The Impact of Political Marketing Communication via Facebook on Youth Political Participation in Morocco

Abstract

Between proponents and detractors of the existence of a positive impact of marketing communication via social networks on youth political participation, the theory of connective action (Bennett and Iyengar, 2008) as well as the theory of attitudes (Fishbein and Ajzen, 2011) stipulate the existence of a positive impact on political participation behavior especially through digital social networks. Our objective is to put these theoretical contributions to the test in the Moroccan context. On the one hand, it is to analyze the perception of Moroccan political actors in relation to the political attitudes of youth. On the other hand, this research consists of evaluating the impact of marketing communication in the era of social networks on the political participation of Moroccan youth. In other words, has this communication campaign acted in favor of a positive change in the political attitudes of young people towards more political participation?

This exploratory qualitative study is conducted with young political actors and marketing communication professionals in Morocco. Conducted over a two-month period during the last election campaign in September 2021, the 12 semi-structured interviews were subject to thematic analysis via NVivo 12. This study suggests the existence of a positive impact of marketing communication via social networks, particularly Facebook, on the political attitudes of young people in Morocco and consequently on their political participation. However, this political participation remains limited to online political participation.  In fact, marketing communication via social networks is a necessary but not sufficient condition to encourage and stimulate offline political participation behavior, particularly membership and effective engagement in political parties and voting. In fact, these participatory activities are considered highly engaging. Hence, permanent and interactive marketing communications are important. These results must be the subject of a confirmatory quantitative study in order to promote their generalization.

Key words: Political marketing, marketing communication, social networks and political participation.

JEL Classification : M3, M31, M37

Paper type: Empirical research