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THE SWEDISH MODEL BECOMES LESS SWEDISH | 87

Table 3.Regular use of political marketing tools 1993 and 2003.

1993 2003

Polls Focus Voter Opp. Polls Focus Voter Opp.
groups segment. mapping groups segment. mapping

Social Democrats Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Conservatives Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No
Centre Party Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Liberals Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes
Christ Democrats No No No No Yes No No No
Left Party No No No No No No No No
The Greens No No No No No No No No

Source: Personal Interviews
Source:Personal interviews 2002/2003 (Nord & Strömbäck 2003 and Nord 2004).The marketing tools
are opinion polls,focus groups,voter segmentation analyses and mapping of political opponents.

These opinion polls are, at least in their public versions, less extensive than the party
opinion polls but they can nevertheless be used as complements when analysing
opinion trends.Thus, internal party polls are often mainly designed to further elaborate
the nature and origins of public opinion among different voter segments.

Finally, exit polls are conducted in Sweden. Due to voluntary restrictions accepted by
parties, marketing companies and media, they are, however, only published after the
voting procedure is completed.

Another important tool used to gain greater understanding of opinion formation and
attitude change is the focus group. Most parties use this method, particularly the Social
Democrats and the Centre Party, who both conduct focus groups five or more times
annually.The focus groups are mainly used to complement the opinions polls.Thus, the
the opinion polls. Thus, the
parties most engaged in polling are also the ones most interested in setting up focus
groups.These parties are also the only ones to pay attention to voter segment analysis
or to the mapping of political opponents during election campaigns.

The number of political marketing activities indicates that a few people are involved in
these activities and quite modest personal resources are used here. Among the larger The Swedish Model Becomes Less Swedish
personnel resources are used here. Among the larger
parties the same people are responsible for all marketing tools, and no special
departments exist for different analytical instruments. The professionals working with
these tasks usually possess all-round skills rather than being experts in any one
particularly communication field.

The professionals in the parties not only analyse internal polls and focus groups,but are
also responsible for the evaluation of official statistics and other surveys conducted by 89