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 highly-regarded expert in applying marketing thought to business and government communications in order to improve their effectiveness 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, particularly relevant, for example, in addressing: the threat of COVID-19 dis/misinformation at a time when the speed and accuracy of information is critical to the safety of the global population and the threat of political disinformation, particularly that aimed at Western governments and their allies, to destabilise their populations and damage their relations with third party countries.

Away from academia, Paul is Ward Member for Charnwood Borough Council, and was Mayor of Charnwood in the 2021-2022 Mayoral Year, providing him with insight into community concerns and an understanding of how local councils support communities. He is Non-Executive Director (Academic) for the Business Continuity Institute, a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University, 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

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 and DSocSci research in the following areas:

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

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 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: Market Intelligence and the Dissertation
• Executive education: marketing and strategy

Selected recent media appearances and op-ed articles

1. Baines, P. (2022). Ukrainian propaganda: how Zelensky is winning the information war against Russia? The Conversation, 11 May.
2. Baines, P. (2022). Fake news and disinformation abounds: what can universities do? Times Higher Education, 30 March.
3. Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Nana Aqua, on whether Boris Johnson is an electoral asset or a liability, 4.20pm, 29th May 2022.
4. Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Colin Brazier, on Boris Johnson’s leadership prospects, 4.50pm, 6th June 2022.
5. Baines, P. (2022). West is hampering Ukraine – Kyiv has every right to target Russian territory. Express, 10 June.
6. Press mention, Morgan Meaker, “How Ukraine is winning the propaganda war”, Wired, 13 June. (accessed 16 June 2022).
7. Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Colin Brazier, on whether or not the PM should resign, 5.45pm, 6th July 2022.
8. Broadcast appearance on WSJ Video, with Emily Siu, “Cute dogs Bono and ads: Ukraine’s PR strategy to rally global support”, Wall Street Journal, 11th July 2022.
9. 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).
10. Press mention, Morgan Meaker, “Celebrities and Tik Tok: Inside Ukraine’s 21st century war”, Sunday Times, 16 August. (accessed 16 August 2022).
11. Baines, P. (2022). Sea of sameness: why universities have trouble branding. Times Higher Education, 26 August.
12. 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).
13. Broadcast appearance on ABC News (Australia), with Joe O’Brien, on Ukrainian propaganda in Ukraine-Russia war, 09.30am, 19th October 2022.
14. Broadcast appearance on GB News, with Patrick Christys, on Rishi Sunak becoming PM, 4.35pm, 24th October 2022.

Administrative responsibilities

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

Get in touch for media enquiries, expert opinion, interviews, images or video.