of a political party or candidate who offers their unique political product or service. The first stage in the formation of a political brand can be called analytical, as information is collected and processed. Marketing research in the field of political branding is carried out according to the following scenario: research of the electorate's assessment of socio-political situation within a certain territorial level; studying the attitude of citizens to the current government; formation of a rating list of problems relevant to various target social groups; research of electoral preferences of the population; study of social attitudes of the population, its ideological and value orientations (Pushkareva, 2002, p. 212).
The second stage is information and communication, which is associated with the direct delivery of political products to voter through the impact on their behavior and consciousness through the visual effects of political advertising and other technologies to promote the political brand.
We will elucidate the following technologies for promoting the political brand of a party or candidate: political advertising, co-branding and parallel positioning.
Political advertising is the most widely used way to promote political products in the political market. The task of political advertising is to acquaint the voter with the existing political proposal, to promote political values and slogans, to call on citizens to support the election. Political advertisement uses both rational and irrational (emotional) methods of influencing the electorate.
In the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" the term political advertising is used to mean information in any form, disseminated in any form, which aims to promote the activities of a political party (party organization), to draw attention to the activities of a political party (party organization) and its position on issues of national (local) importance. Political advertising also includes the use of symbols or logos of political parties (party organizations), messages about the support of a political party (party organization) entertainment or other public events or attracting attention to participation in such events of a political party (party organization) (On advertising, 1996). From the standpoint of political marketing, political advertising should be considered as a form of reasoned appeal to buyers of political goods, designed to promote its benefits and create an active demand for this product in conditions of political competition (Solovj`ev, 2006, p. 532). The effectiveness of the use of political advertising in promoting a political brand in the political market depends on the language of communication between a seller and a buyer, the voter's understanding of information and political product, common ideological and value orientations between the subjects of exchange.
The effectiveness of political advertising as a technology to promote a political brand is associated with the use of political symbols that reflect the essence of the brand, the simultaneous use of visual and textual format, the presence of manipulative mechanisms to influence voters, its use on traditional and new platforms (social networks and Internet). Problems with the use of political advertising include its obsession and low level of trust among a large number of citizens.
Another interesting technology that provides the process of implementing a political brand in the political process is the technology of parallel positioning. This technology is based on the principle of achieving a sufficient level of recognition of a political brand, the formation of a positive attitude and commitment to it, as well as consumer's choice of political products of this brand within the election campaign. Under parallel positioning the simultaneous use and over time the gradual replacement of formal features of the object of advertising (logo, name and slogan) to informal (symbolimage, symbol-text, symbol-person) with the formation of a special place of political brand in the minds of target voters should be considered (Medvedev).
Co-branding technology is also a way to increase the information and communication impact. It is a kind of parallel positioning, but is used through the emergence of a political brand with a recognizable other brand, which allows the brand to gain commitment to its political product through the popularity of another. The instrumental possibilities of co-branding concern the processes of uniting political brands to achieve a common goal, mutually beneficial partnership of political brands to expand electoral potential, radical changes in the status of a political brand to maximize their supporters in time. The use of this technology by political actors allows the voter to better navigate in the socio-political space, increases the quality and efficiency of the brand thanks to joint efforts, increases the number of supporters of the political brand and reduces public distrust (Kazymyrchyk, 2014, p. 73).
In addition, it is necessary to note the importance of creating a coherent and unified design of the political brand with a clearly stated strategic goal. The process of building lasting trust in a political brand from voters, as well as parallel processes, depends on the formation of a single style for all political products. In this case, a single political design appears as a process of organizing the political space, during which all elements of the political brand of a political organization or candidate are in a harmonious combination (Eghorova).
Using the strategy of a single political design will form qualitative characteristics of maturity and stability of the political brand. This technology should not be considered only from the standpoint of fashion trends, as it allows the political brand to be best perceived in the minds of target constituencies, strengthen its media capabilities, as well as create the effect of its constant development.
Thus, the effective implementation of a political brand in the political process involves the gradual use of these technologies: analysis of the political market through marketing technologies, promotion of a political brand through political advertising and PR tools, and use of a single visual style for all its political products.
Speaking about creating a party brand, it should be mentioned that many political parties are personalistic in Ukraine. Therefore, current trends in electoral processes in Ukraine lead to the active use not only of the personal political brand of the candidate for political office, but also the creation of a stable and strong party brand (Khorishko, 2010, p. 176).
