Making the ugly look good
It will certainly not be enough to devise a well-reasoned political program in order to win elections - if you haven't got the right looks, struggle with efficient verbal or non-verbal communication, or can't afford to employ a whole team of spin doctors, PR specialists and skillful photographers, then you might as well abandon your dreams of one day becoming a man or woman of state.
Political or electoral marketing has become an inseparable part of campaigning in the Western world and an impressive source income for an international army of experienced image specialists and the companies they run. In Poland, however, it is a relatively novel phenomenon that first emerged only a decade ago when Aleksander Kwaśniewski trounced the charismatic Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa with a highly professional presidential campaign that pulled the carpet from beneath the union leader's feet.
Presidential precedent
Kwaśniewski's blue shirts, slimming diets and dignified behavior and the contrast against Wałęsa's fits of anger and coarse manner of speaking were on the country's lips for months after the election. The person behind Kwaśniewski's campaign was a French so-called king-maker Jacques Seguela, the image advisor to Fran~ois Miterrand and owner of the RSCG advertising agency. The Mr Fix-it for presidents has also cooperated with such world-renowned politicians as Vaclav Havel and Shimon Peres. His fees range from EUR 300,000 (zł.1,214,000) to EUR 400,000 (zł.1,619,000) and in September this year he is expected to join the electoral team of Democratic Left Alliance's (SLD) presidential candidate, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.
His Polish counterpart, Piotr Tymochowicz, the author of Influence Exertion Theory and founder of the International Center for Consulting and Education Greenpol, is best known for his makeover of the Self-Defense populist party leader Andrzej Lepper. The controversial figure apparently made the leap from roadside ranter to punchy parliamentarian by simply swapping his overalls for well-cut cloth and covering any remaining redneck appearance by acquiring a tan.
Image investment
This year Polish companies dealing in the electoral business cannot complain about the lack of work. With parliamentary and presidential elections due in September and October, there are plenty of candidates to embellish and plenty of money to earn. According to the regulations, each party can spend as much as zł. 12 million on their parliamentary campaign, with an identical zł.12 million ceiling set for presidential campaign funding. Providing that funds are gathered in an approved manner, a good specialist can count on politicians sinking a large share of that zł.24 million budget on electoral marketing.
Witold Ferenc, president of the Polish Association of Political Consultants and co-founder of Polcam Consulting, makes a rough estimate of the minimum costs: "Drafting an electoral strategy for an already well known political party with genuine chances of winning could cost zł.100,000 to zł.300,000. But no serious company will ever decide to create such a strategy without previous surveys and research whose price can range from zł.50,000 to zł.200,000, depending on the sample size.
Success fee
"But this of course is just the minimum. There are also additional services for which an image expert can get a monthly or one-off remuneration and a potential success fee. If such parties as Civic Platform (PO) or Law and Order (PiS) won the elections thanks to my strategy, I'd demand a success fee amounting to zł.0.5-1 million," he revealed.
According to Ferenc, who this year is working for Social Democratic Party of Poland (SDPL) presidential candidate Marek Borowski, 70 to 80 percent of electoral campaign money is spent on communication and only a few percent is sunk into research, with SLD the only party openly cooperating with a big research studies company - Pentor. Other parties are said to order surveys on a much more irregular basis.
Ignoring the evidence
Some of the big political formations still distrust firms specializing in electoral marketing, preferring instead to create their own strategies, or are simply too ashamed to admit that their leaders are in desperate need of a makeover.
Maciej Grabowski, deputy CEO of the United PR consulting company and Civic Platform (PO)'s image advisor, claims the party doesn't need to pay for a strategy specialist. He says there are plenty of qualified people supporting and closely cooperating with the party - such as himself and a sociologist, Paweł Śpiewak, whom they have taken on board for the campaign.
"We chose two companies: Media Concept to plan the outdoor campaign and MindShare to deal with radio and television spots. Party members and PO supporters do the rest. The resources come from a zł.12 million bank loan granted especially for that purpose," explains Grabowski.
Political poppycock
However, Michał Kamiński, an MEP from Law and Order, maintains that all political marketing experts in Poland are impostors. "With elections in our country taking place only once every four years, no company can deal exclusively with electoral marketing. Those pseudo experts usually claim that a politician is a product to advertise just like a soap is, which I disagree with," says Kamiński.
"The only two countries where you can actually live from political marketing are the US and Russia. We employ specialists to take good pictures or shoot a TV commercial but the people behind the strategy are party members: me and Adam Bielan. And we succeeded in increasing our party support from 13 to 26 percent."
Servicing society
It is true that in order to survive, image-makers cannot depend exclusively on politicians. Piotr Tymochowicz's Greenpol is increasingly being called on to provide self-presentation, negotiation and manipulation-technique training to a growing list of bank managers, lawyers, judges and sales staff who all want to express and present themselves better in public.
"More and more people are aware of the importance of the right self-promotion. In the modern media-savvy world, anyone may one day have to deal with journalists and they want to be properly prepared. So media contacts are the main driver for taking up such a course. In the case of the businessmen it is also about effective persuasion, which is a key to success in business negotiations," explains Tymochowicz.
Singing the praises
In the case of presidential candidates, the aura of the leader and their often solemn atmosphere is best pumped-up by a good electoral song. That is why parties compete in order to get the best possible anthem. Sometimes, such as in the case of rapper Mezo, who this year is sounding off in support of the SDPL, they manage to get a real bargain. As Mezo is a member of the SDPL youth group he is ready to perform for free and the party will only have to pay royalties to his record label.
This is not the case with Michał Wiśniewski, though. The hugely popular Polish singer, who in the last elections sang in favor of SLD, has been signed by Self-Defense for 2005. He is going to move the crowds during meetings with a song entitled: "Where are you heading, Poland?"
The major candidates themselves are all definitely heading towards the top positions on the political scene and they won't hesitate to pump some money into public relations, sun beds or the right soundtrack, if that is what it takes to assure them a term of office - and a bright future in the show business for ugly people.
