ABSTRACT
Hungarian political parties have been experimenting with political marketing techniques since the system change (1990). The first truly marketing-based campaign was the general elections campaign of Fidesz in 1998. The campaign had a clear strategy aimed at selling the new party image, and it was the first campaign that put emphasis on the party leader by positioning him as a competent PM candidate, aided by a marketing advisor. Since the late 1990s, the expression political marketing has become almost fashionable; a party which could not claim that it was using political marketing means did not qualify as professional enough among the political competitors. Parties have been borrowing tricks and tactics from each others’ campaigns, they have been learning the lessons from others’ successes and their own failures, and they have also been keen on learning from international, in particular British and American, experience.
