The Young still don’t vote for the ‘Nasty Party’. The perception of the Conservative party brand by younger voters

Abstract

The 2017 UK General Election saw the Conservative Party not only lose their majority in the Commons, but also revealed that the majority of younger voters tended not to vote Conservative. Following research carried out by Pich et al., (2015) and Pich et al., (2018), this research seeks to build on this previous work by following the same qualitative projective techniques used to assess the brand image and reputation of the UK Conservative Party under the leadership of Theresa May. Using branding theory and political psychology theories of schema and emotions, this study investigates whether there has been a change in the Conservative Party’s image since 2015 and why this had an effect on the way people voted at the 2017 General Election. Using a split methodology of secondary polling data to inform the research on how people voted in the 2017 UK General Election. This study then carried out focus groups using qualitative projective techniques as prescribed by Pich et al (2018) to compare the results to previous work into the perception of the Conservative Party’s brand. This study finds that, as in previous elections, younger voters tend not to vote for the Conservative Party. In relation to the long-term reputation of the Conservative brand, the image of the party is now seen as ‘out of touch’, which is associated with Theresa May. This research finds that younger voters have negative emotions toward the Conservative brand. Therefore, because of the party’s brand reputation the perception of the Conservative Party by younger voters is one that is out of touch, if not nasty, with a leader that they can’t emotionally connect with. This study concludes that age is the dividing line between how people vote and the young still can’t vote for the ‘nasty party’.