AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST APPROACH TO POLITICIANS’
BRAND IDENTITY

Abstract

Abstract
This thesis provides an intersectional analysis of personal political brand identity from the
brand creator perspective. Specifically, it offers an understanding of the construction of
professional female politicians’ brand identity through the intersection of multiple identity
categories, in particular gender, religion and ethnicity, in the context of Turkey. In addition, it
investigates how professional female politicians leverage their identities to construct their
personal political brands. In doing so, this thesis blends brand identity and personal branding
and applies them to political branding to generate a deeper understanding of the personal brand
of politicians (Pich et al., 2020; Armannsdottir et al., 2019a). It makes use of an intersectional
feminist approach, which provides a critical perspective to the exploration of professional
female politicians’ personal political brand identity and allows filling an identified gap in the
body of knowledge, i.e., political marketing (Moufahim and Lim, 2009; Osuagwu, 2008;
Henneberg and O’Shaughnessy, 2007), political branding (Pich and Newman, 2020) and
personal branding (Lair et al., 2005) need more critical and multidisciplinary attention.
This thesis utilises an interpretive approach to understand the construction of the personal
brands of politicians. It draws on data from semi-structured interviews held in Turkey with
twenty-five politicians. The transcribed in-depth interviews are analysed using thematic
analysis. The results of this thesis highlight the importance of multiple social identity
dimensions in professional female politicians’ desired brands. It is found that professional
female politicians’ brand desired identity is structured around key components, including
legacy, experiences, personality and values, resilience and heritage. By considering the transfer
potential (Schneider, 2004) of the concepts of brand resilience and brand heritage, this thesis
contributes to the area of political branding. Brand legitimacy is also utilised to provide insights
into the management and communication of professional female politicians’ brand desired
identities. With the concept of brand legitimacy, this research provides a deep and
comprehensive approach from the brand creator perspective to managing and communicating
politicians’ personal brands. Overall, this thesis provides deep insights into politicians’
personal brands through the lens of intersectionality and adds to the knowledge about personal
political brands.