The social role of a political force consists of several important components that form the structure of its political brand, namely: visual components of party attributes, between, the personality of the party leader, party ideology, party communication, direct political activity (Eghorova).
The last parliamentary elections in 2019 clearly showed the tendency among political parties to form and strengthen political brands. We will try to identify the main characteristics of party brands of political forces that overcame 5% barrier in the elections to the Verkhovna ГРАНІ Том 24 № 1 2021 ПОЛІТОЛОГІЯ Rada of Ukraine, as well as to outline new technologies of party branding in the Ukrainian political market. According to the results of the early parliamentary elections of 2019 in the national multi-member constituency 5%, the barrier was overcome by 5 political parties, which as a result became members of the newly elected Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the IX convocation, namely: Political Party "Sluga narodu", Political Party "Opposition Platform", political party "Batkivshchyna", Political Party "European Solidarity" and Political Party "Golos".
"Sluga narodu" is a party project of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, which resembles a typical prototype of the ruling party in the post-Soviet space. Previously, this political force existed under the name "Party of Decisive Change", but in 2017 there was a rebranding in the direction of borrowing the name of the eponymous Ukrainian TV series, and later the film "Sluga narodu" produced by the Ukrainian creative association PJSC "Studio Quarter-95", where the main role, namely the president, was played by V. Zelensky. Until the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections, the party remained virtual and did not have a single local cell with legal personality. The phenomenon of the party's success in the elections is explained by the specifics of forming the brand of the leader and the party through the series, which has become a collective dream for many Ukrainians. The main task of the party is to challenge the system and bring to power qualitatively new politicians.
In the parliamentary elections the presidential political force used several political branding technologies to strengthen its party brand. First of all, we are talking about the technology of transferring the party leader's brand to the party's brand, the so-called actualization of the person's brand to raise the party, as political force was fully associated with the success and team of Volodymyr Zelensky. In summary, we can distinguish the essential characteristics of the brand of the party "Sluga narodu": the slogan -"Let's do them again!", Which is associated with the political success of V. Zelensky; cover-brand -light green, which causes a feeling of freshness and renewal; visual brand -developed in the form of a short inscription "Ze!", which again is associated with the person of Zelensky; main communication channelssocial networks and TV channel "1 + 1". It is also worth mentioning that the success of party candidates in majority constituencies depended on the party brand, which had a significant level of popularity in almost every constituency throughout the country.
The triumphant of the parliamentary race -the party "Sluga narodu" fully owes its success to the person of V. Zelensky, which was observed in the identical visual content of the entire campaign. The party used the same light green colors associated with "new faces" and change. The key slogan of the campaign "Let's make them again!" suggests that it was aimed at repeated success. The campaign used the concise text "Ze!", which was identified with the sixth president and transferred his personal brand to the party and the majority candidates. During the election campaign, such technology was used as the use of the symbols of the "Sluga narodu" party by other candidates in order to increase their own rating.
The second place in the parliamentary elections of 2019 was won by the pro-Russian political force -the Political Party "Opposition platform" (hereinafter "OPZZH"). This political force was formed as a result of the renaming of the All-Ukrainian Association "Center" in 2016 to the political party "For Life" with the leader V. Rabinovych. In 2018, the political party merged with the NGO "Ukrainian Choice" (V. Medvedchuk) and part of the former party members of the Opposition Bloc, led by Yu. Boyko and S. Levochkin. For a long time, the party existed as a "television", as it actively promoted through such Ukrainian TV channels as "Inter", "NewsOne" and "112 Ukraine".
The political party has basically left elements of the branding of the former "Party of Regions" in order to return its former electorate. The party did not use special technologies of political branding, but clearly adhered to its own expressiveness among other participants in the political struggle. You can identify elements of the brand of the party "OPZZH" in the parliamentary elections in 2019: the slogan -"United for Peace", which clearly symbolizes the key role of "peace" in the rhetoric of the party and the urgency of resolving the Donbass issue; cover brand -blue and yellow colors that combine the past during the rule of "regionals" and "Ukrainian" future in order to get rid of the strain of "pro-Russian force", which does not act in the interests of the Ukrainian people; visual brand -sunflower and dove, where the first symbolizes Ukraine, and the second world; the main channels of communication are controlled TV channels. OPZZh placed the greatest emphasis on the brand personalities of its party, namely: Yu. Boyko, V. Medvechuk and V. Rabinovych.
