Professor Paul Baines

Paul Baines is Professor of Political Marketing, Deputy Dean (Strategic Projects), and Director of Executive Education in the University of Leicester School of Business. He is also the co-Director of the University of Leicester Help to Grow programme (2021-2025). He is a world-renowned expert on political marketing and propaganda and is a frequent broadcast and press media commentator on political marketing/strategic communication issues. Professor Baines conducts research into government/political communications and propaganda/counter-propaganda. Professor Baines co-authors the best-selling textbook Marketing, now in its 6th edition (published with Oxford University Press, 2022), and Fundamentals of Marketing 2E (published with Oxford University Press, 2021).

Away from academia, Paul is a Ward Member for Charnwood Borough Council, was Mayor of Charnwood 2021-2022, and is presently Shadow Lead for Finance and Investment and Deputy Leader of the Charnwood Conservative Group. He is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield and Aston Universities, and an Associate Fellow of the King’s College London’s (KCL) Centre for Strategic Communications.

I am interested in how messages are received and processed by audience members and segments, especially when emotional appeals are used. Current research work includes evaluating the effectiveness of police social marketing/counter-terrorism communications, COVID-19 misinformation in Malawi and how business schools are developing their sustainability capabilities around UN PRME objectives. I am also presently supervising PhD and DBA work on political marketing to youth audiences, B2B value proposition development in SMEs, and gamification in marketing.

My main areas of research are as follows:

• Political marketing and propaganda, particularly from segmentation and positioning perspectives.
• Guilt, fear appeals and other emotional appeals in marketing communications.

Selected recent publications

Shabbir, H.; Baines, P., Dean, D. and Braddock, K. (2023). Countering reactionary co-radicalization (RC-R): Using multi-representational ads. Critical Studies on Terrorism, forthcoming.

Baines, P.; Rosengren, S. and Antonetti, P. (2022). Marketing 6e, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baines, P.; Whitehouse, S.; Antonetti, P. and Rosengren, S. (2021). Fundamentals of Marketing 2e. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baines, P.; Brady, M. & Jain, S.P. (2022). Guest editorial: Pandemic Aftershock - The challenges of rapid technology adoption and social distancing for interactive marketing practice, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 16(1), 3-14. DOI:10.1108/JRIM=03-2022-277.

Black, I.; Baines, P.; Baines, N.; O’Shaughnessy, N. and Mortimore, R. (2021). The dynamic interplay of hope vs fear media appeals in a referendum context. Journal of Political Marketing. DOI:10.1080/15377857.2021.1892900.

Baines, P.; O’Shaughnessy, N. & Snow, N. (2020). SAGE Handbook of Propaganda. London, SAGE Publications.

Antonetti, P.; Baines, P. and Jain, S. (2018). The persuasiveness of guilt appeals over time: Pathways to delayed compliance. Journal of Business Research, 90, 4-15.

Pareek, B.; Ghosh, P.; Wilson, H.; Macdonald, E.; and Baines, P. (2018). A Bayesian zero-inflated dynamic multinomial choice model of media impact on voter choice using real-time experience tracking data. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 113 (524), 1457-1475. DOI:10.1080/01621459.2017.1419134

Baines, P. and Jones, N. (2018). Influence and interference in foreign elections: The evolution of its practice. The RUSI Journal, 163, 12-19.

Mortimore, R..; Baines, P.; Worcester, R.M. and Gill, M. (2017). Findings of the BPC/MRS enquiry into polling during the 2015 British General Election: The Ipsos MORI response and perspective. International Journal of Market Research, 59(2). (Winner of the IJMR Collaborative Research Award 2017).

Baines, P. (2017). Technological Impacts on market attitudes and behaviour. Psychology & Marketing, 34(4), 351-355.

Walker, L.; Baines, P., Dimitriu, R. and Macdonald, E. (2017). Antecedents of retweeting behaviour in a (political) marketing context. Psychology & Marketing, 34 (3), 275-293.

