POLITICAL BRANDS POSITIONING IN CROATIA WITHIN THE YOUTH SEGMENT.

A brand is a combination of trust, experience and emotions that have been building up for years and every disappointment of a customer hurts the brand. Brand in politics is an even more sensitive topic. Disappointed voters may not vote on the next elections or could change their voting preferences. Losing loyal voters is the worst scenario for political parties and could lead to deterioration of political strength, loss of party members and even termination of political party. From a political branding perspective, young people are a particularly interesting and important group, and by studying their attitudes, behaviour and perceptions, it is possible, to some extent, predict political preferences and prepare for future political conditions. Furthermore, political participation and youth awareness about politics are low, which makes investigating their political perceptions even more important for maintaining the future of democracy in general. The present paper uses perceptual maps to depict the perception of the five most popular political parties in the Republic of Croatia within the young population in Croatia. The data was collected through a highly structured online questionnaire on a sample of 181 respondents in the age group from 15 to 29. The main findings reveal the fact that all of the considered parties are positioned in the most negative part of the spectrum when it comes to the quality of the people and the program as well as the level of determination and honesty. This combined with the high level of political cynicism observed in the previous studies, almost ensures a high level of political apathy in the future, which poses a significant threat to the future of politics and democracy. When it comes to other positioning variables such as corruption and successfulness as well as modern approach and focus on youth, political parties are positioned very differently which could be a starting point for building strong and recognizable brands. Perception maps also reveal the uncovered areas on the political scene which could be incorporated in the marketing strategy and could enable branding of the existing or possible new parties based on those variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]