The party invested heavily in campaigning, but was remembered by voters only in blue, and the party's symbols were rather weak. The symbols of the Opposition Bloc in 2014 were the blue color and the thesis of "stability", which was also used by the Party of Regions, on the basis of which the Opposition Bloc was created. With its slogans, the party appealed to voters who wanted stability. The electorate of the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine unexpectedly supported the short slogans of the Opposition Bloc, which helped the party to become a leader in the elections. The 2019 parliamentary elections improved the results of the "OPZZH", although the "Opposition Bloc", which lost bright candidates, also went under similar symbols. The party placed the greatest emphasis on peace and the restoration of prosperity. This can be seen in the use of sunflowers and pigeons on the party's logo, as well as the main political slogan "United for Peace".
Yulia Tymoshenko's political force "Batkivshchyna" has once again entered the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The political party was partly founded on the basis of the centerleft Hromada party, and Yulia Tymoshenko has been the party's political leader for 21 years. "Batkivshchyna" can be considered as an excellent example of an electoral political party, as it has been represented in the Verkhovna Rada since 2002, has an extensive system of branches in the regions, is characterized by a weak ideological position and traditionally focuses on the leader.
It is worth mentioning that the party "Batkivshchyna" in these elections abandoned the partial rebranding, which took place in the presidential election of the same 2019, and returned to its traditional colors and symbols. The main technology of party branding was the party's emphasis on the brand of its political leader as a candidate for prime minister. The party brand in the early elections can be identified by the following criteria: the slogan -"We should act!", which was to show the readiness of the party leader to take the post of prime minister; cover brand -white background and black letters, which has been typical for the party for many years; visual brand -a red heart that resembles a tick in the ballot and is an invitation to come and vote; the main channels of communication are the media and communication through local party cells. It is worth mentioning that in this election, the political party tried to preserve its electoral core as much as possible, so it was more conservative in the use of branding updates. However, the political force used co-branding technology by involving representatives of other political forces in the team, namely the Social and Political Movement of Valentyn Nalyvaichenko "Justice" and the party "Osnova", whose leaders are S. Taruta and A. Nikolaenko.
The parliamentary election campaign was not different for the party in terms of party or campaign symbols. The changes took place only with the main slogan "We should act", which made voters be determined to carry out important reforms in all spheres of public life, as well as the main message of the party that in this election we elect Prime Minister and Yulia Tymoshenko. most consistent with the conditions of the time.
The party of the ex-president of Ukraine P. Poroshenko also entered the Ukrainian parliament, but with much smaller representation than in 2014. Thus, the rebranding of Petro Poroshenko's Solidarity Bloc lost the personal characteristics of a leader who had a high antirating in the society, and the party received a new name -"European Solidarity", which in the form of an abbreviation is consonant with the abbreviated name of the European Union, which offers a political force. In addition, the colors of the political force display the national and patriotic colors of Ukraine and the European Union.
It is worth mentioning that the rebranding of the party is connected with the personal anti-rating of its leader and the attempt to unite the voters of the pro-European camp. The specificity of the branding strategy was the use of brand personalities to show voters that the political force of the "ES" is not only Petro Poroshenko, but also a large team of ГРАНІ Том 24 № 1 2021 ПОЛІТОЛОГІЯ individuals who are powerful political players. Characteristics of the ES party brand: slogan -"Let's protect the European future of Ukraine!" draws the attention of voters to the previous achievements of Poroshenko's team and calls not to give opportunities for the return of pro-Russian forces; the party's cover brand is a white background that carries the party's freshness and emphasizes its rebranding, and the use of national-patriotic colors to create inscriptions emphasizes the party's clear pro-Ukrainian position; visual brand -the abbreviation "ES" is depicted in the colors of the National Flag, which evokes in voters a direct association with the European Union and the civilized choice of Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity. Among the technologies most used by the party are rebranding (change of "BPP" to "ES"), active use not of the brand of one person, but of the brand of several people. The last political force to overcome the barrier was the "Golos" party, which was formed by the famous Ukrainian musician and performer Sviatoslav Vakarchuk in May 2019 by renaming the Platform of Initiatives party. The main resource of the party was directed to branding a political project and the image of its leader, namely the use of orange as a symbol of the ideals of the Orange Revolution and the activities of S. Vakarchuk during the two Maidans in 2004 and 2013-2014. Regarding the peculiarities of branding a new political project and its branding strategies, several features should be singled out: 1. The main slogan of the party in the elections -"Let's change the Rada -Let's change Ukraine", which emphasizes that political force is a generation of new Ukrainian politicians; 2. party cover brand -orange background, which is associated by voters with politicians who came after the Orange Revolution, and also uses the writing of the text in blue and white; 3. visual brand of the party -created in the form of sound waves resembling a puzzle, this is due to the fact that such a logo is associated with the previous activities of their leader -S. Vakarchuk, and the use of the puzzle figure is associated with the unification process; 4. The main channels of communication -TV, radio advertising, outdoor advertising, mailing, meeting-concert with S. Vakarchuk. Among the main technologies of political branding the party used: star brand (S. Vakarchuk, S. Prytula, S. Rakhmanin), co-branding (strengthening the party's brand by the brand of the band "Ocean Elzy"), political advertising, parallel positioning, technology of forming a new political actor, use brand identity to strengthen the party brand.