I am interested in supervising full- and part-time PhD research in the following areas:

• Political marketing / government communications
• Marketing communications
• Market segmentation and positioning

I am presently supervising doctoral students in the following areas:

• Impact of gamification on customer engagement in the tourism sector
• Marketing, young people and political parties
• Marketing mix, internationalisation and Swiss firms
• Customer value proposition design and development in B2B SMEs

My teaching has previously encompassed undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience levels, including full time and executive MBA teaching, in the UK, Canada, USA, Finland, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Czech Republic, and Cyprus across a number of aspects of marketing including marketing research, marketing strategy, political marketing, public relations, branding, and consumer behaviour. At ULSB, I teach on the following modules and areas:

• UG: MN3204 Dissertation (Marketing)
• Executive education: marketing and strategy workshops for in-company programmes for a variety of university clients; Help to Grow Module 5: Developing a Marketing Strategy

Selected press appearances

• Press mention, Laurie Havelock, “Zelensky sacking of Ukraine’s UK ambassador shows ‘ruthless’ commitment to clear comms, experts say”, i (news), 21 July. Retrieve from: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/zelensky-sacking-uk-ambassador-ruthless-communication-russia-ukraine-2496761 (accessed 25 July 2023).
• Press mention, Daniel Sanderson, “SNP accused of spending £600,000 on ‘propaganda’ campaign The Telegraph, 30 January. (accessed 1 February 2023).
• Press mention, Slobadan Maričić, “Politika i Crna Gora: Kako posle odlaska dugogodišnjeg lidera preživljavaju stranke na Balkanu (trans. Politics and Montenegro: How pareties in the Balkans survive after the departure of a long-time leader). BBC News Serbia, 20 May 2023 (accessed 22 June 2023).
• Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Patrick Christys, on Rishi Sunak becoming PM, 4.35pm, 24 October 2022.
• Broadcast appearance on ABC News (Australia), with Joe O’Brien, on Ukrainian propaganda in Ukraine-Russia war, 9.30am, 19 October 2022.
• Press mention, Tracey Shelton, “Ukraine and Russia’s second front is a propaganda war. But who is winning? ABC News (Australia), 18 October. (accessed 18th October 2022).
• Press mention, Morgan Meaker, “Celebrities and Tik Tok: Inside Ukraine’s 21st century war”, Sunday Times, 16 August. (accessed 16 August 2022).
• Press mention, Dave Burke, “Millionaire Rishi Sunak accused of ‘dressing down’ after wearing shoes with hole in sole”, Mirror, 11 August. (accessed 16 August 2022).
• Broadcast appearance on WSJ Video, with Emily Siu, “Cute dogs Bono and ads: Ukraine’s PR strategy to rally global support”, 11 July 2022.
• Press mention, Morgan Meaker, “How Ukraine is winning the propaganda war”, Wired, 13 June. (accessed 16 June 2022).
• Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Nana Akua, on Rishi Sunak and Tory election prospects, 4.30pm, 3 April 2022.
• Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Alastair Stewart, on Rishi Sunak and Tory election prospects, 12.20pm, 10 April 2022.
• Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Nana Aqua, on whether a general election should be forced when the PM changes, 5.20pm, 24 April 2022.

Selected recent op-ed articles

1. Baines, P. (2022). Sea of sameness: why universities have trouble branding. Times Higher Education, 26 August.
2. Baines, P. (2022). West is hampering Ukraine – Kyiv has every right to target Russian territory. Express, 10 June.
3. Baines, P. (2022). Ukrainian propaganda: how Zelensky is winning the information war against Russia? The Conversation, 11 May.
4. Baines, P. (2022). Who wants to be Dean? Times Higher Education, 9 March.
5. Baines, P. (2021). Universities must swap physical for digital estates – at warp speed. Times Higher Education, 29 January.
6. Baines, P. and Saren, M. (2020). The Civil Service urgently needs a rebrand to usher it into the 21st century. PR Week, 12 September.
7. Saren, M. and Baines, P. (2020). Opinion: It’s time to rebrand the Civil Service. Civil Service World, 4 September.
8. Baines, P. (2020), “Protecting Europe from Russian interference”. New Europe, 29 July.
9. Baines, P. (2020), “Influence Russe au Royaume-Uni: comment protéger la démocratie Britannique", 29 July.
10. Baines, P. (2020), “After the Russia report: how to protect British democracy from interference. The Conversation, 22 July.
11. Appearance on Gem Radio, on resignation of government’s Director of Communications, 12 November 2020.
12. Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Simon McCoy and Alex Phillips, on Matt Hancock’s affair and public opinion, 5.00pm, 25 June 2021.
13. Press mention, Rebecca Chimjeka, “Misinformation frustrates Covid fight”, Malawi News, Saturday August 21-27. (accessed 24 August 2021).

Administrative responsibilities

• Deputy Dean - Strategic Projects
• Co-Director, Help to Grow Programme
• Director of Executive Education