A study of key political actors in the parliamentary election campaign in 2019 showed the process of active use of marketing technology of political branding by political forces that passed the election to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the IX convocation. All political forces, namely: "Sluga narodu", "OPZZH", "Batkivshchyna", "ES" and "Golos", demonstrated the existence of integral party brands that proved to be successful and competitive, especially in the new party projects "Sluga narodu" and " Golos ". The common features of all party brands include: the presence of integral components of the party brand, the hypertrophied nature of the personal factor in the construction and promotion of a political brand, the use of political advertising, co-branding and "star brand". The party brands of modern parliamentary parties in Ukraine can be identified as those that are recognizable by the majority of the population, have similar popularity at both local and national levels, have the potential for a long stay in the political space, are constantly mentioned in the media. Distinctive features are the various communication channels in which the brand is popularized, as well as the dominant technology of brand construction in this election campaign.

Conclusions.
Thus, today the political brand is a virtual social phenomenon that has its own structure, functionality, methods and techniques, as well as the division into subtypes. The structure of a political brand is multifaceted and manifests itself on equal levels: rational and emotional, which ensures its integrity and stability. The basic components of the structure of a political brand are political image and political reputation. A political brand allows us to track the process of forming a holistic and fixed image of a political actor in a particular social group with the obligatory definition of its cognitive structure, which includes a set of special values, characteristics, signs, expectations, moods, emotional perception. That is why the perception of the population of political actors and socio-political events is carried out under the influence of a political brand or branding technologies.
In the political market of Ukraine, political parties are increasingly acquiring the features of sellers who sell their slogans, ideas, programs, promises, logos, initiatives to obtain the votes of voters, which will ensure their entry into government. In this situation, the party brand becomes the most important element for the participation of political actors in elections, political branding technology is an effective tool for achieving political ambitions and stay of parties and individual politicians for many years in the political power.
New political technologies, virtualization and mediatization of public policy, globalization processes, rapid development of information technologies allow to fill the modern political market with new political brands, which in turn have changed their form and refocused on the virtual political space. Although the political brand took the form of a virtual construct in the conditions of active development of information and communication technologies, it did not lose its social significance. The political brand continues to create in the voter a sense of belonging to a particular community, forms his attitude to others from the standpoint of ideological and value beliefs, forces to implement support for the political brand in the information environment, accepts or rejects certain values and views, imposes specific forms of behavior socio-political circumstances. In addition, social networks and Internet technologies allow to gain the support of voters by involving them in the process of forming a political brand, which in turn causes the effect of involvement of individuals in the activities of a political actor.
The popularity of use of political marketing technologies is due to the fact that the modern political market is a very competitive environment due to the large number of political actors, who seek to interact effectively with their main buyer -the voter. The technology of political branding creates favorable conditions for the voter to receive clearly formed brief information, on the basis of which they will be able to make decisions and make their political choices. With the help of images, symbols, signs, slogans, appeals, visual images, political branding ensures the delivery of the necessary messages to target electoral groups. The development, testing, implementation, support and promotion of a political brand in the political market is an effective tool for targeted voter influence, which allows political parties and their candidates to stay in power for a long time and be competitive in the political struggle.
Usage of tools of marketing, image and other technologies to create and promote a political brand allows a political entity to create a unique and competitive political product in the political market of any state, which can be successful and help parties and political candidates gain political power. Ensuring the successful process of development and implementation of a political brand is due to the simultaneous and correct use of several types of political marketing technologies. Effective implementation of a political brand in the political process is associated with the gradual use of these technologies: analysis of the political market through marketing technologies, promotion of a political brand through political advertising and PR tools, and the use of a single visual style for all its political products.